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Home > Colleges & Schools Foundation > College of Business Administration > Undergraduate Majors & Programs > Accounting > Forensic Certificate > Alumni
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Alumni

Through the years, Rider has watched as graduates of the CBA have gone on to pursue successful and fulfilling careers.  Many keep in touch with the departments they majored in and reach out to current students.  Their stories provide insight for what they would do if they were in the classroom now and serve as models for students.  The following have shared their stories with the Accounting department:

  • Ralph J. Anderson, Jr., senior partner in Wealth Management Services for M.R. Weiser, LLP
  • Howard Cohen, officer-in-charge for Amper, Politziner & Mattia
  • Stephen J. Cosgrove, vice president and corporate controller for Johnson & Johnson
  • Michael Fenster, vice president and controller for National Starch and Chemical Company
  • Clair M. Raubenstine, retired former assurance and business advisory services partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Contact Dr. Marge O'Reilly-Allen for more information about alumni from Rider who would be available to provide assistance to current or prospective students. He can also be reached if you are an out-of-touch alumnus and would like to reconnect.

Ralph J. Anderson, Jr.

"Currently, I am a senior partner - Wealth Management Services of M.R. Weiser.  Among my responsibilities are asset management, estate, trust and gift-tax strategies and general tax/insurance guidance.  I came to Weiser from Executive Monetary Management, where I held the position of senior vice president.

"Previously, I served in public accounting as the partner in charge of taxation services at two different firms.  In this role, I assisted clients with personal and corporate tax planning, mergers and acquisitions, and investment banking, to name only a few responsibilities.

"I am pleased to be a member of the Rider University Accounting Advisory Council.  As a council member, I am able to interact with Rider faculty and administrators to assure that the accounting program maintains its high quality.  This is important to me because I am a graduate of the Rider accounting program, and I want to play an active role in maintaining its high standards in the future.

"I feel so strongly about the value of a Rider education that my wife and I host a reception each year at our home for prospective Rider students.  In fact, our son, Brad, joined the ranks of Rider students in Fall 2002 and is a member of the golf team.

"I am pleased to share my view with you on the profession, career paths or other areas of interest to you." 

Howard Cohen, Accounting Advisory Council member for the CBA

"Times are changing and as officer-in-charge of the Edison office at Amper, Politziner & Mattia, some of those changes are impacting the accounting profession.  These transformations, due to current events and tax-law modifications, are making the accounting profession much more challenging. 

"I graduated from Rider as an accounting major, and after 30 years in the profession, advocate the career choice as well as the university that prepared me so well.  Being a member of Rider's Accounting Advisory Council has been a worthwhile and rewarding experience.

"AP&M is a regional accounting and consulting firm that has more than 200 employees and 25 partners.  The firm was founded on the premise that business owners expect more from their accountants than the processing of numbers.  That is why we employ a business consulting approach to client service.  If you are interested in learning more about AP&M's accounting and consulting services, please visit our website." 

Stephen J. Cosgrove, Accounting Advisory Council member for the CBA

Cosgrove is a vice president and corporate controller at Johnson & Johnson.  He was appointed to this position in October 2001.

He joined Johnson & Johnson in 1974 as an undergraduate recruit and has worked at multiple companies within Johnson & Johnson.  He served as finance director for Johnson & Johnson affiliates in Belgium, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom; he also served as vice president of Finance and Information Management with Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Inc.  Prior to his current position, he was the vice president of Finance for the Consumer & Personal Care Group and a member of the Consumer & Personal Care Operating Committee responsible for the worldwide management of the Consumer and Vision Care franchises of J&J.

Cosgrove is currently a trustee of the North Brunswick Education Foundation.  He is chairman of the Accounting Advisory Council at Rider and also serves on the Business Advisory Board for the CBA.  He is a Certified Management Accountant and is a graduate of Rutgers College with a B.A. and Rider's MBA program.  

Michael Fenster

"It's a world of opportunity.  As a graduate of Rider University, as well as corporate vice president and controller for National Starch and Chemical Company, I am extremely interested in assisting the Rider accounting department in their quest to provide students with "the right tools for the job."

"National Starch has supplied both professional and monetary support to help the department take full advantage of the University's technological infrastructure.  The company hosted a conference for Rider faculty at our headquarters in Bridgewater, N.J., where our accounting professional demonstrated the latest in database technology.  Utilizing information technology for managing global information is critical to National Starch and Chemical Company as we conduct our business worldwide.

"There are a number of interesting career opportunities in accounting at National Starch, including positions with international dimensions.  Our company actively recruits at Rider and provides an annual scholarship award to a deserving senior who will be pursuing a career in the private sector." 

Clair M. Raubenstine, Accounting Advisory Council member for the CBA

Raubenstine is a retired former assurance and business advisory services partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP and had been associated with the firm for 39 years.  He has had experience with multinational companies and numerous small- and medium-sized companies in a wide variety of industries.  His client involvement had been broad-based and included merger and acquisition reviews, corporate restructuring, investigations of alleged irregularities, assistance to troubled companies and defense conversions.

He had been a national independence consulting partner since October 1998.  In addition, Raubenstine had oversight responsibility for the firm's CPA Licensure Compliance Group.  He previously served as a national SEC Consulting partner, Pennsylvania Cluster Accounting and Auditing consultant, and prior thereto, as the director of Accounting, Auditing and SEC for the Atlantic Region of PwC.  He has taught various PwC training courses, has participated in the firm's quality control review program and has made presentations to the Institute of Management Accountants, American Management Association, Institute of Internal Auditors, Financial Executives Institute and Small Business Administration workshops.

Raubenstine is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants and the American and Pennsylvania Institutes of Certified Public Accountants.  He has been extremely active in the Institute of Management Accountants.  He is presently serving as a member of the National Advisory Council.  He previously served as chairman, president and vice president of Member Services and, before that, as treasurer for three years.  As such, he was chairman of the National Finance Committee, after having served as president of the North Penn Chapter, president of the MidAtlantic Council and as national vice president.

He is presently serving as a member of the Executive Committee and has previously served as president, treasurer, secretary and executive committee member and as chairman of numerous committees of the greater Philadelphia chapter, Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  He has also served as a member of Council, the Budget and Finance Committee, the Committee on Ethics and on the Long-Range CPE Strategy Committee of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

He is currently a member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Stonebridge Financial Corp., secretary and a member of the Board of Directors and the executive and finance committees of the Bucks County Economic Development Corporation (previously served as president) and is a member of the Accounting Advisory Council for Rider.

Raubenstine graduated cum laude from Rider University in 1963 and received awards from both the Pennsylvania and American Institutes of Certified Public Accountants for achieving one of the highest grades in the country on the May 1966 CPA examination.  He is a licensed CPA in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.  He is also a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and is Certified in Financial Management (CFM).  In 1996, Accounting Today named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the accounting profession, and in 1997, he received the Rider University Life Achievement Award.  He was also recently inducted as an honorary member of the Kappa Epsilon Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi at Rider University.