How backyard gardeners are battling food insecurity. p. 14
Why transparency leads to stronger governments. p. 26
Divulging your salary is taboo, but maybe it shouldn’t be. p. 30
Alumni experts offer tips on how to navigate big data and AI. p. 20
The city has become one of the fastest-growing financial centers in the world, and McDonough aims to grow along with it.
Why global is no longer just a mindset at Georgetown.
If you ask Paul Almeida, dean and William R. Berkley Chair, about the one place he would choose to teach global business, his answer is still Washington, D.C. But he quickly follows this question with one of his own—one that has led to the recent international expansion of the Executive MBA program: Why do we have to choose only one place in the world to teach global business?
His short answer? You don’t. Here, Almeida shares his thoughts on why Georgetown is embarking on a new global program in one of the top business hubs in the world: Dubai.
McDonough has been a leader in global business education for many years now, but from Washington, D.C. Why is now the right time to launch a degree abroad? Washington, D.C., will remain central to the global stage, but business has been changed immensely by the rise of new economic strength and entrepreneurial ventures in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. There is no city that greater exemplifies the dynamism of new business more than Dubai. We are witnessing a convergence of new economic and business opportunities in emerging markets across the world, and as a leader in international education, it is our responsibility to prepare our students to understand the changing landscape as it exists today, and in the future.
What is your vision for EMBA Dubai?
Our Executive MBA in Dubai will be a wonderful complement to our Washington-based programs and will become
a bridge between two worlds: the established, powerful presence of Western business in the United States and the rising, innovative, and entrepreneurial approach to business in the Middle East.
Grounded in our Jesuit tradition and a commitment to academic excellence, we will continue to provide the rigorous instruction and rich experiential learning opportunities that Georgetown is known for, while offering an in-depth look at global business in a different and dynamic part of the world. Our Executive MBA in Dubai will allow us to offer programs to executive students in the region who seek to become business leaders with purpose. And, by sharing faculty with our D.C.-based programs, we will extend our expertise by understanding business in a new and emerging set of economies. Dubai offers enormous potential for new interdisciplinary programs and research, as well as significant alumni engagement opportunities abroad.
How does this program reinforce our mission as a Jesuit institution?
Our history as a Jesuit university is rooted in global curiosity and discovery. The Executive MBA in Dubai is another stepping stone on a long journey set forth by our founders, who believed in the spirit of exploration, of intellectual inquiry, and of intercultural understanding. It is through new global opportunities, such as this one, that we advance our mission of global entrepreneurialism and continue to enrich who we are as a Jesuit educational institution.
SPRING 2023
COVER STORY | 20
The New World of Work
Alumni experts offer tips on how to navigate big data and AI.
FEATURE | 26
In The Clear
Why transparency leads to stronger governments.
FEATURE | 14 >
“
It ’s not about me or my team necessarily. It’s about the people we’re serving. It just creates a very different motivation for what we’re doing, and for me, that’s been huge.”
PATHS | 06 Landing the Interview: You Belong
Beyond Business: Purpose and Passion
Six Degress: Giving Back by Paying Forward Pitch Deck: Taking Our Shot
Dean, William R. Berkley Chair
Paul Almeida
Associate Dean, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
Teresa Mannix
Director of Marketing and Communications
Samantha Krause
Director of Alumni Relations
Lauren Apicella
Creative Direction 2communiqué
INNOVATIONS | 10 Buying / Selling: How Do We Build From Here? Making the Case: Joining Forces
The Edge: Bright Ideas for Emerging Markets
Career Up: Major Flex
Editorial Direction Dog Ear Creative
Staff Writers
Rachel Ellis
Abby Sharpe
Georgetown Business welcomes inquiries, opinions, and comments from its readers. Please send an email to GeorgetownBusiness@ georgetown.edu.
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My First Job: Fork in the Road My Feed: Courage, Quest, and Love Class Notes
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As the world navigated ongoing disruptions from the pandemic, the preservation of McDonough’s renowned community was paramount—a mission Kerry Pace, associate dean of MBA programs, and her team took to heart. Their operation was clear: leverage the power of the Georgetown community to boost morale and care for one another in mind, body, and spirit. Cura personalis became the guiding principle. Within weeks, the team launched a series of activities to help students reconnect to the community. McDonough soon opened the programs to all students, faculty, staff, and alumni, welcoming hundreds of Hoyas to tune in for sessions to laugh with comedians, learn how to cook mindfully, discover the power of sleep, or to share their gratitude virtually.
Business for Impact honored its founder and professor emeritus Bill Novelli as the inaugural recipient of the Purpose Pioneer Award for over 50 years of game-changing leadership in corporate purpose, environmental sustainability, and social impact.
Novelli founded the initiative in 2011 and paved the way for many years of purpose-driven and interdisciplinary work in social impact, advancing their mission of leveraging the power of business to benefit the common good. During his tenure at Business for Impact, the initiative developed partnerships with numerous business, government, and nonprofit leaders; launched innovative courses and programs grounded in principled leadership and social impact; and advanced important discussions on the world’s most critical issues, including sustainability, inclusive and equitable hiring, healthcare, and social justice.
The mission now continues from campus. “I hope all students feel they have been transformed when they leave Georgetown,” said Pace. “They gained business concepts and skills, but they also became better people through our community. That is the spirit of Georgetown, and that is the ethos of what we’re hoping to accomplish through Operation: Cura Personalis.”
Undergraduate students interested in the intersection between international culture and business affairs can now pursue a joint degree in International Business, Language, and Culture, offered in partnership with Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and the College of Arts & Sciences. Participants gain deep expertise in a specific region to explore how language and culture can affect change and innovation in the world through the lens of pressing global issues such as inequality, labor and human dignity, and issues related to technology, ethics, and the environment.
The Steers Center for Global Real Estate convened leading environmental, financial, and governmental stakeholders to discuss the issue of flooding and rising sea levels as it pertains to the future of real estate infrastructure in the Washington, D.C., area. The event featured a flash flood simulation to showcase the physical and social implications of climate disasters in D.C. neighborhoods, focused primarily on vulnerable citizens and critical citywide services.
Georgetown McDonough established a new Executive MBA (EMBA) in Dubai to help senior decision makers and executives advance their international business capabilities and gain a deeper understanding of how to lead public or private organizations in the in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, and beyond.
Building on the success of Georgetown’s prestigious EMBA in Washington, D.C., the program will be taught by McDonough faculty in monthly class weekends over the course of 20 months. Students also will have the opportunity to engage in week-long residencies in both Washington, D.C., and in Dubai, in addition to ongoing networking opportunities and exposure to senior leaders, lifelong learning offerings, career coaching and mentorship support, and alumni engagement.
Participants discussed how resources could be prioritized to mitigate risks and how various stakeholders can work together to proactively identify solutions to impending climate challenges in the region.
“ The leg acy that I have left at Georgetown, I believe, is on students who have been very successful in their own lives and who were influenced by my courses while they were students.”Dean Paul Almeida and Vice Dean Prashant Malaviya at the DIFC Academy, the location of the new EMBA Dubai program.
