He’s an internationally known author, co-founder of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and a Rutgers Business School professor, and now Jeffrey Robinson has been named Rutgers University–Newark’s new provost and executive vice chancellor.

His accolades don’t stop there. A New Jersey native, Robinson was born in East Orange and raised in Parsippany. He holds five academic degrees, spanning engineering, urban studies and business. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies at Rutgers College and a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering, a Master of Science in civil engineering management from Georgia Institute of Technology as a GEM Fellow, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in management and organizations from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

“Jeff has earned a reputation as a thought leader, author, sought-after speaker and trainer working at the intersection of economic development, social problem solving, inclusive innovation and workforce diversity,’’ Rutgers–Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor said in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome him to his new role on our leadership team.’’

Robinson, who starts the job July 1, holds the Prudential Chair in Business and is professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School. He joined Rutgers–Newark in 2008, where he has specialized in management and entrepreneurship.

“I am excited to contribute to the mission of Rutgers University–Newark as an anchor institution in the city and region,” Robinson said. “Specifically, I look forward to focusing on innovation and economic development along with faculty recruitment and retentions. I am particularly drawn to RU–Newark’s strengths in the arts, STEM and entrepreneurship.”

As academic director for the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Robinson’s expansive, publicly engaged scholarship has created vitally important programs that cultivate and mentor entrepreneurs.

He has authored many articles and books in his areas of expertise, including the 2022 Harper Collins guide “Black Faces in High Places: 10 Strategic Actions for Black Professionals to Reach the Top and Stay There,” co-authored with Rutgers alumnus Randall Pinkett.

Robinson has extensive experience in major grant writing and management, including multimillion-dollar support from the National Science Foundation aimed at building and broadening inclusive pathways in STEM. He has also received funding from numerous federal, state and private agencies and organizations to cultivate entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.

“Jeff’s work exemplifies Rutgers-Newark’s strategic commitment to social mobility, publicly-engaged scholarship and anchor institution collaboration as a major urban research university where cross-disciplinary collaboration is paramount and where we are profoundly committed to leveraging our strengths with partners locally, statewide, nationally and globally to move the needle on the most pressing challenges facing our communities and our world,” Cantor said.

John Obeid has been named senior research manager of Cushman & Wakefield and will oversee New Jersey’s research operations and will be responsible for managing and executing market research deliverables and analytics.

He will be based out of the firm’s East Rutherford office.

“John’s impressive tenure and expertise will be invaluable to our brokers and clients. He is a strong example of the talent we are actively recruiting for our growing operations in New Jersey,” Peter Bronsnick, managing principal of New Jersey, stated. “As we continue to add new talent to our team and recruit the industry’s best and brightest across all business and service lines, we are thrilled to have John overseeing our research operations. We are proud to be expanding our team with so many talented new hires as we continually strive to be the best workplace in New Jersey.”

Obeid has more than 15 years of experience in commercial real estate, overseeing and executing market research. Obeid specializes in maintaining market data, analyzing trends and providing insightful commentary around New Jersey’s office and industrial real estate market.

“Cushman & Wakefield has put together a world-class operation in New Jersey and I am honored to be joining such a successful team,” Obeid said. “I was drawn to the company’s diverse and extremely talented pool of professionals and can’t wait to work alongside them to provide the best possible services to our clients.”

Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Obeid spent time at both Colliers and CBRE, overseeing a team of researchers and developing relationships with clients to provide them with market intelligence on current real estate conditions.

One would be hard-pressed to find an organization in any sector — private, nonprofit or government — that is not concerned about the need to attract and retain a workforce that will support its organizational mission. This has created worrisome situations such as failure to attract qualified applicants (even at increased pay rates) and high turnover.

Organizations have responded by developing a variety of “education as a benefit” programs that provide employees access to continuous learning to develop in-demand skills and grow with the organization. These include tuition assistance/reimbursement programs, student loan repayment plans, on site (or online) classroom-based training and access to libraries of learning assets and other self-directed online courses. While these are all effective tools that talent acquisition and development professionals can employ, they do not necessarily yield their intended results and often are underutilized.

