Professor John Impellizzeri retired (Jan. 2015) from a 36-year career in industry where he established himself as a C-suite executive with a reputation as an innovative strategist, effective communicator, and dynamic leader with a strong commitment to excellence. During Impellizzeri’s corporate career, he was CFO, CPO, and VP at Schindler Elevator. He had a proven track record of coordinating complex business details, overseeing multiple functional areas simultaneously, and building consensus among decision-makers and stakeholders in defining strategic initiatives and driving results.

As a supply chain executive, Impellizzeri had considerable experience in the planning, development, and leadership of processes, policies, procedures, operations, and technologies fulfilling changing business requirements, emphasizing introduction of best practices to optimize resource utilization, promote business growth, manage supplier relationships, and deliver consistently superior levels of efficiency and cost-savings.

Professor Impellizzeri is currently the Director of the Rutgers Center for Supply Chain Management and as well the Director of the UG SCM Program for our Newark campus.

 

Ralph A. LaRossa is chair, president and chief executive officer of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG). He is also chair of the PSE&G board and a member of PSEG’s Senior Executive Team.

Previously Mr. LaRossa was chief operating officer of PSEG from January 2020 until September 2022 at which time he became president and chief executive officer. He was president and COO of PSEG Power from June 2017 until September 2022. In his role as PSEG COO, he was responsible for overseeing all of the operating businesses of PSEG, including Public Service Electric & Gas Company, PSEG Long Island, PSEG Power and PSEG Services Corp. functions, information technology and cyber and physical security. 

In addition, Mr. LaRossa was chair of the board of PSEG Long Island from December 2020 until September 2022 and from October 2013 until 2017. From 2006 until 2017, Mr. LaRossa served as president and COO of PSE&G. 

Mr. LaRossa joined PSE&G in 1985 as an associate engineer and advanced through a variety of management positions in the utility’s gas and electric operations. 

Mr. LaRossa received his Bachelor of Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. In addition, he completed the Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development and MIT’s Reactor Technology Course for Utility Executives. 

Mr. LaRossa is chair of Choose New Jersey and serves on its board. He is on the board of directors for Edison Electric Institute. In addition, Mr. LaRossa is a member of the board for Montclair State University and the Electric Sector Coordinating Council, an honorary trustee of the Liberty Science Center, the past chair of the American Gas Association and past member of the board for the New Jersey Utilities Association and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Mr. LaRossa is the recipient of the Rutgers Heldrich Center for Workforce Development Distinguished Leadership Award.

 

John E. Harmon, Sr. IOM has served as the Founder, President and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey (AACCNJ), since 2007. In this role he has the responsibility of establishing, implementing and executing the mission, as well as the fiduciary oversight and governance of AACCNJ in accordance with its Bylaws. In addition, he works to identify strategic partnerships in both the public and private sectors to connect AACCNJ members and supporters to resources and opportunities to grow and sustain their goals and objectives. Moreover, Harmon serves as an advocate on behalf of the 1.1 million African American residents and the over 70,000 black-owned businesses statewide to ensure that policy at the municipal, county, and federal level provides fairness, equity and access to a level playing field in the marketplace.

Harmon is the former President and CEO of the Metropolitan Trenton African American Chamber of Commerce (MTAACC). Under his guidance, MTAACC grew its membership substantially, forged alliances with business associations/organizations and government, and forged strategic partnerships in the public and private sectors to benefit African American businesses throughout New Jersey.

John Harmon is a Board Member and the Former Chairman of the Board for the National Black Chamber of Commerce; there are 150 Affiliate Chapters of the NBCC and over fifteen international affiliates. Harmon was recently appointed to the US Chamber of Commerce – Board of Directors, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Economic Community Advisory Council (ECAC), Investors Bank Board of Directors, Hackensack Meridian Health Board of Directors. Harmon is also a Board Member of Digital Place Based Advertising Association, and is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. He is the Founder and Chairman of the New York State Black Chamber of Commerce (NYSBCC). Additionally, Mr. Harmon is a Board member of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce (NJCC), New Jersey BPU, Supplier Diversity Development Council (SDDC), Opportunity New Jersey, Chairman of Crime Stoppers of Greater Trenton and a former Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE), First Book, Minding Our Business (MOB), a youth entrepreneurial initiative in affiliation with Rider University.

