Media Coverage

The New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) announced that 40 individuals are the recipients of its 2024 Ovation Awards in seven categories: Lifetime Leader; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Exceptional Educators; Emerging Leaders; Impact; Innovation; and Women to Watch.

Ovation Award winners in the other categories advanced leading-edge ideas on their jobs, with the use of technology or in assisting clients/customers; made an impact in their communities; enhanced the well-being of their employees or staff; mentored the next generation of CPAs and accounting professionals; made their mark in classrooms; or promoted an open and diverse accounting profession.

“We could not be prouder of those individuals who have won these awards, raised the awareness of the accounting profession and helped their communities,” said Aiysha (AJ) Johnson, MA, IOM, CEO and executive director at the NJCPA. “We are thrilled to recognize their outstanding accomplishments.”

Exceptional Educators, Ann Medinets, Ph.D., MBA — Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers Business School, New Brunswick

“Under Trump, I think the risks are pretty high that the economy could go into a massive slump, particularly with all this tariff talk and raising the budget deficit," said Parul Jain, who teaches finance and economics at the Rutgers Business School in Newark. "The Fed will have to rethink their policies as well.”

“Rutgers University-Newark stands out as a beacon of opportunity, particularly for students from historically underserved backgrounds,” said Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, Rutgers University-Newark Interim Chancellor. “Our partnership with Braven beautifully exemplifies how an anchor institution can collaborate to advance our shared missions. This award is a true recognition of the measure of hope that partnerships like ours can instill in students.”

Working with RU also offered the OED the opportunity to get direct input from one of its target audiences. “That was really exciting for us, to get to partner with Rutgers with their entrepreneurship students through the business school,” Paolini said. “And now that we have this tool, the students are one of the groups that we will be directly reaching out to let them know that when they graduate, they don’t have to leave the area to find the type of job that they’re looking for — that you have these Fortune 500 companies in your backyard, all of these opportunities for great paying jobs.”

“That stock will be replaced quickly,” said Kevin Lyons, a supply chain expert at the Rutgers Business School in Newark.

Interim Chancellor Jeffrey Robinson noted that the 50th anniversary launch event was the first in a year-long series of occasions to celebrate the school. “It has taken its place as one of the prestigious schools of criminal justice in the nation,’’ he said. “It has done incredible things, not just here in Newark but around the country.’’

Automation looms, setting the stage for more labor disruption ahead, said Arash Azadegan, a professor of supply chain management at Rutgers Business School in Newark and New Brunswick.

"I think we're at the start of something that is going to be concerning in the next few years," Azadegan said. "Self-operating cranes at the port are going to be more and more prevalent in the not-so-distant future. So those are the things that become concerning, meaning that there's going to be more complaints (from workers). So it's kind of a brave new world."

And even then, the market still has many modes of transportation serving it, said David Dreyfus, an associate professor in Rutgers University’s Department of Supply Chain Management.

The West Coast ports remain open, shipping lines with Mexico and Canada continue functioning as usual, and companies that rely on ports now idle because of the strike will start looking for alternative routes like rail and air, he noted.

“We’re all a little still getting over the pandemic, and we remember what that was like,” Dreyfus said. “But this isn’t the pandemic. The logging hasn’t stopped. The mills haven’t stopped running. The trucks and trains are still running. They’re humming along. It’s just one mode of transportation has stopped — and only decreased by a certain percentage; it hasn’t completely stopped. So while things may be slow and there might be some temporary shortages, it’s not going to be like we saw a few years ago.”

Rudi Leuschner is an associate professor and director of master of supply chain management at Rutgers Business School.

“This strike covers the entire East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico – that accounts for about 60% of goods coming into the United States,” Leuschner told NJBIZ. He noted that figure has increased because of the widening of the Panama Canal.

Leuschner explained that the shipping companies cannot just switch back and send their goods to the West Coast ports to get around the strike.

“The union has actually said that if a ship gets diverted to the West Coast, they’re going to make sure that the West Coast workers will not unload it to basically protect the strike,” said Leuschner. “So, that’s kind of an interesting situation. They’ve kind of made it so that goods will slow down. Now, when that happens, it’s going to be an immediate reaction that all consumers feel.”

