January 6, 2025
A recap: COB's fall visit to NYC
Thanks to the Blacksail Fund, 28 College of Business students representing the COB’s American Marketing Association and the Dean’s Student Leadership Council once again descended on New York City in the fall of ’24 and gained valuable experiences to add to their career quiver.
Day One – An Introduction to the City
Our Pirates land in New York City mid-afternoon. They check into the hotel and then participate in a group tour of Times Square, followed by dinner. The day closes with a tour of Summit One Vanderbilt, an immersive approach that mixes architecture and technology to elevate the New York City observation deck experience to new heights.
Day Two – The New York Stock Exchange, of course
First up on the business trip is a visit to the New York Stock Exchange. Hosting the Pirates was COB Pirate Kirk Katzburg with SRT Securities. Katzburg has been instrumental in helping with this and past visits and providing internship opportunities with students, including finance senior Gregory Sharafinski, FinCon organizer and a student founder of the Blacksail Fund.
After a visit to the 911 memorial, the 28 students visited Conductor, a high-tech web optimization company that helps organizations raise their visibility in targeted markets. COB Professor Dana Newell helped set the meeting up through her Raleigh AMA contacts.
Day Three – Just Google it!
A busy day was in the cards for the Pirates.
COB freshman whirlwind Roz Burgess arranged for his sister (and COB alumna) Tyson Burgess to have a meet and greet at Google. She spoke to the Pirates about her journey to Google and what it is like to work for the fifth most valuable company in the world.
Next on the docket was a visit to the boutique, family-owned advertising agency Tombras. JP McLaughlin BSBA ’18 once again hosted the Pirates and shed light on what a day looks like in a busy firm and how collaboration among all the creatives produces stand-out work for companies such as Josh Cellars, Subway, and Hotels.com (think Captain Obvious).
The day’s last stop is proof, again, that Pirates help Pirates. With the help of COB Business Advisory Committee Chair Angela Furniss, students paid a visit to Moonpay, a financial technology company that deals in Bitcoin. While there, they got the CEO treatment with Keith Grossman, who provided high-level advice on what leading-edge companies look for regarding employees.
The day closed with what’s become a popular COB must: dinner with alumni at Gallagher’s Steakhouse.
Day Four – Closing out the trip
A big thank you to Taylor Dixon BSBA ’14 for welcoming the COB pirates – for the second time – to Datasite, a software company that provides solutions to manage the full gamut of financial transactions. Joining Dixon on the visit was Datasite’s CEO, Rusty Wiley BSBA ’86, who flew into New York City to meet the students.
Thanks to Richard Twilley, the benefactor of COB’s Twilley Academy of Sales Leadership, for setting up a visit with Rob Roache, group vice president with Spectrum Enterprise. The COB students met with Spectrum leadership and took a deep dive into Spectrum’s operations. Of the visit, Roache posted on LinkedIn that it was a “rewarding experience … ECU’s approach to bridging education and practical experience is commendable.”
A night in the city closed the day with everyone on the trip getting ready to head back to Greenville, apply their experiences to their classwork, and chase their career dreams.
“Moving forward, I plan to continue reaching out to alumni that I connected with on this trip in hopes of being provided with mentorship and guidance as I begin my career journey after graduating this upcoming May with my MBA from East Carolina University and the Arthur Graduate School of Business,” said Grayson Brann, Arthur School MBA student.
Said Burgess, who is also an ECU Brinkley-Lane Scholar, “On the flight back, all I could think about was how I was going to use the knowledge that I had soaked up those past five days and implement it into my life and back on campus at ECU.”
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