Speakers

Marcus Chung ’98

Director of Corporate Citizenship, McKesson Corporation

Marcus Chung joined McKesson Corporation in July 2008 as Director, Corporate Citizenship. Marcus is responsible for developing the company’s environmental sustainability strategy and for continuing its non-financial reporting strategy. Before joining McKesson, Marcus spent four years at Gap Inc., where he focused on Social Responsibility strategy and communications, managing the development of the company’s Social Responsibility Report. In addition, he was responsible for engagement and outreach to the Socially Responsible Investment community. Prior to earning his MBA at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Marcus worked as a Senior Research Manager at the Corporate Executive Board, a best practices research and consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. Marcus graduated with honors from Wesleyan University where he majored in English and in French literature.

Sharon Greenberger ’88

President, NYC Public Schools Construction Authority

Sharon Greenberger is the President and CEO of the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA), the agency that is responsible for the planning, design and construction of all capital projects in the City's more than 1,200 public school buildings. The SCA is currently engaged in implementing a five-year, $13.1 billion capital plan, the most aggressive and comprehensive school capital plan in the City's history.

Previously, Ms. Greenberger was Vice President for Campus Planning and Real Estate at New York University (NYU), where she managed NYU's campus planning, space management, architectural design and standards, as well as real estate interests and assets.

Before joining NYU, Sharon was Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding. In this role, she managed New York City’s economic development and planning agencies and developed citywide economic development polices and programs. From 1997–2001, she was Vice President for Economic Development at the Alliance for Downtown New York, New York City’s largest BID (Business Improvement District), where she created and implemented economic, retail and residential strategies for Lower Manhattan’s revival. She has also worked for the Partnership for New York City, Clinton Housing Development Corporation and the San Francisco Education Fund.

Sharon has a BA from Wesleyan University in English and History, a Masters in City Planning (MCP) degree from MIT and was a Luce Scholar in Seoul, Korea in 1993–1994.

Persephone L. Hall

Associate Director for Employer Relations, Wesleyan University

Persephone L. Hall is the Associate Director for Employer Relations in the Career Resource Center at Wesleyan. She is originally from Canton, Ohio and earned a bachelor's degree in Communications and a Master’s degree in Higher Education from Ohio University. She began her career as a Career Counselor at the University of Connecticut working with business students. For the next 12 years, she served as a Human Resources Consultant in the banking industry and a Training Specialist in retail. She returned to higher education in 2005 as an Assistant Human Resources Director at Wesleyan and has been in her present role for over a year.

Manolis Kaparakis

Director of the Quantitative Analysis Center, Wesleyan University

Manolis Kaparakis completed his undergraduate work in Athens, Greece and his graduate work in Economics at the University of Connecticut. He has been at Wesleyan University for five years, directing the activities of the Quantitative Analysis Center and acting as the Director of the Centers for Advanced Computing. Previous to his work at Wesleyan University, he served as a member of the Economics faculty at Providence College where he taught Economics for twelve years, coordinated the development of the “Quantitative Economics” major and served as the College’s “Faculty Liaison for Information Technology.” His research is in the area of efficiency of financial institutions.

Brad Karsh ’87

Sharon Greenberger ’88

Founder and President of JobBound

Brad Karsh is President and Founder of JobBound and JB Training Solutions, companies dedicated to helping individuals succeed in the job search and in the workplace. An industry expert in his field and an accomplished public speaker and author, Brad Karsh has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and The Dr. Phil Show, and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, and many others. Brad is an advice columnist for both Yahoo! and AdAge, and he is author of Confessions of a Recruiting Director (Prentice Hall Press, 2006).

Prior to starting JobBound and JB Training Solutions, Brad spent 15 years at advertising giant Leo Burnett in Chicago. He began his career in Account Management, working on clients including McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, and Pillsbury. He then moved into HR where he was responsible for hiring and training hundreds of employees.

Brad graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut with a B.A. in History and currently resides in Chicago with his wife Lisa and son Milo.

Muzzy Rosenblatt ’87

Executive Director of BRC

Mr. Muzzy Rosenblatt is the Executive Director of BRC—the Bowery Residents’ Committee—one of New York City’s most comprehensive housing and social services agencies; described by The New York Times as “one of New York City’s most respected charity groups,” and rated the top homeless and housing charity in America by the American Institute of Philanthropy. Since arriving at BRC in 2000, Muzzy has led the agency through a period of growth that has strengthened its financial condition, improved the quality of services provided, and established BRC as a leader and innovator among not-for-profit social services agencies.

Muzzy has served as a senior executive in both the government and nonprofit sectors, and has brought his experiences to academia. From 1988 to 1999, prior to his arrival at the BRC, Muzzy held several positions in New York City government, including First Deputy Commissioner and then Acting Commissioner of the New York City Department of Homeless Services. Muzzy received his MPA from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University (1992), where he has been an adjunct professor, and his BA from Wesleyan University (1987). He is a native New Yorker, and resides in Forest Hills, New York, in the borough of Queens. He is committed to making the organizations he leads both effective and accountable, and works to motivate others to do the same, through leadership roles in the community as well as teaching in the classroom.

Michael S. Roth ’78

President of Wesleyan University

Michael S. Roth ’78 became the 16th president of Wesleyan University on July 1,2007. Formerly president of California College of the Arts, Roth is known as a historian, curator and author.

