File #3341: "SU-1824_ref.pdf"

Text

Suffolk
A Maga zine for A lumni and Friends of the Saw yer Business School | Summer 2006

BUSINESS

Three
Entrepreneurial
Tales of Tests,
Trials, and
Triumphs

from the

MESSAGE DEAN

Suﬀolk

BUSINESS

Summer 2006
William J. O’Neill, Jr.
Dean
Paula Prifti Weafer
Director, Alumni Relations
Theresa M. Malionek,
BSBA ’89, MA ’94
Director, Communications
and Special Events
Kim Gelsomini
Copy Editor
Writers
Jennifer Becker
Gregory Bergman
Maggie Bucholt
Kathleen Peets
Leah Ritchie, MA ’94
Photography
Marc Alvarez
John Gillooly
Justin Knight
Ken Martin
Szymon Tolak
Design
First Light Design

E

ntrepreneurship is the backbone of the US economy. In
this edition of the Suﬀolk Business Alumni Magazine,
we focus on several relevant issues pertaining to
entrepreneurship: franchising, leadership succession in family
business, and global entrepreneurship. In this issue, you will
learn how to transfer the entrepreneurial spirit into your
organization and will learn about the resources oﬀered through
Suﬀolk’s new Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

The 2005-2006 year has been a dynamic year of growth for the
Business School and University. Last year the Business School
embarked on the redesign of its web site and will launch a new
site over the summer. We have also oﬃcially changed the name
of the Sawyer School of Management to the Sawyer Business
School and reveal our new logo with this issue.
Lastly, 2006-2007 marks the 100th year anniversary of the
founding of Suﬀolk University. I hope to see you all at the
Centennial Birthday Celebration on September 21, 2006 or
at other events held during this special time for Suﬀolk. Visit
www.suﬀolk.edu/centennial or call 1.866.882.2006 for a
complete list of Centennial Events.
Best Wishes,
William J. O’Neill, Jr., Dean

TABLE of CONTENTS

20

2

News from the
Business School

10 Faculty Updates

14

Three Entrepreneurial Tales of Tests,
Trials, and Triumphs

By Gregory Bergman
What are the challenges entrepreneurs face competing in
a global economy? Greg Bergman interviews RJ Valentine,
BA ’69, CEO, The MBA Group; Spiros Tourkakis, MBA
’83, Vice President, East Coast Seafood and Linda Samuels,
EMBA ’94 about their experiences launching their businesses.

18

Adventures in Entrepreneurship

By Leah Ritchie, MA ’94
What are Suﬀolk’s entrepreneurial assets? Read about
Suﬀolk’s new Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and
academic programming.

20

Managing the Succession Process
in a Family Business

By Alberto Zanzi, PhD, Professor of Management
Fact or Fiction: Family businesses continue generation
after generation or is there a time limit on their success?
Professor Zanzi examines this issue; sharing from his
own personal experiences

22

Franchising 101: Practical Advice for
Buying into the Entrepreneurial Dream

By Maggie Bucholt
Before you take the plunge purchasing a franchise or deciding
to franchise your own business, you must read the advice in
this article from two of Suﬀolk’s franchising experts.

24

The Champions of Change

By Maggie Bucholt
Your company’s future may very well depend upon the
information you receive from Robert DeFillippi and Colette
Dumas, Professors and Co-Directors of the Center for
Innovation and Change Leadership.

26

Sawyer Business Alumni Connections

By Paula Prifti Weafer, Alumni Director,
Sawyer Business School,
• Message from the Director • Alumni Board of Directors
• Alumni Events Round Up

30 Alumni Proﬁles
30 Classnotes

We’ve changed the
look of your Alumni
Magazine.

DO YOU LIKE IT?
What topics you would like
to see covered?
Send your feedback to:
Teri Malionek, Editor-in-Chief,
Suﬀolk Business Alumni Magazine and
Director of Communications
617.573.8631 or tmalione@suﬀolk.edu

37 Donor Proﬁle

9

NEWS

A New Name, A New Logo, A New Web Site, And

A NEW BEGINNING for the Business School

The entire University has engaged the services of Lapham Miller to help it develop a consistent look among the Law
School, Business School and College of Arts and Sciences in messaging, logos and color. This new look will be released
when the new web site launches over the summer.

1. Career Preparation(LINK):
Leadership: The Business School produces leaders—
men and women who can frame a compelling
vision, communicate it eﬀectively, devise a plan to
achieve it, and inspire others to implement that plan
successfully.
Innovation: In today’s business environment,
change is constant, rapid, and relentless. Only those
who anticipate and embrace it will succeed. The
Business School instills in students the desire and
ability to be change agents within organizations and
industries and to manage new and emerging realities
eﬀectively.
Networking: It is widely acknowledged that, in
business, substantive progress and decisions are
made in the “informal network,” both internal
and external to the organization. The Business
School helps students understand the nuances of
organizational dynamics, ﬁnd mentors, and build
the trusted relationships to shape solutions and
achieve results.
Knowledge: The Sawyer Business School provides
the foundational lessons and understanding—in
accounting, ﬁnance, global business, marketing,
strategic management, and many other key
subjects—that are crucial to success in business.

w w w.suﬀolk.edu/busin
ess

2. Individual Course of Study:
Through electives, students can personalize their courses of study to meet their
individual academic interests and career goals. Working closely with their own dedicated
academic advisors, students can design their educational experience, choosing from an
extensive array of elective courses and internships, as well as unique oﬀerings such as the
MBA EDGE professional development program and one-week global travel seminars.

3. Real-World Experiences: “Learn by Night—Practice by Day”
Business School faculty combine academic expertise with private-sector realities.

2

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

3

NEWS

2nd Menino Scholarship Awarded
Thomas Tinlin, Acting
Commissioner of the Traﬃc
and Parking Department
for the City of Boston was
honored earlier this year as the
second recipient of the Menino
Scholarship. The Menino
Scholarship was established
in 2004 and is awarded
annually to an academically
qualiﬁed city employee who has
demonstrated the potential for
advancement and leadership in
city government.

From left to right: Dean O’Neill, Mayor of the City of Boston Thomas M. Menino, Thomas Tinlin, Suffolk President
David Sargent, Professor Doug Snow, Provost Meservey and John Nucci, Suffolk’s Vice President of Government and
Community Affairs.

Administrative Changes in
the Dean’s Oﬃce
Richard Torrisi stepped down as Associate Dean/Dean of
Graduate Programs on June 30th. Rich will spend the 2006-2007
academic year on sabbatical having been awarded a Fulbright
Scholar grant for fall ’06. ( see article on page 13)
Susan C. Atherton stepped down as Associate Dean, Faculty
and Undergraduate Aﬀairs eﬀective June 30th. She joined the
Business Law and Ethics department on July 1 as a tenure-track
Associate Professor. Susan earned her JD from Suﬀolk Law School
and currently teaches part-time in the Business Law department.
Shahriar Khaksari will continue in his role as Associate
Dean/Dean of International Business Programs for the Sawyer
Business School.
Susan and Rich joined Suﬀolk in 1993. Under their leadership
the Business School experienced tremendous growth in its
undergraduate and graduate programs and faculty.
On July 1st, Professor of Accounting, Morris McInnes
became Associate Dean for Academic Aﬀairs. Morris will be
responsible for overseeing academic and faculty issues related to
our undergraduate and graduate programs.
Morris is an expert in corporate ﬁnancial management and
budgetary control systems in large corporate organizations. His
research has been published in several academic and professional
journals and he has lectured and consulted on corporate ﬁnancial
strategy and control in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
Morris has held positions as a ﬁnancial executive in industry
and has been a member of the boards of several companies in
Britain, the United States and elsewhere. His executive experience
includes CFO of a London Stock Exchange company, buying and
selling companies, and raising capital in the London, New York,

4

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

and Middle East ﬁnancial markets. He is a past president of the
Boston Chapter and is still active in the activities of Financial
Executives International, the preeminent professional association
for corporate ﬁnance in the United States and around the world.
Also eﬀective July 1st, Professor of Accounting, Ruth
Ann McEwen became Associate Dean for Accreditation and
Administration. In this capacity, Ruth Ann will oversee the
planning processes for the Business School’s accreditation of
AACSB, NASPAA and CAHME. She will also develop and
implement an assessment plans for the Business School’s academic
programs.
Ruth Ann is an expert in ﬁnancial disclosure and the aﬀects of
accounting information on capital markets. Ruth Ann is currently
serving on a special task force of the Financial Accounting
Standards Board (FASB) that is reviewing reporting rules in the
area of debt, equity, earning-per-share, and interim reporting.
McEwen also served as Director of Accreditation and
Assessment for the Accounting department and along with Jim
Angelini, directed the Accounting department’s successful bid
for separate accreditation from AACSB International in 2001.
Of the 527 member institutions who hold AACSB business
accreditation, only 168 have additional specialized accreditation
for their accounting programs. Suﬀolk’s Accounting department
is one of three departments in Massachusetts who also hold
separate accreditation by AACSB International and the MS in
Taxation program is the only tax program to have earned separate
AACSB International accreditation.

NEWS

Meet Your New Representative
to Suﬀolk’s Board of Trustees:
Peter Hunter, BSBA ’82, JD ’92
Peter is a founding partner and managing director of Axia
Partners, a private equity ﬁrm focused on investments of industrial
and laboratory device, instrumentation, and automation companies. He is a highly successful executive who has held several
senior management positions, including: CEO and Director of
Innovative Microplate, Inc.; CEO and Chairman of Inspectron
Corporation, a factory automation company; and Executive Vice
President and COO/CFO of Data Instruments, Inc.
Peter began his professional career as a CPA with the Boston oﬃce
of the international accounting and consulting ﬁrm of Deloitte &

Touche. He served on the Board of Directors of Advanced Pressure
Technologies, LLC, All Sensors France, Export, Inc., Hydroid,
LLC, and the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership. He has
been a guest lecturer at several universities and venues including
Boston University, Suﬀolk University Law School, The American
Electronics Association, and the MIT Enterprise Forum.
Peter earned his BSBA from the Suﬀolk University (magna
cum laude) and his JD from Suﬀolk University (cum laude).
He resides in Concord, MA with his wife Elizabeth and two
daughters, Libby and Sally.

Chinese Business
Executives
Visit Suﬀolk
The Sawyer Business School hosted a group of 48
visiting Executive MBA students and faculty from
Lingnan University (part of Zhongshan University),
Gangzhou, China on October 6, 2005. The Executive
MBA program at Lingnan University is among the
oldest and best established programs of international
business studies in China. Organized by Professor
Denis Lee, the visit at Suﬀolk included lectures by
Lin Guo, Associate Professor of Finance and Ken
Hung, Assistant Professor of Information Systems and
Operations Management, as well as campus
tour of Suﬀolk University.

Associate Professor Lin Guo

Assistant Professor Ken Hung

Professor Denis Lee

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

5

NEWS

Business School Events

Center for Global Business Law and
Ethics presented the Inagural

GLOBAL

Business Ethics
Luncheon Forum
The Center for Global Business Law and Ethics
held its ﬁrst Global Business Ethics Luncheon
Forum on March 23.
Moderated by WGBH-TV’s Emily Rooney,
the forum attracted over 75 professionals from
the greater Boston area to the conversation
about the importance of ethics and law in the
global business community. Panelists included:
Professor Morris McInnes who discussed
corporate governance and fraud; Patrick
Jordan, EMBA ’96, COO of Newton Wellesley
Hospital who addressed the topic of business
ethics in healthcare and Paula Murphy, BSBA
’88 and Director of Massachusetts Export
Center who discussed business ethics in
international business and trade.
Save the Date: November 16, 2006 for the
Center’s Second Luncheon, contact Center
Director Mark Blodgett for more information
at: 617.573.8660.

Center for Innovation and Change Leadership
presented

LEADERSHIP,
INNOVATION, &

THE ART OF
LAUGHTER

With Dr. Sushil Bhatia on
Thursday, October 6, 2005
Approximately 50 members
of the greater Boston
Business Community- including many Suﬀolk
alumni, learned how to
develop innovative thinking
through meditation.

WorldBoston/
Suﬀolk University

Global
Leadership

Series

Ambassador Jawad

The WorldBoston/Suﬀolk University Global Leaderships Series hosted
Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Said Tayeb Jawad, on
Friday, March 10, 2006 for a lecture and discussion entitled “The US and
Afghanistan’s Strategic Partnership”. Over 100 people attending Ambassador
Jawad’s discussion on Afghanistan’s history, its relationship to the United
States, and the challenges that face its new leaders as they seek to establish a
nation-state following the downfall of the Taliban regime in 2002.

6

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

Associate Dean/Dean of International Business
Programs, Shahriar Khaksari

Wrap Up for 2005-2006
Speaker Series 2005-2006
The International Business Programs continued its
Global MBA Speaker Series this year with the
following speakers:

NEWS

For a Complete List of
Upcoming Events
visit:www.suﬀolk.edu/business
sponsored by the Sawyer Business
School for 2006-2007

Hervé Sedky, Vice-President, Large Market
Travel – North America, American Express
Puneet Bhasin, Senior VP, Information Technologies, Monster Worldwide
Todd Hoskins, Senior Vice President of Marketing of RAYMARINE (a spin-oﬀ of the
Raytheon marine unit)

Annual Chinese New Year Event: A Panel Discussion on the

Cultural Aspects of
Doing Business in China

Associate Dean/Dean of International Business Programs Shahriar
Khaksari hosted the Business School’s Annual Chinese New Year
Celebration at Suﬀolk’s Sargent Hall. About 100 students, faculty and
alumni participated in this event that included a panel discussion on the
Cultural Aspects of Doing Business in China.

Panelist included:
Dr. Hua Jiang, President, Scanlian Science and Technology
Group, China and President and CEO, Boston Applied
Technologies Inc., Boston
John Hou, Vice-Chairman of Kangxin Medical Equipment
Company, China
Wan C. Wu, Research Scientists and Entrepreneur, China
Patrick McManus, MBA ’81, former Mayor of the City of
Lynn & Member of the Board of Director & Chairman of
the Audit Committee for China Natural Gas, Inc.
Following the panel discussion the student, faculty and
alumni enjoyed a discussion by Suﬀolk’s Chinese Language
instructor Suh-Jen Yang on the cultural aspects of Chinese
New Year. Attendees then enjoyed cultural dances, an
acrobat performance and learned about Chinese calligraphy
and Rice Dough Sculptures provided by the Chinese
Cultural Connection.

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

7

NEWS

Suﬀolk Commencement Exercises

May 20 and 21, 2006

GRADUATE

(above) Keynote speaker Alan
Khazei, CEO of City Year with Dean
O’Neill, (above center) Graduate
Students, (above right) Student
Marshal, Lee Grever. MBA ‘06.
Bottom left Provost Meservey with
Student Speaker Maria Perez Ortiz,
MPA ‘06 and Dean O’Neill

UNDERGRADUATE
Do you want to receive
information about alumni, career
or networking events or keep
track of what your classmates
are up to?