What, then, can be added to the mix that further addresses the needs of employee-learners and their employers — for employees, short-term skill acquisition; for employers, the ability to quickly pivot to the needs of fast-changing markets; and for both employees and employers, sustainable development of the next generation of leaders from a robust internal talent pipeline of employees that espouse the organization’s culture?

Rutgers University – Camden Professional and Executive Education recognized the need for a solution that meets the personal learning and career needs of employees and the business, talent acquisition and talent retention requirements of employers … the Personal Learning Co-Created Cohort delivery model.

The Personal Learning Co-Created Cohort delivery model

Key to our approach is building quality professional relationships with our partners.

Informed by the changing dynamics in the economy (e.g., technology/artificial intelligence, flattened organizations, labor shortages, supply chain/sourcing issues, globalization, etc.), our approach combines best practices from industry with proven frameworks from academia — this brings the best of both worlds to your organization. Two imperatives drive our approach: the increased need for ongoing reskilling/upskilling to take advantage of changes in the way work is done, and the value of attracting/retaining/promoting employees who embrace the culture of the organization.

We combine those elements of our Personal Learning Coach practitioner-academic model — one that focuses on the career goals of your organization’s employee-learners — with the more traditional cohort-based hybrid delivery that focuses on those skills your organization needs to achieve the flexibility required to meet the ever-changing demands of your customers (private sector) or clients (nonprofit and government agencies).

How it works

We begin our conversation by listening.

Combining a team of seasoned management consulting professionals from the private sector with the weight of academic experts from Rutgers School of Business – Camden, our team begins by identifying the important outcomes you seek for your organization. Our proposed training solution takes a strategic enterprise approach and will be co-created with those in your organization who are responsible for delivering on the organization’s strategy. This results in impactful programs that balance a key requirement of the organization’s success in its industry (i.e., talent acquisition, retention and engagement) with the needs of the human capital that will drive that success (i.e., talent development, skill acquisition and career support).

Additional benefits of our approach include enhancing your organization’s brand; advancing diversity, equity & inclusion; displaying corporate citizenship; and driving revenue and profitability.

Audience

Talent acquisition and development departments are tasked with doing more and knowing more … often within tight budgets. Organizations recognize that having ongoing learning and development activities that support the needs of their business — or mission of their nonprofit — is crucial to staying competitive and maintaining a thriving organization.

On the one hand, organizations do not have the budget, staff or the range of expertise to meet the expanding training needs of their organization. But, at the same time, the organization needs to meet an ongoing stream of changes occurring in its operating environment and employees are impatient to acquire those skills that they need to advance their career. Both want — and need — them now.

One solution an organization can draw upon to meet these two seemingly conflicting forces resides in developing relationship-driven resourcing partnerships with trusted partners such as Rutgers University – Camden Professional and Executive Education to augment the reach of your training and development department.

Some examples that you may be faced with today where Rutgers University – Camden Professional and Executive Education can step in to support your training and development efforts include:

• You have numerous, diverse training needs;
• You lack technology or process expertise;
• You want interactive e-learning on a topic that has arisen as a key driver of your business;
• You have temporary or short-term training or development needs;
• You have budget or time constraints;
• You want a credible outside organization to deliver the training.

In addition to serving the needs of your organization, upon successful program completion, learners will earn a credential to put on their resume that showcases their newly acquired skills from a trusted public institution serving the people, businesses, nonprofits and government agencies in the state of New Jersey for over 250 years.

Rutgers is a brand associated with quality that instills confidence in learners and employers¹.

For more information about Rutgers–Camden’s Professional and Executive Education programs, visit execed.rutgers.edu, send an email to execed@camden.rutgers.edu or call our office at 856-225-6685.

¹. Rutgers’ founding in 1766 puts it in the same esteemed class as the Ivy League colleges. Its decision to serve the needs of all learners as a public institution translates into the same quality as those that chose a private path that we now call “Ivies.”