Media Coverage

This year’s ACUE faculty graduates include: Camil Golub of the Philosophy Department, Paula Catalan of the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science, and Pushpi Paranamana from the School of Arts and Sciences-Newark (SASN); Constance Sabon Sensor, assistant professor from the School of Nursing; Adam Strobel and William Clemons from the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University–Newark (SPAA); and Leon Fraser from the Department of Management & Global Business at the Rutgers Business School (RBS). The luncheon also recognized graduate student instructors Huan Wang and Alexander Jaffery, both from the Department of Management & Global Business at RBS. In addition, Oren Rabinovich from SASN was recognized for completing the module on "Developing Self-Directed Learners." Each honoree received an honorary certificate and red graduation stole.

Executive recruitment firm DHR International has recently placed top leaders at three major arts and cultural institutions: Onassis Foundation USA, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center. James Abruzzo, managing partner of the firm’s global non-profit practice, led the assignments.

Mr. Abruzzo, who works out of New York, has more than 30 years of experience as an executive search consultant to non-profit organizations. His clients include mid-sized to large social service organizations, universities, arts/cultural, international relief, foundations and trade associations. In addition, he is a trained management consultant and is well-known for his work in executive compensation for non-profit executives. Mr. Abruzzo is also co-director and co-founder of the Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers Business School. This center hosts symposia and workshops for non-profit leaders, operates a certificate program in non-profit leadership, provides consulting to non-profit organizations and conducts research on critical non-profit issues. He also serves on the faculty of the Rutgers Business School.

All roads lead to Newark on April 25-26 for the MOBE Symposium. An acronym for Marketing Opportunities in Business and Entertainment, MOBE has long been recognized as a respected marketing conference for Black professionals and entrepreneurs, as well as those targeting the Black consumer market.

Lyneir Richardson, executive director of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CUEED) at Rutgers-Newark, has curated a global marketing panel with extensive experience in Africa, Asia and Europe to discuss strategies for making connections and profitable deals in other countries.

Our annual special broadcast that looks into the many ways we earn, spend, invest, waste, lose, and go without money, featuring guest host Martha Teichner.

COMMERCE: Many happy returns
Typically about 8% of items purchased at a store will be returned; for ecommerce sites, that can be 25% to 40%. And all the stuff that stores cannot easily resell will wind up in the secondary market, where one company's trash can become other people's treasure. Rita Braver visits liquidators who process and resell goods that are just as good as new, or even newer.

Kevin Lyons, Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University

In “No Room at the Inn? Disability Access in the New Sharing Economy,” the authors detailed how disabled Airbnb users faced discrimination by Airbnb home renters, and cited an earlier Harvard University study about Airbnb users facing racial discrimination.

“Many people who join Airbnb or the sharing economy are generally doing it to make a buck. But unfortunately, the traditional ways in which we make that dollar don’t necessarily apply to these Internet platforms. As a result, the U.S. laws that traditionally enforce equal access—whether it’s the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964—need to catch up. Otherwise, without proper policing, it’s just going to keep spiraling downward, undoing these seminal laws in this growing bubble that is the sharing economy,” said Mason Ameri of Rutgers University.

Of course as parents we love our children equally, but do we play favorites when it comes to money?

Rutgers University marketing professor Kristina Durante and her colleagues tested that theory.

“We were having parents enter a lottery to win a treasury bond worth $25. Parents had to tell them with a name which child they would give the treasury bond to," Durante said.

The parents could only enter once and had to choose between their girl or their boy for the potential winnings. Moms chose daughters. Dads chose their sons.

“It suggests that we do play favorites, even if we don’t think that we do,” said Durante.

The Newark Anchor Collaborative (NAC), a Newark Alliance initiative, held a vendor summit on Friday, March 29 in support of the City of Newark’s Hire.Buy.Live program to connect local suppliers with anchor organizations and procurement professionals.

Rutgers University – Newark’s Dr. Kevin Lyons, who is Buy Local Coordinator for NAC, sees great promise that this event “will help to shift the practice of purchasing culture in Newark.” Informed by his extensive research in Newark as Associate Professor, Supply Chain Archeology and Director, Public Private Community Partnership Program at Rutgers Business School, Lyons says, “By highlighting Newark suppliers of goods and services and recognizing their excellence, we will allow for connections that will keep investment circulating within the city.”