STAY
CONNECTED
Then

to the Sawyer Business
Alumni Network

Send Address Changes to:
Paula Prifti Weafer
Director of Alumni Relations
pweafer@suffolk.edu
617.994.4231

8

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

NEWS

Suﬀolk Student Creates iPod Software
By: Patrick Kelley, BSBA student and Lisa Crossman, BSBA student
Sean Helmes, a sophomore entrepreneurship major, has used
his academic knowledge to create a new Party-Pod software
designed for Macintosh’s iPod + iTunes.
The Apple designers and engineers who created the iPod built it
to be much more than just a music/mp3 player. While an iPod’s
primary feature is music, it has been expanded to be a dominant
force in all media markets. Using the notes folder on an iPod,
Helmes created three innovative software products to bring the
life of the party right into the palms of people’s hands.
In recent years, iPods, have allowed Helms and other pod savvy
entrepreneurs to discover how to use the notes partition to house
software programs.
There are four programs published by Helmes Innovations.
The Party-Pod software houses over 500 bars in 90 cities around
the world and provides over 800 drink recipes. iWorkout provides
information to gym goers about exercises and workout routines
that were developed by a certiﬁed trainer of the American Council
on Exercise. All workouts are accompanied by corresponding

pictures as well as dictation about how it should be used and what
makes it eﬀective.
Helmes’ software has been featured in magazines worldwide,
including Macworld & MacFormat Magazine and his software
has been downloaded over 10,000 times from his site which has
had over 1.5 million hits. All products can be viewed at:
www.helmesinnovations.com.
“Entrepreneurs lead by example and demonstrate their
knowledge through their dominance within their market. As
an entrepreneurship major in the software/tech sector of the
marketing, it is crucial to stay informed and educated on the latest
trends and technology. When you are in my ﬁeld of business, the
textbooks haven’t been written yet and you need to respond to
the market. There are no given answers or guides. You need to
do the exploring and experimenting and make the ﬁrst solution;
then you innovate.”

Student Entrepreneur
Founds Bike Rental Service
Another enterprising undergraduate student entrepreneur is
Cassie Farris. Cassie is majoring in marketing and entrepreneurship at the Sawyer Business School. Earlier this year, Cassie and
LeRoy J. Watkins, III, a graduate of Northeastern University,
launched a bike rental service called MyBike.
Farris and Watkins came up with the concept of a bike rental
service by merging the business model concepts of ZipCar and
Hertz Rent-A-Car. Both met while working together on a co-op
job. They became friends, tossed around a few ideas for businesses
and soon after MyBike was created.
MyBike is an innovative bicycle rental service. Renters pay
$19.99 a year and an additional one-time $65 fee for maintenance. The 15-speed Decathalon mountain bikes include a free
kryptonite lock with rental. A bargain you say? The founders
rely heavily on advertising to cover their costs. Each bike frame
is mounted with an ad and companies also receive a free ad on
MyBike web site.
How is business thus far? Cassie replies, “So far we have 100
members in the Metro Boston area. We originally targeted our
services to students, however, we are also ﬁnding professionals, tourists, and retired people using our services. Everyday we
reach out to make more and more contacts to grow our business.” MyBike’s mission is simple: 1) ensure customers are happy

with the service they receive, 2) ensure that customers receive
discounts from corporate sponsors, and 3) promote bike riding
safety.
To sign up for a bike, visit MyBike’s web site:
www.mybikeonline.com

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

9

FACULTY UPDATES

New Faculty Hires for 2006

Karen Bishop

joins the Management department as an Assistant Professor. Karen previously taught at
the University of Louisville. Karen received her PhD in Organizational Behavior and
Entrepreneurship from the University of Alabama. The title of her dissertation was “Working
Smart and Working Hard: The Eﬀects of Multitasking and Intuitive Activities on Venture
Performance.” Karen earned her MA in Psychology from the University of West Georgia and her
BS in Accounting from the University of Alabama. Karen is also a Certiﬁed Public Accountant
and Certiﬁed Internal Auditor. She has been published in the Journal of Developmental
Entrepreneurship, Journal of Organizational Behavior and Journal of Management Inquiry. Her
research has also been reported in BusinessWeek, and The Washington Post.

Nukhet Harmancioglu

Karen Bishop

joins the Marketing department as an Assistant Professor. Nukhet is currently completing her
doctoral work in marketing and international business at the Marketing and Supply Chain
Management department at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business. Nukhet
earned her MBA with honors from the Bosphorus University, Turkey and has also earned degrees from the Middle East Technical University and the Izmir American Collegiate Institute
in Turkey. She is the 2005 winner of the Product Development and Management Association
Dissertation Proposal Competition. Her research focuses on the escalating global competition
in the current business environment and how innovation is needed to remain competitive.

Benjamin Marcus

joins the Information Systems and Operations Management department as an Assistant
Professor. Benjamin earned his BSc, MSc and PhD from the University of Western Ontario in
Canada. Benjamin’s research is in the area of supply chain and pricing management. His dissertation deals with issues related to supply chain and pricing management. He has published
articles in Operations Research and IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. He has also published
three business cases through Ivey Publishing.

Nukhet Harmancioglu

Joseph Wojdak

joins the Sawyer Business School as Executive in Residence and will be teaching in both
Accounting and Management departments. He earned his PhD in Accounting and Finance
from Louisiana State University, and his MBA and BS degree in Accounting from the University
of Scranton. He has also earned his CPA. Presently, Joseph is President and COO of MadisonKIPP Corporation in Madison WI, a world leader in semi-solid die casting and manufacturer of
precision engineering aluminum die cast components for the automotive industry. He has also
held the title of President/CEO/Principal of Haskell of Pittsburgh, a manufacturer of commercial oﬃce furniture, and President/CEO of American Cabinet Corporation. Joseph is an avid
researcher and has also held teaching positions at the Pennsylvania State University, Louisiana
State University, and the University of Scranton.

Benjamin Marcus

James M. Cataldo

joins the Accounting department as an Assistant Professor. Jim earned his BA in Economics and English from Brandeis University,
his MSA from Suﬀolk University and his PhD in Economics from Columbia University. Jim comes to Suﬀolk from the Guitierrez
Companies in Burlington. He has held the position of First VP/Director of Treasury Risk Management at the Federal Home Loan
Bank of Boston and has also held teaching positions at Boston College and the University of Massachusetts.

Natalia Beliaeva

joins the Finance department as an Assistant Professor. Natalia received her master’s degree in Regional Planning and her PhD in
Finance from the University of Massachusetts. She is a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Her research includes term
structure modeling, credit risk modeling, ﬁnancial derivatives and asset pricing.

10

SUFFOLK BUSINESS ALUMNI MAGAZINE ~ Summer 2006

FACULTY UPDATES
Mark Lehrer
joins the Management department as an Associate Professor. Mark earned a PhD in German
from the University of California and a PhD in Strategic Management from INSEAD. Mark
also earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from MIT and bachelor’s degree in Humanities
and Science from MIT. Mark joins Suﬀolk from the University of Rhode Island where he was
an Associate Professor of Management. His research and teaching areas include: strategic management, international management of R&D and innovation and technology. Mark is widely
published and is a member of the Educator’s Advisory Board of the Wall Street Journal and author of a weekly online contribution reviewing WSJ articles that can be used in university-level
management courses
Mark Lehrer

Giana M. Eckhardt
joins the Marketing department as an Assistant Professor. Prior to joining Suﬀolk, Giana was an
Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney,
Australia. Giana earned her PhD in Marketing from the University of Minnesota and her bachelor’s of science degree in Marketing from the University of Connecticut. She’s published, “The
Role of Consumer Agency in the Globalization Process in Emerging Markets,” in the Journal
of Macro-marketing and “Cultural Paradoxes Reﬂected in Brands: McDonalds in Shanghai,
China,” in the Journal of International Marketing. Giana has also co-authored several textbook
cases and her research has been proﬁled on Australian nationwide television, ABC radio, and
in Asia Inc. She has also consulted for the Australian Government on cultural diversity and
marketing and has been awarded numerous grants for her research.

Giana M. Eckhardt

Brendan F. Burke
joins the Public Management department as an Assistant Professor. Prior to Suﬀolk, he was an
Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bridgewater State College. Brendan earned his MPA,
MA, and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His undergraduate degree
is from Georgetown University. Brendan has been published in the Journal of Public Budgeting,
Accounting, and Financial Management; American Review of Public Administration and State and
Local Government Review. He has also written several chapters for books including: “Executive
Budgeting,” in the Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy.

Brendan F. Burke

Faculty Appointments,
Promotions and Tenure
Laurie
Levesque
was awarded tenure
and promoted to
Associate Professor
of Management.
She has also been
appointed as Chair
of the Management
Department.

Michael T. Lavin

has been appointed Chair of the
Public Management Department.

Alberto Zanzi

has been promoted to full
Professor of Management.

Ross Fuerman

has been appointed Chair of the
Accounting Department.

Summer 2006 ~ SUFFOLK BUSINESS ALUMNI MAGAZINE

11

FACULTY UPDATES
Awards
Anthony Eonas was honored recently Thomas Whalen was honored
by Suﬀolk’s students when he was pre- recently by Suﬀolk’s students
sented with the Distinguished Service when he was presented with the
Award at Suﬀolk’s Annual Leadership Outstanding Faculty Member
Banquet.
of the Year award at the annual
Leadership Banquet.
William Mee received a Commonwealth Citation for Outstanding
Performance. This citation is one of
the highest awards for outstanding
perfor-mance bestowed from the
Commonwealth. The citation recognizes
the work William and his team and did
on the Massachusetts Rehabilitation
Commission (MRC) database.

Tom Whalen (left)
receiving award from
Dean O’Neill

Leadership Roles

POLITICAL SAVVY, AND
H T A
I

Magid Mazen was elected to serve
OW O CQUIRE T
on the Board of Directors for the
Gail Sergenian received the Outstand Organizational Behavior Teaching Journal of Management Development
ing Educator Award during the Annual Society, the ﬁrst and most prominent Volume 25, No. 4
Awards Dinner for the Boston Metro- organization concerned management “Developing political intelligence for
making feasible decisions”
politan Professional Chapter of NABA.
teaching in the world.
By Susan M. Adams and
Alberto Zanzi
It is easy enough to see that the special
quality which the authors call “political
intelligence”—the ability to make
James Angelini published “The Tax Management. Robert DeFillippi also diﬃcult decisions well and with tact—
Accounting Method Maze,” in the May attended the May 18-20 2006 EURAM is valuable for managers. But it is far
conference in Oslo, Norway and repre- harder to explain how to acquire such
2006 issue of Taxes.
sented his co-authors at a special session an ability. The authors (from Bentley
Robert DeFillippi co-authored, “HRM of the conference devoted to most prom- College and Suﬀolk University, both in
Massachusetts) suggest that managers
Practices in the Video Game Industry: ising books of 2006.
take four steps:
Industry or Country Contingent?” in
1) Identify the principal “power
the European Management Journal, June Alberto Zanzi co-authored, “Developholders” and their power bases.
2006 (vol. 24, number 3).
ing Political Intelligence for Making

Publications

Knowledge at Work: Creative Collaboration in the Global Economy (Blackwell
Press) co-authored by Robert DeFillippi,
Michael B. Arthur, and Valerie
Lindsay has been selected as one of the
“Most Promising Management Books
of 2006” from the 2006 International
Conference of the European Academy of

Feasible Decisions,” in the Journal of
Management Development, vol. 25, No.
4, April 2006.

2) Assess the power holders’ positions
on the issue in question, then
understand why they feel the way
they do.

Lauren Williams published, “The
Fair Factor in Matters of Trust” in the
January-March 2006 (vol.30:1) issue of
Nursing Administration Quarterly.

3) Analyse the eﬀect of carrying
through each option on the power
holders.

Associate Dean/Dean of International Business Programs
Shahriar Khaksari congratulates
Hasan Arslan, Chris Delauney, Ken Hung,
Neil Hunt, and Laurie Levesque
These faculty have been working with a group of consultants to develop a
number of multi-disciplinary cases in the area of global business.
The ﬁrst series of cases to be developed were submitted to the CASE
Academic Conference. All three of the cases written by our faculty were
nominated for the Best Mentored case and two of them were nominated
for the Best First Submission.
Both of these awards were won by Professor Laurie Levesque.

12

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

4) Consider the potential trade-oﬀs
and compromises that could increase
support.
This may sound too clinical to be
worthwhile in real life, but the authors
claim to have tested it by making 60
second-year MBA students use such
tactics in a simulation based on a
Harvard Business School case. More
broadly, they suggest that role-playing
scenarios can help managers who have
diﬃculty making political decisions.
Feedback from colleagues can help
managers determine their own political
positions, which in turn may help boost
their conﬁdence in the next political
battle.

FACULTY UPDATES

Professor Dean Torrisi
Receives Fulbright Scholar
Award to Poland
Richard Torrisi, Associate Professor of International Business at the
Sawyer Business School has been named a Fulbright Scholar and will
lecture and research at the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship
and Management in Warsaw, Poland during his sabbatical for the 20062007 academic year. The Kozminski Academy is one of the top business
schools in Central and Eastern Europe. As a result, Rich Torrisi will be
stepping down on June 30th as Associate Dean to resume his full-time
faculty position as Associate Professor of International Business in the
Finance department.
Rich will continue his research on the European Union and Emerging
Economies while in Poland. He is one of approximately 800 US faculty
and professionals who will travel aboard to some 150 countries for the
2006-2007 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program.
Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J.
William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program’s purpose is to build mutual
understanding between people of the US and other countries. The
Fulbright Program is sponsored by the US Department of State, Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Aﬀairs.

Only eight awards are made to Poland each year.
Professor Torrisi will be the third Fulbright Scholar
from the Sawyer Business School. In addition to his
long career in teaching and research in international
business and in academic administration, Professor
Torrisi has lectured and taught at various European
Business Schools including the Jagiellonian
University in Krakow, Poland and the University of
Aix-Marseille in France.

Presentations at Conferences
Hasan Arslan and Ken Hung presented their research on new product development, “Motivations towards Part Commonality”, at the 17th
Annual Conference of Production and
Operations Management Society in
Boston. Their research considers the
brand manager’s decision on embracing
a part-commonality strategy. Ken and
Hasan developed a model to evaluate
the beneﬁts of brand distinction, part
attribute and complexity, and managerial negotiation behaviors.

sponsored by the Advanced Institute by the Pamplin School of Business,
of Management and the European Portland, OR, in Hawaii on November
Social Science Research Council. He 16, 2006
presented “Reconciling Tensions between Creativity and Routinized Magid Mazen was the guest speaker
Knowledge: The Case of Practice in the at the Leadership Breakfast Series for
Development of Electronic James” with Alumni of the Harvard’s Kennedy
Jonathan Sapsed at the International School of Government where he
Conference on Organizational Learning, spoke about his new course tiKnowledge and Capabilities (ﬁrst annu- tled “Managing Failure for Success.”
al OLKC Conference), The University
of Warwick, Coventry, England.

