Experience Stern | News & Events

The Leonard N. Stern School of Business Graduate Convocation Ceremony took place on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at the Jacob K. Javits Center of New York - Javits Center North. Graduate Convocation, which is held in addition to New York University’s Commencement Exercises, honors students who have completed the requirements for advanced degrees from the NYU Stern School. Each student is recognized individually.

The Leonard N. Stern School of Business Undergraduate Baccalaureate Ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. Baccalaureate, which is held in addition to New York University's Commencement Exercises, honors students who have completed the requirements for bachelors degrees from the NYU Stern School. Each student is recognized individually, and prizes for extracurricular and academic achievements are awarded.

NYU Stern faculty and guests gathered in Tisch Hall to honor the School’s existing faculty chairs and to celebrate this year’s recipients of endowed chairs. Vice Dean of Faculty Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance and Strategy, recognized Stern’s current faculty chairs – each of whom were presented a captain’s chair in their honor.

The 2011 NYU Directors’ Institute, hosted by the NYU Pollack Center for Law and Business on May 6, 2011, was themed “Corporate Governance: A New Governance Landscape?” The event featured prominent speakers from a variety of industries discussing topics such as: maintaining high ethical standards and avoiding litigation, successfully navigating mergers and acquisitions, and handling compensation issues. The NYU Directors’ Institute is an annual continuing education program for directors, general counsels and corporate secretaries, designed to strengthen the corporate governance practices of boards of directors and help directors stay up-to-date on their legal, fiduciary and ethical responsibilities.

NYU President John Sexton and Provost David McLaughlin today announced the appointment of Geeta Menon, the Abraham Krasnoff Professor of Global Business and Professor of Marketing, as the dean of the undergraduate college of the Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Her appointment is effective July 15, 2011.

In April, NYU Stern generated more than 450 media hits. Stern faculty were featured for their research and perspectives on a variety of subjects including pricing psychology, methods of creative thinking, CEO compensation and the relationship between blogging and productivity in a number of prominent outlets such as the BBC, The Economist, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, in 33 op-eds, Stern faculty discussed the sustainability of China’s economy, Kate Middleton’s fashion influence, one percent tax rates for the rich and survival lessons for CEOs.

On April 29, the winners of NYU Stern’s New Venture Competition and Social Venture Competition, and new this year – NYU’s Technology Venture Competition – received more than $250,000 in seed money and in-kind support. After pitching their venture ideas, the three winning teams, each led by NYU students, faculty and alumni, were chosen by a panel of judges from the for-profit, social enterprise and technology sectors.

The NYU Stern Entrepreneurs Challenge, organized by the School’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, is the premier platform for identifying, nurturing and showcasing entrepreneurial talent at NYU. Lasting eight months, it provides aspiring entrepreneurs with frameworks, mentoring and financial support to stimulate new venture creation.

More than 200 NYU Stern students, faculty, alumni and members of the business community gathered in Paulson Auditorium to hear Professor Viral Acharya, Matthew Richardson and Lawrence White discuss their new book, Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance (Princeton University Press, March 2011), co-authored with Professor Stijn Van Niewerburgh.

The Right Honorable Gordon Brown, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, sat down with a select group of MBA, executive MBA and undergraduate students from NYU Stern to discuss the economic crisis, the role of policymakers in preventing future crises and the growing interconnectedness of world economies.

Anindya Ghose, Robert L. & Dale Atkins Rosen Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences; Panagiotis Ipeirotis, George A. Kellner Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences; and PhD student BeibeiLi’s co-authored paper, “Towards a Theory Model for Product Search,” received the Best Paper Award at the 20th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2011).

Two NYU Stern professors, Vasant Dhar and Arun Sundararajan, call the fallout of the Epsilon data breach in which hackers stole millions of names and email addresses of bank and retailer customers a “failure in management,” not a failure in security technology, and a “wake-up call” for chief executives.

Nearly 200 alumni, guests, and friends of New York University gathered for the annual Ashok C. Sani Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence Lecture featuring Bill Drayton, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, who delivered a presentation entitled “Values in a Everyone a Changemaker World.”

Richard Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets and Professor of Economics, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Business History Conference (BHC), the leading professional association of business historians, at their April conference in St. Louis, MO.

Some 50 academics, practitioners and policymakers gathered at NYU Stern in April for a roundtable discussion on conflicts of interest at credit rating agencies, hosted by Stern’s Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting. In light of recent events in the subprime mortgage crisis, the roundtable presenters addressed topics such as the issuer-pays business model, rating triggers, regulations requiring investors to use credit ratings and the history of credit rating agencies.

In March, NYU Stern generated more than 600 media hits. Stern faculty were featured for their research and perspectives on a variety of subjects including creativity, piracy in the music industry, workplace blogging, investment myths and jobs in the tradable sector in a number of prominent outlets such as Bloomberg, Financial Times and The New York Times. Additionally, in 54 op-eds, Stern faculty discussed the detection of deception, company data disclosure, the economic effects of Japan’s natural disasters and the expansion of social media company operations in New York City.

Time has named Twitter feeds by New York University Professors Marion Nestle and Nouriel Roubini as two of the 140 Twitter feeds “that are shaping the conversation,” the magazine announced. The list also includes Lady Gaga, Starbucks, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Boston Celtics Center Shaquille O’Neal, and comedian Conan O’Brien.

Four NYU Stern School of Business faculty propose a model of mortgage finance that shifts guarantees from the government to a fully private-based system in their new book, “Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance” (Princeton University Press, March 2011).

Professor of Finance Viral Acharya was selected by the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) to be one of the 15 members of its newly established Advisory Scientific Committee (ASC).

As part of NYU Stern’s CEO Series, Charles E. “Ed” Haldeman, Jr., CEO of Freddie Mac, the second largest source of mortgage financing in the United States, offered his perspective on the future of the US housing market, its role in the broader economy and the leadership principles he has applied throughout his career, before an audience of close to 100 NYU Stern students, faculty and alumni. The interview was conducted by Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal.

With countries around the globe grappling with how best to curb global warming and reduce the world’s carbon footprint, NYU Stern’s Citi Leadership and Ethics Program is focusing on how to apply market-based approaches to address environmental issues and foster economic growth.

Eighth Annual NYU Stern-Citi Conference in Leadership & Ethics on "Business 4 Government: Leveraging Eco-Efficiency at the Local Level"

New York University Stern School of Business will no longer require Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) or Graduate Record Exam (GRE) test scores from candidates applying to its Executive MBA program, effective immediately. Applicants will still have the option to submit either GMAT or GRE scores with their application, but it will not be a requirement.

Does leisure-blogging in the workplace help or hurt productivity over the long term? According to Anindya Ghose, NYU Stern Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, and his colleagues Yan Huang and Param Vir Singh from Carnegie Mellon University, blogging helps. When organizations have lax rules on leisure blogging, it positively affects the writing and sharing of work-related blog posts and creates opportunities for strengthening employee networks.

In February, NYU Stern generated nearly 650 media hits. Stern faculty were featured for their research and perspectives on a variety of subjects including systemic risk, entrepreneurship, CEO compensation, the flash crash and Middle East unrest in a number of prominent outlets such as CNBC, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, in 51 op-eds, Stern faculty discussed the Deutsche Boerse-NYSE Euronext merger, public sector unions, QE2, employee activism and the economic and intellectual benefits of cities.