A professor in history and the humanities since 1983, Roth was the founding director of the Scripps College Humanities Institute in Claremont, CA, a center for intellectual exchange across disciplines. He developed a reputation for his scholarly leadership in the arts community as associate director of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and for enhancing the academic excellence, national reputation and financial strength of California College of the Arts.

Roth describes his scholarly interests as centered on “how people make sense of the past.” He has authored four books: Psycho-Analysis as History: Negation and Freedom in Freud (Cornell University Press, 1987, 1995); Knowing and History: Appropriations of Hegel in Twentieth Century France (Cornell, 1988); The Ironist’s Cage: Trauma, Memory and the Construction of History (Columbia University Press, 1995), and Irresistible Decay: Ruins Reclaimed, with Clare Lyons and Charles Merewether (Getty Research Institute, 1997). Roth curated an exhibition entitled Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture for the Library of Congress, which attracted praise for its balanced and wide-ranging view of Freud’s intellectual and cultural heritage when it opened in 1998. The exhibit traveled internationally in subsequent years. Roth’s most recent co-edited volumes are Looking for Los Angeles: Architecture, Film, Photography and the Urban Landscape and Disturbing Remains: Memory, History, and Crisis in the Twentieth Century (both Getty Research Institute, 2001). In recent years, Roth has published essays and book reviews in such publications as the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, Book Forum, Rethinking History, and Wesleyan’s History and Theory.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, and in the first generation of his family to attend college, Roth entered Wesleyan in the fall of 1975. He designed a university major in “history of psychological theory” and wrote a thesis titled Freud and Revolution, which began the exploration that would become his first book and the basis of the Library of Congress exhibition. He completed his undergraduate studies in three years, graduating with University Honors, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and went on to earn his doctorate in history at Princeton University in 1984.

Roth began his teaching career at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School in 1983, where he became Hartley Burr Alexander Professor of the Humanities in 1989. He was also the director of European Studies at the Claremont Graduate University, where he helped to found the Ph.D. program in Cultural Studies.

In 1994, Roth was invited to participate as a visiting scholar in the Getty Research Institute’s year on memory. Two years later, he was asked to lead the scholars and seminars program at the Getty. Roth focused research around such topics as the history, architecture and arts of Los Angeles and built partnerships with cultural organizations in the East and South Central sections of the city, as well as with international centers of research. In 1997, Roth became associate director of the Getty Research Institute and focused his energies on making the institute a producer and disseminator of scholarship. While at the Getty, Roth curated the Library of Congress exhibition on Freud, as well as another on ruins, Irresistible Decay, as part of the opening of the Getty Museum.

At CCA—a San Francisco Bay Area institution devoted to fine arts, architecture, design and writing—Roth led an effort to revise the school’s curriculum to emphasize interdisciplinary work and liberal learning. The school added new academic programs, including undergraduate degrees in community arts, creative writing, visual studies and animation, as well as masters programs in curatorial practice, visual criticism, design, writing and architecture. Roth developed and raised funds to support a Center for Art and Public Life, which fosters community partnerships in the San Francisco Bay area and models ways art can benefit underserved urban neighborhoods and their schools. Similarly, he strengthened the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, which has developed an international reputation for its exhibitions and public programs.

Michael Sciola

Director of the Career Resource Center, Wesleyan University

Michael Sciola is the director of the Career Resource Center at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, CT, where he is entering his 14th year of service. A nationally noted speaker and educator, Mike has been featured in Newsweek, The New York Sunday Times, USAToday, the Fresno Bee, The Hartford Courant, and other publications of note. He has won numerous awards for his service to student affairs including the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers’ (EACE) Outstanding Member Award, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Golden Apple Award for outstanding faculty, and is a veteran member of the National Association of Colleges and Employer’s (NACE) Management and Leadership Institute faculty. Prior to working at Wesleyan, he held posts at Brown University, University of Rhode Island, University of New Hampshire, and at the California State University, Fresno.

Michael sits on the board of advisors for Experience.com and Idealist.org. An avid supporter of the arts; Mike is past president of the Greater Middletown Chorale and is currently the chairman of the board for Oddfellows Playhouse, a youth theater in Central Connecticut providing performing arts training to over 2000 students a year.

Michael is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Gerontology, Human Development, and Counseling.

Strauss Zelnick ’79

Founder of ZelnickMedia

Prior to founding ZelnickMedia, Strauss Zelnick was the President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment, a $4.7 billion music and entertainment company with more than 200 record labels and operations in 54 countries. Under his leadership, BMG achieved record revenues, profits and market share, rising from fifth to second place among major music companies in North America.

Before joining BMG Entertainment in 1994, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Dynamics, a leading producer and distributor of interactive entertainment software. From 1989 to 1993, he was the President and Chief Operating Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he managed all aspects of the worldwide motion picture production and distribution business.

Mr. Zelnick is currently Chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., CME (Columbia Music Entertainment of Japan), OTX, and ITN Networks. He serves on the boards of directors of Blockbuster Inc. and Naylor, LLC. Mr. Zelnick served as Chairman of Direct Holdings Worldwide, the parent company of Time Life and Lillian Vernon, until the company was sold to Reader’s Digest in 2007.

Mr. Zelnick is an associate member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and has served on the boards of directors of the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America. Mr. Zelnick has also previously served on the boards of Reed Elsevier NV, Carver Bancorp, Inc., Insignia Financial Group, Inc. and Moviefone Inc., among other companies. Mr. Zelnick is a Trustee Emeritus of Wesleyan University. He holds a BA from Wesleyan University, an MBA from The Harvard Business School and a JD from The Harvard Law School.