Greg Johnson

Nadine Choueiri, BS Management ’08 and MBA ’16, is the chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO) of Mission1st Group, a fast-growing, service-disabled veteran-owned government contractor.

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.

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. 

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.

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).

As the creative director at Outright, a full-service creative agency dedicated to turning heads for modern brands, Kate Gazzillo’s expertise includes using AI creatively, often representing her agency in panels, keynote addresses, and other speaking engagements.

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.

The Costello College of Business at George Mason University held its 19th Annual Business Celebration on April 24, 2025, at the Mason Square Campus in Arlington.