CEOs Offer Insights That Can't Be Found in a Textbook
It’s a defining formula: industry leaders at all levels regularly serve as members of the NYU-SCPS faculty, connecting our curricula and programs to the expertise and driving energy of their professional fields. And, they link our students to lifelong academic and career-enhancing networks. CEOs who return to the classroom add a special dimension to the experience of studying at SCPS—they provide in-depth, firsthand strategic visions of their industries and the factors shaping them, and serve as inspiring examples and mentors for their students.
Lou Capozzi is an adjunct professor in the SCPS graduate program in Public Relations and Corporate Communications. He is also chairman emeritus of the Publicis Public Relations and Corporate Communications Group, part of the world’s fourth largest communications company. With 30 years experience working with multinational clients and managing 150 employees and a budget of more than $80 million, he provides an unmatched understanding of the world of public relations. “Moving into academia seemed a natural extension of my experience,” says Capozzi, who created the training program at his firm.
“Running the firm, I developed a strong point of view about how to succeed in PR and corporate communications, which I try to convey to my students in my lectures and my interactions with them,” he says.
Of course, CEOs and business leaders are familiar fixtures on many campuses these days, including NYU. Whether delivering a speech at an event or guest lecturing in a class, they are in demand for their real-world insights and wisdom. Not many schools, however, can boast of having busy CEOs like Capozzi who more fully commit to teaching and all that it entails: writing lesson plans, conducting classes over the course of a semester, grading assignments, and administering exams.
“I started teaching the day I graduated from NYU,” says Michael R. Cunningham, an adjunct professor in the Master of Arts program in Graphic Communications Management and Technology, as well as an NYU-Steinhardt Ph.D. alumnus. “I thought, if I can impact someone in the same way that my professors inspired me, it would be great!”
Cunningham is legendary in the field of graphic communications. The company he founded in Jersey City in 1989 with one press and 11 employees grew to a $185 million operation with 1,700 employees. It went public in 1998 and was acquired in 2000. Cunningham retired to teach full time, but in May 2007 he returned to the CGI Group—renamed DG3—as chief executive officer.
Cunningham’s desire to teach is motivated by inspirational NYU professors who taught him to think critically and helped him to create the initial model for CGI. “My main thing is to teach people entrepreneurship because we are leaving the Information Age for the Conceptual Age,” he explains.
Lesley Jane Seymour, editor-in-chief of More magazine, teaches magazine editing at NYU-SCPS.
Capozzi and Cunningham are just two examples of the dozens of current or recent top executives teaching in NYU-SCPS graduate, undergraduate, and continuing education programs. Others include Lesley Jane Seymour, editor-in-chief of More magazine, teaching magazine editing; Neil Grabois, former president of Colgate University, now adjunct faculty at the NYU-SCPS George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising; and Lawrence Burstein, publisher of New York magazine, teaching magazine marketing and sales.
“I know I bring something different to the students, and I’m glad I can play that role,” says Mike Cramer, former president of the NHL’s Dallas Stars and major league baseball’s Texas Rangers, who joined the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management as a full-time clinical assistant professor in September. “I think that anytime you can get a CEO, a president, or chief operating officer to go into a class to teach the nuts and bolts of their profession, you should do it as fast and as many times as you can.”