Put yourself in good company. Learn more about about alumni who got their start at Rutgers.
More than 370,000 Rutgers alumni around the world are living proof that success is built on a world-class Rutgers education.
Corporate CEOs (Greg Brown ’84 of Motorola) and
new-media moguls (Gregg Spiridellis ’93 of JibJab.com).
TV stars (Kristin Davis ’87 of
Sex and the City) and
celebrity chefs (Mario Batali ’82 of
Molto Mario).
Entrepreneurs (Bernard Marcus ’54, founder of Home Depot) and
innovators (Peter C. Schultz ’64, ’67, co-creator of fiber optics). In every field and all endeavors, employers know the value of a Rutgers degree.
Consider this: 70% of Rutgers’ newest alumni have launched careers or entered graduate school after graduation. And once you’re out in the world, your Rutgers connection keeps on taking you places: you can rely on the universitywide alumni association and nearly 50 regional and international alumni clubs to be your built-in career network.
Alumni in Action
Look around. Some of today’s biggest stars and brightest lights got their starts at Rutgers. Here’s a handful:
Shaun O’Hara ’99 started his football career as a Scarlet Knights walk-on; now he wears a Super Bowl ring as captain and center of the New York Giants.
Randal Pinkett ’94 was a Rhodes Scholar and NCAA Academic All-American at Rutgers before he heard Donald Trump bark “You’re hired!” in Season 4 of
The Apprentice.
Twins
Marc Ecko and
Marci Tapper ’94 started planning a hip-hop clothing label as Rutgers students; today, Marc Ecko Enterprises is a $1.5-billion-a-year global fashion and lifestyle company.
Natalie Morales ’94, co-anchor of NBC’s
The Today Show, never forgets her Rutgers roots: she’s even taken the show to the Rutgers campus, talking politics with current students.
Junot Díaz ’92 found Rutgers to be “a wonderland” and the perfect setting for his Pultizer Prize–winning novel
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Alexi Lalas ’92, a National Soccer Hall of Famer, tore up the field for Rutgers, the Olympics, the World Cup, and Major League Soccer before heading the front office of the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Sandra Guzman ’86, Emmy-winning journalist and editor-in-chief of
Latina magazine and Soloella.com, credits Rutgers with giving her “the empowerment that can be attained through a good education.”
James Gandolfini ’83 took an acting class taught by a fellow Rutgers alumnus before taking home multiple Emmy Awards as Tony Soprano of HBO’s
The Sopranos.
Sharon A. Fordham ’75, ’79, an e-commerce pioneer and top executive at Nabisco and WeightWatchers.com, gave back to Rutgers by funding a high-end multimedia lab for Rutgers students.
Avery F. Brooks ’73,’76—better known as Captain Sisko of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—now shares his actor’s insights with Rutgers students as a theater arts professor.
Mary Baglivo ’72 discovered “new music, new films, new styles” at Rutgers and built the foundation to become worldwide marketing director and CEO at advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi.
Duncan L. MacMillan ’66, who co-founded Bloomberg LP with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, funds scholarships for nontraditional-age Rutgers students.
David Stern ’63, long-time commissioner of the NBA, went to Rutgers for its football team but walked away, he says, with “a first-class education.”
Robert Pinsky ’62, former U.S. Poet Laureate and poetry editor of Slate.com, contributed to
The Anthologist, Rutgers’ literary journal, when he was an undergraduate.
Lester R. Brown ’55, who studied agricultural science at Rutgers, founded the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute and has been called the guru of the environmental movement.