—ANNETTE SHELBY, GEORGETOWN MCDONOUGH’S FIRST TENURED FEMALE PROFESSOR AND FEMALE EMERITA PROFESSOR, WHO RECENTLY DONATED $4 MILLION TO FUND THE ANNETTE N. SHELBY ENDOWED CHAIR IN BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION
Mackenzie Meadows (MiM’23) speaks with Shanita “Shani” Wilkins (EML’18), the chief diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) officer for the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Inspector General.
Behind Shanita “Shani” Wilkins’ impressive title is the tale of an impressive life. Having grown up on a family farm selling fruits and vegetables roadside and an immense love for dance and choreography, the horticulturalist-turned-executive once dreamt of a career as a dance choreographer. However, her mother and grandmother recognized and nurtured her budding leadership qualities, preparing her for her first job, at the age of 16, with the Secret Service.
After spending 28 years with the Secret Service, eventually serving as the acquisition program manager for the Technical Security Division, Wilkins briefly worked for the National Football League before joining the DOJ to actualize her passion for DEIA.
“People have their own definition of DEIA, and it revolves primarily around
race,” Wilkins says. “However it includes not only recognizing racial differences, but also other aspects of these individuals—their physical abilities, thought processes, and backgrounds. Really the whole person and what they bring to the community that may not be considered in spaces.”
She draws her passion from her own childhood experience, not as an African American girl, but as a girl born with an underdeveloped ear. The difference in size was so prominent, she says, people often stopped, stared, and asked questions.
“Everyone at some point in their lives has felt like they didn’t belong, or didn’t matter, or weren’t accepted for who they really are,” she says. “It wasn’t until I went to school that I was confronted with feeling inadequate, not accepted, and not a part of a group. I recall how distanced that made me feel. How horrible it was to be othered,” Wilkins explains.
“It wasn’t until middle school that my hair grew long enough to cover my ear. And even though it did, I always felt like an imposter. I never ever forgot that. It would be awesome to say that the story of discrimination ended there, but those experiences were just replaced with being treated differently as an African American woman.”
Wilkins’ work focuses on how people are treated in organizations and how to institutionally repair justice. Her role includes providing resources and education to the community workforce and examining the systems that define the organization’s culture.
“My job is to expose that tendency of not examining your mindset and behavior. To get people to look beyond themselves and see people for who they are,” she says. “It’s my responsibility to provide training, resources, and dialogue to facilitate those thought changes. And to assess practices, systems, and culture that perpetuate the same notion. No one should have to work twice as hard to get what is available to everyone. They shouldn’t have to feel left out of opportunities or feel like they can’t contribute because of a difference they have.”
As chief diversity officers increasingly are becoming members of the leadership within institutions, Wilkins also looks back to her dancing days and the importance of the choreography of DEIA as the position and its responsibilities evolve and grow.
“My work incorporates people of different walks of life, experiences, and personalities, just as a dance choreographer utilizes dancers of varying sizes, abilities, and talent to present a dance of diversity that still works in unison,” she says.
“Building an organizational culture of community where people feel valued, supported, respected, and whole is the overarching goal of CDOs,” she adds. “Creating an environment where justice prevails gives everyone a chance to be successful. The little girl who didn’t feel accepted or valued, and felt like she didn’t belong, is here to make significant changes to turn that around, one organization at a time.”
Bacterial infectious diseases remain a leading global cause of death and a significant driver of antimicrobial resistance. Vaxcyte is a clinical-stage vaccine innovation company focused on creating high-fidelity vaccines that prevent or treat some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases.
We are re-engineering how highly complex vaccines are made using our proprietary cell-free protein synthesis platform. Our lead candidate, VAX-24, received FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the treatment of invasive pneumococcal disease in adults. We believe VAX-24 has the potential to deliver broader coverage and better immune responses than available vaccines in both adults and children.
With a global mission to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases, our pre-clinical pipeline also includes a vaccine for Group A Strep, and a therapeutic vaccine for periodontitis. Vaxcyte is driven to eradicate or treat invasive bacterial infections, which have serious and costly health consequences when left unchecked.
— GRANT PICKERING (MBA’97) FOUNDER AND CEO OF VAXCYTE
Michael O’Neil is making healthcare more accessible and personalized for all.
When Michael O’Neil (MBA/JD’02) embarked on his dual degree journey at Georgetown University in 1997, he never imagined his time in between attending classes would be spent undergoing hours of surgeries and intensive chemotherapy treatment in a hospital oncology unit.“It turns out that I had an orange-sized tumor in my stomach. It ended up being non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,” says O’Neil.
After spending the third of his four-year joint degree program buckled over in class with pain in his abdomen and lower back, O’Neil finally had an answer, even if it was a life-altering one.
The diagnosis changed everything— including putting him on a new career path—that brought a whole new meaning to what he now calls “values-based leadership and purpose-driven work.”
“I had a year of school left with a bald head and was about 15 pounds lighter from chemotherapy. My professors at Georgetown were incredible in both their flexibility and graciousness. They allowed me to get healthy and really steer my last year at Georgetown into building a business plan for a company called GetWellNetwork, which I founded and still run today.”
Now called Get Well, that business is a global digital health company focused on “enterprise, experience, navigation, and retention.” The company provides digital patient engagement technology for large healthcare organizations, health systems, hospitals, and insurance professionals. According to O’Neil, the idea is to deploy consumer-facing digital tools that help these institutions deliver personalized care for all—meeting the expectations of patients as healthcare consumers, while supporting care teams.
“We think about it as digital intimacy. How do you use technology to make every patient you’re dealing with feel like they have a nurse or patient navigator in their pocket? We do that on behalf of large, complicated organizations that are serving millions of people. We help make the care personalized for their patients and members,” he explains.
While the company has achieved major milestones over the years, and millions of lives have been impacted, O’Neil says there’s still a lifetime of work to be done. He says knowing this keeps him motivated—every single day.
“When you have an opportunity to take on projects of purpose—fueled by people of passion—it is quite the reason to stay up late and get up early.”
— RACHEL ELLISGeorgetown has figured prominently throughout the career of Mannone Butler (B’94, L’99), head of programs and partnerships for the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition. Her focus has been anchored in helping people find and exercise their voice through her time as an attorney to advocating for community development and social justice to celebrating Georgetown’s diverse alumni community.
Alta Consulting a women-owned practice focused on issues related to housing, community development, healthcare, and social justice
Myrna Peralta (L’88) Co-Principal and President
“I was a Georgetown University Street Law Clinic, Street Law Fellow.”
The Law Offices of Curtis T. White, P.C.
“a masterful telecommunications lawyer who is a leader in the field.”
an independent D.C. government agency
“I served as executive director for more than a decade.”
“Myrna and business partner, Diane Lewis, opened the door for me to work on key issues impacting our communities across the country.”
“I enjoy being a resource for and learning from students, and have remained connected with students.”
