Costello College of Business News

Brianna Wallman began her academic journey at Northern Virginia Community College, where an inspiring accounting professor sparked her interest in the field.

When Cory, BS Finance ’18, and Ashley Brooks (formerly Reichert), BS Finance and Marketing ’19, first started dating at George Mason University nearly a decade ago, they didn’t yet realize that their love story would one day turn into marriage, both working as wealth advisors for the same company, volunteering their time at the school where they first met, becoming parents to a beautiful baby girl—and so much more.

Nimisha Kumar, a rising senior, spent the summer in New York City to complete a summer internship with Warner Bros. Discovery.

When he first received the email informing him that he was a recipient of the PCAOB scholarship, Tyler Ngo was convinced that it was too good to be true. It was not until Peggy Tsirigotis, assistant area chair and instructor of accounting at the Costello College of Business, reached out to him that he realized how legitimate it was. 

George Mason University has announced a generous multi-year commitment from Schwab Advisor Services in partnership with the Charles Schwab Foundation to grow and strengthen George Mason’s Financial Planning and Wealth Management Program (FPWM) and to position it to meet the region’s strong demand for certified financial planners.

When Grant Patterson began his career in accounting at Beers and Cutler, his team was searching for a staff member to recruit and present at George Mason University. As he took more recruiting trips, he got to know the faculty well and connected with student organizations. Eventually, the firm’s partner at the time, John Niehoff, BS Accounting ’84, asked him if he would be willing to manage the recruiting relationship at George Mason, and Patterson was more than willing to step into that role.

After taking the Survey of Accounting 203 course with Muhammad Awais (BS Accounting ‘13, MS Accounting ‘14), an adjunct instructor at the Costello College of Business, Khaled Alkurd knew everything he needed to know to switch his area of study from marketing to accounting.

Skip West, founder of MAXSA Innovations and adjunct faculty at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, offers the course Turning Ideas into Successful Companies once a year to MBA students. The concept for the course came from West’s own entrepreneurial experiences of turning his ideas into companies.

At the end of the 2025 spring semester, Brian Ngac, an instructional assistant professor of Information Systems and Operations Management (ISOM) at the Costello College of Business and FWI Corporate Partner Faculty Fellow, and Nirup Menon, professor of ISOM at Costello, received word that another one of their experiential learning proposals won a grant from the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI).

Boards with higher social capital enjoy more market freedom to engage in potentially risky strategic alliances — to the ultimate benefit of their firms.

Dr. Jerry McGinn, Executive Director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University &1698198534253-2 Former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, offers a candid and data-driven look at the current state of innovation across the federal government. With a background in both academia and senior leadership at the Department of Defense, McGinn brings unique insight into how the government is leveraging its power—not just to regulate, but to actively shape—its industrial base.

There has been a flurry of activity in federal acquisition this year. From the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts across federal agencies to the numerous reform initiatives in defense acquisition and the Federal Acquisition Regulation, these activities are having a major impact on today’s government contracting industrial base. The timing was ideal for bringing together government, industry, and academia for a serious discussion about the current performance of and future prospects for the government contracting community.