FACULTY
Dr. Michael Ginzberg
Dean of the Sy Syms School of Business
Professor of MIS and Associate Provost, Yeshiva University
Michael Ginzberg, a nationally prominent expert and prolific author on management information systems and the international aspects of business, was named dean of Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University on July 16, 2007.
Prior to joining Yeshiva University, Dr. Ginzberg helped build both the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management into world-class research, teaching, and training departments. He served from 2000 to 2006 as dean of the Lerner College, where he was also the Chaplin Tyler Professor of Business. At the University of Delaware, Dr. Ginzberg’s tenure as the Lerner College dean was highlighted by the establishment of the John Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and introducing graduate programs in the management of systems and technology and organizational change.
Prior to that deanship, Dr. Ginzberg served as a professor and associate dean of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve, where he built one of the nation’s top information systems research departments and established an interdisciplinary center for research and teaching, exchange programs with business schools in European and Latin America, and an MBA program in partnership with the International Management Center in Budapest.
Dr. Ginzberg, who also has held faculty positions at Columbia University and New York University, is the author and/or editor of more than 50 articles and books on information systems development and management, information technology strategy, and organizational change, and the recipient of a number of major grants.
Dr. Ginzberg also has served on the board of the Jewish Federation of Delaware; Congregation Beth Shalom in Wilmington, DE; Hillel at the University of Delaware; Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau; and Congregation Bethaynu in Ohio.
Saul Andron, Ph.D.
Wurzweiler School of Social Work
Yeshiva University
Saul Andron is an Associate Professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work where he holds the Hausman Chair in Jewish Communal Service. He directs Wurzweiler's Certificate in Jewish Communal Service program, which trains social work students for professional careers in the Jewish community, both direct service and leadership positions.
He earned a MSW at the University of Michigan and his doctorate at the Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare at Brandeis University.
Dr. Andron has over 25 years of progressive planning and executive management experience in the Jewish communal sector in North America and Israel with specific emphasis on philanthropy, financial resource development, community and strategic planning, grant writing, program development, agency governance, board development and staff supervision.
He has served in senior planning and management positions at several large Jewish federations, JESNA and other local community Jewish educational agencies. He also served as executive director of a large Jewish family foundation and was resource director for JDC Israel.
Dr. Brian Maruffi
Clinical Professor of Management and Marketing
Director of the Ira Rennert Center for Entrepreneurship, Sy Syms School of Business
Brian Maruffi is a Clinical Professor of Management and Marketing at Sy Syms School of Business. He is the Director of The Ira Rennert Entrepreneurship Institute (REI).
Prior to joining the faculty at Yeshiva University, Brian was an Associate Professor of Management Sciences at Fordham University School of Business Administration, where he designed and developed Undergraduate, Graduate and Executive MBA courses and curriculum. He also served as co-chair of the Fordham University Bert Twaalfhoven Entrepreneurship Center.
Dr. Maruffi was an adjunct professor of management at the NYU’s Leonard N. Stern Graduate School of Business. He has over 22 years of experience as an international executive and management consultant. Currently, he is a Managing Director of an international management consulting firm which has offices in New York, Basel Switzerland and Berlin Germany. He is also a Director of a New York-based design engineering firm that specializes in the development of energy-efficient, solar voltaic structures and technology.
Dr. Maruffi has conducted applied/action research and evaluation programs in the areas of strategy, business planning, sustainability and corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurship, leadership and team effectiveness, reward systems, organizational development and international/cross-cultural management practices. He has an extensive professional career as a big five partner, executive, operations manager and management consultant working with clients at various different levels from Boards of Directors and CEO’s to self-managed teams and staff. He has extensive international experience working with senior executives, managers, employees and project teams in Europe, Canada, China, Japan, and Mexico.
His areas of expertise include emerging enterprise and turnaround strategies, entrepreneurial business planning, leadership and organization development, HR management, business process improvement, executive coaching, curriculum development, performance management, and executive team building.
Education
Ph.D. in Management and Organizational Behavior, Columbia University
M.S in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
M.A in Social Psychology, New York University
B.A. in Psychology and Biology, New York University
Dr. Jesse Itzkowitz
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Sy Syms School of Business
Jesse Itzkowitz joined the Sy Syms School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Marketing in Fall 2009. Before joining Yeshiva University as a faculty member, Jesse earned doctorates in psychology (2005) and marketing (2009) from the University of Florida. In 2008, he was selected as an American Marketing Association-Sheth Consortium Fellow, which is one of the highest honors given for students pursuing doctoral studies in marketing.
