Suffolk University - Inside Leadership

David has been a soldier, diplomat, retail executive, ecommerce executive, serial entrepreneur, and educator. After a stint as a tank commander for the Israeli Defense Forces in the Sinai, he entered the Israeli Diplomatic Corps. One of his assignments was to serve in the Israeli Consulate in Boston. David decided to make Boston his new home and earned his BSBA and MBA from Sawyer Business School. His first business job was in retail operations at Staples. In 1997, he founded a flower distribution company called Kabloom. He grew the business and solid it. Two years later, he purchased it back. But it is not the same Kabloom. He kept the named but changed the distribution channels and introduced new technology. In 2001, Ernst & Young nominated David as Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2007, David joined the faculty at the Sawyer Business School as Executive in Residence.

Susan McCuaig, Executive MBA ’97, is someone who crosses borders–both geographically and functionally. Originally from Canada, Susan came to the U.S. began her career in IT at retail chain. She advanced in her career to become VP, MIS Professional Services. Her unit was an international contract manufacturer of men's, women's and children's sportswear and lingerie. At the time she worked there, revenue was $1.2B with 650 employees. International locations included Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Italy, Israel, England, Portugal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. From IT, Susan moved to Human Resources and became vice president of HR Professional Development. She’s served in this role for many companies, including Stride Rite, State Street, and Circor. She has also been head of Human Resources for Color Kinetics, a technology company successfully sold to Royal Phillips Electronics. In addition to her professional role, Susan is a single mother who has raised two children. Since earning her Suffolk EMBA, she has served on the Board of Advisors for the Department of Management and has been a judge for some of our Organization Behavior teams.

Ellen grew up in a middle-class family in Waltham, Massachusetts. She initially aspired to be a speech therapist, but went on to become the CEO of Tufts Medical Center and is on the Board of Director of Parexel. Her tenure as CEO was a major turnaround of an institution burning $4 million per month. How did she do it?

Juan Lopera is originally from Medellin, Colombia. He migrated to US with his parents and siblings in 1990. Today, he is the director of healthcare services at Tufts Health Plan, where he is responsible for strategy and analytics in relation to the company's Coordinated Care Model. Prior to working at Tufts, Lopera was the director of affordability strategies at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), where he developed and executed strategies to make healthcare more effective and affordable for members. Previously, Lopera served as a manager at Deloitte Consulting and spent eight years doing healthcare strategy and operations work for clients across the country. Lopera is the executive vice president for ALPFA Boston, a Latino professional nonprofit organization with more than 2,000 members and 50 corporate sponsors in the Boston area. During his tenure at ALFPA, Lopera was the founder of the ALPFA Healthcare initiative. During his talk at Suffolk University, Lopera shared his journey as a first-generation American and discussed consulting at a Big Four CPA firm, and the role of insurance companies in today’s healthcare. He also addressed the unique issues faced by Latino professionals in the workplace.

Inez Stewart’s career spans healthcare delivery, high-tech, and management consulting. She has been associated with some of the world’s leading companies in these industries. In healthcare delivery, Stewart has served as vice president of Human Resources for Children’s Hospital of Boston. She held a similar role at Tufts New England Medical Center for three years. At Polaroid Corporation, she was divisional vice president. She has also served as director of marketing for Latin America for Lotus Development, now part of IBM. For Arthur D. Little, she was vice president of Human Resources for the North American Consulting Division. Stewart is on the Board of Directors of campuscareercenter.com and Conexcion Latino leadership, and she is on the Board of Trustees of The Children’s Museum of Boston.

Executive in Residence Sushil Bhatia is a globally known, award-winning entrepreneur and innovator who has several patents, publications, and new products to his name. He has developed/co-developed many products used in daily life, such as: Glue Stic, convention/seminar name badges, mailing labels, laser/copier labels, binding systems, decorative labels for shampoo/cosmetic/food containers, and the DeCopier. In fact, it's hard to go through a full day without using, looking at, or touching a product in which he helped develop. He has founded several companies and is currently the president and CEO of JMD Manufacturing Incorporated. JMD's products are used across many industries, such as food, pharmaceuticals, electronics, cosmetics, and toiletries. Bhatia is very active in the community and has been a past president of Rotary Club, chairperson of a micro loan program, board member of a chamber of commerce, and editor of a community newsletter. He is also founder of the Laughing Clubs of America and has completed a small book, "Just say YES to Laughing Your Way to Fitness with Yoga and Meditation (and That's No Joke)." He has been a speaker at National Honor Society, Boston University, MIT Enterprise Forum-TiE Boston, American Express, John Hancock, and others. For his work he has been featured on TV/Radio shows like ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, NBC, Canada AM, and NPR, and has been written up in the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Economic Times, and many other publications worldwide.

