2021 Quinnipiac University Commencement - Graduate School of Business and School of Engineering

so so so so foreign so hahaha so my so so so so so so foreign so so all right good evening uh you can um you can be seated i am deborah leibowitz i am the provost here at quinnipiac university and i am very pleased to declare quinnipiac university's 2021 graduate commencement exercises for the school of and the school there's a lot there's a lot of pressure on you guys because there's fewer of you and the school of maybe the business people could help out here it's engineering is the answer okay and the school of all right it is officially open all right i told you you could sit but it wasn't really true so please stand for the national anthem which will be performed by caroline ringel oh say can you see by the dawn's early light white so proudly we hail at the twilight's last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the rain we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets that our flag was to oh the race woohoo go caroline congratulations thank you that was fabulous all right you can sit now i actually mean it at least for a minute um so i am really honored to be here today with you as i complete my first year as provost and i have been consistently amazed by the brilliance kind of like what you just saw and the care and compassion of our students you have completed your studies in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and have continually shown a kind of resiliency and grit that has been unparalleled so you really have risen to the challenge and so class of 2021 we are about to officially send you on your way so you know we wouldn't have made it here today sitting on the quad um without the faculty and staff who helped mentor you through your academic program and so you know it has really been through this period of time which has been quite challenging for us all that we've really kept our students and very soon our graduates at the forefront of our efforts supporting educating and also learning from you along the way and so class in 2021 i invite you to rise and thank the faculty who are at the front here for their support along the way okay i i particularly love the individual shout outs there that was awesome don't sit hot it's like a calisthenics exercise you know these are long right so we may as well get a little exercise there are people around the perimeter here who i think also have been instrumental in your journey to this uh accomplishment and so why don't you take a minute to thank your the people who love you who are here that's right i don't know if you can all see but they're waving back all right now you really can sit so i'll just take a couple of moments to recognize uh the members of our platform party which consists of our commencement speaker who you will meet in a moment and also university administrators and the deans of the schools of business and engineering but it is now my honor to present to you dr judy olean who is the president of quinnipiac university and she will bring you greetings on behalf of the university community good afternoon everyone thank you that's mba students they know how to respond when they're cold called on i know that uh thank you and welcome to everyone we are so happy to see you here on the quad it's been a long time we've suffered without you we have missed you and it is just very heartwarming to see everyone back a lovely beautiful day at the feet of sleeping giant and to moms and dads or brothers sisters partners spouses it is wonderful to be able to be open to have all of you here on campus and i know that behind those masks those eyes are conveying some joy real joy to be here i'd also like to welcome our esteemed guest and speaker john von stein he is the ceo of the network engineering firm qxc john will be introduced shortly and we are just so delighted that you've joined us today john and that you'll share your very interesting life story and life lessons with all of us on on the podium i'd also like to um introduce a member of our board of trustees trustee pat charmell who is here and patty's the ceo of griffin hospital and you owe him a great debt of gratitude because he really kept us on the ground griffin hospital was our partner in all of the testing that you all went through some of you went through very regularly and griffin was our vaccine partner that we brought on campus just recently and griffin has been amazing in the community in terms of their outreach to offer all of the protective services between testing and vaccinations and really treatment and healing of covert patients so pat thank you for being a trustee and for all you've done and i'll tell you one more secret pat and john were not just classmates but roommates at quinnipiac when they were here i believe that spells trouble and i want to express a huge debt of gratitude to our faculty and our staff um it wasn't easy for anyone and certainly to stay on ground on campus uh for the year that was uh could not have happened without a lot of players and certainly our students who i'll acknowledge in a moment but our faculty and staff were just agile pivoting in a moment and totally committed to the purpose that is quinnipiac and and they made it uh really all possible so thank you faculty and staff for what you all made happen now i'm going to take this a special opportunity to express our profound and collective gratitude to dean matt o'connor of the school of business and dean justin kyle of the school of engineering both of them are returning to the classroom this fall and will once again be happily full-time members within quinnipiac within their schools but not after we acknowledge their tremendous leadership in each of their schools dean o'connor led the school of business for really the last 13 years the first in the interim role in 12 years as the dean and he was pivotal in extending aacsb accreditation of the school's business and accounting programs many uh new initiatives were launched during his term including new programs new degree programs he played a critical role in establishing the game forum which is now in its 10th year and has become the largest student-run financial conference in the world attracting the who's who of wall street dean kyle was the founding dean of our school of engineering in 2012. he has helped elevate the school stature from just an apple in the former president's eye to what it is today with very innovative offerings in a very short time and because of his constant focus on assuring that curricular and hands-on learning experiences are really keeping pace with market needs the school of engineering students uh if they not only are not already working as many of our students are but those who are seeking employment have a 99 success rate on graduation quickly snapped up for employment by some of the major technology and engineering firms around the country so please join me in thanking dean o'connor and dean kyle for their legacy their impact will live on for many decades and we are so pleased and fortunate that you'll stay as part of the bobcat family in your faculty roles thank you and now to you our graduates we are here to celebrate you with you we all made it together to this point it would be an extraordinary milestone in any year but it's all the more extraordinary given how you