Dean's Advisory Council

Mariangela Bentivegna

Mariangela Bentivegna

Mariangela Bentivegna is a leasing manager for The Bicester Collection, an international real estate company transformed into one of the world’s most inventive retailers, with 11 Outlet Villages in Europe and China’s most important luxury and fashion markets. Bentivegna is currently overseeing the leasing of The Bicester Collection’s soon to be newest Outlet, Belmont Park Village, in Elmont, New York.

Bentivegna brings more than 13 years of experience in real estate development, focusing on leasing and property management. She specializes in managing mixed-used and multi-family real estate portfolios throughout New York City by defining and implementing revenue-generating, cost-effective business strategies while driving performance.

A Brooklyn native, Bentivegna has experienced firsthand how real estate has transformed Brooklyn over the years. She is a Brooklyn College alumna who earned her Bachelor of Science in business management and finance. She earned her master’s degree in public administration at John Jay College (CUNY) and later pursued a master’s degree in business management and leadership at the CUNY School of Professional Studies.

A true believer and successful product of the CUNY system, Bentivegna aspires to give back to CUNY all that was bestowed upon her. The most fulfilling moments in her career have been standing in front of the same classrooms at Brooklyn College where she once sat as a student later as a guest lecturer interacting with students.

Michael Bussa, KPMG

Michael Bussa

Michael Bussa is a partner in KPMG’s Global Mobility Services Tax practice and is the global head of KPMG’s Reward practice and the U.S. leader for Global Reward Services. He has more than 38 years of experience advising organizations in the structuring, implementation, and tax and regulatory compliance of global incentive compensation programs.

Bussa is responsible for a broad range of U.S. multinational clients, and has extensive experience with a wide variety of complex global incentive compensation matters, including design and implementation; feasibility analysis, tax, and regulatory due diligence; compliance risk assessment and controversy assistance; analytics-driven program process improvement initiatives to drive efficiency, cost reduction, and enhanced end-user experience; corporate tax planning and structuring; global payroll implementation and compliance; merger and acquisition due diligence; US GAAP/IFRS analysis; PMO implementation and rollout; and employee education.  His current and past clients include organizations across all industry sectors.

Bussa has advised many organizations, including 25 of the Fortune 100, in connection with their global incentive compensation programs. Examples include: advised on the tax and regulatory feasibility of offering incentive compensation to employees in more than 150 countries, including recommendations on tax efficient structuring at the employee and corporate levels; advised on the structuring of incentive compensation cost-sharing arrangements to maximize global corporate income tax savings and tax effective cash repatriation; and successful design and implementation of technology-enabled solutions to support enterprise-wide global incentive compensation process requirements across Corporate Tax, Executive Compensation, Finance, General Counsel, Global Mobility, HR, IT, and Payroll.

Bussa earned his B.S. in accounting from Brooklyn College and holds the title of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York State. He is a member of AICPA and NYSSCPA, Global Equity Organization, National Association of Stock Plan Professionals, National Association of Stock Plan Professionals Executive Advisory Committee, and Certified Equity Professional Institute Advisory Board.

Anthony Castellanos, KPMG

Anthony Castellanos

Anthony Castellanos is KPMG’s National Partner-in-Charge of Industry Sectors for KPMG’s US Tax Practice. He also serves as KPMG’s Media & Entertainment Sector Leader and is a Global Account Lead Partner, serving some of the firm’s largest technology, media, and telecommunications clients. In October of 2015, Mr. Castellanos was elected by his partners to serve as a member of KPMG’s Board of Directors for a five-year term.

Mr. Castellanos began his career in the accounting profession while attending Brooklyn College, preparing tax returns and performing bookkeeping services for clients of a local accounting firm. Upon graduating from Brooklyn College, he accepted an associate position with Price Waterhouse where he launched his career in their entertainment and media practice and was admitted to the partnership in March of 1998. In October of 2000, Mr. Castellanos accepted a position with SoftBank Corporation, a telecommunications, technology, and media company with global private equity and venture capital investments and operations. He was a Partner in SoftBank’s venture capital arm, SoftBank Capital, and served as SoftBank’s Chief Tax & Administrative Officer until January 2006, when he joined KPMG LLP.

