Executive in Residence Program debuts

By Kathleen Madaus

Fr. MacFarland and Arthur A. Ciocca

The inaugural Arthur A. Ciocca Executive in Residence Program was declared a "smashing success" by Holy Cross prebusiness adviser and history professor, Ed O'Donnell '86.

Nineteen students chose to participate in the March 7-11 program rather than go home or to warmer climates for spring break. The program brought several prestigious HC alumni executives to campus from around the country, including: Brian P. Kelley '83, president and CEO of SIRVA, Inc.; Peter George '81, president and CEO of Crossbeam Systems; Regina Sommer '80, CFO of Netegrity, Inc.; Thomas Patton '86, principal of Vista Advisors, LLC; Edward Ludwig '73, chairman, president and CEO of Becton, Dickinson and Co.; Joan Hogan Gillman '85, president of East Rock Associates, Inc.; and Leslie Grattan '85, senior human resource specialist at Trans-Lux Corporation. William Maloney '59, president and owner of Osprey Holdings Ltd., helped assemble the executives. Arthur Ciocca '59, chairman of the Wine Group, Inc., who is committed to nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit in Holy Cross students, served on the evaluation panel.

The students who attended the program were carefully chosen through an application process. Each candidate was required to submit a copy of their academic transcripts, a cover letter and two letters of recommendation. O'Donnell pointed out that while several of the students were economics and accounting majors, a full one-third were history, English and psychology majors. According to him, "A true liberal arts education should not offer a business major per se, but a large number of our students do go into business." O'Donnell feels that too many bright students go to law school not knowing what else to do. "This program has opened their eyes."

A typical day began with an 8:30 a.m. breakfast and 9:00 a.m. speaker, focusing on a broad theme, such as starting and building a business, or problems with running a company. After lunch, the students, who were divided into teams, engaged in breakout sessions during which they tackled various real world issues and devised solutions. On day 3, for example, Tom Patton, a company turn-around expert, spoke about "What Can Go Wrong and How to Fix It."

Each team was given a fact sheet summarizing complex issues facing an unnamed company. At the end of the day, the students had come up with 28 solutions, 27 of which Patton said he had considered using in an actual turn-around. Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president of the College, observed that, "While students in a purely academic environment can feel isolated, this program gave them real life experience. It connected them to creative, exciting people in the business world, making their experience here at Holy Cross more meaningful and credible."

Casey Gough '07, a football player and undeclared major from Chicago, Ill., said that attending the program was the "best decision I ever made." He enjoyed learning from Peter George of Crossbeam how to put together a business plan while addressing cost, sales, marketing and manufacturing. "We got real world experience from the best of the best" at the same time reinforcing the core values being taught at Holy Cross. During a lively discussion of business ethics, Gough realized that one of the salient points he took away from the program was that a good CEO is "really a selfless person who gives much of the credit to those around him." He was pleased to learn that the vitriolic type of office backstabbing portrayed in television shows like "The Apprentice" would, in real life, "not be tolerated in a good company."

After a conversation regarding the Enron scandal and the culture that produced it, the students were given hypothetical situations to consider. Lauren Tierney '07, an economics major from Scarsdale, NY, felt an important lesson for her was Patton's assertion that: "You can't sacrifice your integrity." Tierney, who would like to go into management, said: "All of the executives stressed the importance of hiring the best people and making sure they are in the right spot in the company." She felt that the program was invaluable in exposing her to "different paths."

The final day of the week ended with evaluations of student projects and a less formal discussion in the afternoon lead by Joan Hogan Gillman '85, president of East Rock Associates, and Leslie Grattan '85; a skillful human resources executive. They administered a survey of interests to students, to aid them in refining their career goals. Hogan Gillman was impressed with "the caliber of the whole group" and gave the students "food for thought regarding family and quality of life issues." She said she stressed that a "liberal arts education is a fantastic foundation for developing oral, written, and analytical skills needed in business."

In 2000, economics professor, Nancy Baldiga, then adviser to the nascent prebusiness program, conceptualized the idea for an Executive in Residence Program. The future of the program is bright, as O'Donnell says, "It will become on par with other spring break options such as the Spiritual Exercises or the Habitat for Humanity trip." Vellaccio predicts that the program will be "refined but will always have at its basis the bringing together of the best business leaders with bright students and challenging them with the right problems." It will become an integral part of the "whole of the prebusiness program" which is comprised of the Arthur A. Ciocca Entrepreneurial Speaker Series, internships, mentoring, and the liberal arts curriculum.

Ciocca, who was "extraordinarily impressed" with Holy Cross' ability to bring together such talented people from the business community, believes the program will induce more students to "consider business as a noble profession" as some students told him it was "a transformative experience." He said that the Executive in Residence Program gives students the confidence to choose a career in business with the knowledge that their liberal arts background has provided them with the necessary tools to "think, communicate and problem solve."

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