Robert DeFillippi, Michael L. Barretti,
Hasan Arslan, Ken Hung, and Neil and Sushil Bhatia have been invited to
Hunt presented their business case study, lead a discussion on “Creating Virtual
“Gone With the Wind” at the Eastern Teams for Global Innovation and
Academy of Management Conference Product Development” on August 12th
in Saratoga Springs, New York.
at the Academy of Management 2006
Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
Robert DeFillippi was a featured panelist at a Symposium on Innovation Sushil Bhatia and Robert DeFillippi
Challenges, held at Imperial College of have been invited to present their paper,
London on March 14, 2006. Bob also “Looking for the Next Big Thing,” which
participated in a series of scholarly ac- was selected after a double-blind review,
tivities during his sabbatical appoint- at the Third Annual Meeting of the
ment as an International Visiting Fellow Applied Business and Entrepreneurship
at Imperial College under a fellowship Association International, sponsored

We want
to hear
from you!

Send us your News

• Promotions
• Marriages
• Births or other Announcements
To:
Paula Prifti Weafer
Director of Alumni Relations
Sawyer Business School
pweafer@suﬀolk.edu
617.994.4231

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

13

COVER STORY

What Does It Take
To Make It In
Three
Today’s
Entrepreneurial
Business
Tales of Tests,
World?

Trials, &
Triumphs
I

by Gregory Bergman

n a global economy run by multinational
corporations, it isn’t easy to become a
successful entrepreneur. To make it in
this competitive environment, you have
to be tough. But as these enterprising alums
prove, if you went to Suﬀolk, you’re already
half way there.

14

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

“Racing is the perfect
metaphor for business,”
says Valentine. “Both
are driven by passion,
teamwork and a
competitive spirit, as
well as the willingness
to take risks and push
beyond your limits.

”

RJ Valentine, BA , 69
CEO, The MBA Group

The Racer
“The fact of the matter is that most people who go to Suﬀolk—at
least when I went there— were not from the highest economic
class,” says Richard Valentine, BA ’69, CEO of the MBA Group.
“They’ve had to fend for themselves one way or another.” This is a
good thing, according to Valentine, who believes that overcoming
obstacles builds character and the backbone needed to survive.
“As I’ve always said,” he continues, “A hungry dog hunts best.”
Dorchester’s favorite son Richard “RJ” Valentine worked three
jobs to put himself through Suﬀolk—which included working
at a slaughterhouse during the day, driving a taxi at night, and
tending bar on the weekends. This hard work paid oﬀ; the
combined revenue of his operational businesses now tops around
$800 million a year.
Valentine became an entrepreneur when he started the MBA
(Massachusetts Businessmen’s Association) Group in 1970.
“I knew that I didn’t want to work for anyone else,” admits
Valentine. “I wanted to build my own company and be in charge.”
Recognizing that there was a lack of health insurance coverage
for employees in small and mid-level businesses, Valentine’s MBA
insurance products ﬁlled the void quickly. “MBA now insures
over 51,000 companies,” says Valentine.
More than insurance, Valentine’s 18-ﬁrm MBA Group provides
all kinds of vision, ﬁnancial services, including helping fund
businesses that are under-marketed, under-ﬁnanced or undermanaged. “We’ve had many successes,” says Valentine. “I don’t
mean to sound braggadocios, but failure really isn’t an option at
the MBA Group.”
Perhaps his most visible success was his Jiﬀy Lube franchise
operation, through which he owned and operated all the Jiﬀy
Lube franchises throughout New England. These included the
#1 grossing Jiﬀy Lube in the world infact, seven out of the top

10 grossing Jiﬀy Lube centers in America. Valentine sold the
franchise in 1993 to Pennzoil, after having built it up to a $50
million chain of 30 stores.
Though largely a domestic operation, one of Valentine’s
companies imports their automobile parts from Europe, and is
thus the most directly aﬀected by changes in the global economy.
“The dollar and the euro conﬂict,” says Valentine. “So that directly
aﬀects how we become more competitive and how we have to go
oﬀshore to buy some of our parts.”
Starting in 2000, Valentine started F1 Boston, a highly
successful corporate conference and entertainment complex
in Braintree, MA, complete with two indoor kart race tracks.
Unlike the “go-karts” of old, these little race cars can push 40
mph within a few seconds. This unique concept company could
only come from the imagination of entrepreneur RJ Valentine, a
man whose love of running businesses is only rivaled by his love
of racing cars.
“Racing is the perfect metaphor for business,” says Valentine.
“Both are driven by passion, teamwork and a competitive spirit,
as well as the willingness to take risks and push beyond your
limits.”
A young 61 year old, Valentine is still racing cars and building
businesses and has no intention of slowing up. “I’m just going to
keep my peddle to the metal and keep going,” he says. “The fact is
that I love what I do. There’s a deal a day somewhere and I want
to ﬁnd it. I’ll either drop dead at my desk or in some car wreck
somewhere.”
With this kind of tenacity, it’s no wonder that Valentine
has been a success both on and oﬀ the track. “Let’s face it,” he
concludes. “If you can’t make it in America, you can’t make it
anywhere.”
Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

15

COVER STORY
“aIt’s becoming easier than ever to market
North American product overseas.
That is why I feel that the American
entrepreneur is in a great position to
begin a global business.

”

Spiros Tourkakis, MBA ’83

Executive Vice President
East Coast Seafood, Inc.

A

thens-born Spiros Tourkakis came to America in 1978.
At the time, he didn’t speak any English, yet managed
to graduate 2nd in his class just two years later from the
University of Massachusetts. In search of a school that would
further nurture his entrepreneurial spirit, he joined Suﬀolk to get
his MBA.
“When I ﬁrst got to Suﬀolk, I didn’t have any money,” chuckles
Tourkakis, “I remember sleeping on a mattress and couldn’t aﬀord
a pillow so I used my books instead.”
Working 80 plus hours a week, Tourkakis had to take all of his
ﬁve classes in one day. “I remember I used to be so tired I could
hardly stand, but that’s the kind of people Suﬀolk attracts; people
who are willing to work from the bottom up to make it.”
Beginning in 1981, Tourkakis began his career in the lobster
industry working as a packer/driver at what was then called East
Coast Lobster Pools (later renamed East Coast Seafood, Inc.).
Working with his partner and founder of East Coast Seafood,
Michael J. Tourkistas, Spiros helped grow the business from
$600,000 in sales in 1981 to a $150 million in 2005. What’s
more, he is credited with inventing a reusable plastic lobster crate,
a device which has revolutionized the industry. By minimizing
labor costs and by lowering lobster mortality rates during shipping,
Tourkakis’ reusable plastic crate has saved the industry literally
millions of dollars each year. For this innovation, he received
the RPCC (Reusable Pallet and Container Coalition) Leadership
Award in 2003. “Before my invention, the lobster industry hadn’t
really changed in 100 years,” said Tourkakis. “It’s still an oldfashioned industry, made up of fragmented mom and pop shops.
I would like to help the industry consolidate in order to further
push proﬁts and eﬃciency to the max.”
But entrepreneurship isn’t easy, especially in a global economy
where both new challenges and new opportunities have arisen.
“Europe has become like the United States because it is now
consolidated politically,” says Tourkakis. “This is both a challenge
and an opportunity for U.S. entrepreneurs looking to build a
global business. It’s good now because American entrepreneurs
only have to deal with one currency instead of many. This makes
doing business more eﬃcient. But it is also a challenge because just

16

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

as global growth spurs U.S. entrepreneurship, it also creates new
entrepreneurs in other counties, creating more competition.”
A truly global operation, East Coast Seafood sells 60% of
its product overseas, mainly to Europe. “Before Europe was so
united, we had three oﬃces there,” says Tourkakis. “But now that
it is more organized we only need one. It’s becoming easier than
ever to market a North American product overseas. That is why I
feel that the American entrepreneur is in a great position to begin
a global business.”
But there are other challenges that face entrepreneurs than
global economics. Sometimes an entrepreneur’s dynamic
personality might just get in their own way.
“Sometimes businesses that are started by entrepreneurs can
become too personalized,” says Tourkakis. “Sometimes it’s hard
for an entrepreneur to take the business to the next level and hire
new management without feeling like he lost something. It’s
diﬃcult to make changes without changing the nature of your
company.”
Now accounting for 18% of the world’s production, East Coast
Seafood is the largest distributor of North American lobsters on
earth. Tourkakis thanks Suﬀolk for his success. “Suﬀolk opened
my mind and showed me that there was another way,” he says.
“Suﬀolk really changed my way of thinking.”
In addition, sometimes entrepreneurs may not want to face the
music and therefore don’t have an exit strategy. “I consider it a
failure of mine not to have worked out an exit strategy,” admits
Spiros. “But I’m working on one now, though.”
However, with business booming, both Spiros Tourkakis
and East Coast Seafood are in great shape. “I want my Suﬀolk
Alumni to know that the sacriﬁces are worth it,” he says. “They
will absolutely pay oﬀ in the end.”

COVER STORY
is the
“Globalization the
beginning of
world economy,” she
explains. “We are
doing the grassroots
work to produce
a world economy
that should serve to
beneﬁt people in all
countries.

”

Linda Samuels,
EMBA ’03

Founder, Premier Capital
by the Sea

THE TEACHER
A

fter teaching biology for 28 years, Linda Samuels, EMBA
’03, was “ready to be her own boss.” After all, she had
“done it all,” and had enough teaching awards to ﬁll many
a school locker. So, this teacher once more became a student,
and went to get her MBA at Suﬀolk University. “I wanted to
do something diﬀerent,” says Samuels. “I wanted to approach
education and teaching in a more global way.”
Linda Samuels began her entrepreneurial career in 2001,
when she started The Science and Learning Center—where she
does business consulting, educational consulting, tutoring, and
mentoring for science teachers.
In 2004, she started her second business— Premier Capital by
the Sea. This is a more “business to business” of the two companies
as Samuels puts it, focused on providing asset based funding and
around 60 diﬀerent kinds of ﬁnancing. Connected to over 100
ﬁnanciers, Samuels’ job is to “ﬁnd the right company and make
the connection.”
Getting into business in order to “help as many students as
possible,” Samuels developed a learning tool called the Da Vinci
Device. “I did some empirical testing at Suﬀolk,” says Samuels.
“And, it was there that I came across the Mc2 .”
According to Samuels, the Mc2 —the main focus of her
entrepreneurial life—is a revolutionary learning device that has
been in use in Korea and China for the past ten years. Because it
takes too much money to bring a new product to market, Samuels
is putting aside the marketing of her Da Vinci Device to promote
the Mc2 . Currently working closely with the $200 million Korean
company, Daeyang, Samuels is helping the company penetrate
the U.S. market.
“It’s an amazing product that I feel could help students in the
U.S. and around the globe,” says Samuels. “But it’s been a little
diﬃcult trying to penetrate the American market. While Koreans
will do anything to get a device that enhances learning, the U.S.
market is more complex. But that is why they brought me in,
because I know the U.S. education market like the back of my
hand. That is one of the most important assets an entrepreneur
must have to compete in a global environment. You’ve got to
understand diﬀerent cultural attitudes and be sensitive towards
them. But we’re getting close to penetrating this market and I
hope to get the Mc2 in every school across the U.S.”

According to Samuels, a true start-up entrepreneur looking to do
global business, globalization not only creates new opportunities
for American entrepreneurs, but it also will lead to the greater
goal of more cultural understanding and even more economic
and political freedom. “Globalization is the beginning of the
world economy,” she explains. “We are doing the grassroots work
to produce a world economy that should serve to beneﬁt people
in all countries.”
Though just starting out, Samuels has made progress quickly
by aligning herself with bigger players. “I’m very proud that I’ve
been able to build partnerships with such large companies, even
though I’m still such a little company myself,” says Samuels. In
fact, Samuels has yet to make a proﬁt oﬀ her entrepreneurial
endeavors, currently supporting herself through teaching and
consulting.
Samuels teaches an experiential course at the Sawyer Business
School’s Executive MBA program, acting as the thesis advisor to
ﬁve graduate students going for their MBA. “I tell them that being
an entrepreneur is tough but rewarding,” Samuels says. “It takes
patience and the ability to be positive in the face of criticism.”
Once in a woman’s world of teachers, Samuels found that
making the adjustment to the male-dominated business world
required her to modify certain ‘teacher’s attributes.’
“I did a lot of watching,” says Samuels. “I realized that in
business you shouldn’t present more than one point of view like
when you’re a teacher. I still think that as a woman and a teacher
my style of leadership is collaborative, but I’ve had to learn to be
a little more authoritative to get my point across in the business
world.”
Like the Mc2 , Suﬀolk is a great learning tool, according to
Samuels. “Suﬀolk is a very user-friendly place that let’s you be
who you are,” she says. “It’s all about learning the theory and
applying it, just like the Mc2 .”
Like her other alumni, Samuels has had her share of obstacles
to overcome. But, just like she says she helped prove the old
myth wrong that “women were no good at math or science,” this
evolutionary biologist, inventor, teacher, and entrepreneur wants
her fellow Suﬀolk alumni to know one thing: “Women can do
it, too!”
Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

17

We want
“students toour
go

Resources

above and beyond
their coursework
and make things
happen.

Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
Suffolk University
Sawyer Business School

”

Kevin Krauss, Director
kkrauss@suffolk.edu
617.573.8691

Suzyn Ornstein,

Professor of Management and
Academic Director of the Center
for Entrepreneurial Studies

Suzyn Ornstein, Academic Director
sornstei@suffolk.edu
617.573.8374

Tips on Starting a Business

Adventures in
Entrepreneurship:

www.kauffman.org/
www.sba.gov/starting_business/

Sawyer Business School
Launches Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies

www.nfte.com/
www.startupjournal.com/
www.tannedfeet.com/
www.businessownersideacafe.com/
US Minority Development Agency
www.mbda.gov/
Center for Women and Enterprise
www.cweboston.org/
www.infobaseventures.com/resources.html
www.allbusiness.com
www.entrepreneur.com/
Small Business Loans
www.smallbusinesscenter.com/
www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html

Kevin Krauss with Suzyn Ornstein

18

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

P

By Leah Ritchie, MA ’94

rofessors Kevin Krauss and Suzyn Ornstein are looking to start something.
As co-founders of Suﬀolk’s new Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, both
have strived to create something unique, “We don’t want to be a ‘me too’
Center,” said Krauss “We want to be special.” Their plan is to create a niche
by focusing on small ﬂedgling businesses instead of well-established companies,
“We are going for a diﬀerent market than the Babson, BU, or MIT entrepreneurial
centers,” said Ornstein “We are looking at the 1-2, 10, or 40 person shop” said
Ornstein. The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies is currently housed within
the Business School, but hopes to ﬁnd a new location in Boston, which should
happen soon, according to Ornstein.
In serving small businesses, the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies will run
several Entrepreneurial Resource Centers (ERCs) throughout greater Boston and
the North Shore. These Centers will provide legal advice, training, free clinics,
and incubator space to local startups. Suﬀolk graduate students will mentor local
entrepreneurs at the ERCs by advising them on such topics as writing business
plans, raising capital and analyzing ﬁnancial data.
In seeking out aspiring entrepreneurs underserved by traditional entrepreneurial
centers, Krauss and Ornstein discovered a demand for their services from an
unlikely group – teenagers. “Sixty-ﬁve percent of high school students want to
someday start their own business,” Krauss said, in response to that trend, the
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies started the High School Store Program,
which was the brainchild of Center board member, George Moker. The ﬁrst
stores opened at Georgetown and Medford High School last fall. Georgetown
High has a store on their campus, and Medford High has taken their store online.
“The response has been great,” Krauss said, “Over 50 people were at the store
grand opening in Georgetown – parents, students - it was the buzz of the town.”
The store sells school supplies, mugs, t-shirts, and other insignia items. Twenty

“aEntrepreneurship is
state of mind that
says I will go and do
something. My job
is to give students
enough skills so that
they are conﬁdent
enough to start.