Mr. Castellanos earned his B.S. Degree in Accounting from Brooklyn College in January 1985. He is currently a member of the Brooklyn College Foundation Board of Trustees and is Chairman of its Audit & Finance Committee. Mr. Castellanos is also actively involved in mentoring current and recent graduates of Brooklyn College to support them in discovering and launching their careers in business.

Gladstone Edwards, EY

Gladstone Edwards

Gladstone Edwards is a Senior Consultant in the Financial Accounting Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young LLP (EY), one of the largest multinational professional services firms in the world. He began his career in the EY New York City office in 2015 providing accounting and financial reporting services to both commercial and financial services clients. Since then, he has pivoted to assisting his clients in various capacities to address a diverse set of business challenges, regulatory remediation and collateral & liquidity management initiatives to meet business/shareholder objectives and create long-term sustainable value.

Gladstone holds BS in both Economics and Accounting from Brooklyn College (CUNY) in Brooklyn, New York. While there, he was an active member of the Accounting Society, National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) and the Student Leadership Council.

Outside of academia and the office, Gladstone has a passion for driving social justice and promoting diversity and inclusion, through various initiatives. He is also an avid lover of sports and cheers for his hometown New York Giants, Rangers and Yankees – but somehow ended up a lifelong fan of the Boston Celtics.

Jerome Hayden, UBS

Jerome Hayden

Jerome Hayden is a Director on the Capital Consulting team at UBS Investment Bank, working directly with Hedge Funds across various strategies as well as institutional investors.

Prior to UBS, Jerome spent 6 years at SkyBridge Capital, a global alternative investments firm, as a Vice President and head of the internal sales desk. He collaborated with senior management to facilitate and manage fundraising initiatives for the firm’s various investment products as well as servicing a wide array of market participants, ranging from large institutions to registered investment advisers, financial advisors, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. As a way to give back to the next generation given the many opportunities he has been afforded, Jerome also managed the SkyBridge Summer Internship Program from 2016 – 2020.

Jerome currently resides on Long Island, NY where he has spent the majority of his upbringing. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 2015 with a B.S. in Business Management and Finance and was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” of The Liebowitz Entrepreneur Program in 2014.

Lawrence Katz, EY

Lawrence Katz

Lawrence Katz is a Managing Director in Ernst & Young’s Financial Services Offices’ Tax practice. He has over 30 years of experience providing tax services to domestic banks, broker dealers, leasing companies, foreign banks and pension funds operating in the US. His experience includes US corporate tax issues, consulting, client relations, tax compliance, tax controversy and research and planning. He has extensive experience managing all aspects of a tax practice. Lawrence initially joined EY 16 years ago after serving in similar roles at other public accounting firms.

Lawrence has been extensively involved in recruiting for EY. He has mentored and supported interns and new hire candidates throughout the recruiting process and into their formative years at EY and beyond.

He has provided a full range of tax services to foreign banks and other financial services institutions including tax compliance, tax planning and tax accounting. Lawrence has coordinated and prepared defenses to federal, state and local tax examinations and provided guidance to clients on accounting and tax matters related to banking issues, and research current tax issues and draft memoranda of advice. He has also reviewed international bank and general corporate federal, state and local tax returns.

Lawrence has significant experience with computation of foreign corporation’s US interest expense deduction under Regulation Section 1.882-5; Tax Shelter Rules; tax accounting; issues concerning income effectively connected with a US business; head office expense deduction studies and related issues; bad debt deductions and related issues including, loan file review and effective connection; net operating loss deduction and related issues; Branch Profits Tax; Branch Level Interest Tax; IRS interest and penalty calculations; State and local tax compliance and consulting; Tax withholding and reporting.

Lawrence has a BS in accounting from Brooklyn College and a JD from Brooklyn Law School. He is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State and admitted to the Bar of the State of New York. Lawrence also serves his community as a member of the Board of Directors of the NYC/LI Chapter of the National MS Society. He is an elected Trustee and Deputy Mayor of the Village of Great Neck Plaza on Long Island.

