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Posts published in “The Graduate”

The Graduate: Ryan Piela  

Ryan currently works for the Estée Lauder Companies on their New Incubation Ventures team. The team sources investments and incubation targets globally in the luxury and prestige beauty space. In this role, Ryan looks to partner with new and emerging brands, as well as the associated technologies that enable the creation of new brands.

Ryan, who is originally from Seattle, was living there prior to his acceptance and attendance at NYU. Before Stern, he spent 5 years in consulting roles. Ryan worked three of those years at BroderickHaight Consulting L.L.C. where he helped start and run the business from the ground up.…

The Graduate: Conor Clark, Oppy Alumni

The Graduate: Conor Clark, Oppy Alumni 

By: Phuong Tran 

This month’s The Graduate features Oppy alumni Conor Clark, whose career has traversed architectural engineering, consulting, and as of late, a band, music label, and acting. He maneuvers these ventures with the grace and business acumen of someone who has…you guessed it, an MBA. I’ve known Conor since I took over his famous Stern Singles column (from which he is now engaged!), and it was wonderful to catch up and learn more about just how applicable business is in every interest you may have in life. 

Conor Clark…where do we begin with him?

The Graduate: Jolawn Victor, Chief International Officer at Headspace

This month’s The Graduate features Jolawn Victor, MBA ‘09, Chief International Officer of Headspace, Inc, where she oversees Headspace’s international operations and expansion. Headspace is a mindfulness app containing guided meditations and sleep-casts that promote a better mind and overall well-being. Her career began in engineering, followed by an MBA at Stern that pivoted her to marketing, and she ultimately transitioned from consumer packaged goods to technology. Jolawn’s global C-suite executive role now is the culmination of her experience spanning numerous industries, markets, and continents. I had the pleasure of getting to know Jolawn from not just a career standpoint, but from one that anyone (especially women) can find inspiring in making your mark in any room you step into.…

The Graduate: Nadja Bellan-White, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Vice Media

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

This month’s “The Graduate ” features Nadja Bellan-White, who is the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Vice Media. Since receiving her MBA from Stern, she has had an eminent 25+ year career in brand transformations at Digitas, Publicis Modem, and Ogilvy, where she became CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Africa and consequently Executive Partner/Chief Client Officer of Ogilvy in London. Her career, beginning in New York, has taken her across the world to help brands through pivotal transformations. Notable brand transformations Nadja has worked on include for clients such as American Express, LG Electronics, IKEA North America, RBS Citizens, Bharti Airtel, Coca-Cola, Siemens, and Safaricom/Vodaphone.…

The Graduate: Mark Smukler

“Find the intersection of what you’re passionate about and what you’re good at, find an opportunity that fits that intersection – and then pursue it. And don’t give up.” – Mark Smukler

The Oppy is reconnecting with some prominent NYU Stern alumni with our ‘Graduate’ series. Each month, we’ll interview notable alumni that have made an impact on their community and industry.

This month, The Oppy is featuring Mark Smukler (‘12), CEO and founder of Flow, a location-based app that makes it easy to discover and access the best coworking spaces, gyms, spas, and experiences around you. Mark and I sat down, virtually, to talk about his journey from finance to entrepreneurship, proptech, future of work and the challenges of building a marketplace business.…

The Next Step: Ross Gordon of Sounder

‘The Next Step’ is a monthly series that features recent graduates who’ve made exciting moves after Stern. We hope that their stories will inspire you and excite you about what’s next.

This month, The Oppy is featuring Ross Gordon (Dec. ‘21), soon-to-be tech MBA and chief of staff at Sounder.fm, a podcast company that is shaping the future of audio. As a former colleague of mine from our LinkedIn days, I was delighted to sit down with Ross and to have the opportunity to share his story. Read on to learn more about Ross’ professional journey and his non-traditional path through the Tech MBA and to Sounder, which involved ingenuity, hard work and a touch of serendipity.…

The Graduate: The NFL’s Blake Stuchin Plots Football’s Digital Game Plan

There is a reason all of us Sternies choose to pursue an MBA here, and Blake Stuchin is honest about his.

“Some people choose the school based on the quality of the program or the nature of the job placement,” Stuchin says. “I chose it because I was already in Union Square and I had a great deal on an apartment.”

He is being tongue-in-cheek, of course. Talk with Stuchin for a few minutes about New York University and you’ll find he has experience with more schools under the NYU umbrella than most. While Stuchin is a Stern graduate, his parents met as students at NYU in the 1970s, and his wife holds a masters from NYU’s Integrated Marketing program.…

The Graduate: Meika Hollender

The Oppy is reconnecting with some prominent NYU Stern alumni with our ‘Graduate’ series. Each month, we’ll interview notable alumni that have made an impact on their community and industry.

This month, The Oppy is featuring Meika Hollender (‘13), entrepreneur, author and activist who built the first sexual wellness brand focused on women and sustainability, Sustain. Grove Collaborative acquired Sustain in August 2019, and Meika took on the role of VP of Communications at Grove. Meika and I sat down, virtually, to talk about her journey building and growing Sustain and the opportunities that followed after.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Graduate: Dataiku’s Romain Fouache shows there’s nothing artificial about the future of AI

The Oppy is reconnecting with some prominent NYU Stern alumni with our ‘Graduate’ series. Each month, we’ll interview notable alumni that have made an impact on their community and industry. 

This month, The Oppy is featuring Romain Fouache (‘17), COO & CRO of Dataiku. Romain and I sat down in Paris and New York, respectively, to talk about his career as a data scientist and business leader. Read on to learn more about Romain’s love of math and his perspective on the future of “everyday AI,” including one hot topic that may interest you: how to best prepare yourself for careers in data and AI. …

The Next Step: How the Stern EMBA experience changed our lives

The Oppy is proud to continue ‘The Next Step,’ a new monthly series that will feature recent graduates who’ve made exciting moves after Stern. We hope that their stories will inspire you and excite you about what’s next.  

By Mambu Sherman, Christian McKenzie, Jay Freeman, Broderick Johnson, Matthew C. Meade, Allix Wright, Veronique Hutchinson, Michael Serwadda

Our Journey

The average percentage of Black students in a United States MBA program lingers around 8%. For context, it’s 5% at Harvard. The most recent cohort to graduate from NYU Stern was a record 20% Black. While top business schools and corporations struggle to recruit and retain Black talent, these nine recent NYU Executive MBA graduates reflect on the face of today’s Executive MBA: young, talented, and Black.…

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