2024 Hall of Fame Gala

Neil Koenig BS ’72 will be receiving this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Neil is the President of EA RESIG. Today, EA RESIG is the largest real estate private equity fund administrator in the country. Prior to joining Eisner Amper in 2019, Neil was a founding Co-Partner of the accounting firm Imowitz Koenig & Co., LLP (IK), and their real estate fund advisory firm Real Estate Systems Implementation Group LLC (RESIG). He is a certified public accountant, graduated from FDU with his bachelor’s degree in Accounting, and received his MBA in Finance from Fordham.

Neil has extensive experience in the area of real estate finance and has acted in various capacities for numerous transactions, in both internal and external positions. He currently advises clients with portfolio values exceeding $18 billion.

In 2013, Neil formed TLK Associates, LLC with his son Matthew (an FDU graduate) as a family office and is currently developing 18 homes in Boonton, NJ and a 4 story retail/residential property in Chatham, NJ.

Neil and his wife Nancy currently split time between Boca Raton, FL and New York City. Their son Matthew, his wife Anne and their children reside in Towaco, NJ, and son Jonathan resides in Los Angeles, CA with his wife Dani and their children. Jonathan has recently been appointed Director of Sports Medicine at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Pasadena, CA and maintains a private orthopedic practice in Brentwood, CA.

Neil is also extremely proud of being a member of the FDU Pinnacle Society and the Athletic Hall of Fame. As a member of the FDU Lacrosse Team, Neil achieved All-American honors from The Inter-Collegiate Lacrosse Association in 1971 and 1972.

Tom Evans, a pioneering leader in organizational learning and talent development, is best known for his ground-breaking work at PwC. Throughout his 38-year career with the firm, Tom served as an invaluable strategic partner including growing PwC’s top leadership.  As a member of the firm’s Extended Leadership Team, Tom is keenly aware of the need to achieve goals and drive strategy execution. Under his leadership, Tom and his team introduced innovative learning methods to build organizational capacity against business priorities. His inclusive and immersive approach to strategy and learning embodies Tom’s “whole leadership” philosophy which emboldens people to acquire the right blend of technical capabilities, business acumen, and relationship skills to drive meaningful results at both the individual and organizational level.

In his tenure with PwC, Tom positioned talent development as an integral driver in executing PwC’s business and human capital strategies. His relentless attention to business strategy, technology, and talent bringing meaningful business impact has generated extraordinary results at PwC and received industry acclaim.  His team received the No. 1 spot in Training Magazine’s Top 125 from 2008 to 2010 before being inducted into the Top 10 Hall of Fame in 2011. In addition to being a repeat Brandon Hall recipient for excellence in learning, the team recently received one of The Hall of Fame’s most prestigious awards for PwC’s Discover leadership experience program.

Shweta Ghuge is a distinguished CEO celebrated for her unwavering commitment to diversity and inclusion. With an impressive academic background that includes three master’s degrees—one from Fairleigh Dickinson University—and dual bachelor’s degrees in Arts and Computer Engineering, Shweta exemplifies the fusion of technical prowess and creative vision.

Arkady Smolyansky is a Senior Vice President in the New York City office of CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate firm. As a tenant representative broker, Arkady advises a variety of local, national, and international firms on evaluating and implementing strategic real estate plans. Arkady bases his practice on cultivating exclusive, long-term relationships with clients, an approach that has enabled him to structure a wide range of complex leasing transactions totaling nearly 7,000,000 square feet on behalf of tenants and landlords.

Arkady is a proud graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he was a four-year member of the Men’s Varsity Tennis team and founded the Finance Club, serving as President for several years. Arkady most recently founded and launched an annual scholarship fund at the University where he was also recognized as the top 50 Under 50 alumni leaders in business in 2015, serves as an advisor on the Silberman Business School Board and was a recipient of the highest alumni award, The Elia G. Stratis CASTLE Award in 2019. He emigrated from the former Soviet Union to the U.S. in 1989, previously lived in Italy and Austria, and frequently travels internationally. He, his wife, Paulina and newborn daughter, Ariana Mila currently live in Upper Saddle River, NJ.