the class of 2021 persevered with grace with fortitude with courage with compassion during a very difficult year you were mature and resilient and you were still able to do your academics and all of the extracurricular things that are going on in your lives some of you have jobs and and you manage that in what was and i'll use the word once this unprecedented year that is so overused i give huge credit to each of you for considering really the whole community in in the way you conducted yourselves uh i've watched students speak up and take action for social justice as they've advanced inclusive excellence during this year showing again that there's a lot more to your purpose than the immediate life that is right in front of you of which much do you care about the greater good the well-being of others in the community our business students have spearheaded something called vida the voluntary income tax assistance program which has helped prepare uh federal and state tax returns from vulnerable members of our community and have generated hundreds of thousands in refunds to these local residents you've been part of some micro lending projects in nicaragua you have joined in junior achievement in advancing financial literacy and entrepreneurship among the junior achievement high schoolers you in the mba program have used your project management class and provided consulting services to investigate design deliver comprehensive project plans for local and global businesses and our school of engineering students have worked with high schools to help kids improve their math skills to partner in designing some structures or pathways in the town of hampden a pedestrian bridge at pine rock and and so you have done a lot more than what your classes called for because of this greater good that runs to your through through your disposition and you've done all of that while juggling a hefty course load you've also worked alongside faculty in the financial technology center collaborated to create new business models and new technology models in the center for innovation and entrepreneurship you've designed some really cutting edge prototypes in the student fabrication workshop and even traced the steps of a cyber security breach in our network's systems and security classroom so you have done a lot of things that have done good but you're also positioned to really move into the future wave of professional careers that you are choosing you are ready as i look out on the quad today i see many different functions that you will advance engineers cyber security experts software developers logisticians analysts data analytic experts consultants and strategists financiers auditors tax specialists entrepreneurs and inventors managers and leaders who will bring new products new devices new technologies new ways of doing business of transacting of managing working and living you'll bring these new developments to fruition and you will invent you'll make and build you'll discern patterns and interpret trends that improve the quality of life for a broad cross-section of society here in this country and around the world also in less developed countries i i hope that that is not too daunting and order in terms of your uh career uh trajectory we have great confidence in you because you are so well prepared uh professionally and also dispositionally for what you are going to do we are confident really confident in the difference that you're going to make now i know it's been a really challenging period but we are absolutely coming out of it i'm confident for many years to come i'm sure we're going to look back at this last year and say to ourselves what did we learn what did it mean how did it change us and i know that we don't yet know all that will be revealed to us about this last year but i think i have already some initial takeaways four of them one that our lives can be totally upended suddenly by things we have no control over second that we have to focus on what we do control and not spin our wheels around what we don't and we're better able to deal with these extreme challenges if we're flexible in adapting to and resilient in our responses around what we do control three that we're social animals that we crave human contact that if we share joy and grief or hardship together we are fortified by that straw that shared experience that being together does make us stronger and that's what we missed so much of and that four we can solve big complex hairy issues way better if we work together if we pool our knowledge our problem-solving abilities our shared resources and find ways to consider the general good of the whole community i learned some of those lessons from our own community our faculty and staff and from you our students in how you responded in how you conducted yourselves with courage with grace with resilience over the last year we are so proud of you we are going to follow your life's journey with great interest we're going to ride your coattails every time you're successful we're going to brag about you please remain a bobcat for life and know that you will always have a home here at qu your home away from home we hope you come back often and become very active members of our alumni society so congratulations to the class of 21 you've already made your mark we can't wait to see how you continue to change the world and congratulations mom and dad you have now graduated someone off your payroll thank you all right so it is now my privilege to introduce to you and ask you to join me in thanking um dr matthew o'connor for his leadership of the school of business and so i will ask him to come forward and address the graduates so please join me in giving him a round of applause and appreciation you dr leibowitz uh thank you president olian good afternoon everyone and welcome to today's graduate commencement ceremonies for the schools of business and engineering what a treat to be able to share this celebration with all of you in person and here in the quad it's great to be back here as you know commencement is a truly special day it's not just a transition from student to alumni it's a public recognition of significant accomplishment and the start of a lifelong journey that will build on everything you've learned here and for the parents and partners and loved ones in the audience it's a big day for you as well so congratulations to you these students could not have done this without you and for me today is also a day of transition i'm completing 12 years as dean of the school of business plus one more year as interim dean thank you that's 13 years as a dean and it's been a good and long run and since we're talking about commencement here's a quick calculation 13 years means i've read about 10 500 names at commencement ceremonies like this so it's a lot of reading and a lot of names but it's been truly been 13 wonderful years and that is because of the great people here at quinnipiac university so first i want to thank president olian and provost leibowitz for their great leadership quinnipiac is in good hands and i expect a lot of great things to happen going forward i want to thank the other members of quinnipiac's administration too many to name here but definitely thank you to all of you i want to thank former president leahy and former provost mark thompson for giving me the opportunity to be