“This program is an excellent example of how Rutgers-Newark in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office, through existing infrastructure with incredible staff and faculty, celebrates innovation and spotlights the talents of new first-year, first generation college students,” Rutgers University-Newark interim chancellor Jeffrey Robinson said.

Supply chain management professor Arash Azedagan explains a shortage could be a great time for consumers to shop locally, like farmers’ markets or neighborhood small businesses. Generally speaking, smaller establishments tend to not have as broad of a supply chain and sourcing issue.

Watch the 2 minute video

The arrival of goods such as toilet paper on your local store shelves is dependent on a fine-tuned and fragile supply chain, Rutgers supply chain professor David Dreyfus wrote in February this year.

“After the first early weeks of the pandemic, demands for goods escalated," Dreyfus wrote. "This renewed demand ballooned to extreme levels in many industries. With greater demand and fewer workers, businesses and suppliers could not keep up. The complexity and structure of our supply chains were working against us.”

Demand for toilet paper surged as consumers hoarded rolls in anticipation of a shutdown that was slated seemingly to go on indefinitely, but “production had halted.”

Eventually, as the world reopened, production resumed, Dreyfus noted, from loggers harvesting timber to paper mills turning wood into paper, manufacturers churning out rolls of toilet paper and truck drivers getting them to nearby stores.

Experts say that while the repercussions of the strike will be felt across the country, the disruption to the supply chain of goods did not come unexpectedly in the way COVID-19 did. “These port strikes are disruptions that gave warning,” says Rutgers Business School professor Arash Azadegan. “That helps organizations to be better prepared.”

Why should small business owners favor using business cash back credit cards over consumer cash back cards?
Businesses often prefer small business cash-back cards due to their tailored nature. For example, a business card may enable firm employees to use it to purchase travel and entertainment experiences at a discount. The card may also facilitate record-keeping activities across several employees for the same firm.

Why are prepaid cards so popular?
I wouldn’t say they are very popular, but they provide some benefits. For example, they may be used by someone who repairs their credit and finds it difficult to get a conventional credit card. They also may be used by someone beginning to establish their credit since they ensure the holder will not overspend. Generic prepaid cards may be given as a gift and enable holders to purchase an item they like instead of being given the proverbial ugly sweater or fruitcake. Prepaid cards and traditional credit cards avoid the need to carry cash, which runs the risk of being lost or stolen.

Are there alternatives for people considering prepaid cards?
Debit cards may be an alternative since they ensure someone will not spend more than they have. However, most debit cards do not provide benefits like cashback or a discount on purchases.

A professor from the Rutgers Business School says the duration of the strike could expand the industries affected.

"It could affect the manufacturing industry located around the port. They rely on receiving raw materials for inputs into their manufactured goods," said associate professor Rudi Leuschner.

The increase in the Fed Funds rate from 0 to 5% created a very stressful situation for banks. The increase in the Fed Funds rate pushed up the cost to banks to service their short-term debt and deposits but did not (immediately) change the income banks receive on their existing stock of loans and other assets. This reduced bank profitability. Banks responded to a decline in their profits and an increase in their cost of funds by tightening credit standards (higher loan-to-values (LTVs), higher debt-service coverage ratio (DSCRs)) and charging higher interest rates on construction loans and commercial mortgages. This had an immediate impact on our sector: Projects no longer penciled out, deals fell through, developments under construction were abandoned, prices fell and transaction volume declined.

As the Fed reduces rates, we should expect the exact opposite to occur. Bank profitability will rise, freeing up cash to banks and enabling banks to make more loans. The loans they make will have lower DSCRs, higher LTVs and lower interest rates. The availability of more plentiful and cheaper finance to the sector will enable firms to bid more aggressively for deals, pushing up prices and transaction volumes. All in all, the decline in rates will be good for commercial real estate.

In our quest to empower high school and college students with financial literacy, and ultimately financial freedom, we have developed the +Club program that seeks to answer the elusive, age-old question: How can one achieve financial freedom and pave the way to a fulfilling and good life? At the heart of our program is the concept of Living Within Your Means — or LWYM. To make this idea resonate, we turn to the appeal of popular culture, offering cautionary tales of celebrities who, despite their vast prior fortunes, faced financial ruin by spending beyond their means. We also emphasize the importance of saving early in order to have the “miracle” of compound interest work effectively for young people.

