Award-winning grad Thomas Francescutti always had his sights set on Brock and the Goodman School of Business. Though he received two dozen other awards and scholarships during his time at Brock University, winning the President’s Surgite Award was the icing on the cake for Goodman School of Business graduate Thomas Francescutti (BBA ’16).
Francescutti, who graduated this year with an average of more than 90 per cent, was one of only 10 recipients of the prestigious award that recognizes a student’s leadership and impact on Brock’s academic reputation and student life.
As a St. Catharines native he grew up being well aware of Brock, and was already looking forward to attending Goodman by the time he was in high school. When he was accepted into Brock, Francescutti received substantial financial incentives to help him get started in Goodman’s Business Administration program.
“I wanted to go to a school that I would be proud to have on my resume and that would allow me to have confidence going into interviews,” he said recently.
The all-round high achiever thinks his secret to success was a personal leadership philosophy of acting in both a bold and sustainable fashion. He was also not afraid to try different things, and during his Brock years Francescutti was involved with the Brock Marketing Association at Goodman, the Goodman Student Ambassador Association and the Brock Finance and Investment Group at Goodman. he also volunteered as a senior mentor for the co-op programs office. A highlight came when he was selected to represent Goodman at the Beta Gamma Sigma Global Leadership Summit in Orlando.
“My philosophy helped me develop my leadership skills and it allowed me to become more innovative and creative, essentially leading to my full-time position before I was even done school,” he said.
Francescutti worked at Mondelez International for nearly two years before moving to his current role at PepsiCo Canada.
“One of the reasons I chose Brock was that it seemed like the University was willing to help those few top individuals progress, and I thought, ‘If they are willing to do this for me now and they don’t even know me, what are they going to do for me when they know what I can do, and I’ve been able to prove myself to them?’ “
