Stefan de la Peña
Fordham University, Gabelli School of Business
“Hyper-caffeinated, purple pen-chewing nerd exploring an interdisciplinary approach to business.”
Fun fact about yourself: I studied abroad in Tokyo and London, netting me over 28 countries traveled.
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
High School: Cistercian Preparatory School
Majors: B.S. in Global Business Finance + B.A. in Philosophy
Favorite Business Course: Global Investments
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:
Extracurricular Activities:
Consulting Club – President
LSA Family Health Service – Community Health Worker
Global Outreach – Translator
Hispanic Scholarship Fund – Youth Leadership Mentor
Social Innovation Collaboratory – Group Leader
Honors and Awards:
Fordham Recognition Scholarship (~$250,000)
Dean’s Council, Dean’s List Scholar, 2021–2025
HSF Scholar, 2023
Gabelli Consulting Cup Winner and Best Speaker
First Year Diversity Scholar
Woolworth Academic Award.
Where have you interned during your college career?
EY – Financial Services Consulting Intern
PwC – Nonprofit Strategy Intern
Where will you be working after graduation? Compensation Advisory Partners – Consulting Analyst
Who is your favorite business professor? Axel Roepnack is an incredibly caring yet meticulous professor. In his Business Communications course, he consistently went above-and-beyond to push each of his students to grow. He genuinely wanted every student to succeed, regardless of their starting experience with public speaking. Thanks to him, the ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and persuasively is something I will carry with me for the rest of my career.
What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? Business and politics are uniquely and inextricably intertwined. Having a business perspective on global events and governance positions one to understand the business implications that either underlie political decisions. While strictly technical knowledge can be mastered with enough study, one of the most valuable skills I’ve earned is the intuition and critical thinking necessary to recognize the hidden business implications nestled in events on the global stage.
What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? There is so much more to business, and more specifically finance, than just banking and trading. Behind every social movement and community initiative, there is always money moving in the background making it possible. I urge anyone studying finance, who has not yet fully set their career trajectory, to resist the tunnel vision of believing that standard career paths are the only options. Every impactful change, regardless of scale, requires someone to have a deep understanding of finance in order to effectively bring it to life.
Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? If I could go back, I would prioritize cultivating the quality of my professional relationships rather than quantity. Early on, I found myself going to events and talking to people just to check a box. Time teaches you that those connections quickly fade and that real opportunities come from investing time in fewer, deeper professional relationships rather than the scattershot networking approach common among students.
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? Fordham has excelled at implementing AI in areas that empower students rather than compromise their abilities to think creatively and critically. For example, in my Financial Applications & Institutions course, the use of AI is encouraged to handle the quick quantitative groundwork of our casing work, whether through calculations, models, or forecasts. This allows our class discussions to focus nearly purely on prescriptive strategy and decision making. This is exactly what AI as a tool does best: synthesize large amounts of information and identify discrepancies much faster than manual processes.
Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? My proudest accomplishment was developing a profitable and sustainable consulting strategy for our client, Coca-Cola, during the Gabelli Consulting Competition. I’m not proud because our team won, however, but because my incredible teammates and I never compromised on our vision; we wanted to prove that business can be both green and profitable. Ultimately, we were contacted by Coca-Cola’s Northeastern distribution facility, where we pitched our solution to a round table of directors. After our pitch, we discussed the future of the single-use packaging process, and how our initiatives could be adopted in the next phase of their bottling plant revamps.
Which classmate do you most admire? My fellow peer, teammate, and friend, Emma Foley, is an incredible example of the naturally interdisciplinary power of a business education. Outside of her outstanding work ethic and infectious attitude, she constantly integrates concepts and skills from the arts, history, and philosophy into her business strategy. Her ability to ideate and solve problems with such a wide breadth of perspectives, rather than getting trapped in a strictly “business-only” mindset, inspires me. Emma’s multidimensional thinking is exemplary of the mindset we all should strive to take on to solve the interconnected, complex problems of the future.
Who would you most want to thank for your success? I cannot thank Dean Vincent DeCola enough for his guidance and support over the past four years. He is, quite literally, the person that made my incredible experience at Fordham possible, from my time abroad to my double major in philosophy. Only at a school like Fordham can you come in with ambitious vision of your college experience and find faculty members eager to support your goals rather than limit them. I would not have grown into the person I would not be the person I am today without the incredible support of Dean DeCola and the school.
What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?
Pursuing Social Entrepreneurship with an end goal of founding one myself.
Working multi-nationally and bilingually, specifically with Latin American organizations.
What made Stefan such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?
“Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business fosters responsible business leadership that inspires innovation, community, and impact.
In his four years as a student here, Stefan de la Pena has proven himself to be a perfect match to this opening line from our school’s mission statement.
I recall seeing Stefan in his very first semester of college frequenting what was then known as our Social Collaboratory —and which has since expanded and transformed into the Responsible Business Center. I knew right off that Stefan was going to be a leader with principles, with purpose, and driven by his big heart.
But it is by no means just sentiment which is driving Stefan’s beliefs and values. He is a man of hard work and great intellect. Stefan is approaching graduation still managing a perfect 4.0 GPA. And while it seems he has his nose to the grindstone, at the same time his eyes have been trained on searching the world around him. Stefan spent one semester in Japan and another at Fordham’s own London campus.
Back here at home he is engaged in work for those in need as an intern at LSA Family Health Services in East Harlem, NY, putting his business skills to work for the good of others.
The linchpin to the business program at the Gabelli School is when our second-year students spend an entire semester engaging as members of a team to analyze a company and present their recommendations as consultants. Stefan’s team was assigned Coca-Cola. They researched the design of a non-oil-based plastic bottle to invite Coca-Cola to meet the environmental demands of our world today. Having won the school-wide competition – in which Stefan was chosen as best speaker—his team made some news on social media. Through this spotlight, they were invited by a northeast Coca-Cola distribution center to present their idea before some of the executives.
Stefan is a true renaissance man. Majoring both in business and philosophy, he is showing, yet again, how for Stefan commerce and community go hand in hand.
Stefan is set to begin work after he graduates with a consulting firm specializing in executive compensation. He knows he will continue to learn a lot in the near term, and he already has a goal to use his business acumen to serve the world through not-for-profit leadership.
I look forward to continuing to cheer him on..!”
Vincent DeCola, SJ
Assistant Dean
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