The 2019 proxy season will mark the second year firms have to disclose how their CEOs' compensation compares to the pay of their median employee. The ratios are likely to generate quite a few headlines, as they did last year, and perhaps some outrage, especially in light of relatively stagnant wage increase for most workers in recent years.

Since 2011, large publicly traded firms have been required to allow their shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive pay packages. The goal of "Say on Pay," which was part of the Dodd-Frank Act after the financial crisis, was to rein in executive compensation and enable shareholders to tie pay more closely to performance. But research by Jill Fisch of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Darius Palia of Rutgers Business School, and Steven Davidoff Solomon of Berkeley Law suggests shareholders are highly influenced by the company's performance; that is, they tend to approve pay packages when the stock is doing well.

Try making a list of the things that the cryptocurrency known as bitcoin can be used for, and a few uses may spring to mind: some merchants accept it as payment, some investors trade it and, sometimes, bitcoin is used for cyber crime.

Here’s one more thing to add to that list: this tax season, businesses in Ohio have the option of paying their taxes with it.

Still, a state government's acceptance of bitcoin as a method of payment is a significant development in the cryptocurrency space, said Tobey Scharding, a visiting assistant professor of business ethics at Rutgers University. Scharding points out that cryptocurrency was founded, in part, as a way to conduct transactions free from government control. But now? “Here’s Ohio stepping in and saying, ‘Hey, you can actually pay your taxes in bitcoins,'" she said.

A team from Mercer County Community College captures first prize in the 2019 New Jersey County College Case Competition at Rutgers Business School on April 5.

A panel of business professionals and a Rutgers Business School instructor served as judges: Mallory Boron, M&T Bank administrative vice president and retail market manager for New Jersey; Thomas Comiskey, M&T Bank, regional president for New Jersey; Frank Giarratano, president and chief operation officer of SGW Integrated Marketing Communications; Arturo Osorio Fernandez, an assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers; and Jennifer Rodrigues, Prudential Financial, vice president, planning and analysis.

Michael J. Kokes was recently selected to be a guest lecturer at Rutgers Center for Real Estate. “It was an honor to meet the diverse and intelligent individuals enrolled in the program,” said Kokes. “It is great to see what Professor Davis has been able to accomplish in such a short period of time, and it is even more encouraging to know that we have such a promising program right here in New Jersey that will develop the industry leaders of tomorrow.”

Morris A. Davis, Ph.D., Paul V. Profeta Chair of Real Estate and Professor of Finance and Economics, as well as Academic Director of Rutgers Center of Real Estate at Rutgers Business School, first met Kokes at an event that Rutgers co-hosted with Pulte Homes at the New York Stock Exchange.

“Mike and I have been in discussions about how Homestake and Rutgers can work together since that initial meeting,” Davis noted. “We have considered mentorships, internships, full time positions, scholarships, as well as consulting, lecturing, etc. It is a great benefit to Rutgers students and the Rutgers Center for Real Estate to partner with a young entrepreneur who has a lot of experience and connections.”

Being able to apply the business principles learned in school to the real world is a critical skill for any growing business professional.

The students presenting Friday at the fourth annual New Jersey Community College Case Competition presented by M&T Bank at Rutgers Business School in Newark were no exception.

“I want to get actual hands-on experience and see how it is. I want to be put in situations like this, where you get a taste of reality,” said Tirrell Johnson, one of the student presenters from Middlesex County College, when asked what he wanted out of a business education. “School is one thing, but seeing what it’s actually like sitting down at the table is another.”

Firms disclose a variety of information to the public, some because they are required to do so by law or regulations, and others voluntarily because they want, for example, to signal their creditworthiness to potential investors. The level and effectiveness of financial institutions’ regulatory oversight have been widely debated since the onset of the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Financial and banking regulators have responded by increasing regulatory requirements and oversight, and by mandating greater disclosure of information. However, these actions do not necessarily improve the information environment of firms if they discourage voluntary disclosures of other types of information. In our paper, we investigate whether enhanced regulatory oversight and mandatory disclosure requirements affect regulated banks’ voluntary disclosures (Beyer et al. 2010). In particular, we take advantage of the artificial size-thresholds imposed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Customer Protection Act of 2010 (DFA) to identify large banks that are directly affected by increased mandatory disclosure and heightened regulatory oversight and compare them with unaffected banks and financial institutions that are not subject to banking regulations.

