Costello College of Business News

Why it doesn’t—and shouldn’t—always pay to be a super-successful CEO

Jennifer Anzaldi — Wed, 07 May 2025 12:46:40 +0000

Why it doesn’t—and shouldn’t—always pay to be a super-successful CEO Jennifer Anzaldi Wed, 05/07/2025 - 08:46

In This Story

Are corporate boards acting as stabilizing forces for their firms, or enablers of extreme greed? That’s one of the questions implied by current debates about so-called “runaway CEO pay.” It’s not entirely clear how the CEO incentives set by the board can be squared with its fiduciary duty to safeguard long-term shareholder value. That’s largely due to the mystery surrounding how CEO compensation is determined in the first place.

“It’s a black box,” says JK Aier, senior associate dean for academic affairs and global engagement and associate professor of accounting at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George Mason �鶹��. “We don’t know why boards give bonuses, why CEOs get a raise—in other words, what goes on behind the scenes.”

JK Aier

Aier’s academic paper, forthcoming in Accounting and Business Research, circumvents this problem by focusing on cases posing stark contrasts between short- and long-term value. (Jian Cao of Florida Atlantic �鶹��, Zhanel DeVides of Penn State Abington and Ki Kyung Song of West Chester �鶹�� co-authored.) When a company reports increased earnings year after year, a short-sighted board would raise CEO compensation in line with that performance, incentivizing the CEO to keep up the good work. To cooler heads, however, such a long “earnings string” would raise red flags, prompting a more cautious stance toward compensation.

“Continuous growth or expectations of continuous growth create adverse incentives and challenges because it’s not possible, given how business cycles work,” says Aier. “It may create undue pressure on CEOs to maintain growth somehow if it is strongly tied to compensation.” A strict pay-for-performance approach could induce CEOs to take risks that endanger long-term firm value, such as engaging in managerial manipulation. But how religiously do boards adhere to pay-for-performance?

The researchers examined earnings patterns and CEO compensation for thousands of firms during the period 1999-2018 (11,197 firm-year observations in all). About two-thirds of the firm-years saw an increase in earnings; of those, fewer than 20 percent were in their sixth year or later in an unbroken earnings string.

Across the sample, CEO compensation over time was responsive to earnings patterns. For the first few years of the string, boards lavished their outperforming CEOs with expanding pay packets. But rewards tapered off in subsequent years, indicating that boards may be aware of the risks of over-incentivizing long patterns of increased earnings.

A similar relationship existed for firms with negative earnings strings. After sharply reducing compensation in the first two years of losses, boards stopped penalizing struggling CEOs and kept compensation fairly flat.

“If a company continues to have losses, will directors keep penalizing the CEO? If they do, no one will want to work for that company,” Aier says. “Instead, giving CEOs a runway during a string of continuous losses provides them the opportunity to turn things around.”

The researchers also looked at the probability of CEO turnover as it related to earnings patterns. Surprisingly, CEOs who presided over uncommonly long upward strings faced increased odds of turnover, which Aier attributes in part to board suspicions. “On the profit side, there seems to be a loss of trust that this is even possible,” he says. “Boards are willing to look at changing the CEO because they believe these strings may be unsustainable. In other words, something smells fishy to them.”

The opposite dynamic held true for poorly performing firms. CEO turnover risk declined over the longer downward strings, presumably reflecting broader concerns about retaining talent during prolonged periods of financial difficulty.

In sum, board compensation committees seem highly attentive to earnings patterns, monitoring them for long-term risks and adjusting CEO pay packets accordingly. This cuts against the idea that directors may be complicit in a CEO money grab that imperils firms’ long-term standing.

Moreover, the researchers found that the above-mentioned relationship between earnings patterns and CEO compensation was much stronger for firms experiencing lower competition and higher earnings persistence. This suggests that where market discipline is lacking, directors will pay even closer attention to earnings strings in order to keep CEOs honest.

“�鶹�� research suggests that boards pay attention to their monitoring role,” Aier concludes. “Boards are proactive; they care not only about whether the company is doing well, but also how performance is achieved.”

Hedging long-term risks by changing CEO compensation is one way directors can prevent misaligned incentives from forming. “The board’s role goes beyond making sure things go smoothly. It is also looking into the future in terms of what’s needed for the company and its stakeholders, and making sure the operations and the management of the company are also looking at performance from that perspective,” Aier says.

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Costello College of Business Announces Spring 2025 Degree Celebration Speakers

Jennifer Anzaldi — Tue, 06 May 2025 21:34:57 +0000

Costello College of Business Announces Spring 2025 Degree Celebration Speakers Jennifer Anzaldi Tue, 05/06/2025 - 17:34

The Costello College of Business at George Mason �鶹�� will be holding its Spring 2025 Degree Celebration on Friday evening, May 16, 2025. This year’s degree celebration will include remarks from the President and CEO of NABA Inc., Guylaine Saint Juste, BA International Relations ’94.

