Nancy Rabstejnek Nichols 

Chair of the Board

Senior Vice President,
Weber Shandwick/IPG

Nancy Rabstejnek Nichols is Senior Vice President, External Affairs, at Interpublic. Working with internal and external clients Ms. Nichols handles key company relationships in terms of positioning in New York with business, community, governmental and charitable institutions. She counsels CEO’s and other senior executives on how to achieve targeted board memberships and community exposure as well as serving as liaison to the Advertising Trade Associations and the World Economic Forum on behalf of parent company Interpublic Group. Ms. Nichols also counsels corporations on their strategies for most effectively allocating corporate contributions and participation in non-profit events.

She was selected as a member of the Academy of Women Achievers: an organization of exceptional women in the workforce chosen by the YWCA of the City of New York, and has received the Americans for Indian Opportunity Outstanding Achievement Award. Ms. Nichols served as the president of the board of the New York Women in Communications Foundation, and as president of the New York Women in Communications Board.

Ms. Nichols received a BA in Psychology from Hunter College and has completed graduate courses in Personnel Psychology at Columbia University.

Al Benoit
BBA ‘98*
VP, Learning & Development
American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As)

Since 2015, Al Benoit has worked at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), leading the youth pipeline by developing advertising curriculum, industry engagement, fundraising, partnerships, mentoring and internships for NYC youth. He now oversees the L&D team in providing growth content across levels and disciplines in the industry.

While at Young & Rubicam, Benoit developed award winning plans and drove revenue growth at full-service agencies. He worked on brands like Advil, CDC and MLK Jr. Memorial encompassing a breadth of business goals and targets. In 2002, Al became a MAIP mentor, which he did for the next 8 years. More recently, he worked at media agencies, honing his skills across channels on a range of accounts including Amex, Dell and Subway. Benoit has also found new ways to give back to the community by joining Big Brother Big Sister, teaching at NYU and coaching youth football.

Justina Cho

Vice President, Marketing,
New York Life

Justina is Vice President, Head of Digital Marketing and Platform, at New York Life. She is responsible for leading the digital marketing evolution for New York Life’s agents – building and maintaining an ecosystem that allows agents to reach clients via marketing platforms for direct mail, email, web, text and social.Justina has over 15 years of experience in digital, marketing and technology. She joined New York Life from Citigroup, where she spent 10 years. As SVP Global Digital Products, she and her team drove the strategy and execution of core digital products across the globe. She also led the redesign of citi.com, which was ranked #1 by Forrester in its 2012 US Bank Digital Sales Rankings. Prior to Citi, Justina held roles at Washington Mutual and Deloitte Consulting, focused on CRM strategy and implementation.

Justina graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and received her MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. She lives in New York City with her husband and two year old daughter.

Aaron Cohen is an advertising professional and is currently a mentor at Baruch College. With over forty years of experience in advertising, his career has encompassed the areas of research, promotion, event promotion, programming, sales, and media negotiation. His most recent position was Executive Vice President of Media Investments at Horizon Media before moving onto a senior advising role. Aaron earned both his BBA and MBA at Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business.

Ginger Conlon
President,
DMCNY

Ginger Conlon is U.S. editor of The Drumandpresident of DMCNY. In her distinguished career, she has served as chief editor of MKTGinsight,Direct Marketing News, 1to1, and CRMmagazines. She was honored with a Silver Apple lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the marketing industry.

Ginger also was cited as one of the “Top 100 Most Social Customer Service Pros on Twitter” and one of the “Top 25 CRM Influencers You Should Be Following.”

Ginger has contributed to several business books, including Capitalizing on the Voice of the Customer, CyberSelling, and CRM at the Speed of Light. She has worked as a business book editor for such authors as Lior Arussy and Jay Conrad Levinson.

Ginger currently serves an advisor on the Environmental Defense Fund’s Digital Advisory Council. Previously, she served as leader of the Customer Experience Professional’s New York networking team, and as president of the New York chapter of the ASBPE. She holds a BA in advertising from Penn State.

Donna D’Alessandro
MBA ‘10*
SVP of Programming
Discovery Channel and Animal Planet at Discovery Communications

Donna D’Alessandro oversees day-to-day program strategy for both Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, coordinating across all departments to create and conceptualize series, specials, franchises and initiatives for domestic telecast while leveraging those for all business opportunities.

Before joining Discovery, D’Alessandro was Vice President of Programming and Strategy at BET Networks and earlier she served as Director of Program Planning at Bravo.