Customer Experience expert Blake Morgan joins me on this episode and shares her thoughts on how companies can learn to embed CX into their culture.

Blake Morgan is a leader in customer experience. As a keynote speaker and customer experience futurist, she has worked with Accor Hotels, Accenture, Adobe, Parker Hannifin, Ericsson, Omron, Verizon, and many other organizations. She is also an adjunct faculty member of the executive MBA program at Rutgers Business School and a guest lecturer at Columbia University. Her first book is More is More: How the Best Companies Work Harder and Go Farther to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences. Blake contributes to Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Hemispheres magazine. Additionally, she hosts The Modern Customer Podcast and a weekly customer experience video series on YouTube.

As they file their taxes this year, New Jersey residents may be left scratching their heads, and many may be upset that their returns are smaller than expected. The reason: this is the first year taxpayers will file under the new rules created in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

We spoke with Jay Soled, a professor and director of the master of accountancy in taxation program at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick, to find out what New Jersey taxpayers can expect.

Q: Under the new federal tax code, what changes will New Jersey taxpayers see?

Taxpayers face a choice when filing: they can take a standard deduction or they can “itemize” their expenses that they incurred throughout the year such as state income and local property taxes they pay, charitable contributions they make and medical expenses. You cannot deduct the standard deduction and itemize; it’s one or the other.

Rutgers’ Road to Wall Street program gives rising sophomores an opportunity to experience the world of Wall Street as well as a glimpse into some of the most elite positions in financing, said Kenneth Freeman, an adjunct professor in the Department of Finance and director of the Road to Wall Street program at Rutgers Business School.

“I like to call it, 'The Navy Seals of Financing' — that's who we are looking to train,” Freeman said. “Ultimately, the purpose of this course is to prepare these students for interviews as well as their future jobs, giving them the tools to navigate and get their hands on these jobs.”

Our partnership with CIPFA offers a professional passport of sorts - allowing students at Rutgers to accelerate their career with a globally recognized credential for professionals in public finance.

It creates a pathway for US students enrolled at Rutgers University to practice governmental accounting outside the United States, and take advantage of global opportunities.

The Rutgers’ 'master of accountancy in governmental accounting program' is already unique in the United States, allowing students in the US and abroad to learn about US accounting standards. Under the new agreement with CIPFA, current students and graduates of the program will be given the opportunity to qualify as a Chartered Public Finance Accountant through CIPFA’s online platform.

Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, and Sen. Chris Brown, R-Atlantic, said Sunday they are unsure how they will vote and that much will depend on what is in the final version of the legislation.

From a business perspective, Lyneir Richardson, executive director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CUEED) at Rutgers Business School, predicted legalized recreational cannabis “will quickly be a $40 billion-dollar-plus industry. And the local economic impact will be huge.”

Richardson said the new industry would strengthen inner-city neighborhoods.

The arrests last week of seven area residents, who all pleaded not guilty, in the ongoing federal investigation into health benefits fraud has brought renewed attention to the case that has seen 23 South Jersey residents plead guilty since 2017.

Compounded medications, which are unregulated by the FDA, are legal and pharmacies can receive large payouts from insurers for the often expensive medications, which contributes to the abuse, said Michael Barnett, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers University and a fellow with the Institute of Ethical Leadership at the school.

Where will you be working after graduation?
Ross Stores, Inc; Location Planning Analyst

What did you enjoy most about your business school?
Meeting so many driven students who use knowledge and skills learned from the business school to pursue their passions.

What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business?
It’s not about what you know, but how you use what you know.

Where will you be working after graduation?
J.P. Morgan Chase, New York City, Global Finance & Business Management Analyst

Who is your favorite professor?
I’ve been fortunate enough to take classes with many great professors. It is so difficult to pick one. My two favorites are Professor Lisa Kaplowitz, who teaches corporate finance, and Professor Fred Hoffman, who teaches financial institutions and markets. I appreciate their ability to integrate their own experiences on Wall Street into the courses, which helps students get a better understanding of the material.

Where will you be working after graduation?
Evercore, Investment Banking Analyst – New York, N.Y.

Who is your favorite professor?
Professor Charles Citro. I admire his ability to leave the contents of the textbook and discuss trending topics in financial markets and help students in a professional sense. Taking a class with him introduced me to how finance is put into practice in the real world.

