We are sharing some succinct success stories of our UAlbany Weekend MBA students and alums in a series that is very appropriately named Smart Moves. These short vignettes spell out the value they derived from the program, whether it be a new job, a promotion, more money, or more knowledge.

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dpurdy@albany.edu
518.956.8330
518.442.4042
@UAlbanyMBA
facebook.com/weekendmba
Smart Moves – Rob Farrell
Smart Moves is a series of short vignettes that spells out the value our University
at Albany Weekend MBA students have derived from the program, whether it be
a new job, a promotion, more money, or added knowledge. Here is the third
installment in the series …
On August 12, Rob Farrell was appointed 19th Clerk of Court for the United States
District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He has worked with the federal
courts for 24 years and had been Chief Deputy Clerk in Massachusetts since 2010.
It was during a previous position in the Northern District of New York that Rob
fashioned a thesis compiling data for the National Rent Validation Project, an
initiative of the federal courts to evaluate how the court’s rent was being charged.
Rob Farrell’s MBA thesis has helped save the federal government $400 million in the last eight years. For his
thesis, Rob, a 2007 graduate of UAlbany’s Weekend MBA Program, built a database for a project studying rent
payments made by the U.S. District Court for its courthouses and offices across the country. Rob’s thesis
advisor, Dr. Jakov (Yasha) Crnkovic, “was very helpful in looking at how I was interpreting and developing the
data interface program that we used for the thesis,” he says.
U.S. District Court operates thousands of facilities in 94 districts in every state and territory. Its landlord is the
General Services Administration, a federal agency that owns the buildings. Payments were projected by 2010 to
be over $1 billion, nearly 15 percent of the court’s expenses. Rob compiled monthly bills and documents from
every facility, aggregating them into a database to check for inconsistencies. The results of the study allowed
the courts to make a case for more accurate rental arrangements.
Rob says his Weekend MBA coursework built on the experience he already had and prepared him for the career
challenges ahead.
“My MBA helps me to apply business processes and accounting and expectations for stewardship of public funds
and other business understanding to the world of public service,” Rob says. “I got something out of every class
that I took.”
Our next info session is Thursday, January 23, 6:00 p.m. at our Albany-Colonie Executive Education Center.
Contact us at 518.956.8330 or at dpurdy@albany.edu for details!
University at Albany School of Business | 1400 Washington Avenue | Business Building 203A | Albany, New York 12222 | www.albany.edu/business/weekendMBA
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