Fordham expands its international reach this week with the Fordham University Consortium on the Purpose of Business meeting in Istanbul, and meetings with Ecumenical Patriarch, and officials in education, business and government.
The Fordham delegation includes Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., provost; David A. Gautschi, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration; Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of the Gabelli School of Business and dean of the business faculty; and other Fordham officials.
Prior to the consortium meeting, Freedman met with His All Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. Freedman attended an intimate dinner with His All Holiness and metropolitans of the synod on Thursday evening. The Ecumenical Patriarch stressed his pleasure at having his writings published by Fordham University Press, and spoke with Freedman about religious tolerance and environmental and ecumenical issues. The Ecumenical Patriarch also spoke about the significance of his honorary degree from Fordham, and of his relationship to the University.
The consortium’s proceedings were kicked off by Memhet Simsek, the Turkish Republic’s minister of finance, who welcomed the group on Saturday. Simsek delivered a special presentation to the Fordham consortium fellows at Koc University in Istanbul. As the only “practitioner” minister in the Turkish government, Simsek spoke about the Turkish economy and the country’s financial situation from a point of view of a finance professional. Simsek was the chief economist for Merrill Lynch in London when he was tapped by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to become a member of his cabinet. Simsek is seen as the main architect of Turkey’s current financial system, and is one of the most influential ministers in the cabinet.
The Fordham consortium was launched on Nov. 12, 2010, at the New York Athletic Club, Fordham’s Law School and Lowenstein Center with an audience of more than 40 scholars, business executives, government advisers and leaders in the global faith community. The five-year project, initiated by Fordham’s Schools of Business, will examine the role and responsibility of business in the evolving global society and stimulate critical, creative and constructive dialogue about business in the 21st century.
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| At Koc University (L to R): Baris Tan, Selcuk Karabati (both of Koc University), Donna Rapaccioli, Mehmet Simsek, David Gautschi and Stephen Freedman. Photo by Beyza Isler |
The four-day meeting in Istanbul will address a variety of topics, including Simsek’s “Overview of the Turkish Economy,” “Culture and The Market,” presented by Patrick Ryan, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham, and “Dominique Moisi’s Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation and Hope are Reshaping the World,” by Gautschi.
Other participants include Fikile Magubane, South Africa’s ambassador to Spain; Jorge Rodríguez-Grossi, former minister of economy and energy for Chile; Uner Kirdar, Ph.D., senior advisor to the administrator and director, United Nations Development Programme; Sunny Oh, head of marketing for Greater China at Google, Inc.; A.P. “Preetham” Parigi, managing director of Entertainment Network (India) Limited, and managing director and CEO of Times Infotainment Media Limited; Andrew Rudd, chairman and CEO of Advisor Software; Sibusiso Vil-Nkomo, Ph.D., provost, University of Pretoria; Milton Longobardi, director, Sao Paulo City Hall; and Ronald J. Anton, S.J., interim secretary for higher education, Georgetown University.
Fordham University conferred an honorary degree upon His All Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, on Oct. 27, 2010, at the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. The Ecumenical Patriarch, the 270th successor of the 2,000-year-old Christian Church founded by St. Andrew, received a doctorate of laws, honoris causa, at a ceremony attended by more than 1,000 people in the historic University Church.