Guylaine Saint Juste, BA International Relations ’94

NABA Inc. is the premier organization dedicated to advancing professionals in accounting, finance, business, and entrepreneurship. With a dynamic network of more than 25,000 members, NABA champions the development of exceptional talent, drives innovation across industries, and cultivates a culture of excellence. Through education, access to opportunity, and strategic career connections, NABA empowers its members to lead boldly today while inspiring the next generation of leaders. The NABA-George Mason chapter holds a high interest in students who possess a strong sense of civic responsibility, a desire for excellence both inside and outside of the classroom, as well as those who are interested in promoting opportunities for all in the fields of accounting, finance, and other business-related professions.

Guylaine Saint Juste is a globally recognized transformational leader who delivers measurable impact by reimagining systems, expanding opportunity, and catalyzing growth. As President and CEO of NABA, Inc., she has led a bold transformation of the organization—modernizing its infrastructure, embracing digital innovation, and embedding strategic focus throughout its operations. Under her leadership, NABA has experienced explosive growth, expanding its membership fivefold—from 5,000 to over 25,000—and increasing annual revenue from $4 million to $18 million. Today, NABA is recognized as a high-performing, mission-driven organization with a national footprint and growing influence across sectors.

Guylaine has been recognized as one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting for four consecutive years. She has also been named one of the Most Powerful Women in Accounting by the AICPA and CPA Practice Advisor for three consecutive years, including 2024—a testament to her far-reaching impact. With over two decades of experience driving organizational growth and fostering equity, Guylaine’s career reflects her unwavering commitment to closing opportunity gaps and building inclusive systems that create lasting change.

Before joining NABA, Guylaine served as Executive Director of the National Capital Region for Year Up, where she connected more than 2,000 young adults with life-changing career opportunities. Her earlier career includes a successful tenure as Virginia Market Executive and Senior Vice President at Capital One, where she led market expansion and oversaw a $1.1 billion deposit base.

During her degree celebration address, Ms. Juste will speak to undergraduate and graduate degree recipients on their responsibility to lead in a complicated world—and how AI, Generative AI, and Agent AI tools will help them to focus on strategy, innovation, and human connections. And, as a George Mason alumna, her remarks on the importance of human connections in leadership are also expected to echo her alma mater’s definition of kindness: “intentionally engage in positive action that is friendly, caring, and compassionate towards self and others.”

Following Ms. Saint Juste’s remarks, Sarah Oulton, BS Criminology, Law and Society ’21, MS Accounting, Graduate Certificate in Forensic Accounting ’25, will deliver the graduating student address.

Costello College of Business Alumni Chapter President Kevin Connor, MBA ’22, will deliver the alumni address prior to the recognition of graduating students.

The Spring 2025 Business Degree Celebration will begin at 6:30 p.m. in EagleBank Area on the Fairfax campus of George Mason �鶹��. Tickets are required for each guest over the age of two years. Visit the George Mason �鶹�� Degree Celebrations website for more information.

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From public health to the boardroom: Dean Melissa Perry’s MBA journey reflects the future of higher education

Greg Johnson — Mon, 05 May 2025 18:41:18 +0000

From public health to the boardroom: Dean Melissa Perry’s MBA journey reflects the future of higher education Greg Johnson Mon, 05/05/2025 - 14:41

In This Story

Melissa J. Perry, Sc.D., MHS

Melissa Perry, ScD, MHS, Dean of George Mason �鶹��’s College of Public Health, will graduate this spring with her Costello MBA—her third graduate degree, earned while serving as a full-time dean, raising two children, and leading one of the largest and fastest-growing public health programs in the region.

Dean Melissa Perry

On its face, it’s a personal milestone—a story of resilience, grit, and lifelong learning. But it’s also something more: a symbol of the evolving nature of higher education leadership and the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration in a complex and rapidly changing world.

At 59, with decades of academic leadership under her belt, Perry didn’t need another degree. But she wanted one. Specifically, she wanted the tools to amplify the mission of public health through a deeper understanding of business strategy, finance, and systems thinking. And she wanted to walk in the shoes of her students—to experience the intensity, vulnerability, and growth that comes with sitting on the other side of the classroom.

“I pursued an MBA not because I was preparing to leave public health,” Perry said, “but because I wanted to lead it better.”

A Student by Night, a Dean by Day

Perry began her MBA in 2019 at George Washington �鶹��, taking synchronous online courses while working full time as a department chair. The demands of remote learning were immediate and intense. Asynchronous coursework—where material is delivered without live instruction—proved especially challenging.

“I discovered quickly that I learn best through discussion and connection,” she said. “Asynchronous formats made it harder to stay engaged, and with everything else I was juggling, I knew I needed a structure that mirrored a traditional classroom experience.”

When Perry transferred into George Mason’s MBA program in the Costello College of Business, she opted for in-person courses whenever possible. She found herself immersed in lively evening classes that offered the structure, energy, and peer interaction she craved—after full days spent leading faculty meetings, mentoring students, and managing the complex operations of a growing college.

Her children were just 7 and 12 when she began the program. And while her days stretched from early morning to late night, she credits her husband’s steadfast support with helping her stay focused and grounded. “He was my rock,” she said. “He kept everything running smoothly at home and made sure I had the space and encouragement to keep going.”

