Full-time MBA |

John Paulson is the President and Portfolio Manager of Paulson & Co. Inc., which he founded in 1994. Prior to that, Mr. Paulson was a General Partner of Gruss Partners and a Managing Director in mergers and acquisitions at Bear Stearns.

He manages approximately $34 billion in merger, event, and distressed strategies.

Mr. Paulson graduated summa cum laude in Finance from NYU Stern in 1978, and received his MBA with high distinction, as a Baker Scholar, from Harvard Business School in 1980.

Mike Nash, senior managing director and chief investment officer for real estate debt strategies at The Blackstone Group, joined that firm in 2007 to launch its high-yield real estate debt investment business. As the markets were melting down, it was a fortuitous moment for his debut, he said: “The crisis created an unprecedented investment environment, which is all you can ever ask for as you launch a new business.”

Kelly Kennedy Mack’s immediate goal when she was earning her MBA at Stern was to pass accounting. “I barely made it!” she confessed. That deficit hasn’t held her back.

Robert Greifeld is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. (NASDAQ), the largest U.S. electronic stock market. Since joining NASDAQ in May 2003, Mr. Greifeld rapidly took steps to sharpen the company’s strategic direction, focusing its mission on being the premier U.S. equities market. This included an emphasis on providing the most efficient, transparent trading platform for investors by leveraging NASDAQ’s fundamental market structure advantage; capturing the majority of U.S. IPOs, and attracting listings from competitive exchanges.

Las Vegas native Lorenzo J. Fertitta has risen swiftly in the ranks of players in his hometown – and he’s done it without so much as a single bluff.

John Demsey was promoted to Group President, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., in July 2006. In this role he oversees the Estée Lauder, M•A•C, Tom Ford, and Prescriptives brands.

Throughout his career, Mr. Demsey has demonstrated a unique ability to establish a brand’s authority while continuing to respect its heritage. By continually developing innovative products, cultivating new markets and establishing an unprecedented link between fashion, beauty, and entertainment, he has led the brands in his portfolio to unparalleled growth and expansion.

Even after many years in the investment management business, all with T. Rowe Price, Ed Bernard continues to learn something new every day. “One of the great things about this business is that there’s so much richness and complexity,” Bernard explained. “I’m quite confident that I’ll learn something the day I retire that I didn’t know the day before.”

George Barrett, MBA '88, was profiled in the Feb 15, 2011 issue of the NYU Stern MBA student Newspaper The Stern Opportunity. The article, as it appeared in the Opportunity, is featured below.

Back in the early 1990s, Les Alexander, then a securities trader, wanted to invest in something that was a good value. He zeroed in on sports franchises, having been a basketball and football fan and having an eye for a good investment. At the time, however, football franchises were exploding in value, beyond his budget. And so it was he bought into basketball – big-time. Alexander purchased the Houston Rockets in 1993.

Eun-Ju Ryu has spent her career advancing through the marketing ranks at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, starting in Korea and moving to New York in 2006 to take on a Regional Director Role. Her education in clinical pharmacy gave her the skills to also serve in clinical research,  meaning she knows the pharmaceutical industry from the inside out. But when she took on her current position as Global Marketing Director, Eun-Ju realized the time was right to gain more skills in general management.