RSM Gift Energizes Isenberg Building Expansion and Scholarship Support

A $250,000 gift from the accounting and consulting firm RSM US and its RSM Foundation will support Isenberg’s new Business Innovation Hub and will create an endowed RSM Student Scholarship. $150,000 of the gift will fund the RSM-named, principal student waiting area in the Chase Career Center, which will be part of the $62 million Business Innovation Hub slated to open in January of 2019. The gift’s remaining $100,000 will endow the RSM Student Scholarship, previously earmarked annually for an accounting student. The new endowed arrangement will increase the annual payout from $2,500 to $4,000, covering one or two students. RSM is the nation’s leader in audit, tax, and consulting services to middle market clients.

Contributions from UMass alumni at RSM, including partners, principals, and employees, as well as the RSM US Foundation, propelled the gift, emphasizes Joel Shamon, a national audit leader for the firm and a 1987 Isenberg accounting grad. “UMass was a logical choice for this partnership,” he notes, “given RSM’s long-standing relationship with the school, and the number of UMass and Isenberg graduates whom we hire.”

Shamon, five other partners—Dan Gaffey ’97, Ryan Hurley ’01, Paul Kiley ’88, Robert McDonald ’93, Nicki Wunder ’03—and Director John Micalizzi ’94 made lead gifts to the initiative. More than 30 Isenberg alumni have made five-year commitments totaling $125,000. The RSM Foundation’s own contribution matches that total.  

"We’re delighted to have RSM as a corporate partner."“RSM’s financial support and investment in our enduring relationship is a strong endorsement of the quality of our programs and our students,” emphasizes Isenberg Dean Mark Fuller. “We’re delighted to have RSM as a corporate partner, and look forward to an expanding, deepening relationship with the firm in the years ahead.”

RSM presented the gift to Dean Fuller at the school’s annual Business Leadership Awards on June 15 at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston.