Executive in Residence Bruce Usher, co-director of the Social Enterprise Program (SEP), has been appointed as the program’s first Elizabeth B. Strickler ’86 and Mark T. Gallogly ’86 Faculty Director.
The program provides a framework for students to think in broader terms about their role in business and society and prepares them with the knowledge and experience to respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Students develop a perspective on how to apply business skills to social enterprise endeavors and align personal and professional values in careers that result in social benefits to the broader community.
The generous endowed gift by Strickler and Gallogly will support the teaching, research, and ancillary activities related to Usher’s role as the SEP’s co-director. Beyond providing the program with a permanent source of faculty funding, this donation also ensures that Columbia Business School will always have the resources to attract and retain top-flight leadership for the esteemed and ever-growing program. Strickler and Gallogly have long been avid supporters of the School. Among their many contributions, Gallogly has been a member of the School’s Board of Overseers since 2007 and also sits on the Campaign Executive Committee. In 2012, he also served as chair of the Annual Dinner.
Strickler has been a member of the SEP Advisory Board since 2006 and the SEP’s Impact Sub-Committee since 2011. She also often serves as a mentor with the SEP’s Nonprofit Board Leadership Program.
Gallogly is the managing principal and co-founder of Centerbridge Partners, a private New York-based investment firm with a broad mandate to invest in private equity and debt. Prior to co-founding the firm in 2005, he was with the Blackstone Group for 16 years. He joined the company in 1989 and was named a senior managing director in 1994. He headed the firm’s Private Equity Group from 2003 to 2005. In 2009, President Barack Obama named Gallogly to his Economic Recovery Advisory Board and, in 2011, to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Gallogly is board chair of ROADS Charter Schools, a partner in the Partnership for New York City, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves as an advisory board member for the Hamilton Project.
Strickler is retired from the corporate sector and now devotes most of her time to nonprofit work, focusing mainly on education and the environment. Among her many roles, she currently serves as a trustee of Environmental Advocates of New York, the Environmental Leaders Group of New York and the Trevor Day School. Earlier in her career, she was an executive consultant to Sony Entertainment’s New Technology Group from 1989 to 1993. Before that, she was with Tri-Star Pictures and then Columbia Pictures, from 1986 to 1989, in various roles including director of investor relations.
Usher, a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2009, was CEO of EcoSecurities Group PLC from 2002 to 2009. In that time, he built the firm into the world’s largest carbon credit company. He earned his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
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