Poonam Ahluwalia is recognized as a global activist for youth employment and entrepreneurship. As president and founder of Youth Entrepreneurship and Sustainability (YES), she has worked tirelessly for the past 12 years to successfully bring youth employment to the global agenda. Under her leadership, the work of YES has mobilized stakeholders in over 120 counties around the world to work toward employing youth and driving entrepreneurship to end poverty. Since founding YES in 1998, Ahluwalia’s has served as the leader of 55 YES Networks around the world and organized more than eight global Summits. Through her innovative, low-touch, high-impact approach to development, there have been over 400 projects developed and implemented by young people throughout the world. Although 2012 marks the final year of the YES Campaign, Ahluwalia remains passionately focused on building global programs that educate and empower young people to be entrepreneurial and live the life of their dreams. Her most important contribution may become the innovative architecture of YouthTrade, a new social movement aimed at providing markets for goods of young entrepreneurs under the age of 35. Ahluwalia is recognized as a catalyst leader both here in the U.S. and aboard. Some of her recent accomplishments include being named as one of the 50 most influential people in New England by India New England. She currently serves on the World Economic Forum’s Council on Youth Unemployment and was recognized as a Woman Creating History at the Women’s International Networking (WIN) Conference held in Rome, Italy, in October 2011. Ahluwalia holds two master's degrees, one in Mass Communications from Boston University and the second in Political Science from India.

Suffolk University alumnus Christopher P. Litterio is managing shareholder of Ruberto, Israel and Weiner, a mid-size Boston law firm. His practice focuses on litigation, including securities, banking, corporate, employment, international arbitration, intellectual property, real estate and trusts and estates disputes. He represents clients in all aspects of dispute resolution, including arbitration, mediation, trials, and appeals. Litterio is a frequent lecturer on litigation and employment issues. As Suffolk student, Litterio was a writer and editor for the Transnational Law Journal, publishing two articles on international legal issues. Upon graduating from law school, Litterio served as a law clerk to the Justices of the Superior Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

From 1994-2004Terry Connor was senior vice president and chief information officer for the Liberty Mutual Group, a diversified financial services organization with corporate headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. He was responsible for worldwide information technology services for the Liberty Mutual companies, with 900 offices and 37,000 employees. Connor’s Information Services organization, headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, employed about 2,100 information technology professionals in multiple locations. Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Connor spent 21 years with EDS in Dallas, where he was a division vice president, providing services to a number of customers in both Health Care and Worker's Compensation related businesses. He was responsible for EDS’ Hospital Systems Division, and multiple Medicare accounts and also was the lead executive for EDS’ joint venture with Harvard Community Health Care in delivering clinical systems. Connor has also worked in a variety of other industries, including retail and manufacturing. His past roles include support for such companies as Federated Department Stores, Nationwide Insurance and a number of Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations. Connor also managed all healthcare eligibility systems for General Motors concurrently with managing their employee pension, retirement and savings programs.

John McCoy, has many professional lives. He is an Instructor of Business Law and Ethics and Director of Internships at the Sawyer Business School. He is also a lawyer with a private law practice in Hingham and he is creator and co-developer of the children’s television show Doggity’s, which airs as part of Noodle and Doodle on PBS Sprout. Doggity teaches nutrition to children and has been endorsed and supported by Dr. Richard Carmona, the US Surgeon General. In the development of his show, John collaborated with a Hollywood-based animation studio responsible for such iconic series as the Rugrats and The Simpsons. As a lawyer, John specializes in business organizations, transactions, civil litigation, consumer protection, residential/commercial real estate. John holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Miami in Miami, Florida, and a Master of Public Administration and a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University. He has co-authored and published refereed articles on such topics as futures contracts based on a housing price index and medical informed consent.

Cleve Killingsworth is a nationally recognized leader in healthcare management, as well as a thoughtful advocate for intelligent reform within the health care system. As a leader, Killingsworth served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, one of the largest independent, not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in the country. In this position, he led the company’s efforts to elevate the quality of services and care that was delivered to its three million members. He simultaneously worked with a variety of healthcare stakeholders to reform and improve the health care delivery system. Previously, Killingsworth was president and CEO of Health Alliance Plan (HAP) in Detroit, one of Michigan’s largest, most experienced managed care companies. Under Killingsworth’s leadership, HAP provided value to its more than 500,000 members by fostering patient-centered relationships between health care delivery systems, practitioners and health plans to improve quality. In addition to his HAP leadership, Killingsworth also served as the senior vice president of insurance and managed care for Henry Ford Health.

Wildolfo Arvelo is president of Great Bay Community College and has been President since 2007. Much of his career has been in higher education leadership. For four years he was Vice President for Corporate and External Relations and the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. Previously he was Dean of Enrollment for Benjamin Franklin as well as Associate Director of Admissions at Emerson College. Will’s Board roles include Ex Officio for the Board of Trustees of the Community College System of New Hampshire. He is on the Board of the New Hampshire Post Secondary Commission Education Commission. He is working towards his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts in Boston and has an M.S. in Public Policy and a B.A. in history both from the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Maryanne Peabody is President of Board Options, Inc. The company does retained search for members of Boards of Directors and also conducts Board of Directors Self Evaluation programs with Boards of Directors. She is also President of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire, which provides talent management work in the area of retained search, leadership development, and executive outplacement. There are Lincolnshire specialists in 25 cities in the United States. It is part of Arbora Global, with operations in 31 countries and 250 professionals. Maryanne’s clients include 75% of Boston’s largest 20 law firms, 70% of Massachusetts’ largest twenty health care systems, three of the four big Four CPA firms, and many of the companies you would recognize as a Who’s Who in financial services and technology. She was previously on the Board of Directors of the New England Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors and on the Board of Directors of life care center. Massachusetts. In her spare time, she writes a blog on leadership and career management for Harvard Business Review. Her most recent contribution was an article published on leadership this summer by MIT Sloan Management Review. Maryanne received her MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she was the first winner of the Hoblitze Foundation Scholarship. Her BS was from Hunter College in the City of New York.