Tom Doctoroff
Senior Partner and Chief Cultural Insights Officer
Prophet

Tom Doctoroff was the CEO of J. Walter Thompson Asia Pacific until August 2016. He is one of Asia’s most respected marketing professionals. He is also a leading expert in Chinese consumer psychology.

He has appeared regularly on CNBC, NBC’s The Today Show, Bloomberg and NPR and is featured in publications ranging from the Financial Times to the Wall Street Journal. He is a sought after keynote speaker for events such as the International Advertising Association’s global symposium, University of Chicago’s Global Management Conference and the JPMorgan Asia Pacific Equities conference.

Tom started his career at Leo Burnett in Chicago and moved to J. Walter Thompson (Chicago). In 1994, he landed to Hong Kong as Regional Business Director. In 1998, he became the Managing Director of J. Walter Thompson Shanghai. In 2012, he was appointed Asia Pacific CEO of the company. Some of his key clients included: Unilever, HSBC, Ford, Unicharm , Nikon and leading local enterprises across APAC such as China Unicom and the Singapore Tourism Board

Tom is the author of the best-selling books “Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer” (2006) and “What Chinese Want” (2012). He launched his third book, “Twitter Is Not a Strategy: Rediscovering the Art of Brand Marketing” (2014). He serves on several boards in New York including BUILD NYC, dedicated to keeping un-resourced kids in school through entrepreneurship and the International Center of Photography.

Richard Hochhauser

In 2008, Richard Hochhauser retired as President & CEO of Harte-Hanks,Inc — a leading international direct marketing services company. He had been COO/CEO and on the Board of Directors of the company for 12 years prior to his retirement. Mr. Hochhauser joined Harte-Hanks in an entrepreneurial capacity in 1975.Mr. Hochhauser has spoken at a wide range of marketing and database conferences, lectured at Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon and Rutgers, and since his retirement from Harte-Hanks has served on the faculty of NYU and Baruch College. He is past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Direct Marketing Association and Marketing Edge. He was a member of the Advisory Council, Center for Direct Marketing of New York University.

Richard Hochhauser earned his undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University and received an MBA from Columbia University.

Elyse Kane is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at Baruch College in the Graduate Marketing Department.  She is also an independent marketing consultant with over 35 years experience.  Elyse started her consulting company in 2018 after a 32 year career at Colgate-Palmolive.  At Colgate, Elyse held a variety of Consumer Insight roles within North America and Global Business.  Her most recent role at Colgate-Palmolive was Vice President of Consumer Insights for North America.  While at Colgate she was a trustee for the Marketing Science Institute and on the advisory board for Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science.  Currently Elyse is on the advisory board for Baruch College Marketing Curriculum, Olson Zaltman Marketing Research and Lelex Prime.​

Elyse received her MBA from Baruch College and her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Queens College.

Daphne Leroy
BBA ‘93*
Senior Director, Marketing & Partner Solutions
Viacom Media Networks

Daphne Leroy is a purpose-driven marketing and communications strategist with over 20 years of experience at iconic global media companies and leading social impact organizations. Currently, Daphne is Vice President of Marketing Strategy in the Ad Solutions group at Viacom Media Networks. Spanning all marketing and communications disciplines, she has held leadership positions at top media & entertainment companies, including MTV, Viacom, Time Inc., National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), and The Paley Center for Media. Daphne began her career at FOX Broadcasting in network sales and distribution.

Daphne’s professional background is rooted in social responsibility and philanthropic endeavors. Whether empowering students and young women through her volunteer work or serving as a Co-Founder and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Haitian Roundtable, Daphne is devoted to giving back.

In acknowledgement of her achievements and business acumen, she was named one of CableFAX Magazine’s most influential minority executives in the cable television industry. Daphne was recognized on the Multichannel News “40 Under 40” list of movers and shakers who are helping their companies grow and succeed, and was awarded The Network Journal “40 Under Forty” award that honors leaders who have proven to be exceptional performers in their industry and who are committed to the development of their community.

Alex Lirtsman is the Founding Partner and Chief Strategist of Ready Set Rocket, an award-winning digital agency committed to connecting brands and consumers through innovative multi-channel experiences. Ready Set Rocket’s clients include Ann Taylor, Deutsche Bank, Fast Company, Johnson & Johnson, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Kenneth Cole, Live Nation, Marriott, Michael Kors, New York Life, Perfumania Holdings and Univision Communications Inc., among others.For more than 15 years, Alex has led innovation and digital strategy for global brands and nonprofits and oversees Ready Set Rocket’s team that fuels innovation and digital strategies. In addition, Alex is passionate about advancing education and currently lectures at Columbia University’s Masters in Strategic Communication program and Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business’s Marketing MBA program.

