The ROI Influencers Power List 2020: Higher Education

Jonathan Holloway appeared in our Top 30 rankings.

Joel Bloom
President
New Jersey Institute of Technology
The list of his accomplishments at NJIT continues to grow. The latest: The school has cracked the Top 100 of the prestigious U.S. News & World Report rankings for the first time, coming in at No. 97, or nearly 50 spots higher than two years ago.

Nancy Cantor
Chancellor
Rutgers University – Newark
While there has been so much news about the leadership at the flagship campus of Rutgers, Cantor has been quietly going about her business of building Rutgers-Newark’s place in higher education while working to ensure the school is closely aligned with the city.

Susan Cole
President
Montclair State University
The university continues to grow in size and stature under Cole’s leadership (it now has more than 21,000 students, or twice the number when Cole took over 1998). The school was recently ranked No. 23 nationally for “social mobility,” and Cole was just selected to join the board of directors on the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

Chris Eisgruber
President
Princeton University
Being named the No. 1 school in the country by U.S. News & World Report (again) is an amazing achievement. But it’s the school’s embrace of entrepreneurship and working with the New Jersey business community that helps Eisgruber earn a spot on this list.

Nariman Farvardin
President
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens was a top-notch university when Farvardin arrived in 2011 — he’s helped take it to another level. Applications are up at the Top 100 school, as is the quality of students, graduation rate and ability to land a (high-paying) job upon graduation. Stevens is now remaking its business school program, ensuring it will stay one step ahead.

Sue Henderson
President
New Jersey City University
Henderson is heading the school’s University Place development, a $400 million project that will help transform a spot of West Side Avenue into a college town featuring dorms, academic buildings and restaurants. And she is doing so while making sure NJCU is a transformative place for first-generation students from underserved communities.

Ali Houshmand
President
Rowan University
One of the great thought leaders in higher education, Houshmand not only is transforming the Rowan campus into the state’s next great university, but doing so in a business-friendly way that will enable the school to be an economic development generator for all of South Jersey.

Anthony Iacono
President
County College of Morris
The county colleges are an important part of the state’s future. Many are leading the way with new initiatives for workforce development. Iacono, who is overseeing CCM’s $10 million manufacturing and engineering center, was recently named to the inaugural class of the Aspen New Presidents Fellowship, an initiative designed to accelerate transformational change at the community college level.

Chris Molloy
Chancellor
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Longtime leader at Rutgers makes the list for two reasons. 1) Will serve as the connector between outgoing President Bob Barchi and incoming President Jonathan Holloway; and 2) Will continue to serve as the connector between Rutgers and the business world.

Joseph Nyre
President
Seton Hall University
Approaching his one-year anniversary as the head of Seton Hall University, a school that has made dramatic upgrades on its campus in recent years. School is in its best position to become the fifth college in the state to be ranked in the Top 100 nationally (it’s currently at No. 139).

Click below to see who landed in the Top 30 spots on the ROI Influencers Power List 2020:

Here’s the most powerful people in 13 industries:

And to read how a political scientist made the call on who was named No. 1 on the list, click here.