”

Kevin Krauss,

Michael Agganis, MBA ‘80, Entrepreneur and Owner,
Eastern AA Akron Aeros speaks to Suffolk students.

Clinical Assistant
Professor of Entrepreneurship
and Director of the Center
for Entrepreneurial Studies

percent of the stores’ proﬁts go to Suﬀolk to maintain the high school program,
and eighty percent goes to the participating high school to develop a curriculum
in entrepreneurship. Classes in advanced and introductory entrepreneurship have
already been introduced for fall 2006.
Sawyer Business School students will participate in the program by giving
business advice to high school students and introducing interested students to
Suﬀolk’s entrepreneurship major.
Getting hands-on training in running a business will give high school
students the conﬁdence they need to go out on their own. This self-assuredness,
Krauss explained, is crucial to starting and maintaining a successful business.
“Entrepreneurship is a state of mind that says I will go and do something. My job
is to give students enough skills so that they are conﬁdent enough to start.”
Program participants mentored by Suﬀolk students have reason to be conﬁdent.
As part of the entrepreneurship curriculum, both graduate and undergraduate
students are expected to take rigorous courses in such topics as legal and ﬁnancial
planning for startups, creating new ventures, and running a family business.
Students are also required to apply what they have learned through mentoring and
other hands on projects. They’re also highly encouraged to use Center resources to
start their own businesses. “We want our students to go above and beyond their
coursework and make things happen,” Ornstein said.
Although the professors who run the entrepreneurial center are experts in the
ﬁeld, they believe that there is always more to learn. Faculty research will be
another mainstay of the ERC. Research programs will focus on pairing professors
with business practitioners. By working together, they can discover relevant
business trends that aﬀect entrepreneurs and help faculty build sound business
theory.

Entrepreneurial
Oﬀering at
The Sawyer
Business School
BSBA in Entrepreneurship
The entrepreneurship major allows
undergraduate students to build upon a
solid foundation in business and liberal
arts to develop their entrepreneurial skills.
Students take courses in family business,
ﬁnancial management for entrepreneurs
and new venture creation among others.
Students develop an idea for a business
and then put that dream into a reality in
the internship.

MBA with a Concentration in
Entrepreneurship
The MBA concentration in
Entrepreneurship consists of four elective
courses, beyond the MBA core. Students
can complete this concentration in fulltime or part-time. Courses include new
venture creation, and small business
management for example.

Center for Entrepreneurial
Studies
The Center offers educational programs,
research, and customized assistance in the
support of entrepreneurship.

Any new idea requires two crucial resources: money and people. Finding
these resources has been the last biggest challenge for the Center. Krauss and
Ornstein already have a plan. “The last step in the evolution of the Center is to
create a venture fund that will be available for qualifying entrepreneurs and the
University,” Krauss said. The fund would
be generated and maintained by people
who want to invest in startups.
Regarding staﬀ, the Center, has no
paid employees yet. Faculty have (on
top of teaching and research obligations)
volunteered their time to keep the Center
going. “It has been a labor of love,”
Ornstein said.
Krauss and Ornstein have big plans for
the future, “We want to be the Center for
all entrepreneurial activity for the city of
Boston and New England,” Ornstein said.
So far, they are on the right track.

The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies sponsored
the NFTE Regional Youth Business Plan Competition
in June. NFTE teaches entrepreneurship to young
people from low-income communities to enhance
their economic productivity by improving their
business, academic and life skills. Pictured above
are winners from the 2006 Competition.

Dean O’Neill purchases a hat at the
Georgetown High School Store Grand Opening
Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

19

FACULTY PERSPECTIVE

“

In the United States,
where it is estimated
that 90 percent of
businesses are family
owned, only 14
percent survive to the
third generation.
Succession is a
process that takes
years of careful
planning and
execution.

”

Alberto Zanzi, PhD

Managing

The Succession
Process

in a Family Business
By Alberto Zanzi, PhD, Professor of Management

I

n September 1972, when my father casually announced at
the dinner table in our Milan home that our second-generation, family textile business would be closing down for good,
it barely registered. I was too busy pursuing the consulting career
I had started two years earlier, after returning from the United
States with a newly minted MBA degree, paid for, of course, by
my father. My mother did not say anything; she already knew of
my father’s plans.
The Succ. R. Zanzi Company—literally the name means the
heirs of R. Zanzi—was named after my grandmother, Rosina,
who started the company as a modest retail shop in the 1920s. The
company produced tassels, fringes, ribbons and cordons for drapery, furniture and gowns. By the 1950s, after my father, Mario,
inherited the business, the company was operating a modern factory on the outskirts of the city and a retail shop downtown. It
had a network of sales reps throughout Italy. The 1950s and 1960s
were prosperous years, but by the early 1970s the market for our
product line had become stagnant.
A few weeks after our dinner table conversation, dozens of specialized, custom-made textile machines were sold for scrap, followed by the oﬃce furniture and the factory building itself. Fifty
years of tradition in the company founded by my grandmother
suddenly disappeared, together with 60 jobs.
After working 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days per week for 40 years,
my father went on to enjoy a comfortable retirement and traveled
the world. I continued my consulting career, later getting a PhD
and moving into academia. In the following years, on the rare

20

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

occasions the topic came up, we both conveniently dismissed the
decision to close the business as the best alternative for a dying
industry.
My family business situation was a little unusual. Being the
only child of parents who were also only children, did not give
my father many alternatives. It also underscores the complexities
and challenges of properly managing the succession of a family
business.
In the United States, where it is estimated that 90 percent of
businesses are family owned, only 14 percent survive to the third
generation. This high mortality rate is primarily due to the inability of existing family business owners to appropriately handle
succession issues.
One of the major barriers is the perception that succession issues and circumstances are unique to one’s own family business,
and it is therefore impossible to create or follow any general rules.
This assumption is largely false: succession typologies are reasonably predictable, and general guidelines do exist so that the family
can avoid major mistakes and make the process more workable.
The problem is that most family business members shy away from
seeking outside help and therefore are unaware that there is a
proven process to follow.
The ﬁrst misconception is that succession follows an event:
the founder dies or retires, and another family member suddenly
takes over with predictable, dramatic repercussions. Succession is
a process that takes years of careful planning and execution. In a
properly planned succession, the “event” that occurs is the ﬁnal

FACULTY PERSPECTIVE
phase of a long string of procedures aimed at facilitating a smooth
transition from generation to generation and avoiding unnecessary trauma to the business—and to the family.
The process starts by examining the commitment of the family
to the business. The main question is, Do we intend to keep the
business in the family for future generations? If the answer is yes,
and the commitment is there, the next step is to formulate a strategy for the business’ future. Where do we want to be in ﬁve or ten
years? Do we want to expand internationally, or introduce new
product lines, or double the size of the business? Or all three?
For example, the Salvatore Ferragamo Company in Italy decided in the early 1990s on a strategy of expanding its top-ofthe-line, shoe-and-fashion business internationally, and to double
sales to $400 million in ﬁve years. (Under the tutelage of the
family matriarch, the two brothers and three sisters active in the
company were able to nearly double their sales goal by 1996.)
Next, the company owner needs to look inward, to the family.
What kind of talent is available? Who is interested, and possibly
ready, to carry out the chosen strategy? What needs to be done to
prepare certain family members for the task?
Another example is the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, a high-end
producer of wool fabric, men suits and accessories in Italy, which
decided to enter the U.S. market. The company formulated a
plan then waited several years until a promising family member,
Gildo, received a business degree and obtained experience in the
American market before implementing its highly successful entry
strategy.
A crucial decision needs to be made: which member—or members—of the younger generation is to be invited to join the family
business? Before reaching a decision, take into account several
factors. First, consider all possible family members, not just the
ﬁrst-born son: daughters, cousins and possibly sons- or daughtersin-law. Second, limit the number of qualiﬁed, prospective candidates to a maximum of three or four to avoid having too many
cooks in the kitchen, and “pacify” those excluded with some form
of external ownership. Third, apply the strategy of “pulling” people in by oﬀering them an attractive career alternative, instead of
“pushing” them in by guilt or obligation. It is more eﬀective to
say: “Son/daughter, come join our company, our tradition; we can
achieve great things, and we’ll enjoy working together,” versus, “I
paid for your education. All the sacriﬁces that your grandparents
and I have made will be wasted if you do not follow us into the
family business.”
The way the invitation is extended is also important. Mediation
by a third party in the family, usually the mother in the typical
triangular relationship of father, mother, son, for example, adds
ﬂexibility to the negotiation—and another perspective. Content
is also important. It is not enough to ask your son or daughter to
“come work for me.” His/her role, position and title in the company should be clear, along with the speciﬁc steps required for
succession, including performance appraisal and external career
experience. Compensation is also part of the package. Keep in
mind that the salary should be commensurable to his/her experience and to similar positions held by non family members, and it
should be kept separate from any other form of payment related to
ownership or company performance, such as gifts and dividends.

The next challenge is to groom the family member for his or her
new role in the company. Resistance from other family members
and professional managers can be expected, since there is a fresh
competitor, and old alliances may be altered. A key issue is to
ensure that the family member taking over the business has credibility. Otherwise, no matter how good or educated, he/she will
be perceived primarily as the son or daughter of the owner. One
possible solution is what I call “the trip to the desert.” The younger family member entering the business needs to have substantial
professional or managerial experience for three or four years outside the family business. Working for McKinsey as a consultant
or as a manager in a major corporation also helps give the new
entrant external credibility, respect and conﬁdence, separate from
family membership, which are needed to succeed.
Granted, this may not be an easy step in the overall process.
The initiative should be left largely to the young man or woman
to ﬁnd a job and to learn about corporate business practices. Once
the family member gains business experience and can demonstrate credible professional skills, he/she will be ready to consider
the owner’s invitation to join the family business.
The next, and possibly more delicate phase in the succession
process, is to gradually increase the responsibility and decisionmaking power of the family member new to the business. This
means transferring real power and not just nominal titles, after
a period of mentoring and an objective performance appraisal of
a trusted non family manager, ideally experienced and close to
retirement, to avoid any potential conﬂict of interest. This progression should parallel working with the older generation and a
gradual transfer of ownership, if not full control of the company.
Finally, we come to the “event,” when the previous owners
leave the company. Letting go, particularly for founders, can be
very diﬃcult, since the need to control and protect “their baby,”
as they sometimes refer to the company, may be overwhelming.
Here again, the principle of pulling, not pushing applies. If the
succession process has been properly and gradually executed, and
the older generation is conﬁdent of the readiness of their successors, it becomes largely a matter of promoting external activities to
lure business owners away from the company’s operations. Active
outside interests, such as philanthropy and leisure pastimes, coupled with an honorary presidency or a seat on the board, far away
from day-to-day operations, are usually the most eﬀective way to
achieve this goal.
The process mentioned in this article oﬀers guidelines for helping family-owned businesses prepare for the future. It is a general
roadmap to help avoid major mistakes and to overcome roadblocks and possibly recriminations within the family. In practice,
its application may be diﬃcult or, in some cases, not entirely feasible. Keep in mind the process requires time, consideration and
long-term planning.
In my case, the succession process never became an issue. My
father, perhaps waiting for me to make the ﬁrst move, never invited me to join him. Yet more than 30 years later, I ﬁnd myself wondering what my answer might have been if he had asked
“Would you like to work with me in our family business?”

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

21

ALUMNI PERSPECTIVE

Franchising 101:

Practical Advice for
Buying into the

Entrepreneurial Dream
B

By Maggie Bucholt

efore you plunk down your hard-earned savings on a franchise, take a step back
to examine whether you’re buying into a risky venture or the American dream
of owning a business. Chances are, if you haven’t done your research, it may be a
little bit of both. The good news is that you have a better chance of success purchasing
a proven franchise operation than starting your own company.
Cheryl Larsen, MED ’77, proprietor of Franchise Select (FS) LLC, a free
consultation service for franchisees, said in a January Entrepreneur magazine article,
that “more people are recognizing franchising as a viable means to turn entrepreneurial
dreams into reality.” As she sees it, her job is “to help prospective franchisees focus
on a few promising franchises that meet their lifestyle, investment level and income
requirements, and to guide them through making an informed decision. Their job is
to perform the due diligence and research for that franchise.”
At FS (www.selectafranchise.com), a consultant interviews you to gather information
that will be used to develop a model that identiﬁes the types of businesses that meet
your personal, profession and ﬁnancial goals. Part of FS, criteria for a suitable franchise
includes franchisors who have been in business for a minimum of ﬁve years and a have
at least 20 franchisees and little or no litigation.
Larsen recommends that each client hire an experienced attorney and an accountant
to review disclosure documents, i.e., the Uniform Franchise Oﬀering Circular
(UFOC), as required by the Federal Trade Commission of every franchisor, which
may have 23 sections, a number of exhibits and 150 to 200 pages. She also strongly
advises the prospective franchisee to contact current and former franchisees, whose
names are listed in the UFOC.