Shikshya Khatiwada, Avanade Northeast

Shikshya Khatiwada

Shikshya Khatiwada (aka Six) is responsible for the Data and AI business for Avanade Northeast. In her current role, she is responsible for helping clients innovate leveraging best of breed Data and AI solutions. Six started her career and Goldman Sachs, and across her 15+ year career within fintech, AI startups and consulting firms, has helped a number of organizations become more data-driven. She takes pride in helping her clients cut through the hype around emerging technologies to create meaningful roadmaps for change and drive quantifiable business outcomes.

Six graduated Brooklyn College in ’07 and worked directly under Marge Magner as a research intern. As a first-generation American, she is passionate about empowering Brooklyn College students build their path into business advisory, technology consulting and Artificial Intelligence.

Lori Kloper, PWC

Lori Kloper

Lori Kloper is a PricewaterhouseCoopers Asset Management Partner in New York with over 22 years of experience delivering superior client service to registered mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity, offshore funds, and non-registered collective and commingled funds. She advises her clients on various operational, regulatory, and reporting issues associated with these investment vehicles and their strategies. She has also been involved with initiatives including new investment product launches, fund mergers, and conversions of fund accounting systems. Recently, Lori has been involved in the Return to Office for the New York Metro practice.

Driven and tenacious by nature, yet always with an infectious smile, Lori has an uncanny ability to identify and assess the full scope of issues and potential ramifications. Driven by her personality, she can “plow through” the most challenging situations. Passionate about continuous learning and reading, Lori is frequently solicited for her industry perspective on fund accounting and operational issues. In addition to auditing funds, Lori has experience with corporate entities and investment advisors.

Lori is passionate about client service and the trust she establishes with her colleagues and clients and fosters timely, candid communications. Sharing knowledge and helping others to execute more effectively are at the heart of everything she does.

Lori is motivated to make a difference in her teams while maintaining a positive attitude and inspiring the success of others. In addition to her client roles, Lori is the Partner Champion for the New York Asset Management Professional Development Program and Learning and Development. She has designed and taught industry-related courses both internally and externally.  She is the Firm Relationship Partner at the City University of New York-Brooklyn College and interfaces with different constituents and implements programs to enhance the experience of campus recruits.

Lori received a B.S. in Accounting, summa cum laude, from the City University of New York-Brooklyn College. She is a licensed CPA in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts and is a member of the AICPA.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Lori is passionate about organization and efficiency, even in her personal life. She enjoys spending time with her twins and her husband taking in the sights of the city or relaxing in the country.

Rina Koshkina, Executive and Career Coach

Rina Koshkina

Rina Koshkina is an experienced and certified coach who helps clients tap into their unique strengths and personality traits to facilitate change and accelerate growth. With a strong reputation for being empathetic and practical, Koshkina has worked with entrepreneurs, emerging leaders, and senior executives to help them and their teams reach their professional potential.

In her career, Koshkina has spent more than 25 years in leadership roles in the financial services and technology industries. She has held communications, marketing, human resources, organizational development and management, coaching, and talent strategy positions.

Koshkina holds a B.S. in business management and finance, an M.A. in art history, and a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology. In addition, she is a professional certified coach credentialed by the International Coach Federation and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Koshkina is trained and certified in several prominent assessment instruments, including the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, Hogan’s Assessment, Leadership Profile Circle, and Gallup Strengths Finder. Koshkina is also a FINRA-registered securities professional and holds a Professional in HR (PHR) certification. As a Forbes Coaches Council member, Koshkina’s articles have been published on Forbes.com.

