The EMBA program has been ranked by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report andCEO Magazine. It is intended for candidates with at least seven years of professional experience, and features a weekend course schedule and a curriculum that is global in scope.

“The FT is a premier global ranking for EMBA,” said Francis Petit, Ed.D., associate dean for executive programs at GBA. “We are happy to maintain and improve our position, as there’s a lot of variability in this ranking among other schools.”

Petit noted Fordham’s strong stand-alone showing: Many of the schools ranked were paired with other international institutions, with relatively few single-school programs making the grade.

Petit said a concerted effort was made by Program Associate Mary Kate Donato to champion faculty publications, as well as student’s return on investment. He noted that the cohort that was surveyed was the Class of 2010, which he called a “very spirited group.”

For more information on Fordham’s EMBA visit www.bnet.fordham.edu/academics/executive_mba/

“We continually innovate our EMBA program and we are doing so by offering additional international elective courses,” said Francis Petit, Ph.D., adding that the program offered an elective course in Istanbul, Turkey in April and will be offering a similar course this July in Galway, Ireland.

Poets and Quants placed the program at 41 worldwide, and CEO placed the program among their Tier 1 rankings.

“We’re always honored to recieve a ranking, it helps keeps up our momentum,” said Petit.

This was the first time that the program was eligible for the survey because its 2008 EMBA cohort—upon which the newspaper based this year’s rankings—was the first to meet the minimum size requirement of 30 students.

Fordham shares 67th place with the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and the SDA Bocconi School of Management at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

In its 10th year, the ranking relies on two online surveys: the first completed by the schools themselves and the second by alumni who graduated three years ago.

The surveys polled 121 business schools from around the world; factors such as current salary and salary growth were among those considered in the alumni responses. On these measures, Fordham EMBA alumni reported a current average salary of $156,418, which ranked 56th overall.

From the outset, GBA has sought to grow enrollment in the EMBA program to the point where it is eligible to participate in the Financial Times survey each year, said Francis Petit, Ed.D., associate dean for Executive MBA programs at Fordham. He noted that the ranking is for individual programs, not just institutions, which makes competition even tighter.

“This new ranking not only adds to the continued momentum of our program, but also represents the great teaching of our faculty, the tireless efforts of our staff and—most importantly—the successes of our dynamic, hardworking and spirited graduates,” he said.

Recognition by the Financial Times comes on the heels of a CEO Magazine assessment that placed the Fordham EMBA among the top 25 in North America.

It was a rare appearance for Serpico, a resident of Columbia County in upstate New York, who only leaves his cabin on occasion to lecture at colleges and universities on police brutality and corruption.

“Ethics cannot be taught,” he said. “It can only be shown by example, preferably at an early age before the damage is done.”

Serpico, whose crusade against widespread corruption in the NYPD made him a pariah on the force, discussed how fellow officers left him to bleed to death after he was shot during a drug bust.

“If you show the public you are trustworthy, they’ll be there for you when you need them. A crooked cop won’t,” he said.

Serpico also talked jovially about his love of nature, hiking, the Mediterranean diet and the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He also spoke of his upbringing in Brooklyn.

“Deeds are like stones. Cast upon the water, they make ripples,” he said. “Whether the deeds are good or evil they still make ripples. The bigger the stone or deed, the bigger the ripples. Sometimes these ripples last a lifetime.”

Serpico went on to describe a few of the “ripples” that affected his life:
•    His father, a World War I prisoner of war, who taught him frugality and survival skills.
•    Once, while working at his father’s shoeshine shop, a police officer came in for a shine and walked out without paying, tipping or saying thank you. “I thought, ‘How could a police officer do such a thing?’”

On a recent speaking engagement in the Netherlands, he met a local police commissioner who said he was inspired to become a cop in 1974 after watching Serpico, which starred Al Pacino in the title role.

“You do deeds and—sometimes unbeknownst to you—they make ripples and affect people’s lives,” Serpico said. “I’ve heard similar stories by police I’ve met throughout the years.”

Serpico advised the EMBA students to pick up Committing the Truth: A Corporate Whistleblowers Survivor’s Guide (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011), a book he is reviewing for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project.

“You might want to keep that handy in today’s business world of greed and corruption,” he said.

When asked about the midterm elections, Serpico revealed why he hasn’t voted in 25 years.

“I believe the word ‘politics’ comes from the two roots: poly, which means many, and ticks, which is a blood sucking insect,” he said.

As far as whether ethics have improved in the NYPD, he said, “Things don’t change like that. You can’t just sit back. I get letters from all over the country and world from cops trying to do the right thing. The thing is, nobody wants to listen to them. Nobody wants to upset the apple cart.”