The tech demands were also no small feat. Leading a college through pandemic-era digital transformations while simultaneously keeping up with group chats, shared documents, Zoom sessions, and collaborative MBA tools made multitasking a full-time art form. “I was toggling between college-wide dashboards and team Slack messages,” Perry recalled. “There were moments I wondered how many tabs one person could have open at once.”

But through it all, she stayed present—and determined.

Training the Next Generation of Public Health Leaders

While navigating her Costello MBA, Perry brought to the classroom more than just executive experience—she brought the insight of someone who has trained thousands of students over the course of a 35-year career. As a professor, mentor, and principal investigator, she has led a successful public health laboratory that has served as a training ground for cadres of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students.

Her passion for mentorship and education has been central to her career. From the laboratory bench to the lecture hall to the boardroom, Perry has devoted her professional life to building up others, equipping them with the skills and confidence to lead in the public health field.

“Watching students evolve into independent thinkers and leaders has always been the most rewarding part of my work,” she said. “Taking on the role of student again reminded me just how transformative that experience can be.”

Blending Mission and Metrics

A scientist by training—with a Doctor of Science and Master of Health Science from Johns Hopkins—Perry has long been grounded in data, rigor, and public service. But as she stepped into broader leadership roles, she saw firsthand the gaps that emerge when great ideas meet operational realities.

“Public health professionals are exceptional at solving complex problems,” she said. “But we need fluency in the language of business to scale those solutions—whether we’re running health departments, nonprofits, academic institutions, or startups.”

Her MBA program provided the missing pieces: advanced financial modeling, strategic planning, operational systems, marketing frameworks. It wasn’t about abandoning her mission—it was about making it sustainable. It also pushed her to think differently about impact.

“In business school, you learn how to think in terms of value creation,” she said. “In public health, we think in terms of lives improved. When you combine those perspectives, you unlock entirely new ways of approaching social good.”

Forging Cross-College Collaboration at George Mason

Perry brought that mindset with her to George Mason �鶹�� when she was named the inaugural dean of the College of Public Health. Almost immediately, she began building bridges—not just between faculty and students, but across disciplines and colleges.

One of her earliest initiatives was to host the leadership team from George Mason’s Costello College of Business. She invited them into public health classrooms and simulation labs, not just to showcase what the College of Public Health was building, but to spark conversations about shared purpose, complementary strengths, and collaborative potential.

“There’s no real daylight between our missions,” Perry said. “The business of health—workforce, sustainability, innovation—requires both of us at the table.”

That cross-college partnership is emblematic of Perry’s approach to leadership: not siloed, but integrated; not transactional, but transformational. As she often notes, the great challenges of our time—mental health, health equity, workforce development, aging populations—demand new models of education and action that cross traditional academic boundaries.

The Full Circle Moment

In a meaningful twist, Perry’s MBA will be conferred by the dean of the Costello College of Business, Ajay Vinzé—her colleague, collaborator, and friend. It’s more than ceremonial. It’s a symbol of the university’s vision for a more collaborative future and a celebration of the value that comes from interdisciplinary leadership.

It’s also deeply personal. Perry began her MBA not to prove anything to anyone, but because she believed it would stretch her—and it did. Now, as she returns to her students, faculty, and staff with fresh skills and a wider lens, she does so with renewed energy and imagination.

Redefining What a Student—and a Leader—Looks Like

There’s power in this story for students, faculty, alumni, and staff. Perry’s path redefines what it means to be a student—not someone just beginning their journey, but someone who is always learning. And it reframes what it means to be a leader—not someone who has all the answers, but someone willing to ask new questions.

It also reminds us that careers, like learning, are nonlinear. They loop, stretch, and evolve. They make space for change. They’re allowed to be audacious.

Perry’s story is a George Mason story: grounded in access, elevated by ambition, and fueled by the belief that knowledge and community are transformative forces.

Looking Ahead

Now equipped with the perspectives of both scientist and strategist, Perry is turning her attention to what’s next. Her goals include advancing immersive technologies in public health education, strengthening interdisciplinary research, and positioning George Mason’s College of Public Health among the nation’s top programs.

But one thing will remain constant: her belief in people—students, colleagues, and communities—as the drivers of health and change.

“At the end of the day,” she says, “what matters most is that we’re helping others find their path, live with purpose, and grow into the leaders the world needs. That’s what this degree was about for me. And that’s what Mason is all about.”

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This former rower is racing toward the finish of her accelerated master’s

Sarah Holland — Fri, 02 May 2025 18:40:51 +0000

This former rower is racing toward the finish of her accelerated master’s Sarah Holland Fri, 05/02/2025 - 14:40

Monika Blakely, BS Information Technology ’24, has lived all over the world, but her time at George Mason �鶹�� has been particularly special. From rowing with the women’s rowing team to working as an influencer with ShopMason, this soon-to-be double George Mason graduate has left her mark on Fairfax Campus.