Robinson, a Rutgers alumnus, is an internationally known author and co-founder of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers Business School. He joined Rutgers-Newark in 2008 as a faculty of management and global business at Rutgers Business School. His work addresses community and economic development issues for urban metropolitan areas in the United States and abroad.

He is the co-author of two books published by HarperCollins Leadership, including "Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness," published in 2010, and a sequel, "Black Faces in High Places: 10 Strategic Actions for Black Professionals to Reach the Top and Stay There," which won a 2023 Axiom Award, one of the top honors for books about business. Both books were co-authored with Rutgers alumnus Randal Pinkett, Robinson’s long-time friend and business partner.

What can we learn from Capital One’s marketing strategies, particularly its television advertising?

Capital One’s TV ads bring a fresh perspective to marketing, focused on the customer experience; not too cerebral but certainly very personal, more sensory, emotional and perhaps intuitive. Research has shown that customer decisions are not entirely rational, indeed, that was the topic of my dissertation, so Capital One’s approach is very much in line with the trends and the evolution of marketing.

“Investing doesn’t take overnight, right? There’s planning stages, there’s R&D, there’s all that stuff that takes time. I think the Fed is giving you the green light to get to work,” said Fred Hoffman, a finance professor at Rutgers University.

The companies best positioned to get to work are big corporations that can take on risk. Because bigger picture, borrowing money is not just about the cost of borrowing. It’s also about business conditions.

“We’ll have another president. We’ll have another Congress,” Hoffman said, which could come with changes to corporate taxes and tariffs.

NJ Spotlight News spoke with Dr. Farrokh Langdana, director of the Rutgers Executive MBA Program, who described the action as the most decisive move yet by the Fed in its long-running battle against inflation.

“Inflation had vanished from our country since 1981, then it came back in 2022 when the Fed hit the brakes 11 times,” he said. “Then what’s happened now is that while the inflation is down, it looks like they have engineered a soft landing. The labor market was throwing up these red lights, and this time the Fed’s trying to get ahead of it.”

Watch video interview

“EisnerAmper is a firm focused on hiring Rutgers students and helping to ensure that students studying real estate are prepared to join the workforce,” said Morris A. Davis, Paul V. Profeta chair of real estate and academic director for the Rutgers Center for Real Estate. “Partnering with a dedicated firm whose mission includes the highest ethical standards will benefit the students interacting with their professionals.”

Lisa Kaplowitz brings a real-world perspective to academia. An associate professor of professional practice in the Finance and Economics Department at Rutgers Business School, she draws on 20-plus years of experience as an investment banker and CFO to teach finance in a way that goes beyond textbook examples, challenging students to think: “How are we going to use this information to grow the business?” Kaplowitz is also co-founder and executive director of the Rutgers Center for Women in Business, which works to remove barriers, build community and empower women.

Lei is a professor and has been dean of the Rutgers Business School since 2015. She holds a doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a minor in Computer Science. Her research focus includes supply chain network design and optimization, operations planning, scheduling, process recovery after disruptions, demand-supply planning and resource allocation optimization.

“EisnerAmper is a firm focused on hiring Rutgers students and helping to ensure that students studying real estate are prepared to join the workforce,” said Morris A. Davis, Paul V. Profeta chair of real estate and academic director for the Rutgers Center for Real Estate. “Partnering with a dedicated firm whose mission includes the highest ethical standards will benefit the students interacting with their professionals.”

Which type of credit card is better for beginners: one with no annual fee and no rewards, or one with rewards and an annual fee?

For beginners, I recommend a card that does not have a fee. Why pay a fee if one is not even sure if they are going to use the card?

Why don’t more credit card companies offer cards for people with limited or no credit history?

The short answer is credit risk. Credit card debt is unsecured, there is no collateral supporting the debt, thus the card company has to rely on the borrower paying it back in good faith. If a person has not track record, then how does the bank know that they are a good credit risk?

”If they took the money out of the bank, the banking law is pretty clear that they committed fraud and they have to get the money back,” Mark Guthner, an associate professor of financial practice at Rutgers University, said of the customers who participated in the scheme in a conversation with Banking Dive. “Then it's up to the bank to go chase the people down and take them to court. [It’s] a criminal offense, subject to potential jail time and and a fine. The people that did this are in trouble.”

Typical bouts of consumer outrage and accompanying boycotts tend to be fleeting, Michael Barnett, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School, told The Post.