22

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

ALUMNI PERSPECTIVE
But caveat emptor, shopping for and buying the appropriate
franchise takes work—a thorough assessment of your lifestyle,
as well as the beneﬁts and drawbacks associated with buying into
an established business with a successful track record. Becoming
an entrepreneur will change the way you live, especially if you
are making the leap from a 9 to 5 job, which is why you need to
ﬁgure out beforehand the type of business that’s right for you.
For example, knowing that you are unwilling to work Sundays
is just as important as calculating your ﬁnancial parameters for
a franchise.
What is involved in a franchise agreement? A franchisee pays
a fee to the franchisor (Dunkin’ Donuts, Mail Boxes, Etc.,
to name two well-known companies) for the right to use the
trademark and operating system to sell a quality product and/
or service in a speciﬁc geographic area, and in return receives
brand-recognition, customer goodwill, and a detailed roadmap
for running the business. The franchisor may provide training,
mentoring and business assistance as needed, and collects
monthly or quarterly royalties from the proﬁts earned by the
franchisee.
Brand-recognition is part of the time-tested formula, and
that translates to adhering to a strict set of rules laid out in
the franchising agreement, such as no other products may be
sold from the franchise site. Part of the appeal for returning
customers is knowing they will get the same quality product and
service in, for example, a McDonald’s in Massachusetts, Florida
or California.
Be aware that the franchise “fee” is only one part of the total
investment cost. According to Larsen, the total investment
cost may include transportation, hotel and food costs for the
training period, attorney’s and
accountant’s fees, and depending
on the business, what you need
You may pay
to actually open the franchise: a
a franchise fee
special vehicle, storefront rental,
kitchen or other equipment, etc.
of $25,000 but
“You may pay a franchise fee of
it may cost you
$25,000 but it may cost you more
more than
than $100,000 to actually get
into the business,” said Larsen,
$100,000 to
who has ﬁrst-hand experience
actually get into
with franchises.
the business.
Thirty-ﬁve years ago her
parents bought a little-known
Cheryl Larsen, MEd ’77 franchise, Dunkin’ Donuts, and
Founder, Franchise set up business in Watertown,
Select LLC Mass. At that time, it was the
only one in Watertown. (In
2005, Dunkin’ Donuts had
4,345 U.S. and 1,782 foreign franchises.) “Franchises start small
like every other franchise,” said Larsen, who at one point owned
a Mail Boxes, Etc. franchise. “The marketplace has already been
checked out by the franchisor and determined the system to be
successful. If the idea, product and service are good, then people
buy into the service, and more franchises are established. That’s
essentially how a franchise grows.”
Prospective franchisees need to pursue with the due diligence
necessary to discover whether the company is a match. As
part of the process, the prospective franchisee should meet
with franchisor and the management team in person and feel
comfortable with the mentoring and other business training
provided in the contract, a getting acquainted session that is just
as important for the franchisor as well as the franchisee.
“I think it’s important that a prospective franchisee meets with

“

”

the home oﬃce and understands
the culture,” said Richard Sparacio,
We look at
BSBA ’92, a co-founder of MaidPro
people who have
(www.maidpro.com). “It’s like
getting married.”
the professional
Sparacio said the franchisee
dynamics and
should ask him/herself whether
personality for
the home oﬃce has the skills to
help ensure success? Does the
becoming an
buyer understand the business
entrepreneur.
tools that will be provided and
We’re most
the value that will be delivered?
He cited the mentoring process at
interested in
MaidPro, which includes a onethose who have
day outplacement at a franchise
recruited, hired,
operation in a diﬀerent geographic
area; multiple workshops on
trained and ﬁred
MaidPro business skills; Intranet
employees.
discussion forums and topics that
are updated weekly; and a yearly
Richard Sparacio,
retreat and convention.
BSBA ’92
MaidPro, a privately held
Cofounder of
company, was established in 1991
MaidPro
on Beacon Hill in Boston, and
began franchising its operations in
1997. Ninety-ﬁve percent of the business is residential. Today
the company has 70 franchises around the United States, and
Sparacio estimates the company will have 300 to 400 franchises
in four to ﬁve years.
“We look at people who have the professional dynamics and
personality for becoming an entrepreneur,” he said. “We’re most
interested in those who have recruited, hired, trained and ﬁred
employees.”
In fact, management experience is high on MaidPro’s checklist
for prospective franchisees. Why? The MaidPro business model
does “not allow the franchisee to clean homes,” he said. The fee for
franchise includes access to a powerful software application that
helps the franchise run the day-to-day operations. All franchise
employees must undergo a background check, be ﬁngerprinted
and photographed. A one-week training program
at MaidPro University is
required.
Keep in mind, owning a
franchise is only one way of
buying into the American
dream of entrepreneurship.
If you’re unwilling to
follow somebody else’s
rules because you have a
better idea on how to run
the business, franchising
may not be for you. But
if you understand the
beneﬁts of a franchise’s
proven formula for success,
do your homework about
a prospective franchisor
before signing on the
dotted line.

“

”

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

23

FACULTY PERSPECTIVE

A company’s future may depend on developing
the entrepreneurial spirit in the workplace.
By Maggie Bucholt

H

ow can an established business survive and maintain its competitive
edge in today’s ever-changing, global marketplace? By changing
existing business practices and creating a culture where the
entrepreneurial spirit is encouraged and rewarded.
“Entrepreneurs help others journey into the unknown,” said Robert
DeFillippi, professor of management and co-director of the Center for
Innovation and Change Leadership at Sawyer Business School. “An ongoing
business has to be willing to look beyond current practices and take on a
new entrepreneurial direction.”
Internal innovators, called “intrapreneurs” in established businesses, serve
the same function as entrepreneurs involved in start-up companies, he said.
He cited Apple Computer as a wildly successful model of innovation and
“thinking outside the box,” in this case literally.

24

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

FACULTY PERSPECTIVE

“

In 2001, Apple created the iPod,
zeroing in on society’s craving for
portable digital music and videos,
by designing a palm-sized device
that appealed to all demographics.
More than 20 million units
have been sold; it is a social and
cultural phenomenon, produced
by a personal computer company,
where the entrepreneurial spirit is
ﬂourishing under the invigorating
leadership of Steven P. Jobs,
—Robert DeFillippi, CEO.
Codirector
“Not everyone can be Steve
Center for Innovation
Jobs, but there are tools that
and Change Leadership
can be tapped to rekindle that
entrepreneurial spirit in existing
companies,” said DeFillippi.
At the Center for Innovation and Change Leadership, DeFillippi
and codirector Colette Dumas help people and organizations
embrace change through collaboration. Innovation and change
leadership require a transformation of both organizational
practices and personal abilities. And, said DeFillippi, innovation
and entrepreneurship, which are critical to both start-ups and
existing companies, go hand in hand.
“Change is never easy in established companies,” said
DeFillippi. “People will defend the status quo because they are
fearful of the unknown.”
But overcoming inertia, though a daunting task, is possible.
Corporate leaders must confront the challenges posed by
employees and traditional organizational practices. There is “no
magic” involved, only procedural steps and an incredible amount
of hard work, and it is never easy, said DeFillippi, an international
visiting fellow at Advanced Institute of Management Research
(AIM), whose goal is to exemplify how collaborative management
research and development can contribute to academic, business,
public service, and policy audiences. His research explores
creativity routines within the computer-games industry.
General Motors (GM), an entrenched corporation, is an example
of a business that is suﬀering because of its past successes. The
company invested in the bricks and mortar of automotive plants
and contract promises to a unionized workforce. The business
environment that allowed GM to become successful no longer
exists. Workers around the globe will work for a fraction of the
salary of an American auto plant worker, and car conglomerates
like Toyota and Honda are cashing in on their innovative hybrid
car models, as the price of gasoline skyrockets. “What were once
advantages for GM are now liabilities,” said DeFillippi.
“It’s easy for existing organizations to tweak and improve
what they’re doing for the next best product or service,” he
continued. “But it can miss opportunities by not looking at the
big picture. ...If the marketplace is screaming for change, it’s
already too late. It’s one of the general observations in the study
of innovation.”
Companies seeking change should look objectively at what
the competition is doing and how it is performing, which is not
to say that the company should copy the competition. Learning
and adapting the principles involved with change to an individual
business is the ﬁrst step, according to Dumas, who counsels
companies on a four-point strategy that involves principles aimed
at changing mindset and culture and encouraging a “nimble
form of thinking.” They include:
• creating stakeholder alignment;
• cultivating a shared vision and values;

Not everyone can
be Steve Jobs, but
there are tools that
can be tapped
to rekindle that
entrepreneurial
spirit in existing
companies.

”

• developing a support system to help
build the commitment to change;
• preparing an action plan.
“The challenge is getting everyone to shift their focus to the
unseen demands of the marketplace,” she said.
First, corporate leaders need to talk openly about existing
business practices and how the status quo needs to change in order
for the company to remain competitive. This involves assessing
the ways the company does business and exploring options on
how the company will meet the future needs of the company and
the marketplace. It may take corporate leaders articulating clearly
that the organization has to change if it is to continue to exist
and thrive.
The stakeholders then develop and buy into a compelling
vision, one that is conveyed to and deeply understood by the
workforce. Everyone commits to a strategy that will help secure
the company’s future. A new team spirit must be generated, and
leaders must champion change. Then a roadmap can be created
on how the company will achieve its goals.
Most important, the overall company culture must back
change. A support system can be developed where employees
with diﬀerent skill sets work in teams and are rewarded for
their creative thinking, whether projects succeed or fail. For an
established company, it is more of a challenge to think in creative
ways. The support system fosters a
learning orientation that helps build
Our focus
commitment to the articulated vision.
at the center
“Our focus at the center is helping
is helping
people realize their creative potential,”
said Dumas.
people realize
The Center works with Sawyer
their creative
Business School alumni, oﬀering semipotential.
annual breakfast dialogues that feature
experienced innovation and change
practitioners and academics, either —Colette Dumas,
Codirector Center for
from the business schools or outside
Innovation and Change
the university. Visit ciclsuﬀolk.org for
Leadership
program activities.

“

”

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

25

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

A

MPA ‘97

Elaine M. O’Sullivan
President of the Sawyer
Business School Alumni
Board of Directors

Director of Human Resources
Framingham State College

s President of the Sawyer Business School’s Aumni Board of Directors, I am pleased to work
with our talented volunteer Board of Directors and to represent over 17,000 graduates from the
Sawyer Business School.
The Alumni Association oﬀers numerous ways to get involved in the academic and social life of
the University and continuously seeks to foster interaction among Suﬀolk alumni, faculty, students,
and other members of the Suﬀolk community. Whether you attend reunion, chapter receptions,
alumni luncheons or breakfast workshops, I guarantee you will ﬁnd these opportunities rewarding,
both personally and professionally.
On behalf of our University and our Sawyer Business School Alumni Board, I invite your participation, feedback and suggestions so we may further strengthen and build our alumni programming
and outreach.
I am grateful for your ongoing support and look forward to seeing you in the very near future.
Sincerely,
Elaine O’Sullivan, MPA ’97
Email: buspres@suﬀolk.edu

P.S. Please mark your calendars for September 21, 2006 and join us in Boston for the University’s
Centennial Celebration!

Sawyer Business School Alumni Board of
Directors 2006-2007
MPA ’93

Mark W. Haddad,

Vice President of the
Sawyer Business School
Alumni Board of Directors
Executive Vice President
of Business Operations
Ventus Networks

The Sawyer Business School Alumni Board of Directors includes ﬁfteen alumni representatives.
Their mission is to foster a lifelong commitment between Suﬀolk University and its alumni by
providing alumni opportunities to engage in educational, professional, social and community
service activities; and by providing the University the special perspective and support of alumni in
its life and growth.

We wish to thank the following outgoing
Board of Directors for their years of service
and dedication to the University:
Robert LeBlanc, Esq., BSBA ’66
John Leonetti, Esq., JD/MSF ’01
Susan Luongo, MBA ’00
Gordon Ulen, MBA ’95
Holly Zhang, EMBA ’01

and welcome the following new members to
the Board of Directors:
Richard Duchesneau, BSBA ’69
Mauren Feeney, BA ’75, MPA ’76
Irene Fitzgerald, BSBA ’91, MS ’93
Richard Lockart, MBA ’73
Tara Taylor, MBA ’00

BSBA ’82, MBA ’87, APC ‘97

Angela Nunez

Clerk of the Sawyer
Business School Alumni
Board of Directors
Marketing Communications
Associate, MFC Global
Investment Management
John Hancock

MBA ‘94

BSBA ‘57

MBA ‘02

BSBA ‘72

Edward J, Bradley, Jr.

Dianne L. Grattan

Robert Jones

(retired)

Strategic Account
Executive Pro Staff

Vice President
The Provident Bank

MBA ‘87

MBA ‘87

MPA ‘01

David R. Morse

26

William A. Popeleski

Rachelle P. Robin

Roger Wellington

Senior Associate
Kepner-Tregoe

Principal, BP Global Solutions

Director of Web Sales
Fidelity Investments

Director of Food Services
Pine Street Inn

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

T

he Sawyer Business School’s Alumni
Relations Oﬃce oﬀers our alumni
opportunities to connect with Sawyer
Business and other University alumni through
relevant and engaging educational and social
programming.
As you can see by the depth and breadth of topics
covered in this magazine and the highlights of
alumni events listed on the upcoming pages, the
Sawyer Business School is a thriving and vibrant
hub of activity. This past year alumni attended a
variety of programs and events including chapter
events in major U.S. cities as well as campus
programs that captured a range of interests.
The Networking Receptions provide countless
opportunities for current students to meet
alumni, share information, and to garner advice
as to how they can enhance their professional
and personal growth in the workplace. This year,
we added a new Networking Reception for MPA
and MHA students and alumni.

The 2005-2006 Alumni Lunch Series showcased prominent alumni speakers. Our Alumni
Career Informational Breakfasts provide
practical, hands on information related to your
career development.
I encourage you to keep in touch and keep
us informed when you move, change jobs, or
reach new milestones in your life and career. The
Suﬀolk University alumni network takes great
pride in providing you with mentoring, career
advice, and more.
Visit www.suﬀolk.edu/business/alumni for
our fall events schedule!
With warm regards,
Paula Prifti Weafer
Paula Prifti Weafer
Director of Alumni
(617) 994-4231
Relations
(617) 305-1938 Fax
Email: pweafer@suﬀolk.edu

Sawyer Business School

P.S. For your convenience, the alumni online
community can be accessed by visiting www.
alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/SUF/.

ALUMNI EVENTS
Career Breakfast Series ’05-’06
The ’05-’06 Alumni Breakfast Series held at
73 Tremont Street were highly successful,
and included topics such as:

“Building your Business Etiquette Intelligence”

INNOVATION &
SPEED-TO-MARKET

in Design Driven Industries

with Catherine Wolcott, MPA ’90,
President, CW Etiquette Consulting

“Why Laughter is so Important
in the Workplace”
with Sushil Bhatia, EMBA ’79

“How to Plan for your Retirement, 101”
with Steve Rubino, MBA, ’01,
President, JMD Manufacturing

“Interview Dos and Don’ts”

Spaces are limited!

with Lori Cawthorne, MPA ’01
Associate Director of Human Resources,
Suﬀolk University

“Am I Losing My Memory?”

with Linda Samuels, EMBA ’03,
Founder and CEO, the Science Learning Center and
Founder and President, Premier Capital by the Sea

“Out Class the Competition:
Making the Right Impressions,”
with Catherine Walcott, MPA ’90 and
President, CW Etiquette Consulting

“E-mail Etiquette,”

with Laurie Levesque, Associate Professor and
Chair of Management, Sawyer Business School

“Creating Wealth”

with Paul Smith, EMBA ’00, Senior Mortgage Specialist
for Direct Finance Mortgages
Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

27

ALUMNI EVENTS
Reconnect to Your Alma Mater! Whether you are interested in wine or food tasting, indepth discussion
on timely management issues, or just want to connect with old classmates, the Suffolk University Alumni
Association has something for you! See the back cover of this magazine for a list of upcoming events or visit
www.suffolk.edu/alumni or contact Paula Prifti Weafer, Director of Alumni Relations at 617.994.4231 or
pweafer@suffolk.edu. A snapshot of alumni activities from 2005-2006 is listed below.

Alumni Luncheon Series

May 4

The Langhan Hotel

October 20

Entrepreneurship,
the Real Deal

With Richard J.
Valentine, BA ’69
CEO, MBA Group and
Dean O’Neill and RJ chatting before
Aﬃliated Companies
the luncheon

October 27

Cultural
Transformation

Cedric Copper,
MBA/Health ‘06

Over 125 Suﬀolk Alumni and
guests indulged in their sinful
side at the
Langham
Hotel’s
chocolate
buﬀet at
the Boston
Alumni
Chapter
event.