Photo provided

Blakely plans to graduate in spring 2025 with a master’s in management from Costello College of Business, completed through the Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s Program.

What inspired you to combine information technology and management?

My long-term goal is to be a project manager, and I think it’s useful to know both the technical side and the management side to understand how to be effective as a project manager. It also gives me the flexibility to do what I want in a different career path, if that ends up being right for me. I had extra spaces in my undergraduate classes, so I added the Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s Program for management.

Tell me about your internships.

Currently I have two internships. The first is with Fairfax City Economic Development (FCED). I started there in fall 2023 as a social media intern. I thought local government was interesting. I’d never been involved in that industry before and wanted to learn more about who’s involved and what they do for the city. I figured I’d try it and see if I liked it, and I did! I became a marketing fellow with FCED in spring 2024, and I am now a part-time programs associate.

My second internship is with General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). I’ve been a public relations intern there since summer 2024.

What classes would you say have set you up for success at your internships?

Senior Capstone, for one, because I think that’s been the most similar to real-world problem solving. We worked with different concentrations in the IT department. We had people doing web development, programming, cybersecurity, and so on, seeing how those different skill sets can contribute to that one broad end goal.

GBUS 653 Organizational Behavior has also been helpful, just learning about different learning styles, how your learning style can fit in with others, and so on.

How have your extracurriculars impacted your work in the classroom?

Teamwork and communication are probably the biggest things. In rowing, you have different parts of the boat, different strengths coming together, and you have to work to stay in sync. Sometimes when you work in a team, it’s not always ideal for you. You have to learn how to work with other people, how to adjust your learning style to fit with theirs, and how to make compromises with decisions that won’t be agreed on.

My roles at FCED and GDIT helped me improve my communication skills. Even if you don’t work within your team, you’re working with other sections, and you always have to cross-collaborate. So, with FCED and GDIT, you have people from different backgrounds and different departments, which taught me how to collaborate effectively across teams to deliver a clear, unified message.

ShopMason also helped strengthen my communication skills, because you’re constantly collaborating with students and departments across the university and you have to come together to share a clear and engaging message. That experience has helped me better contribute in classroom discussions, group projects, and presentations.

Blakely, 6th from left, with the staff of FCED. Photo provided.

What are you most proud of from your time at George Mason?

Being involved in different organizations and meeting a bunch of people I probably wouldn’t have connected with otherwise. I’ve been involved in organizations that reflect my culture and my studies, like the Japanese Student Association, the National Society for Black Engineers, and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Connecting with students similar to me has made the university experience worth it.

What makes George Mason special?

As the daughter of military service members, I’ve lived on different military bases around the world, and I think what makes George Mason special is that it has a space for everyone. There are cultural organizations, religious groups, interest groups...everyone can find a place to belong here, and that’s not the case everywhere.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

If there’s a skill you want to develop or an interest you have, pursue it in undergrad when you have the time and space to do so. You never know when those skills will be useful, and if you’re passionate about your work, people will notice.

2025 Spring Commencement

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Study: Left-handed CEOs are more innovative

Jennifer Anzaldi — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 02:32:28 +0000

Study: Left-handed CEOs are more innovative Jennifer Anzaldi Tue, 04/29/2025 - 22:32

In This Story

Long Chen

June Woo Park

Q: What do Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have in common (besides the obvious)?
A: All three belong to a community comprising about 10% of the population—the community of the left-handed.

And they’re far from the only business luminaries who are members. Steve Forbes, Oprah Winfrey and Lou Gerstner (of IBM fame) are left-handed, as were John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Ratan Tata.

Of course, this could be a mere coincidence—but perhaps not. The popular belief that left-handers think more creatively—and hence may enjoy an innovative edge in business—has been supported by cognitive neuroscience research, which shows that the left hand is controlled by the brain’s right hemisphere, a region closely associated with creative thinking. However, conflicting findings and limited research evidence prevent broad conclusions about the correlation between creativity and handedness, let alone its potential implications for business leadership.

A forthcoming research publication by Long Chen and June Woo Park, two accounting professors at the Costello College of Business at George Mason �鶹��, constitutes the first rigorous scholarly investigation into whether—and how—handedness plays a role in business innovation.

June Woo Park and Long Chen

The paper was co-authored by Albert Tsang of Southern �鶹�� of Science and Technology and Xiaofang Xu of Beijing Technology and Business �鶹��.

The researchers searched Google for photos and videos of S&P 500 CEOs engaged in activities like writing, throwing, drawing, and eating to determine their dominant hand, if wasn’t already disclosed in published sources. “We looked at pictures of them on the golf course to see how they held their clubs,” Park explains. “We also noted which wrist they wore their watch on; left-handed people often wear it on the right.” When in doubt, they followed up with calls or emails to the respective companies. All in all, they were able to identify the handedness of 1,008 CEOs across 472 companies: 91.4 percent were right-handed, 7.9 percent left-handed, and 0.7 percent mixed.

The researchers then looked at the numbers of patents and citations received by the firms from 1992 to 2015. They controlled for firm and industry characteristics, as well as other personal traits known to affect CEO innovativeness (such as age, education, risk preference shaped by experience, birth order, and founder status).