Elizabeth Nalunga (F’19, L’23) and Jada Farrar (F’24)
Charisma Howell (L’11) Street Law Director
“I am supported by nurturing friendships with such Hoyas as”
Fonda Sutton (F’87, L’95, EML’15), Kaya Henderson (F’92, EML’07, H’12), Natalie Gordon (EML’13), Josephine Bias Robinson (F’91), Muriel Wilkins (B’92), Samantha Caruth (I’92), Pamela Lipp-Hendricks (C’92)
“all of whom have impacted my life and the way I work and the way I am able to thrive.”
African American Advisory Board (Chair), Georgetown University Board of Governors (member), Attorney Advisory Board (member), GULC’s Initiative on Gender Justice and Opportunity (member), Black Alumni Summit (co-chair 2019 and 2022), Black Alumni Council (inaugural chair)
“I serve with other business school alumni such as”
Keith Dent (B’89)
Chris Perkins (B’94)
Willie Tate (B’94)
Eric Woods (B’91)
As the world of real estate is reimagined, Professor Matthew L. Cypher outlines how structures and raw materials drive economic growth and why real estate professionals are adopting a new approach in a changing marketplace.
Matthew L. Cypher brings 20 years of real estate experience to to the McDonough School of Business as the director of the Steers Center for Global Real Estate. In this role, Cypher is committed to engaging with emerging issues in real estate and is passionate about educating students and other industry professionals on the latest trends, innovations, and opportunities for advancement within the industry.
In a dynamic industry like real estate—where market conditions are driving change at an extraordinary rate—there is a strong need for a relevant real estate education grounded in both rigorous academic coursework and experiential learning. That’s what compelled Cypher to develop the new M.S. in Global Real Assets program, which takes a holistic approach to real estate and infrastructure within the context of environmental, social, and governmental (ESG) concerns.
Here Cypher shares his thoughts on the changing real estate landscape and why now is the time to expand existing real estate concepts through the adoption of real assets.
BUYING:
Real Assets—Investing in the Future of the Built Environment. Global investors are using a broader definition of alternative investments that includes not only real estate, but infrastructure and energy-oriented assets. Real assets tend to perform better during periods of unexpected inflation while offering diversification and better riskadjusted returns, with lower volatility.
When we talk about real assets, we talk about the physical structures and raw materials that drive economic growth. The industry needs professionals who look beyond the concept of traditional real estate to include infrastructure assets such as digital, social, and transportation. In fact, there are emerging career opportunities at leading real estate firms focused on adapting these very concepts into their operations.
Real assets contribute a significant amount of global greenhouse gas emissions and by their definition, have a significant influence on the way people live—both good and bad. These ESG implications will continue to increase in importance over time, and we believe that aspects of ESG will improve investment performance.
SELLING:
Real Estate as a Narrow Definition. Investing in today’s environment has become more complex as issues of rising interest rates, inflation, COVID-19, and ESG dominate the daily headlines. Investors once narrowly considered commercial real estate investments to be office, industrial, apartment, and retail buildings, but the asset class has meaningfully expanded due to a dramatic shift in how commercial real estate is utilized in a world where individuals work from home, investors find value in sustainable business practices, and communities seek a more holistic approach to their infrastructure.
Infrastructure assets such as digital and social facilitate cloud computing and address the need for affordable housing, respectively, which factor very prominently in what is sought by global investors today, and this is just an illustration.
While a flashpoint in the media today, aspects of ESG will result in outperformance for those investors who can identify what will drive value. Institutional investors want to know how you are managing ESG-centered risks within your real assets portfolio and innovators will be the beneficiaries of more capital flows.
As a private company charged by the government with regulating 624,000 brokers and billions of investments, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has its organizational hands full. In an effort to help—and to take advantage of their data, analytics, machine learning, and predictive modeling expertise—McDonough’s Custom Executive Education team worked with analytics professors Sudipta Dasmohapatra and Greg Lyon to build an eight-week immersive program in partnership with the authority as a way of exploring new models of operations, and how best to use data and analytics to solve real issues at the nonprofit.
We caught up with three FINRA employees and participants in the program and asked about their capstone project for the course.
The Problem: Das’ group reviews about 65,000 to 70,000 communications a year submitted by member firms. They then apply any FINRA or SEC rules to those communications. Das and fellow FINRA employees had the idea to use AI to create a risk assessment tool that can look at communications filed with the department to try and identify higher risk communications using data
from decisions that had been made in the past. That model, however, couldn’t identify why communications were problematic.
The Solution: In the Georgetown program, Das and his team wanted to take the FINRA model a step further. They built a model with “sentence-level classification,” essentially a tool that will crunch communications coming in and identify the problematic sentences or language. The accuracy rate, Das points out, is still not where he needs it to be, so he and his team will continue to refine.
The Problem: Manual risk assessments take time and are exacerbated by a lack of transparency across business units, as well as a systematic prioritization of reviews.
The Solution: Niamke’s group included individuals from technology, market regulation, and operations. The goal was to integrate information from disparate FINRA systems (alerts, risk scores, investigations) to highlight the risk of a firm sooner and more broadly across the organization. The benefits include prioritized reviews of firms that warrant immediate focus, bringing more timely impactful cases to enforcement partners and the SEC.
Christian Collard, Senior Principal Investigator, Member Supervision, Special Investigations Unit
The Problem: Identifying retail-investor suitability and best-interest concerns, and proving actual violations by stockbrokers, is a complex and time-consuming task. Existing conventions (e.g. 20% cost to equity and 6% turnover) are dated and overly prescriptive.
The Solution: Collard and his team worked to study and develop an academic basis for establishing risk metrics and defining suitability/best-interest parameters, which then informed traditional risk-monitoring tools, surveillance models, and exploratory data analysis tools. The flexibility in the model allows them to be more inclusive and accurate in their identifications.
Career resilience is the ability to adapt to challenges and changes in your professional journey by tapping into your strengths and available resources. Like a muscle, your resilience gets stronger with practice. Kerry Kidwell-Slak, director of career curricula and communications at the McDonough Career Center, offers these training tips:
Be curious and continue to learn new things about yourself, your industry, and emerging trends. You have tremendous potential to acquire additional knowledge and skills.
ENERGIZE YOUR NETWORK
Take advantage of opportunities like mentoring and advisory boards to meet new people. Intentionally build mutually beneficial relationships so you have voices to call on when considering future career moves.
TAKE TIME TO REFLECT
True to Georgetown’s Jesuit heritage, reflection on past actions, feelings, challenges, and successes is a foundational element of resilience. By examining what has gone well and where you can use insight, future steps become clearer.
Amrita Kundu, assistant professor of operations and information management, explores how after-sales service increases overall customer satisfaction and helps drive technology adoption in emerging markets.
Your research examines the significance of after-sales service implementation on technology adoption in developing countries. What are your key takeaways?
Part of my research looks at how the private sector can be brought into social and environmental development in emerging markets. The research findings, which focus on service wait times for first-time users and their impact on the adoption of solar home systems in off-grid communities in Uganda, suggest that customer acquisition is not enough—especially when you are thinking about providing life-saving or technologically advanced devices in emerging markets.
