February 2022 Alumni Spotlight

We welcome back BSPA alumna Alyssa Alicino who was our first student spotlight way back in 2014. We catch up with her to find out about what she’s been up to, including her new role as Management Consulting Manager for Accenture.

Welcome back! You were the Marxe School’s very first student spotlight, way back in 2014. Where has your journey taken you since you were a BSPA student?
I could have never predicted my professional journey since graduating BSPA in 2013! I started out my career working for the City of New York’s Department of Small Business Services as a small business consultant, took a break to travel throughout South American promoting a musical tour, then joined the Global Learning and Development Team at the Estee Lauder Companies, then lead a Global Training Program at the United Nations Global Compact, and now am a Management Consulting Manager for Accenture. Along the way, I came back to Baruch College to earn my MBA. I believe in the importance of continual learning and my career journey is a reflection of that. There is rich value in having experiences from diverse sectors – it has allowed me to bring a more robust point of view to the projects I contribute to and lead.

Through this journey, I have learned that your studies serve as a baseline to open your horizon to new and unknown opportunities, but it’s truly the connections that you make on the way that pave the path to allow you to make those become a reality. Networking is something that is always emphasized during career development – I like to think that it is genuine connection building that is actually the most important. The connections that I made during my time at Baruch opened my eyes (and also in many times facilitated the connection) to new career opportunities and paths that were not originally on my radar.

Can you talk a bit about your new role as Management Consulting Manager for Accenture?
I recently started a role as a Management Consulting Manager at Accenture as part of the Talent & Organization practice, specifically focused on New Skilling. In this role, I support companies across a variety of industries to unlock their people’s full potential. I am currently supporting a client in the healthcare industry. The world has drastically changed over the last year, and companies are racing to be leaders in their space and access a new level of human potential – in my new role I’ll be there to help.

Tell us about your recent role at United Nations Global Compact; what are some notable challenges and successes you’ve had?
The United Nations Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. During my role here, I led the strategy and execution of the UN Global Compact Academy, designed to provide Participating companies of the UN Global Compact with the knowledge and skills they need to meet their sustainability objectives and achieve long-term growth by contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. I also had the opportunity to create content on various topics including: how to set science-based targets, gender equality, anti-corruption, human rights, and more.

One success was the actual establishment of a robust program for companies. I started the program when I joined the UN Global Compact – this really encompassed everything from selecting the right platform to host content on, to deciding on the content, as well as the delivery formats. It was a great opportunity to oversee the end-to-end development and execution of a global program.

Another success was being able to bring together many different colleagues throughout the office. In order to execute a global program, a strong team really needs to be built which can include stakeholders from marketing, communications, IT, and subject matter experts. In order for a project to be successful, it is important that all teams feel ownership over the program and hold high-quality standards for execution.

One challenge I had during my time here was although we provided quality to companies, I had limited insight into how companies were actually using and executing on some of the actionable takeaways. When you work inside of a company, you can create KPIs and are able to track and see insights on the progress based on the changes; however, being part of the UN and not directly the companies, this was not something I had within my view. Of course, we provided surveys and other tracking mechanisms, but at times because of this, it did become difficult to measure the effectiveness of our programs.