September 11, 2nd Annual

Executive MBA
Clambake

With Kevin Nolan,
BSBA ’72
Retired, President and
Chief Executive Oﬃcer,
Aﬃnity Health
Perla D. Fuenmayor-Huerta,
System, Inc.
MHA ‘03
Kevin Nolan

March 8

Healthcare: A
Look Back and
A Look Ahead

Over 200 people including Executive
MBA alumni, students, family and
friends gathered in early September
for the 2nd annual “End of Summer”
Executive MBA Family Clambake at
the Crane Estate in Ipswich. Much fun
was had by all! Mark your calendars for
the next clambake on September 10th.

with Jeanette Clough,
MHA ’96
President and CEO of
Mount Auburn Hospital
Jeanette Clough

Merrimack Valley
Alumni Chapter Event
March 26

StonehedgeInn - Tynsboro, MA
Alumni and guests tasted their way across the regions
of France during a special afternoon at the luxurious
European-style Stonehedge Inn. Sally Peabody,
writer and Paris travel specialist gave us insider tips
to dining, shopping, and romancing in Paris.

Members of the Merrimack Valley Steering
Committee from left to right: Patricia Gannon, MPA
‘97, Mary Lee Dunn, BSJ ‘79, Co-President, Diane
Demmer, BS ‘99, Clerk, Patrick Crowley, DIP ‘74,
Richard Lockhart, MBA ‘73, Co-President
Sally Peabody

28

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

ALUMNI EVENTS
Changing the World:
One Griﬃn at a Time

8th Annual Grifﬁn Networking Event
Brings Grifﬁn Students and Alumni Together

Eight years ago, BSBA alumni, Matt Hourin ’99, Chris Barr
’99 and Mark DiFraia ’99, created the Griﬃn Networking
Event for members of the Griﬃn Honor Society to develop
vital personal and business relationships. During the event,
Griﬃn alumni: Matt Hourin BSBA ’99, Paula Castillo BSBA
’04, Sheila Constantino BSBA ’05, Lenka Benova BSBA
’02, and Steve Baumgartner BSBA ’02 shared their career
experiences about their achievements and adventures,
not only in the U.S.--but across the entire globe!
To sum the evening up, Craig Miller, Associate Auditor
at PriceWaterhouseCoopers said “the Griﬃn Event
was spectacular.”

The Grifﬁn Planning Committee

BSBA students: Sarah Allen, Khemara Kang, and
Anthony Holley

Dean O’Neill chats with BSBA student
Juan Jaramillo (above)

Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs Myra Lerman
and Lauren Mahoney, Director of Undergraduate Programs

BSBA students:
Annie Ngo,
Diana Baquero,
and Julia Frost

South Shore Alumni Event

Connecticut Alumni Event

Tosca’s Restaurant in Hingham, MA

Bruce Museum in Greenwich

December 7

Alumni and
friends enjoyed
food and wine
pairings at this
award-winning
restaurant!

March 22

Hager “Stett” Harrison, BA ’71 hosted alumni and
prospective students to a tour and a reception at the
beautiful Bruce
Museum in
Greenwich, CT.
Guests later enjoyed
a gallery tour
featuring the exhibit,
Ben Franklin’s
Curious Mind.

From left to right Professor Neil Hunt, Walter Caffrey, Dean of
Enrollment and Retention Management, Stett Harrision, BA’71, Marcia
Swanson, BS ‘74, Philip Mortensen, JD ‘72, and Mark Haddad, MPA ‘93

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

29

ALUMNI PROFILE

Meredith Ross
Global MBA ’04

Senior Analyst, Derivative Margin Group
Lehman Brothers-London

“

The Global MBA curriculum’s global focus, intensive
12 months of academics, and practical internship
training were a perfect combination.

S

”

uﬀolk’s Global MBA (GMBA) came along at just the right
time for Meredith Ross. A few months into a new job at
global investment bank, Lehman Brothers, in Boston, a
co-worker told her about a brand new program at Suﬀolk. The
GMBA turned out to be “exactly what [I] was looking for,”
Ross says. “The GMBA curriculum’s global focus, intensive 12
months of academics, and practical internship training were a
perfect combination.” By September 2003, she had left her job
and joined the very ﬁrst GMBA class at Suﬀolk.
Ross focused on the ﬁnance track and made the most of her
studies, traveling to Chile for a global seminar in which she
learned about emerging business and was introduced to the US
Commercial Service. She decided to spend her three-month global
internship with the Commercial Service at the US Consulate
in Auckland, New Zealand, assisting US companies exporting
goods and services to New Zealand.
Today, Ross is settling into life in London, where she recently
relocated for her current job—again with Lehman Brothers. A
senior analyst in the Derivative Margin group within company
operations, she restarted her career with Lehman in New York
after completing the GMBA. Eager to fully immerse herself in

1962
James E. Joyce, Jr. BSBA, MBA ’66, is vice
president of Investments at A.G. Edwards & Sons,
Inc., a national brokerage ﬁrm.

William Boudreau, MBA,

was part of a National Leadership Mission
delegation to Tunisia, hosted by the Tunisian
Government and organized by the World Aﬀairs
Councils of America. He writes, “I am now an
elected member of the Seabrook Island Town
Council in addition and am back on cruise
lecturing. The World Aﬀairs Councils of America
has published my delegation’s report, “Leadership
Mission to Tunisia”, www.worldaﬀairscouncils.
org and has also asked to write the introductory
“Overview Essay”. The photo was taken in Carthage,
Tunisia, which was where my wife and I began
our married life together, where I began my Foreign Service career and where our ﬁrst two
sons were born. It was truly a magniﬁcent return for me and I was thrilled to see the process
Tunisia has made over the years.”

1969
Patrick Carroll, BSBA, is a member of the
executive board for Middlesex Federal Savings in
Somerville.
1971
Ronald C. Tockman, BSBA, is a member of the
Board of Directors of the National Association of
CPA Professionals (NCCPAP).

1974
Robert C. Howard Jr., BSBA, is senior vice
president/senior loan oﬃcer for the Bank of
Fall River.

30

international business, she jumped at the chance to move from
New York to London. Within a few weeks, she had already put
some of her Suﬀolk lessons to use. “I am very aware of cultural
diﬀerences in how things are done at Lehman Brothers in
London,” she says. “Fortunately, every course in the GMBA
emphasized these kinds of diﬀerences. I particularly appreciate
what I learned in my organizational behavior class because I use
it on a macro level.”
The possibilities for the future of this up and coming
international businesswoman transcend time zones. Lehman
Brothers has another operations oﬃce in Tokyo, and she likes the
company culture. For now, though, she is happy to be in London
and plans to stay for a few years. Launching her career at one of
the most internationally acclaimed global investment banks, she
has set herself up for success wherever her career may take her.

1976

1965
Bob McCarty, BSBA, is eastern regional
business development director for JWT
Employment Communications, one of the world’s
largest recruitment marketing and employee
communications companies.

1973
David Alves, MBA, is a candidate for Councilor At
Large in New Bedford.

An International Business Woman

1977
Michael L. Backer, EMBA and his wife, Anita,
welcomed their second grandchild, Eli Brooks
Backer. Mike is secretary of the Massachusetts
Justices of the Peace Association and serves as a
member of its executive board.

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

1979
Gautam Mahajan, EMBA, is president of InterLink Services, an international consulting ﬁrm that
advises clients on how to successfully break into the
Asian and Indian markets. The ﬁrm also advises
Indian organizations on globalization strategies.
1980
Charles Barker, MBA, is a mortgage loan oﬃcer at
Belmont Savings Bank.
Mark E. Boyle, MPA, is director of real estate for
the MBTA and has been appointed to a Committee
to review proposals to build a shopping mall on the
site of the public works yard on Route 28.
Bruce Harrington, MBA, is Vice President at MFS
Investment Management.
Robert E. Huntley, MBA, married Marjorie J.
Morse.
Patricia L. Jones, BSBA, was nominated to serve
on the Board of the Massachusetts Society of
Certiﬁed Public Accountants.
1981
Scott Bragdon, EMBA, was promoted to senior
vice president at Citizens Bank.
Kim E. Davis, MPA, is senior advisor for the
Research Council in Norway, where she focuses
on strategy and marketing for the division of
international relations. She is also the national
contact point in Norway for the European
Commission funding program for ICT research
and is also working on an EU funded project to
develop common research policy and funding
for e-government.
Patrick McManus, MBA, joined China Natural
Gas, Inc. in Xian, China as Chairman of the Audit
Committee. An expert on business in China,

McManus also participated in the Business School’s
annual Chinese New Year’s Celebration in February
2006 as a panelist on the Cultural Aspects of Doing
Business in China.
Richard Skalski, MBA, was promoted to vice
president and chief ﬁnancial oﬃcer of KETC/
Channel 9. He is responsible for KETC’s ﬁscal and
administrative aﬀairs, including preparation of
annual operating budgets, ﬁnancial statements and
forecasts, and human resource management.
Anita P. Turner, EMBA, was inducted into the
Frost Society this past year.
1982
Patricia Bray Geegr, MPA, was recently awarded
the Pillar Award at Dickenson University where she
runs the Academic Support Center.
Thomas J. Simpson, BSBA, is at Winebow, Inc. a
leading importer of ﬁne Italian wines into the US.
1984
Edward S. Katersky, MBA, assistant vice president
and risk manager for BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. in
Natick, was recognized by The American Institute
for CPCU and the Insurance Institute of America
for having taught students who passed the national
certifying examination at a level that met or
exceeded the national pass ratio for the exam.
1985
Mary Ann Glynn, MBA, is vice president for
Patient Care Services at Kent Hospital.
1986
Richard Tan Agbortoko, BSBA, recently earned
his master’s degree in education from Cambridge
College and is lecturer at the University of Buea in
Cameroon.

Melvin Kleckner, MPA, is Town Manager for
Winchester.
1987
William D. Hart, MPA, joins Cambridge Health
Alliance’s Joint Board of Trustees.
Karen N. Nelson, MPA is senior vice president
of Clinical Aﬀairs for Massachusetts Hospital
Association.
1988
Susan C. Conlon, BSBA, JD ’91, is president of the
Huntsville-Madison County Bar Association and
was named fellow for the American Academy of
Matrimonial Lawyers.
Marcia W. Liggin, EMBA, chief nursing oﬃcer for
South Coast Hospitals Group, has received Nursing
Administration/Advanced board certiﬁcation by
the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

STAY
CONNECTED

to the Sawyer Business
Alumni Network
Send Address Changes to:
Paula Prifti Weafer
Director of Alumni Relations
pweafer@suffolk.edu
617.994.4321

Paula Murphy
BSBA ’88

Director, Massachusetts Export Center

P

aula Murphy sees the world as one vast marketplace. This
ﬁnance major turned global trade expert got her start as
a student, fascinated by the international business and
economics classes she took at Suﬀolk. “My education gave my
career real direction. I worked with a lot of professors who over
the years really made it a priority to globalize the curriculum for
the school.” After graduating in 1988, Murphy began an almost
20-year career helping businesses both foreign and domestic sell
their products and services internationally.
While attending Suﬀolk, Murphy interned at the Hagen
Corporation, where she helped entrepreneurs outside of the
United States export food, medical devices, and high technology
products to New England. In her current position as Director
of the Massachusetts Export Center, Murphy sees the domestic
side of global trade by helping local entrepreneurs enter foreign
markets. “Massachusetts companies are producing amazing technologies,” she said. “I am excited by the fact that they can sell
them all over the world.” The Export Center, which is part of the
Massachusetts Small Business Development Network, provides
counseling, training, technical assistance and research to companies who want to do business overseas.

Global Trade Expert
When she is not helping local entrepreneurs, Murphy is active
on the board of directors of several non-proﬁt organizations, including the British American Business Council of New England
and the Greater China Business Council of New England.
She also teaches international sales and marketing at Boston
University and was recently invited to serve as an expert panelist
at Suﬀolk’s Center for Global Business Ethics and Law.
Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

31

ALUMNI PROFILE

Toshio Sato

MBA/MST ’04

CEO and President
Owner Management Research Institute

T

oshio Sato is not exaggerating when he says he is “super
busy.” Since he graduated with the highest GPA in the
MBA/Master of Science in Taxation program, he has
been CEO and president of the Owner Management Research
Institute, part of the TFP Consulting Group in Yokohama, Japan.
And he has shared his taxation expertise with Japan’s business
community in a variety of ways.
He arrived at Suﬀolk after working for ten years as a CPA in
Japan. “My father is a certiﬁed tax accountant,” Sato says. “That
inspired me to become an accountant myself.” On Beacon Hill,
he enjoyed mastering the American economic system while
focusing on the complex tax code. “Learning the tax system of
a country gives you a large picture of the economic situation.
There is a deep connection between managing a company and
understanding macroeconomics,” he says. “To be a superior
management consultant, you have to have that viewpoint to
provide your clients with the best solution to their issues. My
Suﬀolk MST/MBA education broadened my way of thinking as
well as my business opportunities.”
His company provides management and ﬁnancial consulting
and asset management for owner-management companies
targeting IPOs, political and economic research on ownermanagement companies, and policy proposals to regulators and
governments. Sato says he regularly uses concepts he learned in
his MST classes as he compares the Japanese and American tax
systems for his clients.
In addition to his responsibilities as CEO, Sato has presented
at and moderated for more than 20 large meetings for a new
commercial law venture; he has also written several articles

1989
Rodney Elliot, MPA, is seeking a re-election as a
City Councilor in Lowell.
Dwayne Redmond, BSBA, is director of the
African American Business Development Group
at Merrill Lynch.
1992
Maurice E. Pratt, MBA, earned a master’s degree
in Liberal Arts/Psychology at Harvard University.
Pratt also received recognition for his Outstanding
ALM Thesis in the Behavioral Sciences.
Evelyn D. Wilson, MBA, was recently honored
with the Jake Bishop Award for Meritorious Service
for life-time leadership, service to the higher
education community. She is director of purchasing
for Salem State College.

for business journals. His four books discuss various aspects
of Japanese business—the new LLP system, commercial law’s
relationship with corporate governance, the new accounting
standard for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and mergers
and acquisitions. As a board member of the Organization for Small
and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan (SMRJ),
he studies how to introduce eﬃcient property management to
SMEs in accordance with goals set by the Ministry of Economy,
Trade, and Industry.
When he’s not contributing to trade journals or implementing
national tax policies, Sato indulges two passions with a Boston
connection. A fan of the Boston Symphony Orchestra during his
time at Suﬀolk, he regularly attends classical music concerts in
Yokohama. And this super busy businessman always ﬁnds time
for his family, including his daughter, Eva, who was born at
Massachusetts General Hospital during his Suﬀolk days.

Edward Burke, MSF, is an Investment Advisor
with LPL Financial.
Phil Connor, MSF, is an Investment Analyst
at MassMutual Financial Group; IMS West in
California.
Sean Finnerty, MBA, is vice president at
Competitive Power Ventures.

1993
Denise Dutson, MBA, joined Mashpee
Commons oﬃce.
Perry Eastman, MSF, is the Treasurer/CFO for
Aldenville Credit Union.
1994
Jennifer Tonneson-Benoit, MSF, is vice president
of Finance at Cambridge College.