Harmon was recently acknowledged by Return on Information-New Jersey (ROI), as the Number 1 Person of Color in New Jersey. Harmon was also acknowledged in South Jersey Journal’s list of the “Twenty-five Most Influential African Americans in New Jersey”, for the third consecutive year. Harmon was selected for ROI-NJ “2018 Power List of Influencers. Harmon is also recognized as a Center of Influence (COI) for the United States Army and was recently selected as a participant in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) hosted by the Secretary of Defense. The JCOC program is the oldest and most prestigious public liaison program in the Department of Defense. Harmon was selected as one of 40 individuals (out of 230 applicants) to attend JCOC18. In addition, Harmon was the only attendee from the State of New Jersey. Harmon was recently selected to NJBIZ2018 Power 10. The criteria for selection to the Power 100 were: Identify the people impacting business in New Jersey in a positive way whose primary mission is to foster growth in the state. Harmon was the first individual selected as a member of the host committee for NFL Super Bowl XLVII held in New Jersey 2014.

Mr. Harmon holds an associate degree in Business Administration from Mercer County Community College and Burlington County College, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1983. Mr. Harmon also successfully completed a one-year Fellowship on Regionalism and Sustainability sponsored by The Ford Foundation and completed the Minority Business Management Seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 2009. Additionally, Mr. Harmon completed a four-year Chamber Executive Management Program, at Villanova University, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in 2014.

Prior to his twenty three year career as a chamber executive, Mr. Harmon was previously employed at The Bowery Savings Bank in New York City where he managed the bank's Residential Real Estate Department overlooking major mortgage loan transactions; and at Chemical Bank where he managed third party loan originations for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. While working at Chemical Bank, Mr. Harmon established The Affordable Housing Loan Program. Following his banking career, Mr. Harmon founded a transportation company in 1989, called Harmon Transfer, Corp. The company transported dry goods, perishable commodities, and produce throughout the Northeast United States and Canada. Mr. Harmon has three sons, John Jr., Joshua, and Justin.

John A. Byrne has been a journalist, editor, author and entrepreneur. He currently is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of C-Change Media, owner of Poets&Quants.com. He has written or co-written an unprecedented 58 cover stories for Businessweek magazine and is the author or co-author of more than a dozen business books, including two New York Times bestsellers. His collaboration with legendary GE Chairman Jack Welch was on the bestseller list for 26 consecutive weeks.

Amy Kristof-Brown was named dean of the Tippie College of Business in 2020. She joined the Tippie College after receiving her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the University of Maryland in 1997.

Since that time, she has been an award-winning professor in the college’s Department of Management and Entrepreneurship. In her tenure at Tippie, she has served as director of the department’s doctoral program, as department executive officer, as senior associate dean of the college, and later as interim dean until being named dean in late 2020.

Her research interests focus on the compatibility or fit between individuals and their work environments. She is the co-editor of the book Organizational Fit: Key Issues and New Directions, and has published over 20 articles in academic journals as well as several book chapters. As a mentor, she has served on 30 doctoral and master’s thesis committees.

Professionally, she served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology and of the Journal of Business and Psychology. She is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association. She presents regularly to companies and student groups on topics including finding a good fit during a job search, the millennial and Gen Z workforce, managing, change, and negotiating for what you need.

Amy and her husband Ken Brown live in Iowa City and are the parents of two college aged daughters.

Professor Karolyi is a scholar in investment management with a specialization in international financial markets. He has published extensively in journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Financial Studies, and has published several books, including his 2015 book Cracking the Emerging Markets Enigma. His research is featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and CNBC. He is a recipient of the Michael Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations (2017), the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing (2005), the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Finance (2001), the Journal of Empirical Finance's Biennial Best Paper Prize (2006), and Johnson School's Prize for Excellence in Research (2010). He leads executive education programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, and is actively consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. Karolyi is a newly elected board member of Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) and the UN’s Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). He serves as a Global Advisory Councilor for Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), and is an Academic Advisory Councilor for the Kroner Center for Financial Research.  He currently serves as a director of the American Finance Association, is past president of the Western Finance Association, and is past chairperson of the board of trustees of the Financial Management Association International. Karolyi received his BA (Honors) in economics from McGill University and worked at the Bank of Canada for several years in its research department. He subsequently earned his MBA and PhD degrees in finance at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago.

