Faculty
Mark N. Burgess, EMBA
Mark Burgess’ extensive real-world expertise in marketing allows him to bring deep, practical experience to students at ÐÔÊÀ½ç´«Ã½ in key areas such as B2B and B2C strategic marketing, AI in Marketing, digital marketing, international marketing, brand positioning, social media marketing, SEO/SEM, brand management, new product development, communications, and interactive marketing.
Burgess currently serves as the president of Blue Focus Marketing®, a marketing consultancy based in New Jersey. Throughout his career, he’s developed marketing strategies and plans for major global brands including AT&T, PwC, Heinz, Rubbermaid, and L’Oreal. He’s also served as vice president, account management, at the renowned agency McCann in New York and Chicago.
Burgess’ commitment to educating the next generation of marketers is evident. He is an instructor for the American Marketing Association (AMA), a course author for LinkedIn Learning in which his course on Integrated Marketing Strategies generated 102,000 course completions, and an author of The New Marketing: How to Win in the Digital Age, a marketing textbook published by Sage Publishing, and The Social Employee, published by McGraw-Hill. Burgess also delivered a TEDx Talk called "The Rise of the Social Employee" at TEDxNavesink.
Burgess earned his Executive MBA, Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University and the prestigious executive education certificate in the Telecommunications Strategy program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Katie P. Desideario, PhD
Katie P. Desiderio is an organizational development scholar, practitioner, and national best-selling author of The Beekeeper: Pollinating Your Organization for Transformative Growth and The Stargazer: Unleashing the Brilliance of Building Brighter Teams. Her work centers on optimizing human performance at the tri-level of leadership—individual, team, and organizational—through research-informed practice and purpose-driven learning.
With an MBA and a Ph.D. in Organizational Learning and Leadership, Desiderio serves as Professor of Management at ÐÔÊÀ½ç´«Ã½ and founded Proximal Development, a boutique leadership consultancy that partners with organizations to cultivate transformative growth cultures. She brings her expertise in leadership development and change management to help people and organizations flourish.
Desiderio is a proud alumna of Wilkes University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and Barry University, where she earned her doctorate degree.
Nisheet Gupta, EMBA
Nisheet Gupta is a senior finance executive, entrepreneur, and educator with over two decades of global leadership experience across Fortune 500, private equity–backed, and high-growth organizations. He currently serves as chief financial officer of a private equity portfolio company, where he leads enterprise transformation, financial strategy, and long-term value-creation initiatives.
As an adjunct professor of Advanced Finance and Management Finance at ÐÔÊÀ½ç´«Ã½, Nisheet integrates real-world corporate finance applications with academic learning. His teaching emphasizes decision analytics, performance management, and the linkage between financial strategy and enterprise value.
Throughout his career, Nisheet has held key executive roles driving financial transformation, M&A, and operational excellence at companies including Apogee Enterprises (NASDAQ: APOG), Pace Analytical (Leonard Green Partners), Land O’Lakes, Diebold Nixdorf, and Fiserv/First Data.
Nisheet earned his Executive MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and is a chartered accountant.
Deborah Juantorena, MBA
Deborah Juantorena spent 32 years at Pfizer Inc. where she was most recently vice president of global enterprise data solutions and engineering. In this role, she led a global team of 120 engineers, solution architects, and project managers to develop, implement, and manage analytical, AI and data technologies, and products for the enterprise.
As an adjunct professor at ÐÔÊÀ½ç´«Ã½, Juantorena brings with her extensive experience in implementing major technologies including AI/ML analytical platforms. She has led global teams through the integration of five major corporate acquisitions and is recognized as a trusted change leader. During her Pfizer career, she had leadership roles in finance, sales operations, and business technology—and was recognized in 2023 as among Snowflake’s Top 30 Data Leaders to Watch.
Juantorena is a member of the Columbia Business School Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Advisory Board, presented for the Columbia Business School US Healthcare Course and Columbia University School of Professional Studies Strategy and Analytics course.
Juantorena earned her MBA in finance and accounting from Columbia Business School and her BA in economics from the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell.
Frank Longo, MBA, CPA
Frank Longo is an adjunct professor at ÐÔÊÀ½ç´«Ã½ who teaches accounting and finance courses, bringing with him 17 years of experience teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In recognition of his excellence in teaching, he’s received the Adjunct Excellence Award and the Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award.
Before entering academia, Frank had a distinguished career with the Internal Revenue Service, where he served as a revenue agent, appeals officer, and associate chief. During his tenure, he conducted audits and appeals, developed training programs, and led professional development sessions for members of the CPA and Bar Associations.
Frank earned his MBA from Pace University and his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Accounting, from Wagner College, where he received the New York State CPA Society Award. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Deepak Patil, MBA
Dr. Deepak Patil is an innovation-focused business leader and educator with a career spanning healthcare, strategy consulting, and AI-enabled entrepreneurship. His work reflects a passion for building data-driven solutions from the ground up and using emerging technologies to help organizations lead with innovation
Patil serves as adjunct faculty in ÐÔÊÀ½ç´«Ã½â€™s MBA and BBA programs, primarily focused on Digital Transformation in Business, where he integrates platform strategy, data value generation, and real-world problem solving into applied learning.
As founder of , Patil has led the company from 0 to 1, applying artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to transform how life-sciences organizations assess risk, value assets, and make strategic decisions. His prior leadership roles at IBM Watson Health (now Merative), IQVIA, and Aktana involved driving enterprise digital transformation, real-world data strategy, and innovation at scale for Fortune 500 clients.
Patil earned his MBBS from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences in India and dual master’s degrees in Business Administration and Business Information Systems from Boston University.
