Rocco Grillo, FCRH ’89, is a managing director in the New York office of Alvarez & Marshal, where he leads multidisciplinary teams that provide cybersecurity and incident response services to clients throughout the world.

He previously held a similar global leadership position at Stroz Friedberg, a digital forensics and cybersecurity firm co-founded by Fordham graduate and trustee Edward M. Stroz, GABELLI ’79.

Grillo, who earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology at Fordham College at Rose Hill, has worked closely with both corporate clients and government agencies, including the FBI and Secret Service.

“His 25 years of experience in cybersecurity advisory services, incident response investigations, and other technical advisory services, combined with his well-established understanding of commercial sector challenges and national security objectives, have made him influential to the development of national policy in cybersecurity—including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework,” according to The Consulting Report.

Anthony J. Ferrante, FCRH ’01, GSAS ’04, also has deep experience in both the public and private sectors. A former top cybersecurity official at the White House, he is currently the senior managing director and global head of cybersecurity for FTI Consulting.

Prior to joining FTI, he was the director of cyber incident response at the U.S. National Security Council from 2015 to 2017, and he previously served as chief of staff for the FBI’s Cyber Division.

In 2009, Ferrante, then a special agent in the FBI’s New York office, helped Fordham launch the International Conference on Cyber Security. The conference, typically held every 18 months at Fordham in partnership with the FBI, brings together university researchers, top security and law enforcement officials, and executives from companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Google.

More recently, Ferrante, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science at Fordham, helped establish the master’s degree program in cybersecurity at the University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where has served as an adjunct professor. In 2021, he joined the executive committee of the Fordham President’s Council, a group of successful professionals and philanthropists who are committed to mentoring Fordham’s future leaders.

“We’ve seen countless students graduate from the [master’s degree] program and start successful careers in cybersecurity, helping both to reduce the growing cybersecurity skills gap and better protect organizations from the endless barrage of cyber threats,” he told Consulting magazine in 2019.

Since 2017, Fordham has been recognized by the U.S. National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. The University is home to the Center for Cybersecurity, and its undergraduate and graduate programs emphasize both competency-based learning and applied research.

Gerald R. Blaszczak, S.J., FCRH ’72
Assistant to the President and Alumni Chaplain, Fairfield University

Father Blaszczak brings with him a wealth of experience in both spiritual matters and the inner workings of universities. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1967. In 1971, he received a B.Phil. from the Philosophische Hochschule Berchmanskolleg in Pullach, Germany. A year later, he earned a B.A. in classical languages and literature from Fordham College at Rose Hill. He was ordained in 1979. In 1984, he received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in New Testament and early church history, with a secondary concentration in Islamic studies.

Over the years, he served on the faculties of LeMoyne College, Hekima College in Kenya, and Fordham. From 1998 to 2004, he served as rector of the Fordham Jesuit Community and as a member of Fordham’s Board of Trustees. He was Fordham’s first Vice President for Mission and Ministry from 1999 to 2005; he left to become rector of St. Ignatius Church. He was later called to Rome by Adolfo Nicolas S.J., then the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, to serve a three-year term as the Secretary for the Service of Faith at the Jesuit curia. Upon his return to the United States in 2011, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he was the parochial vicar at St. Raphael the Archangel Church. He has been at Fairfield University since 2018.

Darryl Emerson Brown, FCRH ’75, GSAS ’79
President, Brownboys3 Inc.

The same month that he graduated from Fordham with a master’s in broadcast journalism, Brown joined ABC Radio, where he rose through the ranks to become executive vice president and general manager. During that time, he developed African American syndicated programming such as The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and documentaries such as Love, Lust & Lies, by Michael Baisden. He was also responsible for launching the network’s Hispanic Radio Division, which produced content such as Tu Vida es Mi Vida, hosted by award-winning motivational speaker Maria Marin. In 2008, he left ABC to become president of Brownboys3 Inc, a media consulting firm that specializes in talent development, brand building, and diversified revenue development.

A member of the Fordham Athletic Hall of Fame, Brown was a three-year starter and All-American for the Rams basketball team. He graduated as the seventh leading scorer in men’s basketball history with 1,233 points and is currently ranked 18th among all players. He previously served on Fordham’s board from 2013 to 2020.

Thomas Ennis, FCRH ’88
Chief Executive Officer, P.K. Kinder Company, Inc.

Lipton Soups, Ortega Mexican Foods, Amplify Snacks, Oberto meat snacks—Ennis has helmed the companies responsible for countless popular supermarket products since he started working in the field of consumer branding in 1996. He majored in history as an undergraduate at Fordham and later earned an MBA in marketing, which he put to use at a series of packed goods companies. He advanced to become CEO, president, founder, and board member of Amplify Snack Brands in 2014. The firm, which grew on the strength of brands such as SkinnyPop Popcorn, Paqui Tortilla Chips, and Oatmega Protein Bars, went public in 2015 and was sold to the Hershey Company in 2018. This year, he assumed the position of chief executive officer, president, and board member of Kinder, a privately held company that makes rubs, seasonings, and sauces.