Your research targets the off-grid solar market in Uganda. What can environmental and policy experts learn from studying this part of the world? Technologies that seem to have very clear economic benefits in developing countries often are not adopted at the rate one might expect them to be. When it comes to solar home systems and thinking about people living in the dark in Africa where there isn’t an electrical grid, the focus has been on spreading awareness: telling people about the technology; making them understand its value; or providing subsidies to be able to afford it. However, our research shows good after-sales support is extremely important to increase customers’ confidence in the technology, and for its continued use by existing users and uptake by new adopters. Policymakers should take note of the role of good after-sales service and develop and support service providers in these regions to increase the rate or adoption of novel technology.
What were some aspects of your research that surprised you?
These are complex products that break often, so it was strange that companies and investors have been focused on customer acquisition with less effort ensuring the products are actually working and satisfying customers. When there is positive word of mouth following an after-sales service, your customer acquisition will come naturally, and nearly free of cost.
Each year, an estimated 54 million Americans will face food insecurity. It’s a massive problem expected to get worse, but Naomi Hansen and her team at Fresh Food Connect have found a source that might contribute to the solution— backyard gardens.
BY MAUREEN HARMON PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIFFANY LUONGAS NAOMI HANSEN (B’95) BEGAN TO CLIMB THE CAREER LADDER AT DOLE PACKAGED Foods, she became increasingly disenchanted. She had been with the company for a few years, and had moved up through the marketing and management ranks to become head of innovation at Dole, which to her, meant thinking critically about the future of food: how will the food system adapt to and address water shortages, nutrition, and food insecurity? At trade shows, however, Hansen saw a different definition of “innovation” on display.
“A lot of it was people coming up with the latest niche-y snack treat and thinking about how quickly they could exit and sell it to Kraft.” Hansen kept coming back to a lesson of her Georgetown education: “One thing I took away from Georgetown was the real emphasis on service, and I always circled back to that and would ask myself, ‘what are we really contributing?’”
When Dole reshuffled during the pandemic, she found herself asking bigger questions about her next career step. “Is it meaningful,” she thought, “for me to go back and put more packaged, processed goods on the shelf?” So Hansen decided to step back from the corporate world and explore other areas of the food industry. “One of the things I felt strongly about—and still feel strongly about—is the importance of local food as part of the solution to food insecurity,” she says.
Her first move was to found a consultancy aimed at supporting companies and individuals trying to create change in the food system. That consultancy work led her to a marketing position with Planetary CARE, a regenerative agriculture startup, and later Fresh Food Connect, a startup that focuses on addressing food insecurity by making it possible for frontline hunger relief organizations to access homegrown food from local gardeners. Her job as director of marketing: tell the story of the company and help it grow to more and more gardeners and partners across the United States.
THE BACKYARD OF HEATHER AND TERRANCE GRADY’S HOME IN DENVER, Colorado, used to be a parking lot. After years of reimagining it, leveling it, and prepping it, they created a more natural space in their urban area—a true backyard where they had hoped to build six raised garden beds to grow their own food in the heart of the city. It was a smart plan for the two-person household: By making the most of their backyard farm, they would save water that others might use to keep a pristine lawn. It also was important to them to know exactly where their food was coming from—about 200 feet beyond their back door. When the pandemic hit in 2020, their garden project took on new proportions. The six beds turned to 13, because what better way to spend their
When Dole reshuffled during the pandemic, Naomi Hansen found herself asking bigger questions about her next career step. “Is it meaningful,” she thought, “for me to go back and put more packaged, processed goods on the shelf?”
days at home than growing tomatoes and cucumbers?
A problem with their plan, however, soon sprouted: two people (and frankly, all their friends, family, and neighbors) couldn’t possibly consume all the food that was bursting from the beds. So Heather began to dig around to find the best places to send her backyard leftovers. She quickly found one organization, but they were particular in what they would accept, and zucchini was high on the list. But Heather had a lot more than zucchini to put to good use.
Eventually Heather found Denver Food Rescue and read about its partnership with Fresh Food Connect. Suddenly the Grady surplus had a home, and Heather began to grow produce she never had before (tomatillos for example), because she knew they were important to the community that was consuming them. All Heather had to do was harvest her food, log on, schedule a pick-up, leave her extra produce on the porch, and know that she was helping to feed her community simply by doing something she had come to love.
Finding people like Heather and Terrance Grady isn’t very difficult—seed sales soared when the pandemic hit and gardeners, from novice to expert, turned to their backyards and community gardens amid food-shortage fears. “The Gradys just started out with a small garden, trying to see what they could grow,”
“ One thing I took away from Georgetown was the real emphasis on service, and I always circled back to that and would ask myself, ‘what are we really contributing?’”
says Hansen. “Knowing they had a place to put all the extra produce was a really motivating factor for them to grow even more. And they’ve converted their whole backyard into a giant garden.”
The Gradys eat a small fraction of what they produce, and it allows them to grow additional crops with intention. “I think the beautiful thing is they’re moving more toward growing culturally relevant foods for their community,” says Hansen. And that, ultimately, is what makes Fresh Food Connect different from other organizations working to address hunger and food insecurity: creating deeper connections within communities.
While local gardeners like the Gradys are ready and willing to help, the picture gets more complicated because local
hunger relief providers (often run by just a handful of community volunteers) don’t have the capacity to coordinate donations from many individual gardeners. It’s also difficult for food pantries to gain access to fresh, local produce. Hansen works to make the impact, value, and simplicity of the app clear to everyone involved.
“We’re working with on-the-ground people who have a small office and do distribution maybe once or twice a week. We’re also working with backyard gardeners, who might have a pint of tomatoes, or 10 cucumbers,” says Hansen. On an individual level, 10 cucumbers may not make a dent in a community’s food problem— and may not be worth the effort of a food rescue to accept. “But when you apply technology, it becomes scalable and easier to coordinate 10, 20, 50 gardeners from
your neighborhood to bring excess food to their local food rescue, and you can make a larger impact.”
Suddenly those 10 cucumbers have grown to 100, 200, or 500 cukes—and those numbers make a big difference to those organizations and the people using their services. “That’s the beauty of it,” says Hansen. “We’re creating local food systems, but because we’re web-based, it’s scalable, and we can distribute that process throughout the country.”
FRESH FOOD CONNECT WAS IN THE WORKS BEFORE COVID HIT, AS THEY DEVELOPED and implemented the app, but the app’s launch came just in time for the pandemic and rising food needs. The organization—which measures time in gardening seasons—has just wrapped
its second season, and in that small amount of time, Fresh Food Connect has branched beyond their headquarters in Denver to reach 28 states. In 2022 alone, partner organizations have distributed over 75,000 pounds of homegrown produce, the equivalent of $350,000 in grocery sales. They’ve supported 58,000 meals to more than 45,000 people across the country.
What’s more is that wasted food contributes to climate change through the production and transportation of food that just ends up in the garbage. Fresh Food Connect prevented 14.6 tons of greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere through their work in 2022.