a dean special thanks to all my dean colleagues including my friend justin kyle who i share the stage here with today i also want to thank the dean's office staff the associate and assistant deans the directors and secretaries some of you have put up with me for 13 years and that certainly deserves a public thank you quinnipiac is known for the tremendous dedication of its faculty so i want to recognize all of the faculty at quinnipiac university but obviously a very special thanks to the faculty in the school of business you guys are great and it's been an honor to work with you and serve as your dean i'm looking forward to rejoining your ranks again as professor of finance but the real honor for any dean and in fact for anyone working at any university is the opportunity to work with students and let me just state for the record quinnipiac students are the best the very best absolutely as a dean every day that was challenging was made a little easier by a student every day that was good was made even better because of a student to all of quinnipiac students to the 10 500 business graduates whose names i've read at commencement and especially to the class of 2021 thank you and congratulations thank you matt and i have to say um just personally i have tremendously benefited from matt's sage wisdom and sense of history and forethought about the future in my time at quinnipiac and so i am thankful that uh and and hopeful that he'll still pick up the phone going forward to offer uh uh good advice all right and so now i ask that you um do the same and give a a nice warm welcome and appreciation for the leadership of of dean kyle as we as he comes to address you the graduates thank you provost leibowitz first i want to echo the thoughts of many others and congratulate this year's graduating class and give a special congratulations to the family and friends who are here supporting you today i know my journey through college never would have happened without all of them this is my opportunity to say thank you to a lot of wonderful people i say thank you to former president leahy and former provost thompson for having the courage to launch a school of engineering a special thank you to my dean colleague matt o'connor who actually read the names of the first 19 graduates to earn a degree in engineering as we began as a department in the school of business when i started here nine years ago engineering was two faculty members in a closet and that's all we had and it was really cool to come to a university that was so excited to have us here all the faculty and staff welcomed us with open arms and went out of their way to make sure we had everything we need that includes our current administration provost leibowitz and president olean who have done tremendous things to move the school of engineering forward and allow us to grow and growing we have done and tonight we celebrate some of our first graduates from the masters of cyber security and it's awesome to be here on campus with them today as many of them have never stepped foot on this campus before as it's an online program i want to send a special thank you to all the faculty and staff of the school of engineering their hard work are really what made us what we are today and ultimately the thank yous go to our students as dean o'connor said you don't enter higher ed for the money you enter it to work with students and that has been the best part of my day day in and day out teaching classes and connecting with our great students and they have gone on to do wonderful things and i'm sure today's graduates will join them and change the world as we know it so a special thank you to everyone for helping us launch the school of engineering i'm excited to return to the faculty and be a faculty member and in the classroom and continue to support this wonderful institution thank you thank you justin and one of the things i've been really impressed by in both kind of learning about the school of engineering and working with justin is a recognition of the interdisciplinarity of engineering and the ways in which increasingly moving forward um you know engineering thinking and and all that engineering can bring to all of the schools at quinnipiac is is sort of first and foremost in in what uh justin kind of works toward and i actually very much look forward to taking his passion for students and helping to kind of build that out into the future so thank you um all right so it is now time for uh i'll introduce uh muhammad allahi who is a professor of international business and he will introduce our commencement speaker john von stein who is a graduate of 1981 batch has been a leader and an innovator in the fields of information technology financial services and telecommunications for nearly four decades in 2011 vonstein founded qxc communications incorporated a florida-based network engineering firm that uses aon fiber optic technology to deliver high performance digital services across 12 states he serves as the ceo and cto of qxc communications throughout his career von stein has held numerous v and c level positions in organizations across the united states europe south america and the middle east these include vice president of it for cargill a multinational food and agri-business organization and the chief operating officer of the saudi stock exchange in riyadh saudi arabia he earned his bachelor's degree in business from quinnipiac university and his mba from the university of bridgeport it is my privilege to introduce our commencement speaker john von stein yeah thank you very clean thank you oops there we go so first of all thank you very much uh president olean uh and deans o'connor and and kyle for the wonderful opportunity to address the students and soon to be graduates of corny px uh graduate schools of business and engineering so about 40 years ago and about 20 pounds ago uh i was sitting where you were right myself and actually my colleague patrick we just met each other again after 40 years we were actually roommates way back then so uh i only had about three thoughts in my mind at the time that i was sitting there was actually a very hot day that day the first thing i was thinking of feeling the you know the powerful sun beat down on my black cap and gown why did i drink so much last night yeah that was the first thing oh man second thing is how quickly is this ceremony going to be over because i got things to do right and third thing is because it was really big at the time when was bob seger and the silver bullet band going on tour in that summer of 81 right so obviously patrick was the intellectual in our in our room yeah that's for sure right no i had my mind elsewhere i was not really focused on the importance or the significance of this moment in my then young life i didn't know what challenges there would be that i would have to overcome i also didn't know what lessons i was going to have to learn the hard way throughout my life having that kind of foresight probably would have made my life a little bit easier probably a whole lot easier so with the gift of hindsight after 40 years what i hope to do for you over the next couple of hours no no just kidding just getting just a few minutes just a few minutes i'm glad you're listening though that's good yeah now what i hope to do is to give you a few lessons learned that i've had along