Fairfield County Business Journal 070218

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THRILLZ IN DANBURY

SUITE TALK

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JULY 2, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 27

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YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

westfaironline.com

Reachin’ out After 21 years, women presidents’ group looks to introduce itself

Linda Price

BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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Cashin’ in Capital campaign exceeds expectations at Fairfield University

BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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ark Nemec doesn’t want to say that the money keeps rolling in at Fairfield University — but he has little choice. Nemec, who’s coming up on his first anniversary as the university’s president, said that during his first few months in office he sort of

Fairfield University President Mark Nemec. Photo by Kevin Zimmerman

blithely let himself be talked into extending the target of Fairfield Rising, the largest capital fundraising campaign in the school’s history, from its original $160 million to $210 million through December 2018. Total raised so far? “We’re closing in on $215 million,” he said at his office last week. “I see that as a real vote of confidence for what we’ve done and are doing, and as representative of the sense that the university is on an upward trajectory.” Indeed, Fairfield is ranked third in U.S. News & World Report’s latest list of the top regional universities in the North; is included in the top 15 percent of the nation’s schools in a variety of categories by College Factual, an independent website that ranks colleges

on a number of factors; and maintains a 97 percent employment rate for students after graduation. “Even our loan default rate is among the lowest around,” Nemec said. Fairfield’s 1.61 percent places it well below the national average of 11.5 percent. Enrollment is also expected to rise to record levels for the 2018-19 academic year, he said, estimating that it will come in at somewhere between 1,085 and 1,115. On May 20, the school conferred 967 bachelor’s, 385 master’s, 15 sixthyear certificates and 39 doctorate degrees. Nemec noted that the Jesuit school has also redoubled its efforts at attracting a more diverse student body, including from a geographic standpoint. “There’s » FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY

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espite maintaining some 145 chapters around the world, the Women Presidents’ Organization — a nonprofit peer advisory group that helps set up conversations among top female executives — is relatively unknown to the general public. While that is very much by intention, Linda Price said it’s not an ironclad rule. “We’ve been very insular,” Price, who serves as the local chair of the WPO, said. “We’ve really never come out to the public and said, ‘Here we are.’” But that is beginning to change. Even though there’s very little turnover in the chapter — called “Fairchester” to reflect its county-straddling territory — Price said the decision to expand its reach was the driving factor behind a June 21 event held at Putnam & Mason, the luxury home design firm that opened in Greenwich last year. “This was the first time in my 13 years with the group that we’d done something like that,” Price said. “We felt that there are so many women-led companies being started in the area that it would be ungenerous of us not to introduce ourselves.” Although turnout at Putnam was » REACHING OUT

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