Food insecurity has crept further throughout the nation thanks to the COVID pandemic in 2020 and inflation
in 2022. And the truth is, the problem won’t be abolished anytime soon. According to the USDA, grocery costs are expected to continue to rise. Though not at the pace they had risen through 2022, growing food costs will continue to put more and more people in the United States at risk of becoming food insecure. At the same time, according to Fresh Food Connect, households account for nearly 40% of food waste—more than stores, restaurants, and farms. For Hansen and her fellow workers, the answer for the future is obvious. Continue to develop ways to get excess fresh, local food into the hands of people who need it.
It’s service at its core—and what gives Hansen purpose in her work these days. But ultimately what she saw in the corporate world was companies
finding purpose in selling themselves or their products. Her nonprofit work is much different. “It’s not about me or my team necessarily,” says Hansen. “It’s about the people we’re serving. It just creates a very different motivation for what we’re doing, and for me, that’s been huge.”
Sometimes people are paralyzed by the size of the world’s problems—figuring any small move an individual or family can make can’t possibly make a difference. But Hansen will tell you it does. “I think we tend to think: if I can’t change it and fix it, why bother?” she says. “But every little bit helps—whether it’s garden produce or finding a way to help in your community. What I’m learning is that it takes all of us to move the needle.” GB
ALUMNI EXPERTS OFFER TIPS ON NAVIGATING THE TECHNOLOGICAL WAVE OF AI, AUTOMATED PROCESSES, AND BIG DATA THAT IS CHANGING THE WAY WE DO BUSINESS.
BY MAUREEN HARMON | ILLUSTRATION BY MENGXIN LI
Whether you call it AI, data analytics, or big data—it’s all just statistics. “The more you get into things like machine learning and AI, it’s arguably statistical calculation without statistical inference,” says Neil Hamlett (EMBA’11), data analytics team lead for ECS, which provides enterprise data-strategy support to digital transformation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Right now, there’s just a lot of hype about what data can and can’t do. Hamlett uses the hype cycle created by Gartner Consulting to explain: “The premise is that technology-driven business processes go through this maturation process, and that the stages of the hype cycle are a triggering event, which then rises to the peak of inflated expectations, and people start to figure out that there’s a lot of hype, a lot of hokum,” says Hamlett, “and then it’ll slide into the trough of disillusionment. Then it goes up on the slope of enlightenment to a plateau of productivity.”
We are in the inflated expectations phase, he says. Keep in mind—this will eventually level out.
In the meantime, get very acquainted with what you want your data or AI to do, and what it can actually do. AI can’t, for example, think creatively—we still need the human mind for that—and companies using big data can easily run into cost, maintenance, and ethics issues.
In an age of misinformation, data doesn’t lie. There is a catch though: data needs to be focused and refined—if it’s too broad it can be useless or worse, cause you to make bad decisions.
When dealing with big data, be sure you’re hiring people who know the technology well enough to recognize its opportunities and pitfalls, but also someone who understands business strategy operations. In other words, you need someone who not only can read the data, but someone able to advise decisionmakers and understand what sort of organizational and operational reconfigurations need to happen in order to get the greatest value out of the tech.
“Everybody’s going to have to be multidisciplinary,” says Hamlett. “Those are the key connections to be able to understand the opportunities and limitations with any given technology—and to be able to recognize that there are limitations.”
It’s not surprising that colleges and universities—including Georgetown—are adding data analytics majors to their curriculum and data scientists to their faculty. Schools already are educating the next generation that will help businesses bridge the data divide and translate numbers into actionable information.
We used to rely on the nightly news or stock reports to gain insights, but the truth is, some of our information is more available—and more comprehensive—than the news ever can be. “And we can report it much more quickly,” says Kristie Cole (IBP’21), co-founder of FORE, which uses open-source data to to foresee critical trends and equip its partners and clients with actionable insights to support real-time decision making, often in crises like a hurricane evacuation.
What’s more is that in an age of misinformation, data doesn’t lie. There is a catch though: data needs to be focused and refined—if it’s too broad it can be useless or worse, cause you to make bad decisions.
Hamlett and other experts argue that organizations that get value out of big data have figured out what’s important to them and how to measure it effectively. “They’re not getting value out of big data because they’re using more of it,” says Hamlett. They’re getting value, because they’re using the right data. You design the organization and your operations so you get the measurements of what matters, and you understand the limitations of your measurements.”
Another tip from Cole, if you are opting to use big data—or more of it—always compare it to historical data. “If you don’t compare new data to historical data, you may think you’ve made some discovery or uncovered some outlier that doesn’t actually exist.”
Technology isn’t cheap, so be prepared to pony up. It’s not just paper conversion, it’s data security, data architecture, data integrity, system access, and don’t forget the employees or third parties who manage all of it. Remember though, you do have options: “There has definitely been an acceleration in what I call ‘democratizing data information’ because the computer power has tremendously improved,” says Keihan Sedghi (EMBA’97), business process optimization and automation leader at Deloitte Consulting. “The cloud environment and cloud computing was a major contributor.”
FORE’s whole business model depends on open-source data. While they save on the data storage and access, they pay on the automation. It’s all worth it to Cole and her fellow co-founder, Ryan Gillis. “We’re breaking down the barrier to entry for data access,” says Gillis. “The automation is pushing out insights from our platform that enables decision-making in real time. It eliminates that barrier to entry, giving the information that people need in the moment.”
If you pay the right price, you can gain access to incredible data, but it also could be data that the consumer may find a bit unsettling. Think about the time you researched charcoal toothpaste and suddenly ads for the stuff started showing up on your social media news feed—maybe that particular company is a little too entrenched in their consumers’ lives and search bars.
Be sure to establish early on how far you’re willing to go and build policy around your tech ethics— then make that policy public. You run the risk of losing customers if they find your ethics policy wanting, invasive, or nonexistent. “At FORE, we use opensource geolocation data, and we look at it en mass to identify patterns and outliers,” says Cole. FORE takes it one step further by using anonymous data and by passing all their own data-driven decisions through their in-house ethics committee.
For people who have been doing these jobs without new tech for years, this will be a major shift in the way they’ve always operated. Invest in training and resources to show employees the opportunities in digitization and tech. Bring them along for the ride, which creates less fear and makes people feel a part of the process.
“Culture is a big, big issue,” says Sedghi. “Take insurance claims processing, for example. The people who actually used to do the work were very accustomed to paper and holding it physically in their hand. They may not be as comfortable doing anything on the computer because they don’t trust it.”
Ultimately, he says, you’re combatting not just a fear of the tech but an employee’s fear of losing their job—or being left behind for someone who is more tech savvy. “The new generation definitely is a lot more accustomed because that’s how they grew up,” says Segdhi. “They grew up with iPhones and other devices. So for them, change is a lot easier. But for people in their mid-forties and mid-fifties, who are typically senior folks within the organization, there can be more of a struggle to adapt. “But the commercial market dynamic is going to move in that direction anyway,” says Sedghi, “so the workers don’t really have a whole lot of options.”