Dr. Itzkowitz’s current research touches upon several critical areas of marketing including positioning, branding, and consumer behavior. His main area of research investigates how consumers’ cognitive processes affect managerial strategies related to product positioning. In a series of other, ongoing, research projects, Jesse examines how retailers can leverage slight environmental changes to their stores (e.g., shelf position, store temperature, and ceiling height) to create large changes in consumers’ product perceptions and purchases. In addition to his work in marketing, Jesse has also published research detailing how managers can best maximize team performance through group selection and the rules utilized in group deliberation and decision-making. Because of his interdisciplinary knowledge, he was selected as a specialized area contributor for the most widely used consumer behavior textbook.
While at the University of Florida, Jesse twice taught the capstone course in marketing for undergraduates, marketing management, and was both times rated as one of the top professors in the business school. Dr. Itzkowitz currently teaches introduction to marketing and advanced branding to Sy Syms undergraduate students.
Jesse is also a member of the American Marketing Association, Association for Consumer Research, Society for Consumer Psychology, and the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.
Education
Ph.D., Marketing, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida
Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, University of Florida
M.S. in Psychology, University of Florida
B.A. in Psychology, University of Florida
Dr. Steven Nissenfeld
Clinical Professor of Management Science
Sy Syms School of Business
Dr. Steven Nissenfeld’s expertise is in the areas of organization behavior, human resources, leadership, entrepreneurship and management. Dr. Nissenfeld joined the SSSB faculty after 27 year of experience in the field of human resource consulting, as a Partner of the Hay Group, a global human resource consulting firm.
Dr. Nissenfeld has worked with CEO’s, top management and Boards in diverse industries, helping organizations design and implement creative human resource management programs, strategies, plans, processes and systems to address the new competitive environment. He has extensive experience in managing and facilitating organizational and executive effectiveness, development, learning and culture change.
Dr. Nissenfeld has directed large-scale, broad-based consulting engagements in all human resource areas including: organizational analysis, competency design, staffing, selection, performance management, culture and attitude assessment, executive and managerial compensation design. He has spoken extensively at various professional forums nationally, on ongoing human resource challenges confronting the business world today.
Dr. Nissenfeld received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Ferkauf Graduate School, Yeshiva University, in 1979.
Education Ph.D., Psychology, Ferkauf Graduate School, Yeshiva University, 1979
M.S., Psychology, Ferkauf Graduate School, Yeshiva University, 1973
B.A., Psychology, Queens College/CUNY, 1971,
Michael Strauss
Chairman & CEO, BSafe Electrix, Inc.
Entrepreneur-in Residence and Adjunct Professor of Management, Sy Syms School of Business
Michael Strauss is currently Chairman and CEO of BSafe Electrix, Inc. which is an advanced start up company which he started a few years ago. The company has intriguing intellectual property that addresses electrical safety problems that currently exist in the electrical device market in electrical products used universally in residential, commercial and industrial buildings.
Michael Strauss is also Chairman of Sherwood Consulting Group, Inc., a management advisory firm dedicated to advising and coaching emerging growth companies in restructuring and scaling their businesses. There were several companies that he worked with prior to founding BSafe Electrix.
Prior to that, Michael Strauss spent twelve years at American Express. He was one of only three Executive Vice Presidents of the Travel Related Services Division of American Express. He headed the Gold Card Division, the Canadian Subsidiary of American Express, the US Credit Card Marketing Business and the US Travel Division. Prior to that, Mr. Strauss served in several financial and management capacities at American Airlines, The Bank of New York and CitiGroup.
Mr. Strauss earned a BBA degree from the City University of New York, Baruch School, and an MBA from the same university.
Mr. Strauss currently serves on the Dean’s Council at the State University of New York, at Stony Brook–College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He also serves on the Long Island High Technology Incubator at Stony Brook University, is a member of the Board of the Long Island Museum of Science and Technology (LIMSAT), is a founding member of the Long Island Software and Technology Network (LISTNET), a founding member and Chairman of ExecuLeaders Forum for Marketing and Sales, Vice President of the Board of Managers of Estates I Condo Association, and a member of the Advisory Boards of several privately held companies.