Where will you be working after graduation?
I have accepted a full-time offer from Deloitte, where I will be working as a Strategy and Operations consultant.

Who is your favorite professor?
Professor Francis Ng has been my favorite college professor. I have taken three finance classes with him over the years, and he continues to amaze me. His classroom lectures further developed my interest and knowledge of finance. However, it was our conversations during his office hours that had made him my favorite professor. We would begin our conversations about specific stocks and then expand the discussions to include geopolitical factors and trends that influence the movement of a company’s stock and the stock market itself. Through this, Professor Ng taught me analytical thinking and how politics and economic forces impact companies.

AI can detect suspicious behaviour and alert shop personnel of possible shoplifters.

A Japanese startup Vaak has successfully installed and tested the tech in local convenience stores which cut down shoplifting losses by 77 percent. The system collectively works with the shop’s surveillance cameras to identify possible thefts that the staffers might miss.

Another criticism came from Jerome Williams, a professor and senior administrator at Rutgers University’s Newark campus. He said that the unfair practices of human beings alone can result in a biased system. He raised concerns about the training data teaching the system a wrong sense of targeting the shoppers based on skin colour. He said that black people often fall victim to injustice and are often routinely stopped on suspicion. “The people who get caught for shoplifting is not an indication of who’s shoplifting,” He said. “It’s a function of who’s being watched and who’s being caught, and that’s based on discriminatory practices.”

The arrests last week of seven area residents, who all pleaded not guilty, in the ongoing federal investigation into health benefits fraud has brought renewed attention to the case that has seen 23 South Jersey residents plead guilty since 2017.

Compounded medications, which are unregulated by the FDA, are legal and pharmacies can receive large payouts from insurers for the often expensive medications, which contributes to the abuse, said Michael Barnett, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers University and a fellow with the Institute of Ethical Leadership at the school.

As they file their taxes this year, New Jersey residents may be left scratching their heads and many may be upset that their returns are smaller than expected.

The reason: this is the first year taxpayers will file under the new rules created in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The new federal tax code brings significant changes – including a higher total standard deduction. The law also caps the amount of state income and local property taxes that can be deducted.

We spoke with Jay Soled, a professor and director of the Master of Accountancy in Taxation Program at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick, to find out what New Jersey taxpayers can expect.

A Japanese startup has developed artificial intelligence software that it says can catch shoplifters in the act — and alert staff members so they can swoop in to prevent pilferage.

Jerome Williams, a professor and senior administrator at Rutgers University’s Newark campus, has written extensively on race and retail environments. He said that unless training data is carefully controlled, a theft-detection algorithm might wind up unfairly targeting people of color, who are routinely stopped on suspicion of shoplifting more often than white shoppers.

“The people who get caught for shoplifting is not an indication of who’s shoplifting,” Williams said. “It’s a function of who’s being watched and who’s being caught, and that’s based on discriminatory practices.”

Lyneir Richardson, executive director of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers Business School in Newark, said the problem is that today’s business climate doesn’t welcome startups — especially when it comes to real estate.

Celebrating its 10th year assisting New Jersey entrepreneurs, CUEED offers several initiatives that are hyper-focused on helping entrepreneurs to grow and be more profitable.

“Entrepreneurs are often experts in their business,” he said. “At programs like the Urban Retail Acceleration Program we want to help them work on their businesses.”

To do that, the men took stock of what they knew and what they needed to learn. And that’s what brought them to the Black and Latino Urban Retail Acceleration Program (BLU RAP) the original name of what’s currently known as the Urban Retail Acceleration Program.

Cantor has encouraged creation of an entrepreneurial incubator space where scholars can share ideas, collaborate on projects and learn how to partner with community-based organizations to bring good ideas to life, says Eatman. The idea is being developed by Dr. Ted Baker, professor and George F. Farris Chair in Entrepreneurship at Rutgers-Newark’s business school, and director of communications and marketing Kimberlee S. Williams.

An organization at Rutgers Business School is out to show that conservation goals do not have to come at the expense of business growth.

Gary Cohen, a 35-year veteran of medical technology company Becton Dickinson & Co., founded the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation to promote the idea that sustainability does not conflict with economic growth.