“Public memory is usually short. New issues arise on an almost daily basis, crowding out concern for yesterday’s news. Old habits and cravings start to outweigh lingering concerns,” he said.

Barnett noted that the Israel boycotts could, in some geographies, permanently shift consumer habits.

What is the biggest myth about your school?

I can’t really say that there is a “myth” about Rutgers Business School. The school lives up to the standards and achievements that it displays to the world.

Grocery stores could use AI to recommend products to customers that they’re more likely to buy based on their shopping history, said Madhavi Chakrabarty, an assistant professor of marketing at the Rutgers Business School.

“Humans forget and make mistakes,” she said in an email. “If they have an ally in their shopping platform which can remind them when they need to reorder or renew, it becomes easy for buyers.”

Shopping is the "New Jersey state sport," according to Marc Kalan, an associate professor at Rutgers Business School. But it's the job of businesses to pick up on what consumers want, and cater to it.

"Consumers continually change. They're not boring, they're pretty fascinating," Kalan said. "Good companies that just didn't see the change fell by the wayside."


Specialty retailers, which focus on one category of goods, are generally able to prosper, he said — as long as they're in a community with the right amount of demand.

"You don't have to be stuck in what you do today," Kalan said of businesses. "You have to be looking at what people need today, but also, where are they going tomorrow?"

I chose an Executive MBA program over a traditional or part-time MBA program because I wanted to leverage the breadth of experience the cohort would bring. I also preferred a program that would be flexible, given my tendency to travel for work.

The center’s investment readiness program, named iReady, is designed to address these gaps through one-on-one intensive coaching and training, CUEED Executive Director Lyneir Richardson said.

“For 15 years, CUEED has been developing strategies to help diverse entrepreneurs build growth plans and access capital. Our goal is to go beyond helping people create good pitch decks. We want these entrepreneurs to be equipped to navigate the investor screening and due diligence processes with confidence.”

Dunbar’s strategy is “spot on,” according to Terri Kurtzberg, professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School, who said that some burden for effective employee communication needs to be placed on the employer.

“The out-of-sight, out-of-mind problem is very real. But it’s not realistic to say it didn’t work and just come back to the office,” Kurtzberg told The Epoch Times.

But, the problem has not been fixed, as a 2017 essay by the late Brookings economist Alice M. Rivlin and John B. Soroshian notes: “The professional assessment of risk makes credit ratings essential for efficient financial markets, yet the ratings system remains highly flawed.”

Other academic studies, like the 2014 Rutgers paper by Valentin Dimitrov, Darius Palia, and Leo Tang, and the 2023 Cambridge paper by Bina Sharma, et. alia, find empirical evidence that regulation has made the CRA system worse.

Longo, an investment strategist and author of “Buffett’s Tips,” which outlines how Warren Buffett made his billions, told the students he was there to teach them how to make money, how to hold on to it, and why compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. “If you start saving early, even just a little bit, your money will snowball,” was his mantra.

Students have changed, and instructors should reconsider their assumptions about what engagement means, Mary C. Kern and Terri R. Kurtzberg write.

Is it fair for car insurance companies to consider gender or age when setting premiums?

First and foremost, firms need to be transparent with the criteria that they are using when setting premiums and the criteria should directly tie to specific logic or rationale related to risk. In the case of insurance, certain demographic attributes contribute to risk exposure for the firm. If the firm wants to consider those criteria and the use of such data are legally acceptable, then it seems appropriate for firms to do so within limits. The use of those criteria becomes a problem, however, if everyone in a particular segment gets priced out of the market such that a person of a specific age and gender cannot obtain coverage. For example, it is a societal problem if car insurance is prohibitively expensive for male teenagers. Not being able to drive themselves to work or school would severely limit their ability to develop into adults and contribute to society.

Microsoft is now offering a free tool to help fix the faulty software update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. But Mark Guthner from the Rutgers Business School said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News that the crash brings into focus the longer-term vulnerability that comes from so many global companies relying on a few systems.

“What we’re seeing in the technology world is everything becoming more and more centralized, and so what that does is it creates a single point of failure,” said Guthner, associate professor of finances and economics at the Rutgers Business School.