Frank Lavadera, KPMG (Retired), MIGA

Frank Lavadera

Frank Lavadera is a senior business advisor with over 30 years of experience in tax and regulatory compliance matters. Frank recently retired as a lead Tax principal at KPMG LLP where he provided advice to and audited the financial statement tax positions of premier domestic and international financial institutions. Frank was also instrumental in building a robust risk management infrastructure for KPMG’s national Tax practice while advancing and adapting into varied managerial roles as a member of the Firm’s leadership team. Skilled in creating inclusive work environments and leading diverse groups of professionals to successfully achieve articulated goals, Frank was consistently sought out for solving and executing on solutions to high stakes and complex problems. Frank currently provides consulting services to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) a member of the World Bank Group, and to Intuit Inc. – TurboTax. Frank is a Trustee of the Brooklyn College Foundation and he is a Member of the Board and Treasurer of the Flea Theater in NYC. Frank holds a BS in Accounting from Brooklyn College (CUNY), a JD from Brooklyn Law School and an LLM (Taxation) from NYU Law School. He is admitted to practice law in New York State and is a member of the U.S. Tax Court.

Shanna Midelton, First Deputy Mayor’s Office, NYC

Shanna Midelton

Shanna Midelton is a Public Finance & Policy professional with over 10 years of experience working in large-scale public sector organizations.

Shanna currently serves as the Senior Advisor for Education in the First Deputy Mayor’s Office. Prior to this role, she spent 9 years at the New York City Office of Management and Budget holding multiple positions first as the Assistant Director for Education where she managed a $40B portfolio, and later as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. She has worked with stakeholders across New York City government on major policy initiatives such as Universal Prekindergarten and Physical Education expansion in schools. In her early years Shanna worked at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a non-profit organization.

Shanna has been active with a number of community organizations including, The Council of Urban Professionals (CUP), Big Sister Big Brothers Big Sisters Chapter of NYC and iMentor NYC.

Giuseppe Riso, Con Edison

Giuseppe Riso

Giuseppe Riso joined Con Edison in 2014 as part of the company’s Leadership Development Program (LDP). He has led various IT projects focusing on the development of people and processes. Giuseppe is a Systems Manager in the Information Technology department, responsible for Con Edison’s Network Operation Center and End User Services Team. He leads a dynamic team of over 150 onshore and off-shore individuals. Giuseppe is committed to safety, operational excellence, the customer experience, and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace culture.

Giuseppe brings exceptional people skills, emotional intelligence, a positive, and forward-thinking attitude to the End User Services Team. Giuseppe has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College and a Master of Business Administration degree specializing in Strategic Management from Pace University. Giuseppe is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Business Analytics from New York University’s Stern School of Business (May 2022). He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and is Agile certified.

Farjana Rohman, Citi

Farjana Rohman

Farjana Rohman is currently Senior Vice President, Instant Payments Product Manager, Citi, revolutionizing the way Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) clients send and receive money. In her previous role as a Corporate Sales Business Manager, she oversaw strategy, projects and performance associated with a $2.3Bn business within Citi TTS that consists of 100 team members, assigned to 2,000 clients globally. Joining Citi through the Operations Analyst Program, Farjana contributed to the development of analytics that reduced Institutional Clients Group (ICG) Regulatory Capital charges by 54% within two years.

Farjana earned a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in Business, Management & Finance and Sociology from Brooklyn College.  She regularly volunteers with iMentor and Brooklyn College.

Alexander Samsonov, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield

Alexander Samsonov

Alexander Samsonov is an asset manager at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) where he leads the business plan execution for a portfolio of 6 shopping centers throughout the US totaling 7.9mn square feet. Alexander is responsible for the day-to-day function of the assets, including oversight of asset and property management, leasing, marketing, and accounting.

Alexander began his career in the audit practice at KPMG where he serviced clients across the spectrum in financial services, including banks & broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity funds, and real estate. He then transferred to KPMG’s Economic & Valuation Services where he executed valuations, due diligence, and research reports for all major commercial real estate asset classes (multifamily, office, industrial, retail, hotel).

Alexander earned his B.S. in Accounting & Business Management Finance from Brooklyn College. He is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State and a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Barry Salzberg, Deloitte (Retired)

Barry Salzberg

Barry Salzberg was the Global Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, until his retirement in May 2015. While at Deloitte, Mr. Salzberg also served as Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte LLP (USA) and Managing Partner, USA. Mr. Salzberg was also a Professor of professional practice at Columbia Business School from 2015-2018. He is a member of the Thomson Reuters board where he also serves as chairman of the Audit Committee, is a member of the board of directors of Blue Apron and serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for 10EQS a digital management consultancy startup. He previously was a member of the boards of New Profit, the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Center for Audit Quality, College Summit, United Way Worldwide and YMCA of Greater New York, the latter three of which he was also Chairman of the Board. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the New York County Lawyers’ Association.

