EMBA and PMBA Graduating Student Profiles

Our graduating students hale from a wide range of professional backgrounds and from countries around the world. This year, we are featuring several of our Executive M.B.A.  and Professional M.B.A. graduating students whose stories are truly inspiring and whose accomplishments illustrate the unique value proposition of a Gabelli School of Business education. 

Among the hundreds of students who are graduating from the Gabelli School of Business at the graduate level this year, there are a number of veterans receiving their degree. Three, representing the United States Navy, United States Air Force, and the United States Marines, are using the business and leadership skills they have acquired through their time in the Gabelli School Executive M.B.A. program to bring positive change at the City, State, and Federal government level. All of them took advantage of the generous Yellow Ribbon program that Fordham offers, to help pay for their education.

Terri Kershaw Buck
Ethics Counselor, U.S. Department of the Interior

Terri Kershaw Buck is a veteran of the United States Navy, who has over 21 years of both active duty and civilian military experience. She pursued a professional path in positions of increasing responsibility in military related jobs, working for the Naval Sea Systems Command; the Defense Technical Information Center; the Defense Intelligence Agency while on active duty; and at Synchon, LLC after she retired. She currently serves as an ethics counselor in the U.S. Department of the Interior, where she researches and interprets government ethics related laws, regulations, guidelines, and oversight to ensure ethical standards and compliance with regulations are upheld, including those involving financial disclosure. As her career advanced, she has strived to gain the business knowledge and leadership skills required to continue her professional ascent by enrolling in the Executive M.B.A. program at the Gabelli School. She immediately connected with the School’s focus on having an ethical impact on business, as well as the ability to earn her degree by studying in New York City, just one weekend a month. The knowledge and skills she gained have been immediately applicable in her current role. Her experience also has solidified what she already knew about being a strong leader: that building capacity must be complemented by personal growth, and that you must understand the needs and strengths of the people whom you lead to make a lasting difference and inspire meaningful change at any level in government and beyond.

Nathan Green
Environmental Specialist, New York State Department of Transportation

Nathan Green is an environmental specialist and a veteran of the United States Air Force, with over 20 years of distinguished service as a military officer and civilian meteorologist. As a combat veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom, he honed his skills in weather forecasting, and aviation weather support and intelligence in diverse and challenging environments—both domestically and abroad. Upon his return to civilian life, he applied his technical skills to help companies transform how consumers, businesses, and governments use weather data and technology to mitigate losses due to weather hazards while focusing on business growth. He now specializes in conducting technical analysis, research, and training focused on the intersection of the environment and transportation networks within the New York State Department of Transportation. Green was drawn to the Gabelli School of Business Executive M.B.A. program because it fulfilled a lifelong desire to continuously strive for personal and professional development, satisfying his innate curiosity for learning new skills and immersing himself in new experiences—all of which have shaped his mindset and his outlook on the world. Through his work in the classroom and in Seoul, Korea for the class’s capstone project, he made lasting relationships with fellow students and developed the business acumen and critical thinking skills that will help him prosper in his career and in his life, and allow him to build upon his decades of military experience.

Anuar Romero
General Manager, Xylem

Anuar Romero is a United States Marine Corps veteran with 20+ years of service who, in 2020, had reached a crossroads in his personal and professional life. He decided to pursue a civilian career in the corporate world, parlaying his experience in logistics with the Marines into a role managing a logistics facility for Amazon. Knowing that he wanted to augment what he was learning in this new position, he decided to pursue an Executive M.B.A. at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business to build upon his strengths as a former leader in the military and in the management career path he chose to take, by acquiring the knowledge he needed to grow and thrive as a corporate executive. Besides being attracted to the EMBA’s leadership focus, Romero appreciated the Gabelli School’s deep commitment to preparing the next generation of business professionals to become changemakers who could really make a difference, as well as its emphasis on sustainable business. Throughout his studies, he was able to connect the strengths he gained as a military officer—leadership, perseverance, and organization—to the knowledge and skills he was acquiring in the classroom. He also was deeply inspired by a study abroad experience to El Camino Ignaciano in Spain. Today, in his role as general manager at Xylem, a leading water technology company committed to “solving water” by creating innovative and smart technology solutions to meet the world’s water, wastewater, and energy needs, he is helping New York City respond to water emergencies in new and innovative ways.

Nana Karikari is a successful journalist who, since emigrating from her home country of Ghana, has lived and worked around the world as a successful journalist. This semester she will be graduating with a Professional M.B.A. (PMBA) with a primary concentration in communications and media management and a secondary concentration in international business. The Gabelli School’s PMBA program is designed for people with busy lives and successful careers who seek to enhance their knowledge even further. Karikari has received a number of awards and recognitions over the course of her career, sometimes risking her own personal safety to report from the front lines of significant global conflicts, including the war in Ukraine and the standoff between Israel and Hamas. She also has produced some of the most influential news shows on television. While her fearless pursuit of the truth has shaped her career in journalism and has enabled her to have an impact on the world, Karikari is deeply committed to advocating for meaningful change. During her time at the Gabelli School, she has completed internships and fellowships at the U.S. Department of State, the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, and United Nations Headquarters. Currently a consultant with the United Nations Department of Global Communications, Karikari plans to utilize the business knowledge and skills she gained to advocate for causes she is most passionate about, fostering collaboration with a truly global perspective.