Kathleen MacLean, FCRH ’75, PAR ’15, ’18
Philanthropist

MacLean has been involved in a number of volunteer and charitable endeavors for more than 40 years. During the 26 years that her children were in school, she served on parent-teacher organizations, fundraising committees, and organizing committees. She was also very involved in Girl Scouts and held fundraising positions in local youth sports programs. She currently serves on the boards of the Hockanum Valley Community Council, a nonprofit human services agency in Vernon, Connecticut, and the Bristol Community College Foundation, in her hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts. She and her husband, Brian MacLean, FCRH ’75, PAR ’15, ’18, have supported the Hartford Foundation, the Rhode Island Foundation, and Hartford Healthcare, which concentrates on programs supporting mental health, substance abuse, and fatherhood stability.

At Fordham, the MacLeans have established the Brian and Kathleen MacLean Scholarship Fund, the MacLean Family GSS Endowed Scholarship for social work students and the Fordham Housing Fund, an endowment that provides room and board for commuter students who would most benefit from living on campus during their junior and senior years. The couple was honored at the 2016 Founder’s Dinner.

Ed Stroz, GABELLI ’79
Retired Executive Chairman, Stroz Friedberg, LLC

From 1984 to 1996, Stroz served in the FBI as a supervisory special agent, specializing in white-collar crime investigation. In 2000, he used that experience and his training as a certified public accountant and bank examiner to found Stroz Friedberg, LLC, which he built into an international digital forensics and investigations firm. He sold the firm in 2016 to Aon LC, staying on as co-president until January of this year. He’s now an independent consultant offering expert services in cybersecurity and related investigations. Stroz is the chair of the advisory board of Fordham’s International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS). He is also a frequent participant in their conferences and serves as an adviser to the Center on Law and Information Policy at Fordham Law School. He and his wife fund the Edward M. Stroz and Sally Spooner Endowed Chair in Accounting at Fordham. The couple was honored at the 2015 Founder’s Dinner. Most recently, Stroz was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 2021 from Fordham. He previously served as a member of Fordham’s board from 2011 to 2018.

“Wealth encompasses a caring workplace, quality products and services, and care for the environment,” said Stroz, a cybersecurity expert and former FBI agent who was awarded an honorary doctorate at the ceremony.

These days, he said, “it’s not just a ‘buy low, sell high’ world. Investors, customers, regulators, and employees are seeking businesses that function with purpose to serve a broader community while using a sustainable model.”

Stroz spoke at the Rose Hill campus on a sunny, mild afternoon before approximately 275 graduates who were seated on Edwards Parade in socially distanced chairs, an arrangement made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic that prompted the University’s pivot to virtual and hybrid education over the past year.

On the day of the ceremony, graduates seemed to shrug off the trials of the past year, savoring the moment as they were cheered on by family and friends (each graduate was allowed two guests).

In all, the Gabelli School celebrated 973 master’s and doctor-level graduates on May 25, with many opting for the virtual diploma ceremony that was videocast that morning. It featured an address by Fran Horowitz, a 1990 MBA graduate of the Gabelli School, who spoke about the lessons learned on her way to reaching her current position as CEO of the apparel company Abercrombie & Fitch.

Building the Right Culture

The importance of the Gabelli School’s culture and values was a common theme among speakers. In her own remarks, Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of the Gabelli School, recounted the graduates’ many achievements, such as completing consulting projects; providing advice to major firms like Fidelity Investments or to nongovernmental organizations; and developing original research in auditing, capital markets, and other fields.

“But no matter which courses you chose … you all experienced and contributed to something in common, and that is the Gabelli School culture,” said Rapaccioli, a 1983 graduate of the school. “It values business with purpose. It values teamwork and lifting one another up, recognizing that we can achieve much more together than we can alone. It values questioning our outlook on the entire world. It values academic and professional excellence, and the strong belief that there is always a better way.”

“I challenge you to remember the role that you need to play in creating this kind of culture for others,” she said.

Delivering the invocation, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, noted that none other than Pope Francis has said that business is a noble vocation, “provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life.”

“In the course of their time in our midst, these, the members of Gabelli’s Class of 2021, have come to believe that they … are called to be the kind of prophetic business leaders that the world always needs, but especially needs at this inflection moment in human history,” Father McShane said.

Jesuit Values in Action

In his remarks, Stroz—a Fordham trustee fellow—told his own story of pivoting from a career with the FBI to being an entrepreneur. Most new businesses fail, and “many people did not expect someone with my background to be able to run a successful business,” he said.

