Publisher, Economist Speak at YSU Commencement
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Andrea Wood, chair and president of the Youngstown Publishing Co. and publisher/editor of The Business Journal, and Joseph G. Carson, director of Global Economic Research at AllianceBernstein, receive honorary degrees at Youngstown State University’s Spring Commencement Saturday, May 7, in Beeghly Center on campus.
Wood will be the featured speaker at the morning ceremony that starts at 9:30 a.m., while Carson speaks at the afternoon ceremony starting at 2:30 p.m.
A resident of Poland, Wood became the first newswoman at WYTV Channel 33 in Youngstown in 1974. She went on to work as a news anchor, producer and reporter at WSBT-TV in South Bend, Ind., and WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh. In 1979, she returned to WYTV as an investigative reporter and subsequently was promoted to chief anchor and executive producer.
In 1984, Wood launched a venture to promote small business and economic redevelopment in the Mahoning Valley with the publication of the Youngstown Business Journal. The newspaper became a bi-monthly publication in 1986 and the name was changed to the Youngstown/Warren Business Journal. Later, a Columbiana County edition was established. In 1992, the newspapers were combined to form The Business Journal, covering a five-county region of northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
In 1996, the newspaper began publishing daily updates online. In 2009, as The Business Journal celebrated its 25th anniversary, Wood expanded BusinessJournalDaily.com with a webcast called the Daily BUZZ. In 2015, the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. named The Business Journal and Wood its business and businessperson of the year.
Wood is a graduate of Penn State University. She has served on numerous boards, including the Citizens League of Greater Youngstown, League of Women Voters, Crime Stoppers of Greater Youngstown and the Workforce Investment Board of Mahoning and Columbiana Counties. Today she is secretary of the YMCA of Youngstown board of trustees and a mentor in the Youngstown Business Incubator’s Women in Entrepreneurship program.
Carson, who lives in New York, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from YSU. He received his bachelor and masters degress from Youngstown State University and did his doctoral coursework at George Washington University. He lives in New York.
He joined AllianceBernstein, a leading global investment-management and research firm, in 2001. He oversees the Economic Analysis team for AllianceBernstein Fixed Income and has primary responsibility for the economic and interest-rate analysis of the United State.
Previously, Carson was chief economist of the Americas for UBS Warburg, where he was primarily responsible for forecasting the U.S. economy and interest rates. From 1996 to 1999, he was chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. While there, Carson was named to the Institutional Investor All-Star Team for Fixed Income and ranked as one of Best Analysts and Economists by The Global Investor Fixed Income Survey.
He began his professional career in 1977 as a staff economist for the chief economist’s office in the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he was designated the department’s representative at the Council on Wage and Price Stability during President Carter’s voluntary wage and price guidelines program. In 1979, Carson joined General Motors as an analyst. He held a variety of roles at GM, including chief forecaster for North America and chief analyst in charge of production recommendations for the Truck Group.
From 1981 to 1986, Carson served as vice president and senior economist for the Capital Markets Economics Group at Merrill Lynch. In 1986, he joined Chemical Bank; he later became its chief economist. From 1992 to 1996, Carson served as chief economist at Dean Witter, where he sat on the investment-policy and stock-selection committees.
Pictured: Andrea Wood, publisher of The Business Journal.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
