Mason Means Business

Host Brett Josephson is joined by Mason's finance wiz Professor Derek Horstmeyer to discuss the latest saga between casual retail investors and hedge fund communities as they tussle over GameStop, Robinhood, and the soul of Wall Street.

Host Brett Josephson welcomes back Derek Horstmeyer, Associate Professor of Finance at George Mason University, to the podcast. Derek last brought his insights to the podcast in April, less than one month into the Covid-19 pandemic. He returns to give an update on how the stock market is reacting almost six months in and provides insights on what sectors of the economy are actually fairing well, as well as sectors and firms that may never look the same on the other side.

In this episode, Brett sits down with Brad Greenwood, an Associate Professor of Information System in the School of Business at George Mason University to discuss his recently published research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) exploring the impact of physician-patient racial concordance on infant mortality rates. Brad shares the key findings and policy implications of his ground-breaking research and then dives into some of his other policy related research.

This week, host Brett Josephson welcomes to the podcast Amir Zonozi, a Mason Alum and president and Co-Founder of Zoomph, a unique digital platform designed to measure return on investment for social media sponsorship. Amir takes us through the life of Zoomph, from its beginnings as a side project born out of work for the US State Department through its current life servicing major brands and sports properties to its recent work in the growing world of eSpots, as well as his personal journey as an entrepreneur.

For this episode of the podcast, host Brett Josephson pitches it over to Christine Landoll, Professor of Practice and Director of Business Engagement in the School of Business at George Mason University. Christine welcomes guest KerrLaine Prunella, Chief Human Capital Officer for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Christine and KerriLaine offer insights into skills employees at all levels should be utilizing and building upon during this time as they work from home. Those skills include communication, leadership, and dressing for success.

Host Brett Josephson welcomes author, speaker, consultant, and CEO of Corporate Collaboration Resources Carlos Valdes-Depena and Matt Cronin, associate professor of management in George Mason's School of Business. The three have a roundtable discussion on the significance of the office, what has changed during the era of Covid-19, and what we should take away from this time once we do return to work.

In part two of a two part series, host Brett Josephson welcomes back Marcelo Brutti, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of City National Bank. Marcelo offers insights into how he as a CRO and his institution have been dealing with the CAREs act and the Payroll Protection Program. He also discusses his involvement with Mason Executive Development and a little bit about the classes that he teaches as part of the CRO program.

In this episode, host Brett Josephson welcomes Marcelo Brutti, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of City National Bank. Marcelo is also an advisory board member and instructor in Mason’s Chief Risk Officer Executive Development program. Marcelo offers insights into how his financial institution is dealing with the Covid-19 crisis from a perspective of preparedness, cyber security, resource management, and colleague well-being in an era where close to 100% of his 5,500 person workforce is suddenly working from home.

In a departure from our regular programming, host Brett Josephson welcomes to the podcast a colleague and former classmate, Jon Jackson. Jon is an assistant professor of finance at Providence College where he teaches classes on operations management and business analytics. While in their PhD program at Washington State, Brett and Jon developed a model for predicting success in fantasy football auction drafts. On this episode, the pair discuss how this model was developed and the insights it has brought them through almost nine years of use.

Host Brett Josephson welcomes Derek Horstmeyer, Associate Professor of Finance at George Mason University, to the podcast. Derek is an expert in the financial markets with publications in the Quarterly Journal of Finance and a monthly column in the Wall Street Journal. He gives his unique perspective on investing in the era of Covid-19, touching on topics ranging from what stocks tend to perform well in times of uncertainty to the impact of interest rates being at all-time lows.