The firm he co-founded was Stroz Friedberg LLC, focused on cybersecurity and digital forensics. It did not fail; rather, it grew, and by the time it was sold to Aon PLC in 2016, it employed 500 people in 14 offices worldwide. Its “secret sauce” was the subject of a case study at Harvard Business School, where Stroz lectured about the firm.

What did his Fordham education have to do with this success? “Almost everything,” Stroz said.

“I took the Jesuit values to heart about care for the individual and aim to treat everyone with respect,” he said. “When I was growing my firm … I was able to identify and attract some of the best people. To this day, the aspect of my firm that I am most proud of is the quality of the people who elected to work for us and why they stayed.”

He mentioned the book My Billion Dollar Education: Inside the Mind of a Rogue Trader, published in 2014 by Toshihide Iguchi, whom Stroz arrested for fraud during his days at the FBI. The book contains this dedication: “To Edward M. Stroz. Without his compassion for humanity and dedication to fairness, I would not be here to write this book,” Stroz said.

“When I arrested [him], I wanted to ensure that he was treated justly and would respect how the American justice system worked so that he would tell us the truth about what he did,” Stroz said.

On Taking Risks

In her address during the virtual diploma ceremony, Horowitz urged the graduates to “challenge yourself and take risks,” giving the example of her own move to become president of Abercrombie & Fitch’s Hollister brand.

“My biggest risk, moving to Hollister when many said I could not revive the brand, yielded the biggest reward,” she said.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime “because of the chance to reinvent a global iconic brand,” she said. She became CEO of Abercrombie after three years in that role. “I firmly believe that the financial and leadership skills that I learned at Gabelli and everything I went through during all [my]career moves … got me to where I am today,” she said.

She noted that there were many who discouraged her from pursuing an MBA. “But I stuck to my guns and trusted my gut, and took what many thought to be a big risk, and I have never looked back.”

She spoke about attitudes and practices she learned along the way to becoming CEO at Abercrombie. Among them: push boundaries, stay curious, do more than is expected. These were especially important when store closures because of the pandemic presented the “unacceptable” prospect of Abercrombie losing 70% of its revenue, she said.

“We quickly pivoted and found new ways to cater to our customers and drive business forward, accomplishing in one year what we thought would have taken five,” she said. “We could have succumbed to the crisis and done the minimum to keep ourselves afloat. Instead, we used it as an opportunity to work stronger, smarter, and faster than ever before.

“Now it’s your turn to build on your experience and to get even stronger, smarter, and faster,” she said.

Her last piece of advice? “Stay balanced.”

Balance “makes us well rounded and better critical thinkers,” she said. “Even when it seems impossible, find time to step away from your desk to make meaningful memories with your friends and loved ones.”

A Unique Student Experience

One of the two student speakers, Anosh Ravikumar Iyer, an MBA graduate and president of the Student Advisory Council, joked that “it’s a pleasant change to address more than 20 people without a screen between us.”

“Our grad school experience wasn’t anything like what we imagined,” he said. “We had to treat Zoom like the best friend we never had. We made the phrase ‘Can you hear me now?’ part of our daily vocabulary,” he said.

“The struggle has been real, but the willpower and determination you have showcased through it all is second to none,” he said. “To our loved ones, your unwavering support is what we needed, and to our faculty, your guidance and mentorship is why we succeeded.”

The other student speaker, Omolola Kufile, who earned an M.S. in marketing intelligence, said it had been an “amazing” experience despite the challenges.

“I can remember walking through the doors of Lincoln Center for the first time, nervous and uncertain [about]what my experience will be, especially as an international student,” she said. “The warm welcome [and]smiling faces from faculty, administrators, and students quickly turned my anxiety to excitement, as I was immediately welcomed as a part of the Fordham family.

“At Gabelli, we learned the true meaning of service to others, which was built into every action, thought, and interaction,” she said. “Every day was a new opportunity to experience the spirit of Gabelli [and]see your fellow students selflessly supporting each other.”

One of those students, Joseph A. Micale, became the first graduate of the Gabelli School’s Ph.D. program. He was drawn to the program because of its rigor, among other things, and appreciated faculty members’ openness to its students’ input about additional things they wanted to study, such as machine learning and data science.

Moving on feels bittersweet, said Micale, who served as an adjunct faculty member at the Gabelli School and will be an assistant professor of accounting at the New Jersey Institute of Technology this fall.

“There’s just so many people who helped with everything,” he said. As the first graduate of the Ph.D. program, he added, “I’m just very happy … to be the first person to say ‘thank you’ to all of them. I could not have done any of this without them.”

Watch a video of the in-person diploma ceremony below and on YouTube:

Watch a video of the virtual diploma ceremony below and on YouTube: