January 4, 2006 - Johnson & Johnson Accepts Rider Student in Financial Leadership Program
Matthew Stevens, a senior finance and global business major, set a goal in his sophomore year at Rider University that he wanted to participate in Johnson & Johnson’s Financial Leadership Development Program (FLDP) after learning about the program while the company was doing on-campus interviewing.
Setting that goal is one thing. Achieving it is another because the FLDP program, which seeks to prepare future generations of business leaders within the Johnson & Johnson accounting and finance organization, is highly competitive and selective.
Recently, Johnson & Johnson notified Stevens that he was among a select group of college students from across the country who will graduate this spring to be accepted into this two-year developmental program. All were accepted following an extensive application and rigorous interview process.
According to the FLDP Web site, the program successfully develops future leaders for Johnson & Johnson through a combination of diverse rotational assignments, in-depth, targeted training and continual coaching and development.
“This is a very competitive program,” said Greg Herlan, Vice President for Financial Leadership Development at Johnson & Johnson. “We usually have more than 1,000 candidates from across the country and accept a little over 80. The candidates go through an interview process on their campuses, and then a round of intensive interviews and group problem solving exercises at Johnson & Johnson.”
Vice President Herlan added, “Participants are expected to be strong performers and need to demonstrate leadership potential. To graduate, FLDP participants are required to demonstrate the potential to be successful at the manager level and beyond. Participants must also be able to meet and often exceed expectations against their goals and objectives.”
Stevens’ acceptance into the program marks the fourth Rider student from the College of Business Administration’s highly successful interpersonal skill building DAARSTOC program to participate in Johnson & Johnson’s FLDP. The others were Gregory Kaczmarski ‘01, Augustus Herring ’01 and Jessica Lelli ’05. A fifth DAARSTOC graduate, Larry Conners ’02 participated in similar Johnson & Johnson leadership development program in information technology. In addition, Pat Perrino ’92, David Fortunati ’90 and Joe Prati ’80 are former DAARSTOC students who work at Johnson & Johnson.
“When I first heard about the program in my sophomore year, I said that’s where I want to be,” Stevens said. “Through this kind of program you can gain excellent experience with a very reputable company. Johnson and Johnson knows Rider and recruit here for a reason.”
Program participants gain invaluable on-the-job experiences through three eight-month rotations at different companies within the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. Assignments may take participants through a range of financial disciplines (e.g., cost accounting, financial reporting, sales and marketing finance, research and development finance), business segments, and perhaps across geographic regions.
Within these functional areas, the specific assignments may include exposure to such areas as the financial closing process, business plan and forecast updates, business partner support, budget vs. actual analysis/trending, capital budgeting and decision making, Sarbanes Oxley controls and compliance, and opportunities for teamwork, innovation, problem solving and presentations.
Stevens will begin his training on May 30 just 18 days after his May 12 graduation. He will go through the cycle of the three, eight-month rotations within the pharmaceutical division. “What is great about this program is that I will get exposure to all types of management,” Stevens said. “After the rotations, I go back to the first rotation for one year.”
Stevens said his participation in DAARSTOC was extremely helpful. He admitted this was his first set of interviews. “From that standpoint, there was a lot of pressure, but I felt DAARSTOC helped prepare me for what to expect, how to be professional and how to be the best possible candidate for the position,” he added.
“My development of leadership skills really comes through a lot of organizations I’ve been involved in at Rider, as well as in groups within the classroom,” he continued. “What I was lacking when I first came to Rider was good communication skill – being able to listen to someone, understanding their points of view and being able to integrate people’s ideas into one group project. We really worked on that a lot in DAARSTOC and in other organizations.
“What I found out is that the leader was one who could keep all those ideas together and keep everyone going in the right direction,” he said.
Stevens has been very involved in campus life. In addition to his two years in DAARSTOC and serving as its president this year, he studied abroad in Paris at the American Business School and is vice president of Sigma Phi Epsilon social fraternity.
He also serves as a mentor in the Sanda student program. “After being abroad, I just have a taste for international experience. I found this was one of the best ways to get involved and help someone coming into a new culture.” He is involved in training new Rider student mentors for the 29 students who will arrive from Shanghai Sanda Institute in mid-January. Last year 23 Sanda students enrolled in Rider’s global business program.
In addition, Stevens formed his own life guarding company last summer to guard two private beaches in Point Pleasant, NJ. He led a staff of 15 lifeguards and found operating his own company was a growth experience. “I was in charge of all the financials, all the documents for making the payroll and tax payments and keeping my records should there be an audit. Since I had two contracts with the housing associations that owned the beaches, I also worked with two boards of trustees and had to address their specific requests.”
With his participation in the Johnson & Johnson FLDP program, he will likely dissolve the company and pass the opportunity on to someone else. Come May 30 he will open a new chapter in his life as he begins the intensive, two-year leadership development program.