“And in this case, if you think about CrowdStrike, I think they have about 250 of the S&P 500 stocks dependent upon their platform,” he said. “So if they have a problem on their platform, 250 of the largest companies have a problem. There’s a very small probability that this happens, but when it does happen, it’s a catastrophe.”

Do you have any advice for people who are interested in taking out a debt consolidation loan?

Most people considering debt consolidation loans are in a situation where they have various debts (say from high-interest credit cards), are worried about their finances, and are looking to combine their various debts into a single loan that they can then finance at a lower interest rate.

I would say that the number one thing that people considering debt consolidation loan should focus on is the net costs and benefits that debt consolidation provides. For example, many people look at debt consolidation loans to lower monthly payments. But some debt consolidation loans actually have higher interest rates. Others offer lower rates but over longer terms or maturities, increasing the overall cost of these loans.

Parul Jain, who teaches finance and economics at Rutgers Business School, has said that tipping got a huge boost during the COVID-19 pandemic.


People used to tip on the basis of performance, she said. Now, the near ubiquitous use of touch screens at places where we'd never previously thought to tip applies enormous pressure.

The expectations for a tip remained high even after the pandemic subsided. "Tipping norms went up," Jain said. Moreover, restaurants already faced with increased food costs began relying on increased tips to pay their employees.

Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, who leads Filene’s Center for Innovation and Incubation, urged attendees at Filene’s Spark Conference to think more broadly about how innovation can also be used in response to issues facing CUs and their communities.

Robinson, who is Prudential Chair in Business at Rutgers Business School, said during a session titled “Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Racial Economic Opportunity” that while co-authoring with Filene’s research manager, Staci Duros, a 2023 report titled “Innovation Matters: Creating Competitive Growth in Credit Unions,” one of the main findings that was brought to light was the “power of social innovation.”

Rutgers University–Newark has named Bonnie Veysey, a professor and former interim dean of the School of Criminal Justice, as Executive Vice Chancellor and Interim Provost. She started her role on July 1.

Veysey will succeed Jeffrey Robinson, who became Interim Chancellor after former Chancellor Nancy Cantor was appointed to become president of Hunter College.

“Bonnie has deep and broad experience as an academic leader and innovator and an outstanding record of success in leadership at Rutgers-Newark,’’ said Robinson.

“Her visionary implementation and expertise across Rutgers-Newark in areas such as faculty roles in student success, advancing equity through institutional culture, and what it means, and what it takes, for a university to live up to its role as an anchor institution,’’ he added.

How do co-branded credit cards from Target, Sam's Club or Home Depot work at stores outside of the chains in question?

If it is a traditional Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express card, it should work virtually anywhere. However, the benefits will be low to non-existent for purchases at stores other than those of the co-branded card. If it is a store-specific card not tied to Visa, Mastercard, etc., then it likely will not work outside that store.

Steve Adubato welcomes Arturo Osorio, Ph.D., associate professor of entrepreneurship at Rutgers Business School and secretary of the board at the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, to highlight the Hispanic community’s impact on the U.S. economy and the ongoing discrimination members face.

Video with captions

“Rutgers-Newark is a gem in the crown of Rutgers University because we have figured out how to have a vibrant university that is a hallmark of access and opportunity for all and produce award-winning scholarship that transforms fields of study and engages local and global communities,’’ said Robinson. “Our strength is found in the diverse voices that our students, faculty, staff and stakeholders bring to the table.”

Research on networking and “dormant ties”— broadly defined as work-related connections that subjectively feel like they’re no longer active, where you’re no longer in touch — could also provide insights to the benefits of reconnecting with old friends. This research about professional contacts shows that there are different benefits to meeting up with someone you’re already close to, compared with a new acquaintance, says Daniel Levin, a professor at Rutgers University who researches professional networking.

“Global companies should prioritize transparent communication with their subsidiaries to swiftly address the fallout from socially irresponsible actions,” urges Dr. Ajai Gaur, professor at Rutgers University and co-author of the study.

When should a business owner prefer getting a charge card over a conventional credit card?

Charge cards should be paid off in full each month, or else future purchases will be restricted or halted. Paying off the card bill in full each month is one of the keys to increasing your credit score and building wealth over the long term. Hence, a charge card instills a certain sense of discipline. However, many charge cards come with an annual fee, while most credit cards do not. The benefits provided and the interest rate charged for all cards should also be part of the decision-making process. So, the business owner should consider all these factors before making the final decision.