In addition, they performed several follow-up tests, including one focused on a narrow subset of firms that unexpectedly switched from a right-handed CEO to a left-handed one due to unforeseeable circumstances such as death or illness.

Every variation of the study produced essentially the same result: Firms led by left-handed CEOs demonstrate significantly higher innovative output. The differences were qualitative as well as quantitative. Patents under left-handed leadership were more likely to represent something new under the sun, rather than a spin-off from established technology.

The researchers hypothesized that the left-handers’ creative orientation would impact the way they ran their firms, including hiring decisions. Indeed, they found that companies applied for more H-1B and STEM visas when left-handers were at the helm. This emphasis on talent acquisition was not only a key indicator of innovation commitment, but may have also contributed to the firms’ creative advantage.

“We find that left-handed CEOs are more likely to hire immigrant inventors in STEM fields, and are also more likely to be inventors themselves,” Chen says. “These findings strengthen our argument by highlighting specific ways in which left-handed CEOs may directly enhance firm innovation.”

Still, piling up patents doesn’t automatically produce outcomes that will make customers and shareholders happy. Ultimately, firm performance is what matters in evaluating business success. As additional analyses in the study suggest, firms led by left-handers had higher return on assets and stronger buy-and-hold returns than peers with a right-handed leader.

“They outperformed their counterparts,” Park summarizes. “Investors are drawn to innovative firms, and left-handedness is one of the factors investors could use in their stock-picking.”

Yet innovative success is complex and multifaceted. Left-handedness is only one potentially meaningful trait among many—a lot more are yet to be explored.

“�鶹�� results are based on a large sample. But investors should not assume a CEO that is not left-handed lacks innovative potential,” Chen says.

For their ongoing and future research projects, Chen and Park are looking beyond left-handedness to explore other deeply personal CEO traits that may have business implications.

“We find it fascinating to draw on insights from disciplines outside accounting and finance,” Chen says. “CEO decisions may be shaped by factors like family experiences, genetics, academic background, career paths, and more—really, the full range of experiences that makes them who they are. Understanding that can help market participants better interpret and predict CEOs’ decision-making.”

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George Mason entrepreneurs win big at the 2025 Patriot Pitch Competition

Greg Johnson — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:34:46 +0000

George Mason entrepreneurs win big at the 2025 Patriot Pitch Competition Greg Johnson Wed, 04/23/2025 - 11:34

“Let me be clear, innovation has always been, and will always be, the solution to the world’s challenges,” said Patriot Pitch emcee Patrick Soleymani, associate dean for outreach and strategic engagement at George Mason �鶹��'s Costello College of Business. “Innovation transforms potential into power and drives us forward as an institution, community, and ultimately a civilization.”

Patriot Pitch emcee Patrick Soleymani addresses packed house in the Johnson Center Bistro. Photo by John Boal Photography

As emcee of the 2025 Patriot Pitch Competition, presented by 22nd Century Technologies Inc., Soleymani addressed the packed house. Eight final teams—two from each track—had been refining their business models with their mentors and practicing their pitches for several weeks in preparation for the afternoon’s competition.

Housed within the Costello College of Business, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) led the programming efforts and organized the final pitch event on Thursday, April 10. Ajay Vinzé, dean of the Costello College of Business, reiterated the importance of entrepreneurship and what it meant to the college’s namesake.

“In 1976, Donald and a partner founded Century Stair Company, which grew to become one of the largest stair manufacturers on the East Coast,” he said. “His passion for entrepreneurship is here with us, in spirit. Today, we are honored to have his trusted former business partners, Joe and Peg Contrucci, with us in the room.”

George Mason �鶹�� President Gregory Washington was also in attendance, along key stakeholders from the George Mason entrepreneurial ecosystem.

After Ava Uppal, BS Marketing ‘19, interviewed technology founder and executive Sid Banerjee (founded Clarabridge that was acquired by Qualtrics in 2021 for over $1 billion) in an illuminating keynote discussion, the competition commenced—this time with a record amount of prize money.

Mason's Choice Award winners. Photo by John Boal Photography

One by one, finalist teams in the STEM, Social Impact, General Entrepreneurship for Undergraduate Students, and General Entrepreneurship for Graduate Students and Recent Alumni tracks took the stage to make their pitches to four judges—subject matter experts chosen for each track—and to the audience of George Mason community members. Following each 5-minute pitch, the presenting team fielded questions from the judges. Students in between classes quickly filled the back of the Johnson Center Bistro as they cheered on their classmates and friends.

