New Executive in Residence program bridges classroom and boardroom

At leading business schools, an emerging challenge is how to prepare students for leadership in organizations defined by constant disruption, evolving technologies and complex ethical decisions. 

The University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business answers that challenge through a new initiative designed to bring executive insight directly into the MBA experience. 

Launched in fall 2025, the Notre Dame MBA Executive in Residence (EIR) program represents a reimagining of how business education connects with industry. Beyond treating corporate engagement as an occasional guest lecture or recruiting event, the program embeds seasoned executives into the academic ecosystem, creating an ongoing exchange of mentorship, collaboration and lived leadership experience. 

The result is a program built around a simple premise: Students learn leadership best when they learn alongside leaders. 

“The Notre Dame alumni network is the strongest in higher education,” said Nick Berente, senior associate dean for academic programs at Mendoza. “Our alumni are active and eager to contribute to the next generation.” 

Paul Bierbusse (MBA ’90, ND ’88), brought the idea for the EIR program to Berente. A retired partner at EY who was a global client service partner and transformation architect for consumer packaged goods and retail at EY Americas, Bierbusse learned of an MBA mentoring and coaching program at another institution from a colleague. Noting the engaged alumni community at Notre Dame, he thought a similar program would be an ideal fit for the Notre Dame MBA. He wanted to take the program to the next level for students. 

“I thought it would be awesome to not only bring a mentoring-coaching construct to Notre Dame, but to go beyond that by challenging engaged alumni to invest time on campus — through coffee chats, club presentations, in-class discussions, case competition judging, etc. — building more substantive relationships with the students,” he said. 

Bierbusse added that executives in the EIR program aren’t just making a one-year commitment; they agree to a three-year tenure. This way, EIRs maintain a connection with an MBA student over a longer time and transform their interactions from an event to a relationship. 

“I believe that this model is not only beneficial for the student and the University, but for the EIR as well,” said Bierbusse. 

Each Executive in Residence brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across the Notre Dame MBA career tracks, including  strategy, finance, marketing and technology. They join classes, mentor students individually, collaborate with faculty and open professional networks that extend beyond campus. 

According to Berente, there are four specific ways that the EIR program strengthens the bridge between industry and academia: The EIRs join in different classes each semester and provide the benefit of their experience. They give the students a unique view into practice, offering advice, sharing stories from their experience and providing a lens into how they make decisions and direct their organizations. This complements what students learn from their professors. 

Additionally, Berente noted that students can sign up for coffee chats, which are one-on-one conversations with the EIRs, where they can build relationships and learn about specific areas that concern them. He said that they have had some remarkable interactions between the EIRs and students as a result of these chats. For example, in one case, a student is working with a local business, and the EIR has provided advice and connections that dramatically impacted that business and proved invaluable for the student’s education. 

EIRs also open up their networks and make introductions to the students, often to other Notre Dame alumni. When EIRs are on campus and speaking with classes, Berente said, they inevitably build relationships with faculty, which can involve anything from a conversation to engaging in a research project. 

“This program closes the gap between classroom learning and industry application,” said Christina Frank-Lieberg, director of External Engagement at Mendoza. “Our EIRs collaborate with faculty, contribute to applied learning and engage with students in formats that mirror real-world strategic decision making. They provide insight into evolving market expectations, emerging roles and leadership competencies in a way no textbook can replicate.” 

Frank-Lieberg said that executive leadership experience, professional achievement and alignment with the Mendoza College mission were paramount when selecting EIRs. 

“Equally important, they are individuals who lead with purpose, care deeply about mentorship and understand what values-based leadership looks like in practice,” she said. “They are not only accomplished executives, but they are also extraordinary humans who genuinely want to invest in our students.” 

Christina Glorioso,(MBA ’99, ND ’95) is one of the inaugural EIRs. For Glorioso, who serves as senior vice-president for sales effectiveness and the head of the Center of Excellence at NBCUniversal Media, the program offers students an experience that they simply cannot replicate in the classroom. MBA students are learning frameworks such as strategy, finance and ethics, she said. However, hearing how those frameworks hold up in the ambiguity of real decisions is invaluable. 

“When we talk through real scenarios happening now in media or leadership, they see that values and performance aren’t competing forces — they’re intertwined,” she said. “That perspective matters early in a career.” 

Beyond this, she says that there is one aspect of the program that can't be matched: access. The program allows students the opportunity to connect with people they might not have had a chance to meet at this stage in their education as they start building toward their career.

 “Many MBA students haven’t yet had consistent access to executive-level conversations in their early careers,” Glorioso said. “Being able to pull back the curtain — to talk candidly about how leaders really think, how culture influences outcomes and how values show up under pressure — gives them context they can’t get from a case study alone. That’s the part I love most: watching theory click into lived reality.”