32

The Cross-Cultural CEO

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

Shane Lawlor, MSF, is director of global treasury
at Investors Bank & Trust.
Mark Soussan, MSF, is Vice President at State
Street Corporation.
Jennifer J. Tonneson, MSF, CAG, ’04, is vice
president of ﬁnance, administration and student
services for Cambridge College.

1989

Nique Fajors, BSBA,

was guest speaker at Suﬀolk University’s Cooperative Education’s
25th anniversary luncheon. Upon graduation from Suﬀolk, Nique
attended Harvard where he obtained his MBA in ‘93. Nique
has since co-founded two companies, published a book, and
is currently Vice President of Marketing for Atari, Inc, one
of the world’s largest publishers and distributors of software
entertainment. A former co-op student, Fajors attributes much of his success to his experiences at
Suﬀolk and at his ﬁrst co-op with the Bank of Boston. He says, “I was a mediocre student with little
to no ambition when I decided to attend Suﬀolk and could have easily become another statistic.”
“Through the co-op program, I found out that when people take interest in you, then you start to take
interest in yourself.” Fajors noted that this experience wouldn’t have been possible at any other school
and oﬀered the following advice to current co-op students: “Don’t settle in any aspect of your life,”
said Fajors. “Don’t cut corners because it will only cheapen your life.”

1995
Andrew Maylor, MBA, was awarded highest marks
as a town administrator of Salem.
Jim Milinazzo, MPA, is a candidate for re-election
to the position of City Councilor, Lowell, MA.
James Murray, MSF, is a ﬁnancial analyst at
Morgan Stanley.
Glenn Tattrie, MSF, is risk manager for
Rockland Trust.
Brian Walsh, MBA, was elected to serve on
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston’s Board of
Overseers.
Randal D. Webber, EMBA, is senior vice president
and senior commercial lending oﬃcer at Flagship
Bank and Trust Co.
1996
Rita Battles, BA ’69 EMBA, is president and CEO
of Long Island College Hospital.
Kevin Belanger, MSF, is president of Lenders
Outsource Services in Tampa, Florida.
Jeannette Clough, MHA, president and CEO
of Mount Auburn Hospital, addressed a group of
Suﬀolk alumni during the spring Alumni Luncheon
Series at the Newton Marriott Hotel. Jeanette
addressed current challenges to the healthcare
industry.
Brian Connolly, MPA, become the second ﬁnance
director in the Town of Braintree’s history in 2006.
Rui Couto, BSBA, married Stephanie Koska.
Patricia Crane, MPA, was promoted to special
assistant at Lowell General Hospital.

Meiwen Fang, MSF, is internal audit project
manager for DenMOS Technology in Taiwan.
Patrick Jordan, EMBA, COO of Newton
Wellesley Hospital, presented a case study and
presentation on “The Newton Wellesley Hospital
Turnaround” to Suﬀolk students on November 7 as
part Suﬀolk’s Executive Speaker Series organized
by Career Services. Patrick visited Suﬀolk again on
March 23 for the Center for Global Business Ethics
and Law’s inaugural Global Business Luncheon
forum entitled: “Ethics: the Connections Among
Business, Government and Healthcare.”
Steven Mazzone, MSF, is program manager at
General Electric in Houston, Texas.
Marcela Proporato, MSA is assistant professor
of Accounting at York University’s School of
Administrative Studies in Toronto, Canada.
1997
Paul Biscaia, MSF, was promoted to vice president
at JP Morgan Investor Services.
Cynthia Dorman, MSFSB ’97 welcomed son
William Burt last November.
George Friedl, MSF, is senior associate at Booz
Allen Hamilton in South Carolina.
Patricia J. Gannon, MPA is vice president of
ﬁnance and CFO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of
Boston. Patricia was formerly the vice president of
Fiscal Aﬀairs & CFO at Merrimack College.
Douglas Gutro, MPA, was recently re-elected
to a third term on the Quincy City Council and
elected by his peers as President of the Quincy City

Council for the 2006-2007 term. Doug writes, “I’m
quite proud of this accomplishment and honored
by the opportunity to serve. I ﬁrmly believe that
Suﬀolk’s MPA program prepared me well for this
important responsibility.”
1998
Stephen Becker, MSF, is director of risk analytics
at Investors Bank & Trust.
Louis Casey, MSF, is CFO of Sustainable Energy
Solutions, Inc.
Kashif Ahmed, MSF, is a ﬁnancial planner for
First Investors Corporation.
Matt Gillis, MPA, is the new business manager for
the Carver School System.
Theresa M. Irvine, BSBA is a director of recruiting
for Resources Global Professionals in San
Francisco, CA.
Craig Lockwood, MSF, is CFO of Tuition
Management Systems in Rhode Island.
Lynne A. Ludwig, MPA, is senior ﬁscal advisor for
UniBank Fiscal Advisory Services, Inc.
Michele Marini, MSF, was promoted to Senior
Compensation Analyst at Fidelity Investments.
Paul Nasser, MBA, was elected president of the
Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association
of Oﬃce and Industrial Properties.
Dwayne Redmond, BSBA ’89, MBA is director of
African American Business Development Group at
Merrill Lynch.
Paul L. Tiernan, MBA, completed his 11th
marathon last December in West Palm Beach, FL.

AdamMSF’00, JD’00,
Russo
BS’96,

Co-founder of The Phia Group, LLC

A

lready an extremely successful entrepreneur less than six
years out of graduate school, Adam Russo does not take
anything for granted. In fact, he is probably happiest
when he is working hardest. As cofounder of the Phia Group,
LLC, a Boston-based subrogation ﬁrm, an 80-hour workweek is
normal as is frequent travel around the country to meet with and
represent clients.
Fortunately, he says, “Suﬀolk prepared me well for the real
world. Working full time as an undergraduate, I learned a lot
about time management. I learned how to multitask and how to
deal with compromise.” He admires similar skills in his former
graduate classmates. “Students in the MSF program manage to
balance work, family, and school. They helped me to realize that
I had a lot of advantages.”
From the entrepreneurship experiences of Chris Argyrople, a
professor of ﬁnance at Suﬀolk, Russo learned about taking risks.
He took his own by turning down a lucrative job oﬀer in order to
launch the Phia Group. Luckily, as Argyrople observes, Russo was
“a hard worker with one of the best blends of academic ‘smarts’
and social skills” which helped him along the road to success.
He can now impart lessons to aspiring entrepreneurs from his
own experience. “It is very important to have a niche for your
business. You can’t expect to compete in the same way as everyone else. You have to diﬀerentiate yourself.” He and partner Mike Branco, BA ’96, chose to diﬀerentiate their company
through specialization, and it has paid oﬀ. The Phia Group serves
national clients like Cirque du Soleil and has generated two ad-

Man with a Plan
ditional businesses—Phia Realty and The Law Oﬃces of Russo
& Minchoﬀ.
What’s next for this talented businessman and lawyer? He is
coming to the end of a ﬁve-year plan that began in November
2001 when he discovered this quote: “Work like no man should
for ﬁve years, live like few men can for the rest of your life.” Russo
certainly could live like few can, especially if he ﬁnally accepts
one of the multimillion-dollar buyout oﬀers that Phia Group
has ﬁelded. However, slowing down isn’t likely. “I would like my
work to be more about my knowledge,” he says. “I would like
to write articles and books and to become a consultant.” With
his combination of diligence and conﬁdence, no aspiration seems
impossible.
Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

33

ALUMNI PROFILE

Tara Taylor
MBA ‘00

Vice President, Client Interface Services
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

W

hether she is leading a team at work, or taking a
morning run, Tara Taylor is willing to go the distance.
Despite the long hours she puts in at Brown Brothers
Harriman, a commercial banking and investment advisory
services company, this New York native ﬁnds time to stay active
in the Suﬀolk community by volunteering for committees and
giving talks at University-sponsored events.
Taylor believes in the power of talk, especially when it comes to
helping her clients handle disagreements, “The negotiation classes
I took at Suﬀolk really helped me to help diﬀerent parties come to
agreeable solutions,” she says.
Taylor also believes that talking can help people grow by
branching out into diﬀerent ﬁelds. “Networking provides learning
opportunities and information gathering,” she says. “It also allows
you to learn about other types of business opportunities not in
your current ﬁeld of expertise.” Taylor emphasized these points
during a recent Suﬀolk networking event where she was keynote
speaker.
Since ﬁnishing her MBA in 2000, Taylor has built a career
helping clients improve their business operations. At Brown
Brothers Harriman, Taylor works on ﬁnding a good ﬁt between
her company’s products and services (software, for example),
and her clients’ needs. Suﬀolk has helped her learn to create real

The Power of Talk
results for her clients. “My courses increased my ability to think
about things strategically,” she said. They helped me to really
understand the disciplines of what makes an organization work,
and how I can add value,” Taylor said.
Beginning her career with a BS in operations management from
Boston University, Taylor once enjoyed working with the dayto-day aspects of business operations. Currently, she ﬁnds more
satisfaction taking a wider view of work processes, “In my job
now, I see the bigger picture, and create strategy to ﬁgure out the
best way to make operations happen,” Taylor said. In the future,
she hopes to play a diﬀerent kind of strategic role which allows
her to restructure corporate teams to improve their eﬀectiveness,
something that she recently started.

John Sequin

Executive MBA ‘05

Senior Vice President Monotoype Imaging, Inc.

J

ohn Seguin is always hard at work, whether he’s breaking in
his new motorcycle or brieﬁng the press on the latest company
news. It takes hard work to reveal the future, and Seguin is
doing it one cell phone at a time. As Senior Vice President of
Marketing for Monotype Imaging, Inc., Seguin sells a new technology that will revolutionize data exchange by enabling customers to use many languages and printer fonts on handheld devices
such as cell phones and PDAs. “The technology will accommodate the many new uses that small electronic devices now have.”
Seguin explained. For example, the product would allow someone
to easily download a document written in Japanese to their cell
phone or handheld computer.
In 2003, although well-established in his 25-year career in
high tech sales and marketing, Seguin decided that he wanted an
MBA. “It was something that I wanted to achieve as a personal
objective to round out my own capabilities,” he said. He chose
Suﬀolk because the Saturday Executive MBA program allowed
him to complete his degree while keeping up his rigorous work
schedule. Finance was his favorite subject, particularly the courses
taught by Professor Tom O’Hara. “Even in today’s age of technology,” Seguin explained, O’Hara “made sure that we all knew the
ﬁnancial concepts from the ground up. He wrote everything out
in long hand until we understood it.”

34

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

Revealing the Future
Seguin knows a lot about starting things from the ground up.
As part of his job, he develops partnerships with companies in
Europe and in emerging markets like China and India. “I like to
engage with customers, to develop a relationship that will help
them reach their potential.” A key part of Seguin’s work is helping
foreign companies integrate Monotype Imaging technology into
their products.
An average day for Seguin starts early - 5:20 a.m. - with answering customer e-mails. Throughout the day, he plays three ofﬁcial roles at Monotype Imaging, serving as senior vice president
of marketing, general manager of display imaging, and as a member of the company’s board of directors.

1999
Espen Anett, BSBA, and Devold Kalleland, BSBA,
were married in May in Haugesund, Norway. The
couple have a daughter who was born last April.
William C. Conroy, BSBA, and his wife Melissa
(Twyon) Conroy, BSBA ’94 welcomed their ﬁrst
child, Meghan Louise Conroy last July.
Christopher C. Matt, MSF, is ﬁnancial advisor for
UBS Financial Services, Inc., New York. He and
his wife, Betsey, welcomed their new son, Owen
Simpson Matt last October.
Ken Snell, MSF, is investment services oﬃcer at
CitiStreet.
Benjamin Li, MSF, married Catherine Church the
couple resides in Malden, Massachusetts.
David B. Smith, MSF, became a chartered
ﬁnancial analyst and was promoted to chief
investment oﬃcer for Rockland Trust’s Investment
Management Group.
Vanessa Fader, MSF, married Matt Burrill this
past summer.
2000
Kathryn Moriatry-Baldwin, MPA, is director
of development and public information for the
College of Natural Resources at UC Berkley.
Ted Boudria, MSF, is vice president and senior
manager of Financial Reporting at Brown Brothers
Harriman.
Atul Golhar, JD/MSF, is working for AIG
Healthcare in Boston while pursuing his MBA at
University of Chicago.
Urszula Krzywicka, BSBA, is a marketing and
communications coordinator for the Massachusetts
Association of Realtors. She is also earning her
MBA at Bentley College.

2001

Peter Genovese, EMBA,

has been promoted to Vice President at
JEOL USA, a leading supplier of electron
microscopes and analytical instruments with
annual sales of more than $100 million.
Peter has held successive management
positions in the sales organization since
joining JEOL in 1983 and currently
manages a sales team with regional oﬃces
throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
as well as South America. President and
CEO Robert Santorelli announced
Genovese’s promotion at the company’s
annual sales and employee meeting saying,
“Pete has done a great job focusing the
company’s resources and working closely
with his colleagues on capturing business
in a very competitive arena.”

2001

Mark Ducker, MSPM,

is president of Wild Rose Pictures, Inc., an independent
international television production company based in East
Lansing, Michigan. He has worked on media projects in
several locations around the world, including Bangladesh,
Haiti, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, and throughout the
United States. Mark has produced and directed informational
fundraising programs about organizations working to create
positive social change and provide needed services to people around the world, highlighting
issues such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and nursing education. Mark’s current project is a one hour
documentary about a humanitarian organization located in Marion, Illinois that for 20 years has
worked in East Africa to provide educational and medical services.

Shawn Whitney, MSF, is the new owner of
Kennedy’s Midtown, an Irish Pub & Steakhouse
located on Province Street in Boston.
Todd Wokoske, MSF, is a business analyst for
Boston Financial Data Services.
Carlton Young, MSF, joined Fidelity Investments.
2001
James Bizarro, MSF, is controller for Kellwood
Corporation.
Jennie Donohue, EMBA, joined the Dutchess
County Tourism Promotion Agency.
Scott FitzGerald, JD/MSF, opened his own law
ﬁrm, Fitzgerald Law Oﬃces.
Deborah Moninger McLean, MSF, is a municipal
bond analyst at Columbia Management.
Kimberly Gilden, MPA, is assistant medical
technician at the Helen Woodward Animal Center
in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.
David Horn, JD/MSF, is counsel at National
Financial Partners Corporation in Austin, Texas.
Joseph Rooney, MSF, is assistant vice president
at State Street Corporation in Specialized Trust
Services.
Regine Milord-Mendes, MSF, is working in Risk
& Compliance at State Street Corporation.
Michael Marcy, MSF, is a ﬁnancial analyst with
Mellon Financial.
Sheneal Parker, MPA, was elected to serve
as the new president for Fenway Community
Development Corporation.
John Richardson, MSF, is research analyst for
Janus Capital Group.
Bradley Rubin, MSF, is a ﬁxed income research
analyst for BNP Paribas in New York City.
Aaron B. Shields, MBA, married Diana C. Siliezar,
the couple resides in Seekonk, NH.
Suzanne Thomas, MPA, is director of the Wellﬂeet
Council on Aging.

