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Deans Fuller and O'Brien Honored at O'Brien Chair Dedication Ceremony

ALUMNI NEWS

For Jayne McMellen '64 Consistency Is a Virtue

Accountants are guardians of consistency. For accounting graduate Jayne McMellen '64, that applies to annual giving as well. For 23 consecutive years she has made substantial gifts to the Isenberg School's Annual Fund, often accompanied by matches from her employer, Massachusetts Financial Services Investment Management, and her former employers, State Street Bank, and Ernst & Young.

"I've often told my two children that education plays such an important role in our lives that you must give back to the extent that you can-even if it's a small amount," emphasizes McMellen.

The Isenberg alumna notes that she will always be grateful to UMass for its affordable education. "But I'm just as grateful for the opportunity that it gave me as a woman," she continues. "When I was at UMass in the early 1960s, there were few women in the business school and even fewer opportunities for women in the accounting profession. Fortunately, many of the largest public accounting firms recruited at UMass.
In my senior year, Arthur Young hired me as the first female accountant  in its Boston office. In fact, I was the first female accountant hired by a Big Eight firm in Boston."

At Arthur Young and its successor, Ernst & Young, McMellen moved from auditing to tax, developing a practice that included individuals, small businesses, and eventually mutual funds. In 1996, she joined State Street Bank, where she founded a back room tax service for mutual funds that became the largest tax department its kind in the world. In 2003, she joined her present employer to start and run a similar operation. "Throughout my career, I've always given credit to my education at UMass," observes McMellen. For me, giving back-like the seasons and taxes-has become part of the order of things."

"The Isenberg School Prepared Me Professionally; It Prepared me for Life," Notes Thomas Ackerman '76

"I wanted to give back and I wanted my gift to have an immediate, meaningful impact," notes Isenberg School accounting graduate Tom Ackerman '76.  "The Campaign for Isenberg Leadership was the ideal opportunity for me to support my alma mater."  Ackerman is Corporate Executive Vice president and CFO of Charles River Laboratories in Wilmington, a leading provider of outsourced drug development services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

The Campaign's goals are two-fold: It has created the Dean Thomas O'Brien Chair, whose first occupant is the Isenberg School's s new dean, Mark Fuller. It is also establishing a fund that will allow him to pursue strategic initiatives more effectively. "Those resources will give the new dean greater latitude and flexibility to address the Isenberg School's immediate needs," remarks Ackerman.

For the Isenberg School, Ackerman's generosity will go an even longer way:  Charles River Labs has fully matched his substantial gift. "My employer doesn't match gifts automatically, but Charles River Labs does take philanthropy seriously," observes Ackerman. "When our chairman, Jim Foster, learned about my gift, he knew how much the Isenberg School means to me and how important public higher education is to the citizens of this state," underscores Ackerman, who is also a director on the UMass Amherst Foundation.

"The Isenberg School and UMass prepared me professionally; it prepared me for life," Ackerman continues. "I'm grateful to Jim and to Charles River Labs for recognizing the importance of UMass in my life and in the lives of thousands of its students and graduates."