In short: help them by being transparent and open about your tech goals—and invest in training to make their adaptation faster and easier to manage.
Speaking of fear, businesses will need to help consumers and clients overcome apprehension around AI and automated processes, embracing the fact that these technologies actually allow human workers to do more critical and creative thinking. It also streamlines our processes and allows us to be more efficient, while better understanding our consumers and what they’re looking for.
The biggest bonus: It’s all in real-time and in a secure environment. Think of it as balancing your checkbook, says Sedghi. “You don’t have to go to branches anymore, you do everything online. And the underpinning for that is automation, but it’s also access to reliable and secure data. A few years ago, even if people wanted to do more digital transactions, the technology wasn’t there, security wasn’t there.”
It is today. So it may just be that the fears of your team are carry-overs from five or even 10 years ago—and we’re already living in a different world. It’s new territory, to be sure, and most businesses will be feeling their way through it. But Sedghi, Gillis, Cole, and Hamlett all agree that if you’re aware of its limits and its powers, the future of AI and data will drive more strategic business decisions and stronger organizations. GB
The World Bank’s Stephen Davenport on why transparency is so vital to effective governing— and how to convince corrupt governments to change their ways.
BY DAN MORRELL PORTRAIT BY STEPHEN VOSS
Stephen Davenport (EMBA’06) came to McDonough for his EMBA in 2004, he was mid-career, and he knew he was going to have to balance his economic development work with his studies. The school was aware his work would require travel, but just to be safe, Davenport had Ethiopian government officials fax over letters asking for him to be excused from class, as he was working, at that time, on their behalf. “It had the big Ethiopian star on it and everything,” says Davenport with a laugh. “It was a bit silly. And when they got it, they were like, ‘Steve, you don’t have to ask the government to send us a fax.’”
Davenport’s career had started in IT, but he pivoted early on. “I didn’t want to just make money, so I looked around to see if I could get a job doing IT, but for the public good,” he says. The son of a preacher who spent some of his younger years with his father’s church in Guatemala and summers doing mission work in Haiti, his earlier career focused on the intersection of development and technology, creating software and programs that helped governments track their financial aid.
In his current role as global lead for anticorruption, openness, and transparency at the World Bank, where he has spent the last decade, Davenport currently focuses on the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. “We support countries financially as the World Bank, but we also provide technical assistance—which is know-how,” says Davenport. And those loans are both critical to growth and sizable: One of the loans Davenport is helping the Jordanian government manage is worth about a billion dollars. Another in Nigeria, is $1.5 billion.
When you’re handling amounts like that, Davenport says, you want to make sure it’s going to where it can be most effective. That can require the kind of transparency and accountability that is rare in many parts of the world, and often at odds with the prevailing culture. “That’s the challenge I face every day,” says Davenport. In this conversation, we talk to Davenport about how he approaches that challenge— and why both technology and local context are critical to helping a government work for its citizens.
How widespread is the problem of corruption? And how can you convince corrupt governments to change?
Corruption is everywhere. The United States has plenty of corruption. It’s just not as blatant as you’ll see in, say, Nigeria, where often it is seen as normal practice in governments and the private sector.
In some countries, it’s built in; people think it’s normal to pay a bribe. You almost have to convince our government counterparts that corruption is a bad thing, because they see it every day. Every time they go to a checkpoint, every time they go to school, every time they go to the hospital, they have to pay a little extra for some reason. That’s just the way the system works.
But the World Bank is not in the business of saying we’re not going to work with you because you have these challenges. We have to stick around for the long term across the various political cycles. Nigeria’s a great example: We could say, “You are too corrupt, we cannot provide support.” But then citizens will suffer, situations will get worse, and those situations will destabilize the country and perhaps the region.
So we have to be very sensitive about how we position anticorruption in our own work. One of the best ways to deal with it at the political level is to pressure certain governments by saying, for instance, that you’re ranked 100th out of 250 on corruption on a global index such as the one hosted by Transparency International. How do you improve your standing? And then get senior leadership to commit to certain goals.
In most World Bank lending projects, often we don’t say “anticorruption” explicitly. We say, for instance, that we need to help them be more efficient at what they do. So, if you do these reforms, your hospitals are going to be more efficient, you’re going to get more resources, you’re going to serve patients better, and you’re going to get reelected. Essentially, making the case that it’s good for you to do these things.
The idea of transparency has guided a good portion of your career. What attracted you to that concept and that work?
I was drawn to it because there was such a gap. And then I started exchanging stories with all the transparency experts, and I realized that we share a common interest (laughs). I had something to offer: I was a techie, and they didn’t have many techies. They were talking about how transparency was a good thing, but they didn’t know, practically, what it meant, especially with the benefit of technology.
My primary area of interest was empowering developing countries to make informed decisions for their benefit, not to the benefit of particular bilateral donors. I had grown up helping communities in Haiti, and my father always drilled into me that communities know what they need. And you need to fund what they need, not fund what you think they need. So transparency was a way for the governments to tell donors what they need and for the donors to be transparent about what they’re going to fund.
In his current role as global lead for anticorruption, openness, and transparency at the World Bank, Stephen Davenport focuses on the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. “We support countries financially as the World Bank, but also we provide technical assistance—which is know-how,” says Davenport.
How much of a challenge is a lack of technology to a developing economy’s transparency efforts?
There’s a maturity model at work there. Iraq, for instance, is in difficult times; they just need to get off of paper and into some type of electronic system. It’s very different from Estonia or Albania, where they have a million systems and they’re just trying to get them to work together.
Some of those countries are being transparent, but maybe none of the information is getting used. Your average person doesn’t go and read the budget, right? It’s a 200-page document. Trying to package information and creating channels for citizens to respond and engage is important.
Those responses and engagements are usually around service delivery, like wait times in the hospital or delays in school registration. That’s where it’s important to move from a foundational system like Iraq to a more advanced ecosystem where government is engaging citizens around how well they’re doing and what they need to improve.
I wrote a case study recently on Kaduna State in Nigeria. The government had about eight cars and 10–15 staff to monitor more than 2,000 public projects. They just did not have the manpower. So they made a mobile app and empowered citizens to report on the progress of projects. It showed that the government was listening, that they were being transparent, and that citizens had a serious role to play.
You mentioned your father’s mantra that communities know what they need. And you wrote a few years ago that “sustainable development goals are best achieved, not by a top-down approach, but by starting at the village level and initiatives can move upwards.” How do you effectively engage citizens in these efforts—especially the disenfranchised?
The best example of that is some of the participatory budgeting work that we did in Kenya. Participatory budgeting entails setting aside some money for communities to vote on their own projects. But how do you make sure that participatory budgeting exercises in communities are actually representing all of the people in that community? Because many communities have the same problem: They have a few loud people, they have the elders, they have gender issues in some countries— where women can’t vote and they don’t attend the meetings.
One of the approaches in participatory budgeting—which also is true for any kind of citizen participation—is you need to be multi-channel in your outreach and execution. Can you attend the public events virtually? Do you need to be in person? Are they in the local language? Are they inclusive? And when I say inclusive, you have to make sure statistically that you have gender, religious, age, and ethnic balance. And we try and use technology to ensure that.