Anticipation filled the air as another Costello alumnus and community leader, Jason Howell, BS Accounting ‘97, took the stage to announce the winners:

STEM

First place: Barty AI (Sahil Jagtap)
Second place: Q Haven (Caden Green)

Social Impact

First place: CarbonSecure (Maddie Gray, Maha Raja, Ryland Plodpluang, Juan Zambrano-Lozano)
Second place: The Allocated at Delia’s House (Marisela Zelaya Delcid, David Osorto)

General Entrepreneurship Undergraduate

First place: Valor (Caleb Fink)
Second place: NOVAFoam (Ethan Ford, Trevor Geissler, Mikhail Ivanov, Stephano Barra)

General Entrepreneurship for Graduate Students and Recent Alumni

First place: Viralbite (Emmanuel Nwokeabia)
Second place: EchoPods (Raghu Manjunatha, Pooja Manjunatha Swamy)

George Mason Emmanuel Nwokeabia presenting Viralbite. Photo by John Boal Photography

Following each track of presentations, audience members scanned a QR code on the screen to vote for the separate Mason’s Choice Awardees. The winners were The Allocated at Delia’s House and Viralbite.

Emmanuel Nwokeabia, a 2024 graduate of the Costello College of Business, received the most prize money—$13,000 between his two awards. “This was more than a win—it was a powerful encouragement to pursue my vision. I encourage anyone with an idea to take that bold step, and see how the world responds,” said Nwokeabia.

The 2025 Patriot Pitch Competition showcased the entrepreneurial spirit of the Costello College of Business and George Mason �鶹��. Approximately 250 audience members attended to watch the innovative concepts and products being pitched.

2025 Patriot Pitch participants

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Ajay Vinzé

Patrick Soleymani

Jason Howell

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Janis S. Reed Scholarship helps BAM student keep her focus

Greg Johnson — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 19:44:42 +0000

Janis S. Reed Scholarship helps BAM student keep her focus Greg Johnson Fri, 04/18/2025 - 15:44

Receiving the Janis S. Reed Scholarship sharpened the focus even more for the goal-oriented Anh Tran. Wrapping up her final semester as an undergraduate student in accounting at George Mason �鶹�� and completing the bachelor’s to accelerated master’s (BAM) program, she already had her eyes on the larger picture.

Anh Tran

Following a similar path as her aunt and nearly 30 other students each year, she attended two years at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in the ADVANCE Program before transferring into the accounting program at George Mason. Her path is now leading her to completing the CPA exam after finishing her master’s degree courses.

Tran was drawn to the Costello College of Business because of its reputation for excellence and diversity. After transferring from NOVA, she worked with an academic advisor to see how she could earn the credits required to sit for the CPA exam. That’s when she first learned about the BAM program. At first, she was concerned that taking undergraduate and graduate courses at the same time would be too much. However, as she eased into the course material, she found that it was nothing she could not handle. Tran is now one of more than 60 BAM students pursuing this accelerated path to the MS in accounting degree.

Still, her course load was increasingly heavy, so Tran was relieved that the Janis S. Reed Scholarship helped pay off her financial costs. “It’s my first time taking both the undergraduate and also the grad classes, so I really want to focus on school,” she says.

Not only did the scholarship help with finances, but it also gave her other opportunities, like connecting her with Reed herself. “I had a chance to talk to her and other recipients at the scholarship luncheon,” she says. “She gave us good advice for our academic journey and then also tips for the career journey that we asked her for. It was really a great opportunity for us to meet her, and she was very sweet and friendly.”

The scholarship luncheon, which brought together Costello donors and recipients to the Fairfax Campus, was an experience that Tran was grateful to take advantage of.

Looking back on her experiences at the Costello College of Business, Tran is glad that she took advantage of many of the opportunities, some of which were recommended or assigned by professors. She recalls attending the career fair for the first time with one of her classmates.

“At that event, I had my first opportunity to talk with real recruiters, and it was really special for me,” she says.

It was at that career fair where she had the chance to interview for her first internship. The internship was exactly what she was looking for—a great learning experience in the professional tax services area at a public accounting firm.

Through focus, hard work, and informed planning, Tran is on schedule to sit for the CPA exam after graduation. She plans to begin her career immediately and balance her CPA studies with her work schedule. “I want to work for a public accounting firm, perhaps in the tax area as well,” she says. “I believe I am familiar with taxes after my past internships, and I’d like to gain more knowledge and experience about this field.”

Tran is excited to begin her state and local taxes internship at a public accounting firm in the summer of 2025. Another summer plan that she’s looking forward to is the global residency trip to Rome, Italy, as part of her global accounting environment class, where she will be able to engage with local companies and explore the culture.

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Business analytics alumna from Russia finds home at Costello

Greg Johnson — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 21:58:33 +0000

Business analytics alumna from Russia finds home at Costello Greg Johnson Tue, 04/15/2025 - 17:58

Born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Marina Komarova, MS Business Analytics ‘24, knew she wanted to get a business degree from a respected American university.

Marina Komarova. Photo provided

She had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Russia, which included a semester as an exchange student in Finland. George Mason �鶹�� had met all the criteria she was looking for—most notably a top business college in a prime location. Not yet confident in her English skills, Komarova entered through the INTO Mason program, which really helped her transition going to school in a new country.

Currently, Komarova is a business analyst at CakeBoxx Technologies, a company that designs and manufactures shipping containers for high-valued oversized types of cargo. Before accepting the position, she worked at the company as an intern while still studying at the Costello College of Business.