the way that i thought might be useful to you in your journey ahead so it is often said that success is the best revenge i can also add to that that the perspiration from your brow makes that success sweeter don't be afraid of hard work and work for what you what you intend to accomplish unless you're already famous is anybody here already famous probably oh you are of course you are yeah i can tell unless you like this young man over here okay the rest of us have to actually work for stuff okay yeah so one of the things is is that the real world doesn't really care the real world is relentless the real world is unforgiving it doesn't really care who you are what grades you got what your family name is what town you grow up in or how much money you have or who your friends are there really doesn't the real world only really cares about what you can do for it right here right now all right and that's a reality check you're cutting coming out of a cocoon if you will of the college environment it's a wonderful environment i'm sure you've had a great education you're sure you've all had a lot of fun the real world's not like that the real world is very different so what do you do you have to be strong but you also have to be humble no matter how good you think you are no matter how think uh how good you you you you can be someone's already somebody's already better okay someone is already ahead of you today's economy is a thousand times better than it was in 1981 when patrick and i graduated there was all kinds of economic strife going on yes we have a bit of an issue with the covert recovery and stuff like that but trust me it is a thousand times better than it was then that doesn't matter you still can't be brash you still can't be mean to people you still have to have the credibility going forward you will need all the friends you can get along the way so early in my life i was actually a boy scout actually made eagle scout along the way and i love and i've always kept their motto near and dear to my uh to my to my soul which is be prepared i also had a lot of friends in the military right the us marine motto is improvise adapt and overcome darwin we all know darwin right he focused on the adaptability as a key to survival i've always used the phrase anticipate and circumnavigate as a for instance when we came out of school i actually in spite of myself was actually quite a good student i graduated near the top of my class lots of accomplishments lots of work experience i got zero job offers zero job offers coming out of school and i tried tried really hard so it was the economy it was all kinds of other things that were going on so what do i do i went and hid for two more years i went to graduate school it worked right i came out of graduate school i got a wonderful job with ibm as an engineer and so forth the rest of its history so part of that work environment i've worked uh as muhammad mentioned i've worked all around the world one and i've learned things everywhere i've gone when i was in argentina i was i was the regional manager for latin america for cargill at the time uh working in uh in buenos aires and there was this there was a sign up in one of our call centers uh that that was written in spanish but it was loosely translated as people will not remember exactly what you said or what you did but they will always remember how you made them feel right memories fade with time but feelings last forever so be kind when i was in europe i worked in switzerland in geneva switzerland and london england and there i learned the value of trust trust is the basis of every relationship whether it's personal or professional without trust you cannot communicate effectively if you can't communicate you cannot collaborate and if you cannot collaborate you really can't get anything done when i was in saudi arabia in the middle east amongst other things i was with the u.s embassy and and and was the vice chairman of the us chamber of commerce for for the for in riyadh there i learned about respect right the arab culture is very very respect centric there i learned to listen with open eyes and open ears but especially with an open mind you have to value your similarities you have to acknowledge your differences you have to celebrate your accomplishments but above all resolve your disappointments with compassion not emotion credibility is paramount throughout your career do what you say say what you do period broken promises lead to broken trust and we all know who that how that ends up your reputation as a professional regardless of what your discipline is is the weighted average of all of your words and all of your actions otherwise known as your deeds okay indeed a good deed has a value weighting of one a bad deed has a value rating of 10.

you can do the math i'm sure with every online interaction or with everything today being online be very careful what you post on social media because employers look at that right people who are looking to do business with you look at your social media be very careful what you put up there uh it's really hard to soar like an eagle if you have to spend all of your time digging yourself out of holes even from a long time ago big opportunities abound they abounded in 1981 they also abound today but they don't wait this is part of the real life okay bill gates once said that it takes about 10 000 hours to become an expert at something all right so let's do some more math so if you work 20 hours a week there's about 50 weeks a year how many hours is that about a thousand hours a year okay how many years does it take you to get to 10 000 10 years okay so if you're going to lollygag with something if you really want to you know accomplish something and become a an expert at something you have to put in the time to do it right so if you work 20 hours a week it's going to take you 10 years to become an expert at something if you put in 40 hours a week it's going to take you five years to get to become an expert at something if you work 80 hours a week 4 000 hours a year it takes you two and a half years to become an expert the biggest winners with every big opportunity get there first and there's no such thing by the way as an overnight success someone called me an overnight success i said yeah it took me 10 years to become an overnight success a lot of prep work there what you don't see is how much background work people are doing to become their overnight success in the early 2000s i was in russia and there's a russian proverb trust but verified all right president reagan actually uh took that phrase and as part of his mantra if you will during the assault nuclear arms treaties and such like that in the early early 80s but this has been a russian proverb for a long time it's okay to verify key facts in a decision that you're trying to make don't take it personally and if you're trying to verify facts on something else tell the people you're working with not to take it personally i'm not doing this personally i'm just trying to make sure we don't make an avoidable mistake this one oh this next one's good this is the one you know what i say yo some things i had to learn the hard way the air is human however to really screw things up you need a computer okay and software but basically make sure if you're going to automate something if you're going to streamline