For example, in Kenya, sometimes the county elite will not effectively
notify citizens that they’re having a “participatory meeting,” to prevent certain voices from being heard. In Kenyan counties, for instance, only the people that voted for the governor would attend these meetings. Participation alone is not enough. You have to show, statistically, that you have a representative sample of the population. Because if you don’t, only the loudest voices will get the microphone, and that often leads to an unhappy set of stakeholders.
Another important aspect of this work is not to recreate existing channels of communication and decision making. Some of these communities have been around for thousands of years, so you want to make sure whatever you’re doing is connected to the community process that exists and use technology to enhance that.
In this work, it is critical to know where you are, and to understand the cultural issues of the country. These approaches don’t travel very well. If you try to take what you did in Kenya and apply it to Jordan, some aspects of it will work, but there are a lot of variables to consider from a cultural standpoint.
It’s really hard work that is always changing. I am always learning. This is part of the fun. GB
Once a taboo question, Hannah Williams asked it openly and publicly on TikTok in order to transform the national conversation about salary.
From telemarketing to TikTok, Hannah Williams (B’19) has blazed a career following her gut and taking chances. Williams landed a telemarketing job after graduation across the river in Arlington, Virginia. After quickly learning sales wasn’t the right fit, she made her way to data analytics. “I didn’t want to do sales, so I thought let’s see if data is the right fit,” she said. “And sure enough, I ended up liking it.”
Williams found her footing in data analytics working for a small government contractor in Washington, D.C. While she was diving into her new career, she found herself talking more and more about salary. “As soon as I broke into data analytics, recruiters started reaching out to me on LinkedIn.” she said. “I was having conversations frequently about what my salary requirements were, but I didn’t know that you could really negotiate your salary then.” Williams soon accepted a senior data analyst position making $90,000, but through a little market research, Williams realized she was being underpaid by nearly $20,000.
“I should have been making six figures. That was a tough realization for me,” she said. “I thought I was figuring out my career only to find out I was still
being generously underpaid because I didn’t know what the salary should have been.” With her new knowledge, Williams found a job that paid her what her research supported—but that experience stuck with her. “I thought, let me start talking about this on TikTok. I’m seeing more people talking about their careers and I’ve learned a lot, so let me share it,” she said. Williams went viral in a flash and garnered a supportive following on the platform.
With a captive audience and a relatable topic, Williams founded Salary Transparent Street in April 2022. She walked the streets of Georgetown asking people what they do and how much money they make. After the first few videos of Salary Transparent Street had millions of views, Williams knew she had a unique opportunity on her hands.
“It was just so groundbreaking that they were all going viral. We were immediately getting press requests from the Washington Post and BBC,” she said. “I was thinking—I may have this moment, and if I don’t go all in right now, that moment might pass me.”
Williams left her full-time job and took a shot on Salary Transparent Street. With over one million followers on TikTok, Williams has transformed the conversation about salary across
the country. Originally starting on the streets of Georgetown, Salary Transparent Street will reach all 50 states by the end of 2023.
Although Williams started her career underpaid and uncertain, she has carved a path she only dreamed of as a student. “I was hugely involved with Georgetown Entrepreneurship, and it was my dream to have my own business and to be my own CEO,” she said. “When I graduated, that didn’t happen for me, but I never really gave up on the idea.”
By taking a chance, following the opportunities, and trusting herself, Williams has found success in more ways than one. “The work we do is actually helping people change their lives, make more money, and find careers that fulfill them and empower them,” she said. “I can’t ask for more impact than that. It’s a dream come true for me.”
Williams took advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow as she kept her eyes on her entrepreneurial aspirations. “When I was failing early in my career, I thought it was the end of the world—but I learned failure is something to be embraced,” she said. “Failure is the best place to be if you are looking to grow.”
—ABBY SHARPE
Hannah Williams founded Salary Transparent Street, a TikTok sensation with more than one million followers.
BSBA
1989
Eric Christ of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, is chief product officer at Inclusivv, an early-stage company that helps organizations have conversations that matter.
1991
Kelly Mariotti (L’94) was named president and CEO of The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM). She joins AHAM with extensive trade association management experience and expertise in consumer durable goods.
1998
Christine Smoragiewicz has been promoted to partner at MPE Partners, a Cleveland- and Boston-based private equity firm. Since joining the team in 2021, Smoragiewicz has served as the firm’s CFO and CCO and has successfully transitioned MPE’s finance and compliance operations from a shared services model to the firm’s first dedicated in-house team.
2006
Surabhi Mathur Visser has been appointed chief investment officer at GuarantCo Management Company. Visser joined GuarantCo from Mirova SunFunder, based in Nairobi, where she led the investments team from June 2019, first as head of investments and then as CIO.
2010
Justin Chen, a private equity partner at Francisco Partners (FP), was named to the GrowthCap Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors of 2022 list. GrowthCap selected awardees based on the depth of deal experience, ability to help scale companies, collaborative work style, and progression towards firm and industry leadership roles. This year, Chen led FP’s carveout of bSwift from CVS Health and co-led the firm’s acquisition of Watson Health assets from IBM to create a standalone health tech company, Merative. He also was a key team member of FP’s award-winning sale of Capsule Technologies to Royal Philips.
2017
Rachel Dansky was named to the 2022 first-year associate class of Faegre Drinker. With more than 1,200 attorneys, consultants, and professionals in 21 locations across the United States, London, and Shanghai, Faegre Drinker provides transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government advocacy services to organizations ranging from emerging enterprises to multinational companies.
MBA
1987
Harvey M. Chimoff is the author of the book Strategy First, Then Tactics: How Practical Marketing Discipline Provides the Winning Edge.
1991
Mary Jean Duran and Layla Kashani launched the “Is It Just Me Podcast with Layla K and MJ” in 2021. The lighthearted yet informative podcast covers just about any topic and asks, “Is it just me?” Episode topics have ranged from IPOs and supply chain issues to top ideas for the new year. A recent episode, “Overrated”, included special guest Neville Waters in what they describe as a “very fun 20-minute ‘all Hoya’ romp through pop culture!” Find the episode at: IsItJustMe.libsyn. com/overrated.
1992
Alma Derricks has joined Korn Ferry as a senior client partner in the consulting business, having most recently worked at a brand entrepreneurship firm she founded.
1996
Sally Yiping Shi was honored as one of the 12 Outstanding Asian American Women by the China Institute in San Francisco, California.
1997
Greg Adams is among five individuals recently elected to the Board of Trustees at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. Adams is senior vice president, finance, risk management, and treasurer of FuelCell Energy, a clean energy company focused on decarbonizing power and making hydrogen.
2000
Matthew Hudson has been appointed managing director of the Business Services Group at Houlihan Lokey, a global investment bank. He previously served as managing director and head of rental services investment banking at Oppenheimer & Co.
2005
Sidd Manjeshwar has been appointed to lead investor relations for Air Products, in addition to his role as vice president and corporate treasurer.