Dr. Kathy Farrell became the James Jr. and Susan Stuart Endowed Dean of the College of Business on December 1, 2017, after serving nearly a year as interim dean. She immediately launched an inclusive strategic planning process to help guide the college with a new mission, guiding principles and strategic initiatives. Focusing on key mission-focused goals, Farrell cultivated donor support for seven new endowed faculty chairs, implemented the Seacrest Teaching Fellows program, launched the undergraduate business and law major, established the Inclusive Business Leaders program, offered additional free tutoring for students in business classes and increased funding for student scholarships, along with other student retention initiatives. The college's connection with Nebraska's business community also expanded with the addition of several new online graduate programs and continuing education offerings for professionals to help meet workforce demands.

Elected to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Board of Directors in 2023, Farrell is an experienced academic and business leader. She formerly served as associate dean of the College of Business for four years and chair of the Department of Finance for two years. She also serves on the boards of directors of Lincoln-based organizations Nelnet, Inc., Assurity, Inc. and Bryan Health.

After joining the College of Business in 1993, she taught corporate finance and banking for over 20 years. She received the Distinguished Teaching Award and the University Distinguished Teaching Award along with achieving tenure in 2001 and full professor in 2009.

Farrell’s research interests include executive compensation, executive turnover and succession, and other corporate governance issues. Her publications have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Business, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, National Tax Journal, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Research and others.

Jeffrey R. Brown is Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor of Business and Dean of the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois.  Dean Brown holds a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters of Public Policy degree from Harvard University, and Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Political Science from Miami University. He is a research associate of NBER, a faculty affiliate of the Institute on Government and Policy Affairs, and a fellow of the TIAA-CREF Institute. He previously served as the founding director of the Center for Business and Public Policy at the University of Illinois. 

Brown serves as a trustee for TIAA, a Fortune 100 financial services company.  He serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Managers of UI Singapore Research LLC. He is also a member of the advisory board for the Tax Policy Center, a joint initiative of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. He previously served on the board of the American Risk and Insurance Association.

Prior to joining the Illinois faculty, Brown was an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 2001-2002, he served as senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. In 2001 he also served on the staff of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. In 2006, President Bush nominated, and the Senate confirmed, Brown as a member of the bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board.  He also served on the 2015 Social Security Technical Panel.

Brown has published extensively on public and private insurance markets, including articles in The American Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy, The Journal of Finance, The Journal of Financial Economics, and numerous other journals and books. He is the recipient of the Lumina Award for Outstanding Research in Insurance and E-Commerce, the Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security, the ARIA Early Career Scholarly Achievement Award, and the RIIA Achievement in Applied Retirement Research Award. He was also named a University Scholar by the University of Illinois in 2011.

Andrew Jack is global education editor for the Financial Times, writing on educational issues around the world and editorial lead for the free FT schools programme. He was previously head of curated content, deputy editor of the big read section, pharmaceuticals correspondent, and a foreign correspondent in France and Russia.

Ashish is an Indian-American business leader. He is currently Vice President of Supply Chain Strategy for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a global biopharm company. Ashish is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Lean Manufacturing Coach.

Ashish earned his engineering degree from NDRI in India. He started his career with  GSK Consumer Healthcare, India in 1996 as an Assistant Manager Plant Operations. Ashish worked in various manufacturing and supply chain operations positions in India before moving to China in 2005 as Supply Chain Lead for GSK Regional Pharma Sourcing. Continuing his global journey, Ashish moved to the United States in 2009 as Director of Operational Excellence and Business Change at GSK in Clifton New Jersey. In 2014, Ashish received his MBA in Strategy and Finance from The University of Chicago - Booth School of Business (Chicago, IL).

During his tenure at GSK, Ashish has worked in various leadership roles such as Head of Accelerated Delivery Program, Dermatology Strategy, and Vice President, Specialty Pharma Supply Chain, VP and Head of Pharma Supply Chain. Currently, Ashish is Vice President, Global Supply Chain Strategy, his responsibilities include Supply Chain Leadership for GSK's Medicines portfolio that includes Benlsyta, Nucala, Zejula, Cabuneva, Trelegy, Jemperli and Vaccine portfolio that including leading assets like Shingrix, Arexvy helping protect people from Shingles, RSV, Meningitis, Flu, Polio, measles and more.     

Ashish is passionate about fostering Supply Chain community in the US, Talent development and is a DEI advocate. Outside of work Ashish enjoys spending time with family, playing tennis and traveling. Ashish is a Economics geek, loves to listening to podcasts / books on Audible and is a Star Wars fanatic!