MINIMUM FONT SIZE 7 point Fall 2020 NON PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY SYRACUSE NY The Martin J. Whitman School of Management Office of the Dean Suite 415 Whitman 721 University Ave Syracuse NY 13244-2450 THE POWER OF THE ORANGE NETWORK V ISIT US ON FACEBOO KSUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNELVISIT US ON FACEBOOKSUBSCRIBE @WHITMANATSU CONNECT WITH US WHITMAN.SYR.EDU Eugene W. Anderson Dean Christopher Crooker Assistant Dean for Advancement Alison Kessler Director of Alumni Engagement Whitman Magazine Fall 2020 Managing Editor/Art Direction and Design: Andrea M. Parisi G’19 (NEW) Design: Keri J. Chubb Contributors: Kevin J. Bailey George S. Bain G’06 (MAX) Maya Bingaman G’20 (NEW) Lena Blomkvist Mallory Carlson ’23 (WHIT/NEW) Brandon Dyer Kimmy Kimball G’13 (NEW) Alison Kessler Eileen Korey E. Scott Lathrop Caroline K. Reff Karley Warden ’21 (NEW/MAX) Photography: Brittany Berry ’18 (VPA), Jeremy Brinn, Ana Gil, Marilyn Hesler, 3 Ross Oscar Knight, Rachel Liz, Ryan MacCammon, Steve Sartori and Jim Vivenzio Direct correspondence to: Editor, 36 42 Whitman Magazine, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, 721 University Avenue, Suite 111, Syracuse, N.Y. 13244, or [email protected]. The Whitman magazine is published semi-annually by the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and distributed free to alumni, friends, students, faculty and staff. Third-class postage paid at Syracuse, N.Y. Past issues can be found at whitman.syr.edu/publications. Please share and recycle this magazine. If you would prefer to receive the magazine digitally rather than in hard copy or you would no longer like to receive the magazine, please email your preference to [email protected]. Table of Contents Featuring 3 The Power of the Orange Network 15 54 2019-20 Annual Report In Every Issue 2 From the Dean 44 Class News and Notes 78 Featured Faculty Publications 80 Faculty Research Spotlights Students: 26 Salvatore Pepe ’22 (WHIT/iSchool) 28 Marie-Jose Michel Sanchez ’21 M.S. 27 Manpreet Singh Saini ’21 MBA 29 Ying Zhang ’21 Ph.D. Alumni: 54 35 Five Under Five: Steven Pincus ’15 36 Whitman at Work: Entrepreneur Makes Anything But Beer Nothing But Successful 38 Kimberly Boynton ’13 MBA: Hospital CEO Never Imagined Leading 72 Through a Pandemic 40 Jeff Grasso ’09: Funding the Making of Stand-Out Job Applicants 42 Collaboration Is Key for Yvette Hollingsworth Clark ’94 MBA Faculty: 70 Faculty Stay Connected to Whitman Community by Sharing Expertise, Collaborating Through Virtual Formats 72 Supply Chain Professor Uses Innovative Spirit to Help Community FROM THE DEAN Orange Pride: Educating While Staying Healthy and Safe ur highest purpose is to prepare our students for an accelerating Oand uncertain future. As we work through a fall semester like no other, that future seems to have arrived much sooner than expected. By the time you read these words, we will know the outcome of our decision. We will know whether we have been able to contain the virus, protect the health and safety of our campus and the local community and deliver on our promise to provide the best possible educational ex- perience for our students, given these first two priorities. We will know whether we have been able to continue with in-person instruction, possible educational and student experience, given that over-arching whether we can look forward to coming back together in January, and priority. I know that whether or not we will be able to stay together on what lessons we will have learned that will allow us to do so. campus depends on all of us continuing to care about each other and doing what’s best for our community as a whole. We know it is the right thing to do. The core of our mission is to educate our students and support their professional success. Both objectives From the very beginning, the pandemic and its challenges have brought are best pursued in person. We know there are risks, but we also out the very best in our alumni, students, faculty and staff. The remark- recognize that no course of action before us is without risk. A virtual able dedication, creativity and resilience shown by the members of fall would have also presented significant risks — Risk to our ability to our Orange Family should fill us all with hope and pride. I am confident fully serve our students. Risk for students for whom our Central New that no matter what happens, we will navigate this extraordinary time York campus is safer than staying at home. Risk for students who face together and emerge even stronger on the other side. challenges learning online. Risk for faculty and staff, and many others in Central New York whose livelihoods depend on having students on Our alumni continue to play a pivotal role throughout. You have