Changing of the Guard January 25, 2010, 4:01PM EST

For New Dean, Weaning NYU from Wall Street Won't Be Easy

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Dean Peter Henry

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Chang plans to explore other opportunities, too. "In the first semester, I changed careers every week," he says. And second-year student Shawn Khazzam says he would like Henry and others to see this place and time as an opportunity to strengthen ties with other recruiters, including those in consulting.

Henry moved to the U.S. from Jamaica in 1978, when he was 9 years old. The first place he lived when he arrived was New York. Although he didn't stay long, he knows enough not to openly choose between the Jets and Giants and risk alienating half the city. He knows how to assimilate and adjust to new cultures, and he wants Stern students to do the same. This is, in fact, part of his plan for helping them take advantage of career opportunities. Henry tells the story of a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who once told him that he knew emerging economies would be the best place to grow his company, but he was terrified of sending employees because they lacked the skills needed to operate in that environment. "At Stern we want to create leaders who say it is a corporate imperative that we train people who are as comfortable in the Middle East as they are in Manhattan," says Henry, whose research is focused on the impact of economic reform on emerging economies.

Global Perspective

He expects Stern students to look far beyond Manhattan, and the finance and media industries that surround their Greenwich Village campus, for the opportunities of the future. Until now, they mostly haven't: 85% of the class of 2009 took jobs in North America after graduation, and the vast majority of them settled in the Northeast. Although Henry stops short of saying that Stern students will start taking more jobs abroad, he says they will be at the forefront of thought and business leadership practices in the global economy. "As an economist, I don't try to direct or project," he says. "Let's train the best people and see where the opportunities arise."

But a global perspective alone won't help Stern students. Good training is reliant on good teachers. Henry says he's inheriting one of the best business school faculties in the world, and he points to the swiftness with which professors at Stern were able to address the economic crisis, both inside the classroom and out. They've been at the forefront of discussions on the causes and remedies of the crisis, and they published a book, Restoring Financial Stability: How to Repair a Failed System, something other schools could not have done as quickly, he adds. Having connections to these professors and learning about the crisis from them will help position Stern students for future careers, says Henry.

Almost as critical as the faculty in Henry's opinion are the alumni. He has already met with alumni in the San Francisco Bay Area and will be meeting with alumni in Washington, D.C. Getting those in D.C. involved in showing current students the role public policy plays in the private sector is important to Henry, who led a review of international lending agencies, including the World Bank, for President Barack Obama's transition team. "What our D.C. alums bring is understanding the way in which policy and business interact," says Henry. "What we learn from the crisis is that the relationship isn't always a positive one, and we need to find ways to get our students thinking about how business and public policy can interact in a way that is mutually beneficial and produces good outcomes rather than bad outcomes."

"Strengths Beyond Finance"

The vision Henry has for the Stern School and how to overcome the challenge of career placement in particular is far from concrete in these first few weeks on the job, but one trend is emerging.