Jeana Wirtenberg, the institute’s associate director, explained at a sustainability conference held March 1 at Rutgers Business School in Newark that the goal is to help the whole world win. The sustainable development goals are about creating a better future for everyone on the planet.

“In order not to leave anyone behind, we want to achieve them by the year 2030,” Wirtenberg said. “Today we are focusing on fostering global development goals through community development in Newark. You are the pioneers locally and internationally. This is all about collaboration across sectors.”

As a longtime “Jeopardy!” devotee (and enthusiastic volunteer “Alex” at college trivia events), I was left with a heavy heart upon hearing the news of Alex Trebek’s illness. His poignant video announcement was in keeping with the charm, folksiness, good humor and decency that have characterized his 35 years as host.

Alex, many have beaten the odds, but none of them with the adoration and love of the millions of strangers who invite you into their homes every evening. We’re all pulling for your contract to be extended long past the current 2022!

Rosa Oppenheim
Ridgewood, N.J.

Rutgers Business School is offering lifelong learning opportunities to its alumni, beginning with a series of free lunch and learn webinars and discounted admission to a wide array of executive education programs.

Lei Lei, the dean of Rutgers Business School has championed the program as a way of enriching and engaging alumni. The school boasts a global network of more than 43,000 graduates.

“The need to stay relevant and learn throughout one’s life grows every day because of the pace of change,” Peter Methot, executive director of Rutgers Business School’s Executive Education, said in a statement.

Rutgers Business School has announced a signed memorandum of understanding with the U.K.-based Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy that creates a pathway for its students to practice governmental accounting outside the U.S.

The agreement allows current students and graduates of the Rutgers Business School’s master of accountancy in governmental accounting program to qualify with CIPFA as a Chartered Public Finance Accountant via CIPFA’s online platform. The credential will allow graduates of the master of accountancy in governmental accounting program to work in public finance positions around the world.

The agreement was signed at Rutgers Business School on Feb. 27, 2019, in a ceremony attended by Rutgers Business School dean Lei Lei, executive vice dean Yaw Mensah, CIPFA CEO Rob Whiteman and professor Irfan Bora, director of the master of accountancy in governmental accounting program.

Participation in drafting regulation appears to make firms more willing to see government as a legitimate regulatory authority

As in many countries, Vietnam requires drafts of all new legislation to be made available for a public comment period before being made law. However, this policy is rarely implemented and, even when it is, the manner in which drafts are posted on websites usually results in very few views and far fewer actual comments. To fill the gap, Vietnam’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) often steps in and comments on behalf of the business community.

Our study involved measuring the impact of a pilot VCCI initiative to invigorate Vietnam’s public comment period (Malesky and Taussig 2019). In particular, VCCI representatives went to businesses in Hanoi and ten surrounding provinces to collect feedback on a new draft regulation aiming to protect workers’ handling of hazardous chemicals.

The Rutgers University Business School and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy have signed a memorandum of understanding creating a pathway for Rutgers students to practice governmental accounting outside the United States.

Under the agreement, current students and graduates of Rutgers Business School’s Master of Governmental Accounting students will be given the opportunity to qualify with CIPFA as a Chartered Public Finance Accountant through CIPFA’s online platform.

Currency overvaluation or undervaluation can have advantages or disadvantages, depending on a country’s circumstances. As part of negotiations for a trade deal with the Chinese, the Trump team seeks assurances that the government will not devalue the yuan or renminbi. But currency valuations are relative and fluid, and governments lack full control.

About 150 academics, professionals, and students in Claremont McKenna College’s Leadership Studies Sequence heard from an array of experts, including two who work daily at the intersection of leadership studies and practice.

The conference’s speakers included Rutgers Business School's Joanne Ciulla, Ph.D., whose work examines how to cultivate caring in leaders.

Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA), one of the leading beverage companies in North America, today announced that David Tulauskas joins as Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer.

Tulauskas has a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science degree in civil/environmental engineering from Wayne State University and an International Executive MBA from Rutgers University.

New Jersey would likely see a boost to the economy particularly in urban areas, said Lyneir Richardson, executive director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers Business School.

"My research leads me to believe that legalized cannabis will quickly be a $40 billion-dollar-plus industry. And the local economic impact will be huge," Richardson said. "Entrepreneurs – particularly entrepreneurs of color – can be expected to build businesses on the leading edge of this growth sector, strengthening inner-city neighborhoods," he said.