something make sure you work all the kinks out before you try to automate it okay uh that was a there's a whole lot of stories around that one actually career planning anybody here want to have a good career anybody interested in having a good career there you go i got some hands okay good you're still listening that's good so throughout my career i've interviewed thousands of people i i've i've hired hundreds of people i've fired dozens of people all right there are things that happen when you have large numbers like that and you see uh how the process works and all that so here is at least my interpretation of how the system of of career advancement works right you all know what a venn diagram is right the three overlapping circles whoops that was a disaster uh a venn diagram three overlapping circles for me my overlapping circles okay traits knowledge and skills those are the three things you can define every job as traits knowledge and skills what is what does it take for those uh combinations of things to to create the best job definition if you will okay traits or what they're things like attitude intelligence creativity curiosity logic uh charisma uh the linguistic skills trustworthiness persuasiveness those kinds of things these are the core character things that make you who you are as a person and they're important for the job that you're doing knowledge are things that you know not to be confused with opinions about what you think you know and skills are obviously the things you can do so think about every job definition as a vendor as a venn diagram and of course the where they all overlap is called the union right so you have a job union a definition a job definition if you will right candidates you okay and other people that are out there vying for that job you have a candidate union as well also rated by your traits knowledge and skills what we do as hiring managers and i've done this throughout my career either explicitly or implicitly we try to align job unions with candidate unions okay so it's not easy but this is what people are doing when they're actually evaluating multiple candidates for the same type of job so at the end of the day you have to get the job you have to be the best candidate your job your candidate union has to be the best fit with the job union if you will you have to be able to keep the job i cannot tell you how many times i've seen somebody promoted somebody into a new job or hired somebody into a job and they took it lightly it went to their ego it went to their head they started the coast they thought they were the man whatever it was don't do that take it seriously take it as the honor that the hiring manager actually bestowed upon you by giving you that job versus somebody else because there's always multiple candidates for every job third thing you have to excel at your job okay not only do your job but you can't lollygag through it right you have to excel at your job that means you have to do everything in the job description and then some and you have to do it consistently over time okay because that excelling is what gives you the right to bid for the next job in the organization all right i've seen a lot of people say oh this job sucks i hate this job i don't really want to do this job this job is beneath me i don't like it and they don't do a very good job with it and you know what happens they don't ever get promoted they don't go anywhere they're stuck in that horrible job that they don't like or isn't a good fit for them so even if you don't like your current job do it well because that's your fastest path out of there into the next thing so a career map overall right nobody know what a career map is kind of like a hurricane map you ever seen the hurricane hurricanes come in they say well on tuesday it's going to be category three it's here and on wednesday it's gonna be category four it's going to be there and i kind of think they have this plot well if you think about the venn diagram as your goal okay or is where you want to be if you think about envision yourself if you want to be a ceo someday if you want to be a doctor or an engineer or the head of science in some institution someplace envision yourself where you want to be by when create a job venn diagram for that job and then start working backwards from there to where you are today that is your personal career plan nobody else is responsible for doing that but you nobody else cares about your career more than you do okay you have to do this you have to take that responsibility so managers everybody know what a manager is this is somebody who makes you do something okay this is how things get done that's great managers are necessary leaders leaders make people want to get things done right the key difference there is motivation enlightenment uh and enrichment and desire right these are things that these are emotions that if leaders instill in people to make them want to get things done good leaders also tend to be good managers but not all managers are leaders uh the ceo of corn ferry uh if you don't know who corn ferry is you will you should okay it's one of the largest executive recruiting firms in the world but the ceo of corn ferry said that leaders are like shepherds sometimes they're in front sometimes they're behind but they're always among their team anybody in the organization could be a leader they don't necessarily have to be a manager so it really doesn't matter where you sit in the organization chart but where you stand with your team jim collins you wrote a book good to great if you haven't read it you should it's a wonderful book he said that what good leaders do they do six things first they surround themselves with strong people with the right people two they exit the wrong people if there's somebody who's not helping somebody who is not contributing to the team overall for the long-term success of the team they exit those people then they create a common vision and they and they communicate it to everyone they make sure that everyone is aligned around that common vision and pulling the rope if you will in the same direction they empower people to act they give them the degrees of freedom that they need in order to act on their own so you don't have to accept their subordinates don't need to keep coming back to the manager or the leader of the group and asking may i do this may i do that no you can you're empowered to do it and then they motivate they make sure there's proper incentives in place to reward that uh those behaviors and then they coach and then they coach and then they coach this is what leaders do the best leaders view your success as their job right the best leaders out there understand that you need to be groomed they will help you identify your opportunities for improvement don't again don't take it personally if someone takes an interest in you and says you know what you need to you did a good job with this but you know what uh you need to work on this that or the other thing okay thank them don't don't be defensive okay they're trying to make you flourish in your in your job again they're looking at this and saying okay in order for you to get to the next level you need to do an excellent job with what you're doing now all right leaders good leaders understand that their own success is simply is some of the parts of the people around them they have to make everybody else successful in order for them for their success to rise right they will help the team be successful and the team will help them be successful it's symbiotic so how do you develop as a leader it's important to do that well first thing you need to know the difference between management and leadership so understand that if you don't intuitively not know it already put some time in and studying that and understand it second to be a good leader find a good leader see if you can pick one out whatever it is a career path you're in or whatever industry you're choosing to go into find a good leader and only work for good leaders only work for good leaders learn from them and mimic them be like them department so how do you build a great team as a young leader how do you build a great team you do it with credit you don't go to the bank and take out a credit loan no it's not like that at all credit is recognition credit is recognition that you give away to people good job what a great spreadsheet you did okay boy no one could have done that sales call better than you that was wonderful you did a great job dealing with that hostile you know customer uh and and no one else could do it better than you credit is not a zero-sum game you don't lose it if you give it away all right the more credit you give away to other people and you recognize other people recognition is the lubricant that keeps the collaboration machine working in an organization the more credit you give away the more it will come back to you eventually taking credit especially from a subordinate or a team member is a career killer don't ever do it don't ever take credit for somebody else's work give credit away it will benefit you in the long run my personal definition of innovation is very similar to the chinese definition of luck which is the simultaneous occurrence of inspiration experience and opportunity inspiration of creative ideas you have to have something unique right experience is the know-how to get stuff done an opportunity oh frankly they're paying customers right somebody's going to give you money for something you need all three to get lucky in business okay now you can do it all yourself you try to do it all yourself or you can build the team right so especially in technology uh i spent a lot of my career in fact all my career in technology in one facet or another uh questions are sometimes the best answers ninety percent of the solution sometimes is simply the correct understanding of what the problem is right don't get distracted with symptoms be wise not foolish a fool makes the same mistake over and over again a smart person doesn't make the same mistake twice but a wise person observes and learns from other people's mistakes and they avoid them all together so be wise observe and learn something new from other people every day throughout your life so is anybody here thinking about running a business or starting a business anybody out there lots of hands wonderful oh we've got a enthusiastic waiver over here okay good that's good so just like making a bakery product of some sort there is a there is a recipe for a successful business launch this is my recipe right there are lots of ways to be successful this is my recipe okay number one the product or service that you plan to launch has to work it sounds obvious but there's a lot of things that fail on on launch okay so whatever it is that you do has to work okay number two it has to be sustainable it might be a novel idea but if you don't continue to evolve it or if it loses or if these the competitive advantage is easily uh mitigated then you don't really have much right and you know is anybody here watch watch uh shark tank right shark tank right kevin o'leary right what does it call people who you think that doesn't have a sustainable product it calls them cockroaches and and and the competition is going to come and crush them like a like a bug okay don't be don't be like that you have to have something that's a sustainable competitive advantage to whatever product or service that you have all right the next thing is capital okay you all know how to do a budget i'm assuming you all know how to use a spreadsheet that's a great tool wonderful tool okay but have plan b c d and e ready because you know what your plan a is wrong i don't care how good you are plan a is wrong it always takes more money than you think it's going to okay it's always going to take more time than you think it is there's customer education there's there's uh market uh advertisement and and awareness that you have to create it always takes more money the next area that you have to get over is talent and this is where you all come in okay the best companies tend to be able to attract and retain the best talent and again that comes to you as individuals as leaders as well good leaders attract good people all right perpetual innovation we talked about this this is uh constantly growing if you look at the fang uh companies out there right facebook apple amazon netflix google they started as single service or single product companies and they've grown their portfolios of offerings out there it's perpetual innovation all right and leading edge potential innovation and finally relentless execution is required once you finally get there you have to stay there because every other competitor out in the market will try to copycat and try to knock you off your pedestal they'll try to try to do what you're doing so in the spirit of the fifth verse of bob seger's infamous against the wind song which by the way was top of the charts in in february of 1980. he had a he had a phrase in there i wish i didn't know now but i didn't know them so now i sincerely hope that you know some of which i wish i knew when i was sitting where you are today so good luck with your careers and make your family and this university proud thank you very much thank you very much john all right so it is now my privilege to reintroduce dr matthew o'connor dean of the school of business who will introduce the candidates for degree you whoo all right thank you will the candidates for the degree of master of business administration please approach the stage marshals please direct the candidates to the platform demalola ruth aratiba dante joseph emerald james vincent amendola kristen adele anastas garugan aravinthen sonia joyce warrell asari eric norris barlow carly nicole bowersacks kayla elizabeth birmingham adriana lee bogan brooke d bon steele elise mary bowman anthony matthew bazone alexandra lynn bradley ava m brandt gabrielle sabrina branis austin george bristenden vanessa holly rose brokaw alison zimmerman brown brendan patrick brown matthew paul bruchalski amy melissa burstin gaetano carrillo christine lee carroll joseph philip cassidy edward cho michael anthony chiffo michael coe thomas patrick collecchio wendy joy collier williams garrett james connegan bradley patrick connolly brian andrew cookingham brent nicholas costantino anthony joseph kusich justin d daddio matthew arthur daley robert adam d benedictus marcella grace decanti eric james defrancesco john anthony defado megan elizabeth donnelly quinn alexander dragon alex j edelman shaquana samantha edwards ellie emanuel brendan s engel taylor elizabeth fay julia rose fenton jennifer j finley max thomas fortier elena carly gullan