Serpico referred to Adrian Schoolcraft, a suspended NYPD officer who last May released secretly recorded tapes to the Village Voice that allegedly show corruption within the 81st precinct.

Schoolcraft maintains that supervisors ordered officers to arrest people who committed no crime simply to meet quotas.

“He was doing a good job,” Serpico said. “Being a good cop is not just arresting people. It’s trying to keep kids out of jail and helping citizens and doing good public relations. And what happened to him? He was threatened by one of his officers and so he went home sick. This is 2010, and that night they pulled him out of his bed, handcuffed him behind his back and took him to the psych ward in Jamaica where they held him there for six days, handcuffed to a gurney.

“As they say in France, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose—the more things change, the more they stay the same,” he added. “You can’t let down your guard.”

Serpico was invited to Fordham by Francis Petit, Ed.D., the director of the EMBA program.

“As the Jesuit executive MBA program of New York, one of our main goals is to be a catalyst in the development and cultivation of principled leaders and professionals. This has become a heightened focus, given the current environment of corruption, greed and scandal among those with power and influence,” Petit said.

“Frank Serpico is a person who remained true to his moral convictions even in a very difficult, dangerous and tumultuous environment. All individuals, including executives, can learn a great deal from the journey Frank Serpico traveled as a New York City police officer.”

CBA’s marketing area was ranked fourth in a new list of specialties released by Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine. In addition, the college was ranked eighth in ethics; ninth in business law; 19th in finance; and 23rd in accounting.

“I often tell prospective students not to put too much emphasis on the rankings, as they can be overly simplistic measures of academic quality,” said Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of CBA and the Fordham business faculty. “That said, specialty rankings do provide insight into the quality and opportunities available to students interested in specific disciplines. I am especially proud of the marketing, business law and ethics areas.

“Studying marketing in New York City provides students with opportunities for hands-on experience you can’t find in many other locations. Recognition for the quality of our ethics area reinforces our Jesuit approach to educating business leaders as men and women of conscience,” Rapaccioli added.

Dawn Lerman, Ph.D., associate professor of marketing and chair of marketing for the Schools of Business Administration, said the marketing faculty is passionate about the subject they teach.

“They are also passionate about our students and about giving our students an opportunity not just to study marketing, but also to experience marketing,” she said.

“Many members of our faculty are closely connected to industry which affords us many unique opportunities such as transforming traditional course assignments into consulting projects for company clients and bringing high-level executives on campus.

“New York is our classroom. It’s not unusual for our Rose Hill students to venture into Manhattan with their professor to see marketing in action,” Lerman added.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek surveyed more than 85,000 students at more than 100 top business schools and asked them to rate their programs’ performance in a dozen academic disciplines ranging from accounting and ethics to marketing and sustainability. The list ranked specialty areas from the 50 top undergraduate business programs.

The honors for CBA come on the heels of good news for Fordham’s Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA). CEO Magazine ranked its executive MBA (EMBA) program among the top 25 global MBA programs in its spring 2010 issue.

Inclusion in the top 25 “tier-one” status means the Fordham program “demonstrates a high level of innovation and thought leadership; class sizes are moderate, senior faculty are used and the makeup of students is diverse,” according to the magazine, which is published in London by the Callender Media Group.

“This is very positive news, as it allows for the continued positive momentum of our program,” said Francis Petit, Ed.D., assistant dean and director of executive programs for GBA.

The Fordham EMBA program is ranked in the Spring 2010 issue within the North America/Global EMBA Rankings. Programs are listed alphabetically and include Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, New York University and Wharton.

In April, the EMBA program was ranked 25th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. GBA’s marketing specialty area was ranked 23rd nationally in that same issue.

For the first time in the history of the Graduate School of Business Administration, there will be four EMBA cohorts running concurrently this spring semester. There are 106 students enrolled in the program, a figure that represents a 135 percent increase since the first EMBA cohort graduated in 2005.

“The strong growth can be attributed to a variety of factors including our strategic recruitment efforts, a yearly increase in student and alumni referrals to our program as well as our rankings in The Wall Street Journal,” said Francis Petit, Ed.D., assistant dean and director of executive programs at GBA. In 2008, theJournal ranked the program 25th in overall excellence compared to similar programs around the world. The newspaper also ranked the program in the top 20 with respect to return on investment among American programs.

The EMBA is an intensive 22-month program that continues to grow in popularity.

“Prospective students are very attracted to Fordham’s EMBA Program and our EMBA community,” Petit added. “We have been told that we offer a unique, hands-on and personable admissions experience compared to our competitors. We get to know our candidates and the journeys’ they have traveled and they get to know what we and our program are all about,” he added.