In its fight to stave off a wave of climate change-related lawsuits, the fossil fuel industry has found a vocal and unapologetic ally in the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). The a 123-year old trade group represents a wide range of the nation’s manufacturing companies, but it has frequently gone to bat for select segments of its membership during major liability battles. Currently, it is Big Oil’s staunchest defender.

Michael Barnett, a professor of management & global business at Rutgers Business School who has studied trade associations, said groups like NAM exist to defend the interests of their industry.
“It’s sort of an outsourced arm of those firms, rather than doing it all on their own, there’s strength in numbers,” Barnett said. “There’s some efficiency to having one centralized legal defense that attacks on behalf of the whole industry in addition to each of the individual firms taking on these issues.”

Last Saturday, TEDxRutgers held its annual conference in the auditorium of the Livingston Student Center, with this year’s theme being “Pale Blue Dot.”
"Pale Blue Dot" was in reference to a photo taken by the Voyager 1 in 1990. The image included a small speck, which represented Planet Earth.
Thus, the idea behind the central theme was that people are so focused on what is going on in their lives that they feel the world is a huge place. In reality though, Patel said the universe is much larger than one planet, so the theme was a reminder for people to step back and look at the big picture.

The final speaker for the TEDxRutgers conference was Mason Ameri, an assistant professor at Rutgers Business School. He described the larger problem of discrimination by telling the story of how he changed his name in order to get a job.
“Do we really have to edit ourselves just to make that perfect first impression?” he asked the audience during his talk.

It is now time to start thinking and implementing your Employer Branding Program and Strategy with Corporate Branding concepts and terms. When I began in Employer Branding in 2002, we thought about Employer Branding as an “add-on” to the Recruitment function. Fortunately, this has changed; it has now evolved into a total system and approach (mostly) embedded in a company’s Talent Acquisition culture and set of behaviors.

Rutgers Business School alumnus, MBA ’88, Johnny Torrance-Nesbitt is an award-winning Global Recruiting & Employer Branding executive with 15+ years in building/leading global & regional talent acquisition and employer branding functions at several Fortune 500 companies.

He was just nominated for the Employer Brand Leader of the Year (Global Leader Category) by Mark Houghton (Dubai, UAE) and Ed Steiger (US). The award recognizes employer brand excellence and practice amongst the world’s top employer brand leaders at a global and/or country level.

AIM2Flourish is the world’s first higher-education curriculum for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and "Business as an Agent of World Benefit" - our words for positive and profitable business. Using the UN SDGs as their lens, students research and identify an innovation and interview a business leader about it. Their stories live on the AIM2Flourish.com platform as sources of inspiration for others.

2019 AIM2Flourish Finalist paper
'Advancing The World of Health' about Becton Dickinson in United States written by Eboni Coleman, Mari-Elle Sudarkasa, Keirra Dailey, Nadege Adanou, and Sophietou Ndiaye from Rutgers Business School under the direction of Jeana Wirtenberg.

Sustainability has been a part of BD's goals from the beginning. This is evident in its purpose of advancing the world of health. The company's culture has always valued patient and employee health and safety and has promoted it through global health initiatives and the development of partnerships with the United Nations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Overall, by implementing SDGs into their business strategy, they were able to cement their position as a leading global medical technology company.

AIM2Flourish is the world’s first higher-education curriculum for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and "Business as an Agent of World Benefit" - our words for positive and profitable business. Using the UN SDGs as their lens, students research and identify an innovation and interview a business leader about it. Their stories live on the AIM2Flourish.com platform as sources of inspiration for others.

2019 AIM2Flourish Finalist paper
'Investing for a Reason Beyond Money' about Common Interests in the United States written by Swetcha Ananthu, Silas Okoth, Matthew Hennessey, Jeffery Shen, and Paul No from Rutgers Business School under the direction of Joseph Markert.

This company’s innovation is its business model: direct impact investing. Direct impact investing involves using investing as a tool to shape society in a positive manner by partnering with and investing in businesses that practice utilizing environmentally sustainable and renewable technologies in their production and manufacturing processes. This is done for the purpose of spreading awareness of the need to live a sustainable and healthy lives with lowered carbon emissions in the atmosphere and affordable and clean energy.

