The Mason Spirit

Many say the key to success in business is reinvention—the ability to reinvent yourself, your product, your company. That may explain the success that Mason MBA grad Martin Dunphy has had throughout his career that has seen him reinvent himself from trained chef to soccer star to globe-hopping entrepreneur.

Continue Reading From Soccer Star to Globe-Hopping Entrepreneur: Martin Dunphy Finds Success

Mason alumnus Bobby Saini did his homework in the Johnson Center—as a student at a different college. After three tries, the budding entrepreneur was finally admitted to Mason. Now he is helping lead a technology startup into the burgeoning field of cyber security.

Continue Reading Twice Denied, Finally Accepted, Now Mason Grad Helps Lead Promising Tech Firm

Mason alumnus Juan Pacheco is a counselor with Mason’s Early Identification Program (EIP), whose staff emboldens promising high school students to enroll and succeed in college. This position is not Pacheco’s first experience with the program. As a teenager, he was on the other side of the counseling table, in need of his own encourager to say, “You can do this. You can make it in college.”

Continue Reading Encouraging Success: With Life Turned Around, Alumnus Now Mentors Others

When Nicole Livas, BA Communication ’90, returned home to Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 2001 to work as an on-air journalist for WAVY-TV 10, she had rather large footsteps to follow, namely those of her mother, Becky.

Continue Reading A Newsworthy Family Business

Mason alumna Noelle Fanella parlayed her Mason minor in sports management into a paying job working at Medinah Country Club last summer and followed up with another job this year. It just so happened Medinah was hosting the Ryder Cup. Now she has a sports “mega-event” on her resume—and she shared fairways with the world’s best golfers.

Continue Reading Sports Management Program Prepares Grad for Golf’s Ryder Cup

Kees Slot Year: Senior Major: Nursing with a Minor in Public Health Military Service: Nursing student Kees Slot spent six years as an Army medic, including a deployment to Iraq in 2005, prior to attending Mason. During his time there, he assisted at a medical aid station, which was responsible for caring for soldiers and…

Continue Reading Patriot Profile: Kees Slot

When you look at what housing industry prognosticator Ivy Zelman, BS Accounting ’90, has accomplished over the course of her career, it is surprising to find out she has been driven by a fear of failure. The CEO of Zelman & Associates has more than 18 years of experience covering housing and housing-related industries and…

Continue Reading Failure Was Never an Option

So what’s more frightening, being chased by brain-starved zombies or quitting your job two years out of college and opening a large, seasonal, and very expensive amusement attraction?

Continue Reading Halloween Special: Mason Grad Quits Job to Cage . . . Zombies?

He’s been to Cannes, Rio, and Hollywood. He’s worn Elton John’s eyeglasses (and he his), been slapped by Steve Carell (twice), arm wrestled with Sugar Ray Leonard, sang with Jack Black, got Matt Damon to admit to crying, and helped Russell Crowe meet Harrison Ford via Twitter. Steven Spielberg loves him.

Continue Reading Critic McCarthy: Asking the Right Questions

The questions: Who is the man with the question mark suit and what is he doing spending so much time at the campus Starbucks?

The answers: He’s Matthew Lesko, the longtime grants researcher made popular by colorful late-night infomercials in which he pitches his free money books. He busies himself on his laptop at the coffee shop between Chinese language classes at the Confucius Institute at Mason.

Continue Reading Who Is That Man and Why Is He Wearing That Suit?”