EY looks to Binghamton University School of Management for talent and diversity

Diversity and equity are at the heart of Ernst & Young’s (EY) engagement with Binghamton University. Among its recruitment efforts at the School of Management, EY offers Launch, a two-year internship for students underrepresented in terms of ethnicity and skill sets.

“Because most students are interested in the accounting tax space, we’ve ramped up efforts around majors we don’t usually attract, such as computer science, data analytics and management information systems,” says Morgan Liss, who leads EY’s recruiting at Binghamton. “We’re looking to build a pipeline for our tech advisor and risk advisor programs.”

In addition to holding events on campus, EY hosts students at its Times Square office. The Manhattan visits are occasions for Binghamton alumni working at the firm to share experiences with current SOM students.

Also, through EY’s Trajectory program, students from SOM and the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science would work on consulting projects that mimicked what they’d encounter on the job. That program, too, brought together students of varied backgrounds.

“Research has shown that the highest performing teams are those with a diversity of backgrounds,” says Sean Doherty ’89, partner at EY. “Being open to different backgrounds and different thought processes gets us to a better result.”

Binghamton’s alumni network at the Times Square office now exceeds 300 and is growing each year in terms of size and quality.

“I frequently tell students that when I made partner in 2000, five of us from Binghamton made partner together, and that was the most of any school,” Doherty says. “It’s nice to see Binghamton stand out, and I’m always proud to see people I recruit [rise up to] partner. We have a very talented pool of people from Binghamton University, and this is why we have more recruits from Binghamton than from many other schools.”