2002
John E. Anderson, MPA is grant manager in
glaucoma service for the Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Inﬁrmary.
Nadine Armstrong, MSF, is wealth manager for
US Trust Company in Vero Beach, Florida.
Eric Bedard, EMBA, received the 2006
Outstanding Alumni Award for Service on
June 3. Eric is a dedicated volunteer on behalf
of the Suﬀolk University Alumni Association,
having served as President of the Executive
Program Alumni Council (EPAC) for three years.
Prior to his presidency, he served as the class
representative to EPAC. During his three year
term as President of EPAC, he worked tirelessly to
re-energize the alumni base, having helped plan
successful events at Gillette Stadium, F1 Boston,
and Fenway Park.
Matt Constentino, BSBA, and wife Susan
welcomed the birth of a baby girl named Jameson
Hering Consentino. Susan, Jameson and Matt are
living in West Linn, Oregon. Matt was recently
promoted to a district manager of Ameriprise
Financial Services.
Kevin McGrath, MSF, is an Investment Specialist
at MetLife Investment Strategies Group
Mauro Nunez, MBA, is director of the Boston
School of Boabom. The Boston School of Boabom
is the ﬁrst Boabom School in the United States.
E. Joseph O’Keefe, EMBA, is assistant secretary
and chief of staﬀ for the Massachusetts Executive
Oﬃce of Environmental Aﬀairs (EOEA). In
this capacity, O’Keefe has oversight for the
operations of the Secretariat which includes over
3,700 employees, an annual operating budget of
$190 million, an annual capital budget of $135
million, four separate agencies (Environmental
Protection, Conservation and Recreation, Fish &
Game, and Food & Agriculture) and multiple
statutory divisions within the Secretary’s oﬃce.
Sarah W. Spencer, MBA, married Edward J.
Pierra, JD’00 the couple resides in Quincy.

2002

Lenka Benova, BSBA,

is in Eygpt where she is earning a master’s degree in
Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in
Cairo. In her free time, Lenka also interns in the United
Nations Development Program Oﬃce in Cairo. Lenka
writes, “they have a special program for HIV/AIDS in the
Arab countries and although the position is unpaid, the
team is very knowledgeable, energetic and enthusiastic. I
am very much looking forward to working with them! I miss the humanitarian work now when
I am concentrating solely on my studies.” Prior to enrolling in graduate studies, Lenka was the
Financial Controller for Doctors Without Borders in Nigeria.

Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

35

ALUMNI NOTES
2003
Rita Ausiejus, MBA, is ﬁeld promotion manager at
Advantage Sales & Marketing, Foxboro.
Lana Beousova, MBA, married fellow MBA
classmate Dennis Carron, MBA.
Hayley Melissa Feyre, MPA, married Francis
Martin Dunn Jr. the couple resides in Boston,
Massachusetts.
Stacey Foss, BSBA, is assistant director of
admissions at Nova Southeastern University in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.
Barbara L. Greenberg, MBA is senior business
improvement analyst with Putnam Investments.
Juliana Campos, MSF, is business controller for
Rodamco in Europe.
Paul Needham, MSF, is program manager for
Fidelity Investments.
Amber Milam, MSF, is a RFP Specialist at
Evergreen Investments.
Michelle Lee McDonald, BSBA, married
Christopher George Rocha, the couple resides in
Boston, Massachusetts.
Rene S. Torgersen, BSBA, is a ﬁnancial analyst for
the Boston Capital Corporation.
Adam Winn, MSF, is a structured ﬁnance analyst
and completing the investment banking analyst
program, and also shares the news about the birth
of his second baby, Isabel, this past March.
Roberto Woessner, MSF, is senior relationship
manager for Corporate Banking for Banco
Mercantil del Norte in Mexico City, Mexico.
Dennis Urlaub, MSF, is contract specialist for the
US Air Force.
Tatyana Nickolova, MSF, has welcomed a new
baby girl, Amelia Rose, to keep her busy, as well as
a new job as the value analysis manager for Shaw’s
Supermarkets.
David J. Lofstrom, MBA, joined TD Banknorth
Insurance Group of Massachusetts as the Regional
Vice President of the Cape Cod Region.
2004
Lori Barrett, MBA, is administrator of home- and
community-based services at Mary Immaculate
Health/Care Services aﬃliate MI Residential
Community.
Steven Canessa, MBA, delivered the
Commencement Address for Bridgewater State
College’s fall graduation.
Paula Castillo, BSBA, plans to spend her summer
working for the United Nations in Austria,
generating strategies to support women’s enterprises
in developing countries. While a student at Suﬀolk,
Paula, co-founded the undergraduate student
organization, Women in Business Organization.
Upon graduation she worked as a marketing
manager for the Center for Women & Enterprise in
Worcester, Massachusetts.
Matt Cheney, MSF, is vendor oversight analyst
in the Treasurer’s Oﬃce of Deutsche Asset
Management.
Sorin Codreanu, MSF, has recently joined
PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Scott Conley, MSF, is a ﬁnancial analyst/corporate
oﬃcer at State Street Corporation.
Lech Czerski, MSF, is pursuing his MBA from the
Stern School of Business at New York University.
Elisa M. Hahn, BSBA, is a staﬀ auditor for
the Investors Bank and Trust internal audit
department.

36

2005

Mahwash Zehra, BSBA,
married earlier this year in a traditional
Pakistani wedding.

Sean Harrington, EMBA, is senior brand
manager for Unilever Foods-North America.
In this position, Sean manages a $300 million
portfolio that includes Country Crock and Imperial
Margarine foods. In the spring, Sean visited Suﬀolk
and addressed Graduate Students at the Executive
Speaker Series sponsored by Suﬀolk’s Oﬃce of
Career Services.
John Mann, MSF, is a senior trader at GMO LLC.
Chris Marston, JD/MSF, is managing partner of
a full-service corporate law ﬁrm, Exemplar Law
Partners, LLC.
Kristen M. Meehan, MBA, is head of regulatory
operations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Keith Melanson, MSF, is a ﬁnancial system
support analyst for COR Financial Solutions.
Paul Murray, JD/MSF, opened his own law oﬃces:
the Law Oﬃces of Paul J. Murray, LLC.
Hoa Nguyen, MSF, welcomed the birth of his ﬁrst
child in August
Mike O’Connor, MSF, is a credit analyst in
commercial lending for Citizen’s Bank. Mike also
welcomed his second child, Madison Murphy this
past March.
Mark H. Porter, MBA, earned his MS in global
supply chain management from Indiana University.
Evelyn Ramos, MSF, is senior manager at
PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Nicole Reineke, MBA, opened a marketing and
product management consulting ﬁrm, Reineke
Associates last summer.
Dorothy Savarese, MBA, was selected to be the
ﬁrst woman President of the Cape Cod Five, a
leading local bank with branches throughout the
Cape. Dorothy is a graduate of the Suﬀolk MBA
program on Cape Cod.

Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine ~ Summer 2006

Didem Uzumcuoglu, MBA, was chosen from over
30,000 applicants to appear in her native Turkey’s
version of the Apprentice with Turkish businessman
Tuncay Ozilhan as host.
Julio Vaca, MBA is senior product marketing
manager for BBN Technologies. He and his wife
recently welcomed the birth of their son.
Anne Ytreland, BSBA, is with Innovation Norway/
the Norwegian Trade Council in Boston.
Zhiying Zhou, MSF, is an accounting analyst for
St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center.
2005
Emily Czarnecki, MBA, married Charles
Gauthier; the couple resides in Arlington,
Massachusetts.
John Barrett, MSF, works in the Advisory Services
Division for Global Insight.
Laura Blatt, MSF, has been promoted to
Performance Analyst at Eaton Vance.
Juan E. Clariond, BSBA, is a ﬁnancial analyst in
the risk analytics unit for Citibank-Mexico.
Steve Guertin, MSF, is a business analyst for Eagle
Investment Systems, LLC.
Anitha Bala, MSF, is a ﬁnancial analyst for ﬁxed
income securities at John Hancock.
Debbie Gatto, MSF, was promoted to assistant
treasurer at Babson Capital Management, LLC.
Jing Lu, MSF, joined MFS Investments in custody
oversight.
Sean McDonough, MSF, passed Level II of the
CFA. Sean also welcomed son Douglas Allen this
past January.
Marc M. Prettenhofer, BSBA, is a compliance
oﬃcer at Quest Diagnostics in Cambridge.
Pedro Rodriguez, MSF, is a fund accountant at
Investors Bank & Trust.
Dr. Helaine Smith, EMBA, received the 2006
Outstanding Alumni Award for Achievement on
June 3. Although Dr. Smith is a successful cosmetic
dentist, she annually conducts mission work that
has taken her to all parts of the world working with
numerous native cultures and indigenous people.
Some of the most rewarding work has been with
teenagers and young adults. During a typical
mission trip, Helaine will fabricate 40 obturators
which not only provides a barrier to the nasal cavity
and help in vocalization, but also enhance people’s
self esteem having struggled with this since birth.
Shaun P. Stimpson, BSBA, is with Merrill Lynch
Global Private Client Group.
Bruce Tobey, JD ’78, EMBA, former Mayor of
Gloucester was elected to the Gloucester City
Council.

~ In Memorium ~
Robert L. Dockendorﬀ, BSBA ’51

Lawrence A. DeLeo, BSBA ’75, MBA’81

Paul J. Autiello Jr., BSBA ’57

Joel A. Sporer, MBA ’ 78

Paul F. Lynch, BSBA ’62

William M. Zielinski, BSBA ’78

Herbert Sandler, BSBA ’65

Brian H. Smith, MBA ’83

Amos E. Wasgatt III, BSBA ’73

Daniel S. Ventura, EMBA ’86
Leonard Florence, DCS ‘98

DONOR PROFILE

B

ob Johnson’s association with Suﬀolk
has been longstanding. He earned
both undergraduate and graduate
degrees from Suﬀolk and has been a member
of Suﬀolk’s Board of Trustees since 1994.
Johnson serves on several Trustee Committees
including the Sawyer Business School; where
he is Vice Chair. An entrepreneur, Johnson
founded Yankee Marketers, a foodservice
broker in Middleton, Massachusetts in 1971.
In honor of the Centennial year, Johnson
merged his love for entrepreneurship with his
love for Suﬀolk by establishing the J. Robert
Johnson and Sandra Johnson Centennial
Scholarship. This scholarship will beneﬁt an
undergraduate student in the Sawyer Business
School who has an interest in entrepreneurship.

The Johnsons are underwriting an initiative
critical to Suﬀolk’s success in providing
student ﬁnancial aid. Their gift will help a
student meet and exceed his or her highest
expectations and will help Suﬀolk recruit and
retain the best students.

J. Robert
Johnson

BSBA ’63, MBA ’68,

Founder/President, Yankee Marketers

“I believe strongly in the mission of Suﬀolk
University and in Dean O’Neill’s vision for the
Sawyer Business School and his commitment
to entrepreneurial studies. I wanted to give
someone an opportunity to earn a college
degree; someone who might not have had an
opportunity without this scholarship. Giving
back is the greatest gift of all.”
Find out how you can help future generations
of Suﬀolk alumni. Contact Matthew K. Eynon,
Assistant Vice President for Advancement,
Suﬀolk University 617.305.1908 or via email:
meynon@suﬀolk.edu

Giving to Suffolk
Summer 2006 ~ Suffolk Business Alumni Magazine

37

Calendar of Events 2006

August

August 20 - Sunday

6th Annual Alumni Night at
the Lowell Spinners

Lowell Spinners vs.
Tri City Valley Cats

3:30pm buﬀet at the Gator Pit
5:00pm game
LaLacheur Park; Lowell, MA
Contact: pweafer@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617.994.4231

September

September 10 - Sunday
3rd Annual Executive MBA
Family Clambake

Steep Hill Beach on the Crane Estate
Ipswich, MA
Contact: Priscilla Rosati
prosati@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617.573.8660

September 14 - Thursday

Washington, DC Alumni Chapter

Boston Red Sox vs. Baltimore
Orioles

Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD
7:05 p.m. Game
Contact: pweafer@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617.994.4231

September 15 - Friday
Global Consumer Cultures
Academic Conference

October

October 6 - Friday
Cape Cod Breakfast Series

Featuring: John Nucci, VP of
Government and Community Aﬀairs,
Suﬀolk University
Contact: aponte@suﬀolk.edu

October 12 - Thursday
BSBA Alumni and Student
Networking Event

6:00pm Omni Parker House Hotel
60 School Street, Boston
Contact: tmalione@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617. 573.8631

October 20 - Friday
MBA Networking Reception for MBA
Alumni & Current MBA Students
7:45pm, Omni Parker House Hotel
60 School Street, Boston
Contact: pweafer@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617. 994.4231

October 26 - Thursday
Emerging Economies Lecture
and Cultural Extravaganza
Series featuring Doing
Business in Brazil

4:30pm - 6:00pm
Contact: tmalione@suﬀolk.edu

November

November 2 - Thursday

Sponsored by the Marketing Department Emerging Economies Lecture and
Contact: anders.bengtsson@suﬀolk.edu Cultural Extravaganza Series

September 17 - Sunday
8th Annual 5K Road Race and
Family Walk
Hatch Memorial Shell
Storrow Drive, Boston, MA
Contact: pweafer@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617. 994.4231

featuring Doing Business in India

4:30pm - 6:00pm
Panel Discussion and Cultural
Celebration
Contact: tmalione@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617.573.8631

September 21 - Thursday
Suﬀolk University Centennial
Convocation and Birthday
Celebration - Boston Common
Contact: Oﬃce of Public Aﬀairs at:
celebration2006@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 866.882.2006

Centennial Open House:
The Business School Today

2:00pm, 73 Tremont St, 12th ﬂoor,
contact: tmalione@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617.573.8631

September 29 - Friday
State and Local Government
MPA Alumni Luncheon
Featuring Sal Di Masi,
Speaker of the Massachusetts
House of Representatives
Contact: mlavin@suﬀolk.edu

8 Ashburton Place
Boston, Massachusetts
02108-2770

November 9 - Thursday

Center for Innovation and Change
Leadership presents
Innovation and Speed-To-Market in
Design Driven Industries
8:00am – 11:30am (with breakfast)
Contact: abiernat@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617.557.1505

November 10 - Friday
New Product Awards Reception

6:00pm – 9:00pm
Contact: tmalione@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617. 573.8631

November 16 – Thursday

Center for Global Business
& Ethics Sponsors:

ETHICS & GOVERNANCE
ENFORCEMENT:
Implications for Domestic and
Global Business

Moderated by: Derek Meisner,
Partner, Kirkpatrick and Lockhart, LLP
11:30am - 2:00pm
Sargent Hall, 120 Tremont Street
Contact: prosati@suﬀolk.edu

December

December 2 - Saturday
4th Annual Alumni Bus Trip
to New York City

(with Greater New York City Alumni
Chapter)

Along with the musical Mary Poppins
and brunch at Sports Club LA, Rockfeller
Center, New York City, New York
Contact: pweafer@suﬀolk.edu or
phone 617.994.4231

www.suﬀolk.edu/business
for more events!