Elliot Tannenbaum, EY (Retired)

Elliot Tannenbaum

Elliot Tannenbaum was born and raised in Brooklyn. He enrolled at Brooklyn College in 1969 and graduated with a B.S. in Accounting degree in 1973. Shortly after graduation he began his career on the audit staff of Arthur Young & Company (“AY”), a predecessor firm to Ernst & Young LLP (“EY”).

Elliot spent two years on the audit staff and worked on the audits of a large regional bank and Amerada Hess. More importantly it was the beginning of his on the job training on becoming a professional, interacting with other professionals, and beginning to understand how large corporate organizations work.

After two years on the audit staff he transferred to the New York office tax department of AY. Fortunately for him, Elliot’s career in tax began prior to the days of specialization by industry and tax subject matter. Over the course of his career at AY/EY, Elliot worked on a wide variety of clients including multinational financial services corporations, commodity trading entities, traders and hedge funds, manufacturing conglomerates, publishing companies, corporate executives, expatriate tax matters, and others. The clients he worked on provided him with exposure to many areas of the tax law including corporate tax matters, both U.S. and international, partnerships, and individual taxation. During Elliot’s years at EY, he worked with many talented individuals around the world, internally at EY as well as with clients and governmental agencies.

During his last ten years at EY, Elliot’s focus was primarily on large multinational financial service entities, including American Express, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup. He also headed up the Financial Services Tax practice out of New York and was the de facto head of EY’s Global Financial Tax Network.

As a result of the broad subject matter and client base Elliot had worked on, he was viewed as a trusted business advisor as well as a tax partner by clients and peers.

Elliot retired from the EY partnership in 2003 and became a managing director at Morgan Stanley, where he was in charge of domestic tax matters. Being on the inside of a large diversified financial services entity gave him a different perspective from his career at EY, as an outside advisor. This was especially true in the period leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Elliot retired from Morgan Stanley at the end of 2008.

Throughout his career Elliot has spent a significant amount of time and effort helping to develop the people coming up behind him.

Since retiring, among other activities, he has worked closely with the dedicated people at the Magner Career Center as well as the Dean’s office of the Koppelman School of Business in mentoring many accounting majors. Given the highly diversified background of the students, this has been very enriching experience for Elliot.

Robert Westreich, Senior Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Tax Officer, Newell Brands

Robert Westreich

Robert brings 30+ years of experience in finance and corporate law from both the public accounting and private company sectors among leading multinational organizations encompassing expertise in business restructuring, global tax planning, tax reporting, capital markets, liquidity and risk management, repatriation planning, and transforming financial reporting and global shared service processes with a proven track record of delivering results through collaboration and team development that drive long term sustained performance. He is recognized as a leading tax and treasury strategist and has been a speaker at numerous global business conferences.

Currently, Robert is the Senior Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Tax Officer at Newell Brands responsible for the Company’s global tax, treasury and risk management function. Previously, Robert spent nine years at Ralph Lauren Corporation where he led the global tax and treasury function and simultaneously spent two years as CFO of the Latin America business. Prior to that, he held various professional positions at Forest Laboratories (acquired by Allergan), Pharmacia (acquired by Pfizer), American Standard Companies, Philips Electronics, and KPMG.

Robert was a Member of the Board of Trustees, Head of the Finance Committee, and Treasurer for the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention from 2012 through 2015 where he participated in the formulation of the organization’s strategy and funding development and led the restructuring and realignment of its finance function. He also served as a Mentor for both the Pace University and Rutgers University graduate business school programs. Robert is also the author of “I’m Still Alive, a story of survival through perseverance and uncommon sense”.

Robert Westreich holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting, a Master’s of Science in Taxation, and a Juris Doctor along with his certified public accountant license from the State of New York. Robert is married and has two children.