The newest class of 2011 is the second cohort for Fordham Westchester. They are a diverse bunch consisting of 22 students with backgrounds in areas such as finance, pharmaceuticals, real estate, health care, higher education and government.

Cohort Statistics
Number of Executives in Cohort: 22
Mean Age: 33
Mean Years of Work Experience: 11
Percent Male: 68
Percent Female: 32
Percent Full Financial Sponsorship: 20
Percent Partial Financial Sponsorship: 35
Percent Self Sponsored: 45
Mean Salary: $115,000

Titles Represented in Cohort: senior vice president, senior environmental specialist, senior auditor, assistant vice president, operations analyst.

Organizations Represented in Cohort: Credit Suisse, GAMCO Asset Management, Inc., Thomson Reuters, Toll Brothers, Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities, Con Edison, Yeshiva University and the Westchester County Medical Center.

Academic Institutions Represented in Cohort: Cornell, Brandeis, Lafayette, Villanova, Fordham, LaSalle, Binghamton, Lehman, University of Connecticut and Oklahoma. One student in the cohort was a member of the UCONN Men’s Division I NCAA Basketball Championship Squad.

Eighteen percent of the students in this new cohort were born outside of the United States and hail from Albania, Honduras, Peru and Sweden.

The intensive 22-month program is growing in popularity: in Fiscal Year 2005, it generated 1,392 credit hours (AEMBA Cohorts 1 and 2); in Fiscal Year 2009, the EMBA program will generate 2,352 credit hours (AEMBA Cohorts 5, 6 and Westchester Cohort 1). This represents a 69 percent increase in credit hours in a four-year period. GBA anticipates the credit hours to grow in Fiscal Year 2010, as it will have four EMBA cohorts running concurrently for the first time.

Cohort Statistics
Number of Executives in Cohort: 22
Program Tuition: $80,000
Mean Age: 35
Mean Years of Work Experience: 13
Percent Male: 59
Percent Female: 41
Percent Full Financial Sponsorship: 16
Percent Partial Financial Sponsorship: 58
Percent Self Sponsored: 26
Mean Salary: $125,000

Industries Represented in Cohort: finance, insurance, utilities, sports, non-profit, media, medical, pharmaceuticals, banking and packaged goods.

Titles Represented in Cohort: senior director, vice president, associate executive director, content director, sales consultant and chief construction inspector.

Organizations Represented in Cohort: ESPN, Medco Health Solutions, Mastercard, Con Edison, Crossfire Consulting, Academy of Management and WFUV.

Academic Institutions Represented in Cohort: New York Medical College (MPH), University of Maryland, Fordham University, Manhattan College, DePaul University, City College of New York, St. John’s University and Penn State University.

In what is the Journal’s first poll of the world’s best EMBA programs, Fordham’s exclusive program in the Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) received an overall “corporate impression rank” of 6.33. Total scoring was based on feedback from students, MBA graduates and hundreds of companies weighing in on how well programs develop management and leadership skills.

“This is exciting news,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Today we celebrate the excellence of our executive MBA program. For us, it helps to build Fordham’s reputation and to build our brand.”

The survey’s two top-ranked schools were Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, with a “corporate impression” score of 8.5, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, with a corresponding 8.92 score.

Schools were assigned a student rank, a corporate rank and a management skills rank as part of a composite score.

Although Fordham’s overall ranking was 25th place, its student ranking was substantially higher, at 17th place. Fordham’s classmate quality was also ranked among the highest of those schools included.

The competitive 22-month program currently enrolls 35 students, with an additional EMBA cohort to begin in January at the University’s new Westchester campus.

According to Francis Petit, Ed.D., assistant dean and director of executive programs at GBA, Fordham’s program helps develop a camaraderie between students through creative class applications that differ from other programs, and other outside activities. Last year, students were offered a management/jazz simulation course in which they learned team dynamics through musical performance.

The program also requires that students take business ethics.

“Such a unique program experience—along with a capstone academic experience in China—makes our students very passionate about our program and their experience at Fordham,” Petit said. “Our goal is to equip our students to be future leaders in business, society and their communities . . . with the idea of developing leaders who are not only ethically principled, but who are also sensitive to corporate social responsibility.”

The Journal survey questioned more than 4,000 students and recent graduates from 72 such programs worldwide and 455 human resource and development managers at leading companies.

EMBA programs are on the rise and tend to attract older, more experienced students. The median student age, according to the Journal study, is 37 years and the median management experience per student is 10 years.

Petit said that the northeast region of the United States has experienced a 14 percent increase in applications to EMBA programs since last year. Fordham’s program is expected to reach 70 students in fiscal year 2009.