erica leticia garcia young kendall julia geary matthew joseph godess ashley rose govea greg m guerra jeffrey thomas halbach tori gene hannon ryan michael harrington destiny caroline henry abigail susan hinsley emma lucia horn jacob thomas horrigan ryan christopher isaacson bradley charles mendes jacks ryan stephen jakubowski henry richard jennett iii james terrance kessler jr ryan cameron kickham bertha valeria aletrista natalie elizabeth kimmel nicholas salvatore kohlhepp juspina kokoneshi marku anchalit barbara gay lee taylor kathleen lind anthony c liutza eric joseph loblando samantha page loud samantha is the recipient of the faculty award for academic excellence for the master of business administration program congratulations samantha austin randall liu victoria machado sergio muffeton tyler jason maine brandon robert massey alexandra lee mayo michael gaetano messenger tony manaya braden john mingo sean j malicki hudson james molinari sabrina daniela moeller joseph dominic morelli casey tyler morgan cameron joseph mowry terence d mulhall hayden scott nadler laura ann nicholas nicole irene neinsling michael samuel notkin cassie okay john edward opie jillian marie o'reilly madison rachel o'reilly jessica marie osmanski paige louise peck brent s pifer mikal passard nicole pastana matthew hayes-peterson giovanni pellegrino piscatelli marissa louise pizzeri casey lynn plitt adam thomas porel jason paul privilege john jude probst schweda thanoir punjabi christian john quigley benjamin james rand jacob samuel rogoni jessica rodriguez theodore l ruggieri lindsay a san clemente abby jade sang casey ann santini michael scafora jr tyler schneps miriam lou slattery kyle edward smith madison emily smith ryan raymond smith stephen williams smith stephen edward struar saba sugralazi tack stephen taylor ella isabelle traynor samantha locky tran vanessa china ray udagi hannah nicole van valvic carly rose vecchio benjamin james veglis elise nicole velkey larissa michael vina skylar rhiannon vigil marlo page wearer caitlin ann white lydia taylor willgus lindsey nora marie williams marissa nicole yulo christopher thomas simitas matthew zimmer danielle victoria zanudas janine celine zumerchuck i will now read the names of those candidates who are participating virtually jennifer aversano cody backus alyssa joanne baldega suman banava joyce margaret birmingham madison southard borden alexander reed fascio samuel alfred botwin julia lee bruno catherine burns frank butler jr william thomas karechia brian joseph chudi and safra clement stephen p consiglio ryan christopher cosgrove thomas costello keith andrew chris culo nathan c cupador nicholas thomas curry zachary michael cyren andrew max zodja vincenzo de luca francesca de paulo nicholas thomas damaris nicholas raymond desicco leonardo ferrara dos santos kristen drakopolis stephen irkus samantha marie figueroa stefania j flores espalotte kevin michael forbes angela gilbert richard thomas goulet colton june grab nicholas francesco gulata rasheed philip hussein william edward harvey mark richard heller tanya michelle hennigan dakota james herman jeffrey howard hein patrick j hill molly may hopkins arsene ishimwi erica e jones derek kasperzak sheamus colin kelly marissa a king hannah elizabeth kirk jake kovalchuk andrew cramer shannon michelle kropolinsky joseph r lamisella matthew john lipke victoria rose linda wall kyle christopher little kurt danielle mancini jared p mann taylor marie martin daniel a massey laker matthew michelle mcclain maximilian peter mediavilla melody fitch mokia keely j moxley janine nocera casey john o'donnell danielle r palermo christine pfeiffer dylan patrick ryan ashna sudwani joshua tyler salgado david finbarr sounders iii nicholas james scalora nicholas joseph zerbinsky alexandra layla sims kelsey slade ryan smith kevin michael stoddard jennifer marie strew caitlin ray sweet riley a swing megan solowski katie diane tabin alec james tiefenbacher nicole a tertiano riley mastro turner katrina nicole walker john howard westerman austin john yanone carla maria zaratsian i ask the candidates for the degree of master of business administration to please rise madam president i have the honor to present from the school of business candidates for the degree master of business administration thank you dean o'connor by the power vested in me by the board of trustees i hereby confer upon you the degree of master of business administration with all of the rights and privileges pertaining thereto congratulations and move your tassel great accomplishment all right congratulations i will now introduce the candidates for the master of science degree will the candidates for the degree of master of science and accounting from the school of business please approach the stage stephen john bukowski jr mackenzie jane campbell shane william connelly nicholas anthony menace meniscalco jamie taylor maxwell jamie is the recipient of the faculty award for academic excellence in the master of science and accounting program congratulations jamie brianna nash brian douglas pierce i'll now read the names of the candidates who are joining us virtually logan applegate amanda hope barbato herson omar barrera jr carol alice borzecki patrick dominsil cachapero zachary joseph cerreto connor thomas kelly neil anthony kelly orlando benjamin rodriguez next i call forward the candidates for the degree of master of science and business analytics from the school of business please approach the stage srina amin peyton farah bradley carrie burns mark andrew cavallaro carrie michael coria carey is the recipient of the faculty award for academic excellence in the master of science and business analytics program congratulations kerry lindsey ann crossman irma dervissovic sarah ann frister catherine lynn kelly patrick ryan lynch kelly barbara manzo alec m mintz jonathan michael inge courtney o'connor naren ramshandani kyran m richens evan booth warren brooke gail whipkey joseph anthony young justin joseph young i will now read the names of those candidates participating virtually seljeta emmett larry terrence alexander boyd richard gary burdick jr sean gregory dacey jeffrey m d ambrosio melissa davis blake thomas de carr colin joseph donnelly tom emery nicole fretts lauren jarvis gallagher foy ellis gordon robert c hey gerald heller david j higgs william jake hobbes goktoug ibus travis casabri dylan michael lutz anthony marino andre joel marrero courtney lynn matthews carissa mcintyre dylan mcmahon kristen c meyer peter james michelizzi alexis mitchell jeffrey james nolan taylor casey o'brien ian robert osberg lee shen key ian jaffrey robinson catherine r strong daniel patrick sullivan alyssa tenney evan james volgamore andrew yaw and natalie zaloba next i call forward the candidates for the degree master of science and organizational leadership from the school of business please approach the stage ladon benkoski michael berman kristen gabrielle carranza catherine a sipoloni nicole coscarelli stacy dubois danielle heinz quoteilled ilano john s jacoby lauren kovalevsky daniel bulanati manalo jenna l masangkai lindsey dallas partial elizabeth quinones carrera todd joseph fay rizzo amanda diane rosenberg matthew c wright deborah rodriguez souza cindy jeanette vargas cooper lapham westerkamp i will now read the names of those candidates participating virtually stephen scott