AIM2Flourish is the world’s first higher-education curriculum for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and "Business as an Agent of World Benefit" - our words for positive and profitable business. Using the UN SDGs as their lens, students research and identify an innovation and interview a business leader about it. Their stories live on the AIM2Flourish.com platform as sources of inspiration for others.

2019 AIM2Flourish Finalist paper
'Thinking Differently About Waste' about TerraCycle in United States written by Mark Gencer, Will Ujueta, Pedro Rolim, Courtney Mcleary, and Varinder Singh from Rutgers Business School under the direction of Carmen L Bonilla.

TerraCycle manages to eliminate an extraordinary amount of waste through their Zero Waste Boxes. The Zero Waste Boxes are a main driver of TerraCycles' innovation; however, the company itself has a culture and mission that aligns with their values of sustainability. They have every intention of expanding their business to reach wider and ultimately change the very way consumers perceive waste.

AIM2Flourish is the world’s first higher-education curriculum for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and "Business as an Agent of World Benefit" - our words for positive and profitable business. Using the UN SDGs as their lens, students research and identify an innovation and interview a business leader about it. Their stories live on the AIM2Flourish.com platform as sources of inspiration for others.

2019 AIM2Flourish Finalist paper
'Wheels For Women' about Roshni Rides in Pakistan written by Matthew Gleason, Arjan Bhasin, Shehryar Ahmed, Meet Patel, and Stephanie Peters from Rutgers Business School under the direction of Joseph Markert.

Roshini Rides is a liaison between women in Karachi and the empowerment, opportunity, and independence they deserve. The company strives to dilute the current male-dominated Pakistani economy with women and hopes to have governmental support in the future to achieve this mission.

Ask the Experts: Cashing in on Credit Card Rewards

Marc Kalan
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers University School of Business

What would you say the best cash back credit cards all have in common?

This depends on your objective and spending habits. In my opinion the best cards deliver the highest % refund on those items that the individual identifies as the things they purchase most often and/or for the highest levels of spending. For me personally that would be restaurants and gasoline, so I look for cards that maximize those levels, currently in the 3-4 % range.

Which cash back credit card(s) would you recommend to consumers?

Rather than choose a particular card I’d suggest an individual choose one that best ties to the rest of their banking issues as there are efficiencies using multiple services from a particular institution, or a card that reflects areas of personal support such as vanity cards from an educational or entertainment entity.

Bitcoin was invented in 2009 and within a decade it has become the most popular and largest cryptocurrency. The decentralized token is traded virtually meaning that there is no government or bank that controls how it is used or even its value. Despite its popularity, a Rutgers professor discussed the ethical cost of cryptos and the impact it poses to the real world.

A visiting assistant professor at the University who is also a fellow at the Rutgers Business School Institute of Ethical Leadership, Tobey Karen Scharding, stated that Bitcoin is a ‘token of value.’ She also added that it differs from other currencies due to the criteria used to give its value.

The agreement that the crypto has value is a label meant to legitimize BTC although it may not technically be true. Scharding said that the U.S. dollar is a fiat currency. However, its specific exchange value cannot be changed simply because investors changed their minds on how much it worth as it happens in the crypto world.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and the city’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion have hired Rutgers Business School Public Private Community Partnerships to work with New Jersey City University in conducting a comprehensive disparity study to assess the utilization of minority, woman, veteran, and LGBT-owned businesses hired for the City.

“The Rutgers Business School’s PPCP program was established to demonstrate the potential of enhancing opportunities for sustainable strategic on-off campus partnerships for local income enhancement, sustainable livelihoods and participatory development across all sectors and topics,” Kevin Lyons, associate professor at Rutgers Business School in the Supply Chain Management Department and director of public private community partnerships, said in a statement.

The second annual Black and Latino Tech initiative, a pre-accelerator program sponsored by The Rutgers University Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, is accepting applications for its 2019 cohort.

“BLT is the first university-based program in the Tri-State area that’s focused on getting capital to tech-enabled startups which are led by entrepreneurs of color,” Lyneir Richardson, executive director of CUEED, said in a statement. “Participants will not only receive guidance on marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship from professors at our number one rated Rutgers Business School, they’ll also have an opportunity to pitch their business plans to an angel investor network. In addition, two entrepreneurs will be awarded $10,000 prizes by Rutgers.”