Local headline for a Class of 2013 entrepreneur

Areas of Study , Entrepreneurship , Entrepreneurship Society Students | Aug 27, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo

When Andrew Kingsley (GSB ’13) graduated in May, some of his entrepreneurship professors predicted he’d make headlines one day.

It didn’t take long for that day to come.

Andrew’s business, The Concourse Fund — one of the first four ventures selected for membership in the Fordham Foundry, the university’s small-business incubator on Fordham Road — garnered press this summer in an article on DNAInfo.com, a web site that carries news from across New York City’s neighborhoods.

The article details how Concourse is helping a credit union based in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant to come into the digital age after 50 years of operating … well, how it might have operated 50 years ago. Roy Henry, a local resident and head of the Good Counsel Federal Credit Union, had always handled his 187 members’ transactions the old-school way: with slips of paper and passbooks. But with credit unions around the United States in danger of shuttering if they don’t keep up with the times, a move to computerized systems could be a key move in allowing Good Counsel to remain open and keep serving Bed-Stuy’s low-income population.

The Concourse Fund’s mission is to help small financial institutions like Mr. Henry’s to thrive by providing knowledge, skills and resources. The idea is to foster banking accessibility in neighborhoods where the major players — the Citibanks, the Chases, the Bank of Americas — don’t tend to set up shop.

As Concourse’s co-founder and CEO, Andrew is on the leading edge of socially conscious business, right in line with the values of a Gabelli School education. His supporters at Fordham, especially Professor Christine Janssen, head of the entrepreneurship program, are thrilled to see him getting attention for his work.