campus. Risk to our campus and the local community if many off-cam- stepped up in so many ways to help our students find internships and pus students are in Syracuse without the engagement and normalizing full-time positions, provide them with advice and mentoring, serve influence of an open campus experience. as experts in our COVID-19 webinar series, and help fund our relief efforts for students who have been hit hard by the economic impact of We know that we are well-prepared. Whitman faculty members the virus. We cannot say thank you enough, but we are so grateful to all have spent the summer revising courses to be taught simultaneously of you for your ongoing and generous support in so many ways. in-person and online. Whitman staff members have transformed our classrooms, offices and common spaces for physician distancing, and Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Be kind and generous enhanced our classroom technology to support hybrid teaching. They with one another and especially those who are most at risk. And let’s have also devised new ways to provide one-on-one virtual advising continue to dream of a more optimistic future and keep constantly and support for our students, as well as innovative ways to enrich the moving toward it. student experience outside the classroom on a COVID-reimagined campus. Best Wishes, I cannot predict all that the next few months will bring. No plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy. I know there will be ups and downs. I know that we will be tested. I know that health and safety Eugene W. Anderson must remain our highest priority. I know that we must deliver the best Dean THE POWER OF THE ORANGE NETWORK hile every issue of the Whitman magazine helps you stay plugged in to what’s happening on and around campus, much of what you’ll read Win the pages that follow revolves around some of the amazing accomplishments taking place as the School operates in the midst of a global pandemic. Certainly, the credit for this success goes to more people than we could ever name, but one thing is clear — the power of the Orange Network has been vital to making things happen. Though in locations all over the globe, our alumni are never too far away to lend a hand. This has never been more apparent, as they’ve reached across the miles (albeit virtually) to extend new opportunities in real estate, finance, entrepreneurship and other areas of business to students whose intended internships were canceled due to COVID-19. They’ve taken the time to Zoom in for one-on-one mentoring, networking events, panel presentations — and just honest talk about personal and professional growth. And they’ve offered their resources to guide students toward micro- internships and special projects that helped them build their resumes in nontraditional ways. Most of all, alumni have taken pride in helping this next generation of business leaders, just as so many from the Orange Network helped them along the way, too. WHITMAN ALUMNI NETWORK SUPERCHARGED STUDENTS WITH OPPORTUNITIES DURING CHALLENGING SUMMER he year 2020 will long be remembered for unimaginable challenges “I had lost all hope,” says Badlani of her summer prospects in finance Tthat came with living through a global pandemic. For students at and strategy. “Many places I applied said they weren’t able to hire the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, it will also, no doubt, be this summer.” remembered as a time where disappointment was unavoidable, classes and meetings happened through a computer screen and long-planned A native of India, Badlani had stayed in the U.S. when the pandemic hit, summer internships were canceled with little warning. hoping she could find an internship. To make good use of her time, she took a class during Syracuse University’s Summer Session but leapt at However, despite these trying times, there were bright spots, as the chance to gain experience working virtually for Rookie Road. opportunities that might not have been thought possible in years past emerged through the chaos. Thanks to the commitment and agility “Mike Gursha was very helpful throughout this process. He understood of the Whitman Career Services, Alumni Engagement and Corporate the experience we had in school and how to transfer these skills into an Relations teams, as well as a willingness to help from the vast Whitman internship,” she says. “He made sure I was getting the most out of the alumni network, many students were able to secure various types of internship and gave me a lot of helpful feedback throughout the process.” experiential learning opportunities, including virtual internships and micro-internships, access to alumni through virtual panels and presenta- Gursha saw his contribution as a way to give back and find great talent.