Julie Monroid
Chief Knowledge Officer
Havas Health & You

Julie Monroid, currently Chief Knowledge Officer & Partner at Havas Health & You and Managing Principal of xigxag consulting, has over 20 years of healthcare experience. Havas Health & You, a leading global marketing and communications network, is the health and wellness vertical within the Havas Group, of which Vivendi recently took a majority stake in. Havas Health & You was designed to focus on the health and wellness continuum, from Rx and OTC to health solutions. It is comprised of 4000+ employees with over 150 offices in over 100 cities in 70 countries worldwide.

During her 10 year tenure at Havas Health & You, she has served many roles in agency services from management to strategy to business development and growth. Julie has a proven track record in growing companies, new capabilities, and offerings.

Cozi is currently the Global Business Development Lead for Google’s largest Consumer Product Goods Clients. He joined Google in 2010 in Ireland as a Sales Manager for a team focused on providing digital advertising solutions. He also serves as innovation trainer & facilitator for Googlers & External Clients including NGOs. Additionally, he operates as a marketing consultant to Verily (Google Life Sciences). Prior to this role, Cozi founded the global audience development team that supported 2 million online publishers & developers.Prior to Google, Cozi worked at Johnson & Johnson for 6 years covering US, UK & Emerging markets. He has held Product & Marketing Management roles as well as Sales Management duties across multiple healthcare fields working in 3 different continents.

Cozi earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and graduated with an MBA at Baruch College. He currently offers workshops & classes as an Adjunct Professor at Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business.

Paulette Oliva

President, DMCNY
Owner, EVP, Merit Direct

A founding member and Executive Vice President at MeritDirect, Paulette has over 25 years of industry experience specializing in B2B customer acquisition and retention. Working with a diverse set of clients – i.e. LL Bean (Direct to Business), Godiva, Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger Washington/Tax letters, New England Business Service, Staples, and Wharton Executive Education – allows for a unique perspective, and broad B2B expertise on topics including Lifetime Value, Retention/Reactivation, Attribution, Modeling and Analytics, and true Multichannel Marketing. Specializing in database marketing for both prospecting and customer segmentation analysis, her clients are recognized as some of the top B2B marketers in the nation.Paulette is a Managing Owner at MeritDirect, a member of the Media and Content Marketing Association – (MCMA) as well as Marketing Idea Exchange – (The MIX) and serves as the current President of the Direct Marketing Club of New York – (DMCNY)

Stacey is in an innovative financial professional and business partner with over 23 years of experience in the entertainment, media & communications industry. As Worldwide Financial Controller at Ogilvy, Stacey is directly responsible for managing the analysis, risk assessment, budgeting, forecasting and reporting of over 600 operating units in the global operations of Ogilvy & Mather.

Stacey has been featured in Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the 75 Most Powerful Women in Business and is often called upon to serve as a panelist speaking about women and diversity conversations. She was inducted into YWCA’s Academy of Women Leaders class of 2012 and maintains active memberships in the National Association of Black Accountants (“NABA”), American Institute of Certified Public Accounts (“AICPA”), Advancing Women Executives (“AWE”) and the Institute of Management Accounts (“IMA”).

Stacey is a proud graduate of The Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and is passionate about education and the arts.

Luba Tolkachyov is the Co-Founder of Gravity, an award-winning advertising agency focused on cultural marketing. Luba has been a key player in building Gravity into the fastest-growing cultural advertising agency in the U.S. and an INC 500 I 5000 company three years in a row.

Luba leads and nurtures innovation within the agency and has launched award winning campaigns for clients such as: Caesars Entertainment, Singapore Tourism Board, Christofle, Comcast, Prudential and various tourism clients. Her work has garnered her some of the industry’s top accolades. She has been named a Webby Special Achievement Honoree, and was awarded as a Finalist in the Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Services category of the Stevie® Awards for Women in Business.

Luba received her master’s degree in social and cultural psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bachelor’s degree in International Marketing from Baruch College. She is also fluent in Russian.

In Memoriam Jerry Pichholz BBA ’53
Over the summer we lost one of our most distinguished alumni, Jerome Pickholz. Jerry was a champion of the Marketing program at Baruch and spent many hours working with faculty and students to improve the program and to provide pre-professional opportunities for students, including those offered by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, where he served as an executive and board member. He was instrumental in the development of theMarkLab, which helped a generation of marketing students get valuable teamwork and pro bono client-serving experience. He was a loyal alumnus, mentoring students and giving generously of his time and financial support. He will be much missed!