2008
Paul LaRusso has been named CEO of Akoya, where he also is a member of the board of directors. He joins from JPMorgan Chase, where he most recently served as the head of data aggregation for consumer and community banking.
Brenda Loya is the new COO of BlueHub Capital, a national nonprofit community development financing organization. Her experience in the banking, nonprofit, and community development financial institution industries has provided her with a deep knowledge of how to use financial tools to build healthier communities. She also recently was named to the Board of Directors of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, a nonprofit lender, consultant, and advocate.
When Luke Holden (B’07) graduated from Georgetown McDonough, he moved to New York and began his professional career on Wall Street. One sunny, Sunday afternoon, Holden was
missing home in Maine where he spent his summers lobstering with his father.
“Something that reminded me of home was a super high-quality, quintessential, similar-level service as a
lobster shack lobster roll,” he said. “And that didn’t exist in New York City.” So Holden dusted off an old business plan from Professor Will Finnerty’s entrepreneurship course and started creating a plan for what would soon be known as Luke’s Lobster.
As a third-generation lobsterman, Holden’s new business idea felt more like returning home than a career pivot—but that didn’t mean it was easy. Holden was still working full-time on Wall Street when the first Luke’s Lobster opened.
“I was doing the books, cleaning the restaurant at night, and running it on the weekends when I wasn’t working at the bank,” he said. In May 2010, Holden left his job in finance and began working full-time at Luke’s Lobster after opening a second location. He has grown his lobster shack into a fully vertically integrated process from the lobsterman and fisherman to the cooks and servers, and he now has locations on both U.S. coasts, as well as in Japan and Singapore.
In 2018, Luke’s Lobster became a certified B Corp (for social responsibility and transparency) and was recently re-certified last year—earning the highest score ever by a seafood company or restaurant in the United States. From sourcing sustainable seafood to using 100% renewable energy, Luke’s Lobster has embodied the ethos of a certified B Corp, and Holden is committed to making Luke’s Lobster and his entire team the best it can be.
“The concept of cura personalis and taking care of the whole person is the type of leader I want to be,” he said. “We apply that principle across our entire business.”
—ABBY SHARPELong before Daria Lorenzo (MSBA’22) was vice president of collateral management at Goldman Sachs, she was working in hospitality as a recent graduate. “I had an idea that I wanted to be an event producer,” she says. “But I learned over time that I didn’t like the job itself and it wasn’t a great fit for me.”
Lorenzo left hospitality management with a new skillset and attitude. “I gained a lot of experience in customer relations,” she says. “I learned to be open-minded and understanding, because even if the customer is not right, you have to make it right for them”—a mindset Lorenzo took with her when she made her way to Goldman Sachs in 2018 after two and a half years in hospitality.
With a curious attitude and a driven spirit, Lorenzo chased the career path she desired in finance—with a little
help from her experiences in hospitality management. “By having different jobs in different fields, you are open to observing a new experience and learning from that opportunity,” she says.
Throughout her career, Lorenzo sought experiences to broaden her understanding. “At Goldman Sachs I needed additional knowledge to communicate properly with our engineers and our technology,” she said. “I went to Georgetown to learn about business analytics and to learn those programming languages.” As an employee and a student, Lorenzo found learning opportunities to spark growth and advancement. From hospitality management to collateral management, Lorenzo has one piece of advice for young professionals: “Never let an opportunity go wasted.”
—ABBY SHARPE2009
Jill Abbott is the new chief marketing officer at Vital Proteins. In this role, Abbott will spearhead Vital Proteins’ global marketing and brand strategy to accelerate the brand’s growth as the company expands to new international markets and further diversifies its product offerings.
Teri Gendron was named CFO of Markel Corp., a Fortune 500 insurance and investment firm.
2013
Nicholas DeLuca has been appointed managing director at Alvarez & Marsal in the Mass Torts practice within its Disputes and Investigations group. He most recently served as the senior managing director at Ankura Consulting Group.
Evan Piekara joined Nestlé in 2022 as director of its Change Management Practice, where he oversees a team responsible for leading enterprise change efforts such as complex technology implementations, major process changes, and mergers and acquisitions integrations. He also has connected and collaborated with classmates and Nestlé teammates Caroline Decker and Justin Corrado
2005
Ajay K. Gupta has been named chairman of the board of Holy Cross Health, a multi-hospital
Sometimes a first job can teach you what not to do.
health system in Maryland and the flagship of the Trinity Health system, a $20+ billion dollar Catholic health system with hospitals and medical facilities across 22 states.
2008
James Dullinger has been elected chief financial officer of BM Technologies, Inc., one of the largest digital banking platforms and banking-as-a-service providers in the United States, where he previously served as chief accounting officer.
2016
Ellen Davis joined the U.S. Travel Association as executive vice president of business strategy and industry engagement. The association veteran is the first addition to the executive team since the organization named a new CEO in 2022.
MA-IBP
2017
Adam DeMarco is the author of Battles Within: My Journey of Self & Service. He calls it “not another war story,” but instead a memoir reflecting on his story of public service and his journey to find his true inner self and purpose.
Sabrina Teichman (IBP’20), founder and principal of Strategie, a strategic advisory and consulting firm for social impact enterprises in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, added podcaster to her résumé when she launched Belong in the USA to explore the question “Where are you from?” (It also features many of her Georgetown classmates.)
We Are Still Here: Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom, and the Fight to Be Heard by Nahid Shahalimi
First-hand accounts of what it’s like to be a woman in Afghanistan—a jarring must-read.
Capital Allocators by Ted Seides
An easy read with tons of great nuggets—including recommended interview questions for an investment advisor.
PODCASTS
Point Noir
Travel stories for and by men of color, taking the leap to explore life beyond their comfort zones.
Modern Love
I have ended up in tears many times after listening, and it always restores my faith in love.
A journalist’s quest to track down whether a German heavy metal power ballad that played a role in the fall of the Soviet Union was written by the CIA.
We invite all alumni to share updates with the McDonough community by emailing us at GeorgetownBusiness@ georgetown.edu.
Rockabye Baby on Spotify
Features actual songs I know and love, but through safe sounds for babies’ ears.
QUESTION
“An intrapreneur uses entrepreneurial thinking and skills similar to a startup founder, but within the support of an established company. Intrapreneurs exhibit initiative, creativity, adaptability, and autonomy. They seek to solve problems and have the potential to help organizations innovate and grow. Intrapreneurs can exist within any type of organization, and anyone can learn to be more entrepreneurial.”
—JEFF REID, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF GEORGETOWN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICEWhat’s the difference between an intrapreneur and an entrepreneur?
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The Undergraduate Program team has developed a series of programs and activities designed to ensure the well-being of the mind, body, and spirit of their students.
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who support an average of sessions per semester, where connect with their advising deans at the student-run coffee shop new first year and external transfer students each year through the Peer Ambassadors program texts sent since fall 2020 through the program’s texting platform designed to “meet students where they are”
350 bagels served weekly to students at Bagels with the Deans students attend weekly Wellness Wednesday programs
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