Humble Beginnings and a Close Family are Bedrocks for St. John’s Alumnus

As they grew up, Mr. Portegello and his older brother Robert worked at Robert’s Print Shop, named for their grandfather and father, Robert Portegello, every day after school and on Saturdays. Their mother, Grace Portegello, continued operating the shop after the passing of his father, serving local churches, synagogues, and small businesses’ printing needs, well into her eighties.

“We were a close-knit, Italian family and very much wanted to continue operating the print shop,” he explained. “But our parents’ dream for us was to go to college and become professionals.”

Mr. Portegello earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the College of Business Administration, now known as The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, while his brother, Robert S. Portegello, became an attorney.

Still harboring a desire to devote his professional life to the print shop, Mr. Portegello decided to major in accounting “to convince my parents to let me enter the family business.” 

Instead, Mr. Portegello, who lives in Holmdel, NJ, built a 37-year career as a global business executive and financial expert until his retirement in 2023. He developed an extensive accounting, finance, and capital market transactions background. As a business leader and senior partner with Ernst & Young, a $50-billion professional services firm operating in 150 countries, he catalyzed the success of companies spanning emerging, high-growth start-ups to global, multi-billion-dollar organizations across a variety of sectors including technology, retail, e- commerce, and biotech/life sciences.

His job at Ernst & Young allowed Mr. Portegello the chance to accept opportunities that enabled him and his family to reside in California and the Netherlands for over ten years before returning back to the New York area. Mr. Portegello’s wife, Roberta, gave birth to twin sons, Robert and Michael, during the family’s time in California, and the children were less than a year old when they relocated to the Netherlands. 

“In addition to amazing work opportunities, we became so close as a family during this period away, while meeting many new lifelong friends and expanding our life experiences in new cultures” he said.

At St. John’s, he found his niche and a wide circle of friends when he joined the St. John’s University Pep Band as a saxophone player. From the soccer field to courtside at Madison Square Garden, the pep band is an integral part of the St. John’s game day experience. 

“I was in the pep band for all four years at St. John’s, and those were exciting,” he said. “Just having that front-row seat at games during an amazing time in college basketball history during the 1980s was fantastic.”

Today, after Ernst & Young, Mr. Portegello continues his entrepreneurial roots by investing and advising high growth start-up companies in cutting-edge sectors such as artificial technology (AI) and health technology. He also serves as Board Chair of a not-for-profit focused on teaching entrepreneurship in underserved high schools to empower students with the life skills to graduate and move on to college, vocational schools, or other exciting careers paths. 

“St. John’s helped me figure out my future,” he added. “It helped me to shape the transition from being in a very close and loving world in Brooklyn to a place that was also loving, while offering very transformative opportunities. Looking back, I have exceeded my life’s dreams while still maintaining my values firmly instilled in me by my parents and St. John’s.”