Securing the internship was a critical milestone for her. Because of her status as an international student, Komarova found herself under increasing pressure to find a job position or risk leaving the country. After speaking with career services, attending multiple networking events, and refining her online searches, she found CakeBoxx.

“At that point, they had this position that was called a supply chain business analyst intern,” she says. “It was honestly everything that I was looking for in my first internship because I have a background in supply chain, and I was studying business analytics.”

Komarova enjoys how flexible her job is and how it requires both statistics and interpersonal skills. “You need to know how to communicate with different kinds of people from different industries and how to actually put your ideas into words,” she says. Much of what she learned from her Costello business analytics program she was able to apply instantly to her job. “The knowledge I got from classes like marketing analytics predictions is helping me every day in my job. We have very customized solutions for different industries, so we need to do our marketing research and find out who can be our potential clients and how we can make them interested in our products.”

As an international student at George Mason, Komarova never felt out of place or like she did not belong. “My experience was great professors and university staff,” she says. “Everybody was very helpful and very welcoming.” She also thoroughly enjoyed the campus culture outside of the classroom and how the university was constantly holding events not only for academic interests and professional development but also for fun social gatherings. “The social stuff actually helped me a lot,” she says. “I was worried a lot that I wouldn’t feel like I belong here, but that was not the case.”

Marina Komarova has come a long way in a short amount of time. “It’s been a crazy journey with some ups and downs, like from the moment when I was freaking out that that I wouldn’t be able to secure a job to the point when I graduated,” she says. After overcoming uncertainty and bettering herself, she is thriving in a new country and in her career.

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A collaborative solution to culinary career challenges

Sarah Holland — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 14:29:31 +0000

A collaborative solution to culinary career challenges Sarah Holland Tue, 03/25/2025 - 10:29

One of the best parts of any town is its local food. But in the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns, keeping local restaurants alive and thriving requires a new approach.

Photo by Ron Aira/Office of �鶹�� Branding

In partnership with the City of Fairfax, Town of Vienna, and the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging, and Travel Association Foundation (VRLTAF), George Mason is working on a solution: the Culinary Careers Collaborative (CCC) is a workforce development project to get restaurant workers the foundational skills they need to succeed.

Jai Girard, director of education and workforce development for the VRLTAF, explained that the restaurant industry has often struggled with recruitment and retention. “The challenge has intensified in recent years,” she said. Hospitality employees who were laid off during the lockdowns found jobs in other industries. Business travelers, who were a significant market for Northern Virginia restaurants, have not returned to the pre-2020 numbers. And with growing competition from the gig economy, restaurants are struggling to recruit and retain their staff.

As restaurants face growing challenges, the City of Fairfax and Town of Vienna wanted to find a solution.

“This is a challenge that transcends jurisdictional borders,” said Ashley Curtis, marketing and business engagement specialist for the Town of Vienna. "Hungry diners aren’t thinking about where the city starts and the town begins: They’re just enjoying the food. We have a shared goal to support the places our residents and visitors love to eat.”

“We knew we needed partners who could bring expertise in hospitality and restaurant management, so we looked to George Mason and VRLTAF,” said Tara Borwey, assistant director of programs for Fairfax City Economic Development. George Mason has one of the only hospitality degree programs in the area.

“We’re all in such close proximity to one another, and therefore we all have a vested interest in maintaining a strong relationship and improving our shared community,” she said.

Using feedback from restaurant owners around Fairfax City and Town of Vienna, the team developed three tracks: beginning culinary skills, beverage skills, and advanced management. Each track totals 24 credit hours taken over four days. Fairfax City and the Town of Vienna fully funded the programs so they are completely free for participants.

Students practice during the beverage skills track. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of �鶹�� Branding

“Partnerships between universities and local communities are essential for creating meaningful workforce development,” said Min Park, associate professor in the Tourism and �鶹�� Management program in the College of Education and Human Development. “These partnerships ensure that training programs are academically sound and aligned with workforce demands.”

The beginning culinary skills track and beverage skills track are designed to build foundational skills for industry newcomers. Culinary students learn fundamental cooking techniques and knife skills; beverage students learned how to mix cocktails and pair wines; both tracks include instruction in hygiene and sanitation protocols, service management skills, regulation compliance, and operational strategies.

Students learn skills that will put them in a stronger starting position and get the chance to see if this industry is the right fit without risk for either the student or the restaurant losing a job or an employee.

“Retention is just as important as recruitment,” said Girard. “These tracks remove some of that steep learning curve barrier of these entry-level positions that could scare some people away. They can see if the industry is a good fit for them, while gaining skills that will make them more confident in what can be a stressful environment for someone new and untrained.”

George Mason alumna Sophia Tran, BS Tourism and �鶹�� Management ’22, a current graduate student pursuing a master's in management with a certificate in human resources in the Costello College of Business, took the beverage track and earned the ServSafe certificate and the Beverage Arts certificate. The ServSafe certificate, administered by the National Restaurant Administration, demonstrates an individual’s knowledge of food safety protocols and procedures. “I would highly recommend the track. I learned a lot about the wine and cocktail industries,” she said.