anderson chris ashbrook marie elizabeth baio heidi broshman heather nicole cavallaro barghout jordan page christopher stefania j flores espalotte valeria freudson chris gangemi patrick holder coltrane isles tanya kodowitz ariana massery kiana jamila mccalla perry melissa sue mellett heather mieshau heather is the recipient of the faculty award for academic excellence from the master of science and organizational leadership let's give heather a big round of applause maricil picarillo kristen michelle pamacala jessica d portal robert kala plukia sadie jeffrey simon aisha smith julianne soprano monica christine thomas nancy lisa trattenberg ritz gregory marshall vogue and grace yu kyung yoon i ask the candidates to rise madam president i have the honor to present from the school of business all the candidates for the degree master of science thank you dean o'connor by the power vested in me by the board of trustees i hereby confer upon you the degree of master of science with all of the rights and privileges pertaining thereto congratulations and move your tassels wonderful accomplishment congrats congratulations to all of this evening's graduates thank you all right look at that congratulations to the school of business graduates and now the small but mighty right where's the mighty okay thank you thank you all right um i asked dr justin kyle dean of the school of engineering to come forward and introduce the school of engineering candidates for degree will the candidates for the degree of masters of science and cyber security from the school of engineering please approach the stage harold benjamin weinmann we will now recognize those candidates participating virtually lisa lachelle etheridge bowie steve fabian peter stanley harrington phillip j mckenzie zada is the recipient of the faculty award for academic excellence masters of science and cyber security tal malamed brian j paul whitney lynn walktars i asked the candidates to rise madam president i have the honor to present from the school of engineering candidates for the degree master of science and cyber security thank you dean kyle and to our mighty candidate by the power vested in me by the board of trustees i hereby confer upon you and those virtual the degree of master of science in cyber security with all of the rights and privileges pertaining thereto congratulations to this to this first master of science in cyber security class from the school of engineering and to many more congrats all right many congratulations and it is now my pleasure to introduce your student speaker gregory tack clearly he does not need an introduction but he is an mba graduate from port murray new jersey clearly the most important thing about me is that i'm from port murray new jersey and if you don't know where that is i don't either thank you to president olian president olean provost leibowitz i look forward to and many of us look forward to seeing what quinnipiac has in store under your leadership thank you for joining us school of business and school of engineering master and doctoral students friends and family and the quinnipiac community i first want to thank the facilities team and public safety for their work to create a safe environment for us to celebrate today and all of this weekend i also want to thank the commencement committee and the quinnipiac covet 19 task force for their creativity in allowing us to adapt a hybrid model for this extended weekend of graduation and for keeping us safe throughout the entire year thank you to those participating or watching virtually near and far thank you for your support and we wish you could be here with us know that what each of you are doing is keeping our community safe allow me to share a few of our achievements as we are grateful for the opportunities that have shaped our experiences quinnipiac students began giving back to the community from day one students donated donated handmade scarves and hats collected school supplies and holiday gifts for those in need in the hampden and greater new haven areas our students provided feedback and made a change that led to the eligibility of extra ways to spend meal points including donating them they also helped contribute to the be kind leaf food behind initiative to donate purchase snacks from dorm rooms thank you to chartwells the office of community service and vincent contruci for their collaboration i want to share a story with all of you which i will try to make brief after witnessing tragedy throughout the pandemic i thought enough of the injustice enough with the division enough was enough i wanted to get involved but did not know how what could i do to help i called my friend and asked him for advice he told me play to your strengths i thought to myself what can i do what was i good at and what could i apply to make a difference and was grateful to be part of the following initiative we the graduate student body co-invited the family of george floyd angela harrelson and selwyn jones to speak to our campus we heard from the heart of the ongoing social justice movement we heard from people who even amid strife see hope for our future these experiences helped me understand what others were going through how to apply my skill set to a topic i knew almost nothing about when we stepped foot off this stage and into the real world we might be doing exactly that to say this year was tough would be an understatement but i can say that i am proud of each and every one of you i am proud of quinnipiac our campus adapted to a virtual environment and even included social responsibility and engineering in our classrooms along with our businesses our campus has been positively affected by teamwork lending a hand and listening i am proud of your accomplishments our accomplishments during this time they mean that we that you can do anything everyone in the audience at home you help to redefine what it means to be a student here at quinnipiac not only will you earn a degree but you will leave behind a safer and better place we are part of a conversation to lend a hand to one another i want to thank each and every one of you for assisting our campus for doing your part to quiet covet 19 to keep us safe as we pass the torch tell your fellow bobcats there is light at the end of the tunnel we will get through the pandemic together we will continue to create an inclusive and diverse environment for our community and we will be bobcat strong thank you thank you gregory all right so as we conclude today's ceremony our new graduates will recess to the left um i ask that first you let the faculty process out then you will process after them and i ask that the guests wait for the graduates to process out also be attentive as you're going out over here you can you can meet folks up by the bobcat statue by your car wherever you want to meet your people but we are going to go ahead and clear this area and i ask that you be attentive to the physical distancing as you walk out of that area there will be no re-entry to this area so on behalf of president olean dean o'connor dean kyle and the faculty and staff of quinnipiac university but especially the schools of business and engineering i offer my congratulations to the graduates of the class of 2021 you can stan please stand for the recessional do you

2021-05-14 23:35

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