Gabelli School of Business Responsible Business Center Fellows 2025/2026

2025/2026

The Gabelli School of Business Responsible Business Center awarded three financial fellowships to Gabelli School graduate students in 2026. The fellowships are awarded each year to applicants whose career interests focus on responsible decision-making in modern business, exploring the intersection of profitability and ethical issues. This year, each Fellow spent the spring semester working on an individual research project focused on a responsible and sustainable business topic.

Congratulations to the 2026 Responsible Business Center Fellows!

Ivan Avila

Ivan Avila is an MS in Accounting candidate at Fordham University with a strong focus on leveraging technology, data analysis, and innovation in tax, corporate finance, and financial reporting. Avila has experience in international taxation and corporate finance, providing insight into regulatory frameworks and corporate decision-making, and working on interdisciplinary projects involving tax planning and technology adoption. Through his studies at Fordham, he developed a strong understanding of how accounting and finance support strategic decision-making and long-term value creation. These experiences have also shaped his interest in sustainability-focused work, which he has pursued through the Responsible Business Leadership Certificate, participation in the Accounting for Sustainability Case Competition, and active involvement with the Responsible Business Center.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are initiatives that address environmental challenges while also supporting human well-being, and are increasingly considered essential for achieving global environmental goals. For Avila’s research project, he developed an NbS maturity model designed to assess how organizations integrate NbS into their strategies and operations. Developed using frameworks such as the IUCN NbS Principles, TNFD, GRI, and SBTN, the model provides a structured framework for evaluating governance, strategy, and value chain integration of NbS initiatives.

Kareem Mohammed

Kareem Mohammed, an FT MBA candidate and a specialist in IT Audit, Assurance, and Compliance & Governance. His career has been dedicated to strengthening security, optimizing cloud resilience, and streamlining audit workflows across complex global environments. Building on this foundation, Kareem is currently developing AI applications and specialized models tailored for the unique demands of IT Audit & Governance, leveraging automation to enhance precision and oversight.

Mohammed’s research focused on developing a responsible, sustainable cloud disaster recovery framework. This work integrated resilience, compliance, and environmental stewardship to foster more transparent, ethical, and sustainable digital operations in an increasingly AI-driven landscape. Modern cloud infrastructure faces a hidden conflict: the same regulations that require organizations to maintain redundant, always-on backup systems also generate the carbon footprint that sustainability disclosure mandates like CSRD penalize. Mohammed’s research introduces a Responsible Cloud Disaster Recovery framework, an integrated academic model designed to resolve this Resilience Sustainability Paradox. 

Prasad Tilak Wankhedkar

Prasad Wankhedkar is a Full-Time MBA candidate at Fordham University and served as the Responsible Business Center’s Research Fellow during the spring 2026 semester. Prior to joining Fordham, Wankhedkar worked at BNP Paribas in Global Market Operations, where he gained experience in financial operations and business processes. Through his MBA studies, Wankhedkar is focusing on leveraging data tools to improve business processes. He is interested in learning how businesses can use these capabilities to become sustainable from the ground up. He believes that sustainability should not be an option; rather, it should be fundamental to the company and its processes.

For Wankhedkar’s research project, he examined how midsize firms in emerging market economies can address growing operational and financial risks associated with increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Wankhedkar’s research investigates how these firms can navigate current financing gaps to implement high-return physical adaptation strategies. By leveraging scenario analysis, his work outlines how C-suite leaders can align climate resilience with long-term profitability.