Advanced management track participants and instructors. Photo provided.

The third track—advanced management—is the only track specifically for current industry employees, designed to upskill current or potential leaders with instruction on managerial theories and practices. The inaugural module ran in July 2024 with 13 participants, taught through a collaboration between a professor of the Tourism and �鶹�� Management program and leading industry practitioners.

“Many of our restaurants are locally owned small businesses, and they don’t usually have resources like this. It’s a DIY mentality, training people on the job,” said Curtis. “But small business is the heartbeat of our region, so being able to support them makes this really special.”

The locations of the tracks vary based on the needs of the curriculum. Dolce Vita Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar in Fairfax City hosted the beverage class, which concluded its first session in January. The beginning culinary track, which will run its inaugural session in June 2025, will use the College of Public Health Nutrition Kitchen in Peterson Hall.

Said Curtis, “Collaborations like this make this region a great place to work, play, learn, and live.”

To register for upcoming tracks, visit the CCC website.

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Nonprofits are in trouble. Could more sensitive chatbots be the answer?

Jennifer Anzaldi — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 14:48:25 +0000

Nonprofits are in trouble. Could more sensitive chatbots be the answer? Jennifer Anzaldi Tue, 03/18/2025 - 10:48

In today’s attention economy, impact-driven organizations are arguably at a disadvantage. Since they have no tangible product to sell, the core of their appeal is emotional rather than practical—the “warm glow” of contributing to a cause you care about. But emotional appeals call for more delicacy and precision than standardized marketing tools, such as mass email campaigns, can sustain. Emotional states vary from person to person—even from moment to moment within the same person.

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Siddharth Bhattacharya and Pallab Sanyal, professors of information systems and operations management at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George Mason �鶹��, believe that artificial intelligence (AI) can help solve this problem. A well-designed chatbot could be programmed to calibrate persuasive appeals in real time, delivering messaging more likely to motivate someone to take a desired next step, whether that’s donating money, volunteering time or simply pledging support. Automated solutions, such as chatbots, can be especially rewarding for nonprofits, which tend to be cash-conscious and resource-constrained.

“We completed a project in Minneapolis and are working with other organizations, in Boston, New Jersey and elsewhere, but the focus is always the same,” Sanyal says. “How can we leverage AI to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve service quality in nonprofit organizations?”

Siddarth Bhattacharya. Photo provided

Sanyal and Bhattacharya’s working paper (coauthored by Scott Schanke of �鶹�� of Wisconsin Milwaukee) describes their recent randomized field experiment with a Minneapolis-based women’s health organization. The researchers designed a custom chatbot to interact with prospective patrons through the organization’s Facebook Messenger app. The bot was programmed to adjust, at random, its responses to be more or less emotional, as well as more or less anthropomorphic (human-like).

“For the anthropomorphic condition, we introduced visual cues such as typing bubbles and slightly delayed response to mimic the experience of messaging with another human,” Sanyal says.

The chatbot’s “emotional” mode featured more subjective, generalizing statements with liberal use of provocative words such as “unfair,” “discrimination” and “unjust.” The “informational” modes leaned more heavily on facts and statistics.

Over the course of hundreds of real Facebook interactions, the moderately emotional chatbot achieved deepest user engagement, as defined by a completed conversation. (Completion rate was critical because after the last interaction, users were redirected to a contact/donation form.) But when the emotional level went from moderate to extreme, more users bailed out on the interaction.

The takeaway may be that “there is a sweet spot where some emotion is important, but beyond that emotions can be bad,” as Bhattacharya explains.

Pallab Sanyal. Photo provided

When human-like features were layered on top of emotionalism, that sweet spot got even smaller. Anthropomorphism lowered completion rates and reduced the organization’s ability to use emotional engagement as a motivational tool.

“In the retail space, studies have shown anthropomorphism to be useful,” Bhattacharya says. “But in a nonprofit context, it’s totally empathy-driven and less transactional. If that is the case, maybe these human cues coming from a bot make people feel creepy, and they back off.”

Sanyal and Bhattacharya say that more customized-chatbot experiments with other nonprofits are in the works. They are taking into careful consideration the success metrics and unique needs of each partner organization.

“Most of the time, we researchers sit in our offices and work on these problems,” Sanyal says. “But one aspect of these projects that I really like is that we are learning so much from talking to these people.”

In collaboration with the organizations concerned, they are designing chatbots that can cater their persuasive appeals more closely to each context and individual interlocutor. If successful, this method would prove that chatbots could become more than a second-best substitute for a salaried human being. They could serve as interactive workshops for crafting and refining an organization’s messaging to a much more granular level than previously possible.

And this would improve the effectiveness of organizational outreach across the board—a consummate example of AI enhancing, rather than displacing, human labor. “This AI is augmenting human functions,” says Sanyal. “It’s not replacing. Sometimes it’s complementing, sometimes it’s supplementing. But at the end of the day, it is just augmenting.”

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