GCSF also supports the Department of Communication Design (COMD) at New York City College of Technology, which uses GCSF funding to invest in new equipment and resources for its study programs. These include the only Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in communication design offered by any CUNY school. George Garrastegui, Jr., the department’s incoming chair, accepted the 2024 grant.
GCSF Vice President Diane Romano introduced McMahon, the Champion of Education Award honoree, as “a driving force in this industry” and an innovator who has helped to bring about its digital transformation. She said McMahon’s career “represents everything we want our students to strive to be.”
McMahon recalled that the start of his career was anything but auspicious. He said that despite his best efforts as a young copier salesman in Los Angeles, he closed no orders in his first few months on the job. His sales manager reassured him daily that if he kept at it, he would succeed, and by the ninth month, he did. This would not have happened, McMahon said, without the steadfast support and encouragement he received from his boss.
The takeaway, he continued, is that people make other people’s careers. “Cherish your relationships,” he said. When friends are needed at crucial moments, “they just appear for you.”
