Inaugural MBA Alumni Weekend a huge success!
The Raymond A. Mason School of Business welcomed more than 300 MBA graduates and guests from across five decades for its first MBA Alumni Weekend held last month.
Following the success of the MBA 50th Anniversary event last summer, the Mason School of Business has redoubled efforts to engage and recognize alumni. “You are the inspiration for what I tell all of our students at orientation is our purpose as a business school,” said Business School Dean Larry Pulley, “and what I tell our graduating classes is their sole responsibility as W&M alumni, that is to live a life of principled achievement.”
All alumni of the Mason School’s MBA programs (Executive, Flex, Full-Time, and Online) were invited to Alan B. Miller Hall for a weekend of events. Attendees participated in faculty-led classroom sessions such as Professor Emeritus Roy Pearson’s strategic forecasting class and Professor David Long’s discussion of impression management. An executive panel on positive influencers in the C-Suite featured David Hunt MBA ’93, Kermit Buntrock MBA ’94, Kathrine Kimball MBA ’93 and Mark Miller MBA ’76.
The MBA classes of 1978, 1993, 1998 and 2013 celebrated milestone reunions and organized class giving campaigns resulting in four new scholarship endowments to benefit students in the MBA program.
These scholarships will allow the Mason School to competitively recruit and support top scholars and allow them to experience the MBA program with a lighter financial burden.
The weekend also celebrated the world-class faculty of the Business School such as Finance Professor Jim Haltiner, who retired from full-time teaching in May after 42 years. An office within Alan B. Miller Hall will permanently be named in Professor Haltiner’s honor, thanks to gifts made by dozens of friends and former students.
During the culminating event, the Green and Gold dinner, Dean Larry Pulley announced the establishment of the new Quittmeyer Society, recognizing MBA graduates of 40 or more years ago. The Society is named for the Mason School’s founding Dean Charles Quittmeyer, a William & Mary graduate, faculty member, and then business department chair. Dean Quittmeyer strengthened business education at the university in the 1960s and oversaw the creation and accreditation of the Business School.
In an oral history recording of that time, Dean Quittmeyer said, “The positive attainments of the School have been many but above all it has survived, gained recognition, and is positioned for what appears surely to be a fine future. Its solid undergraduate and graduate corps of students have ability and the academic and personal attributes for broad success; and growing alumni support for the School stretches into the future.”
Six members of Dean Quittmeyer’s family attended and led the pinning ceremony to induct the 40 honorees in attendance. Additionally, the MBA class of 1967 raised funds to commission a portrait of Dean Quittmeyer which will be completed later this year signaling the impact of Dean Quittmeyer’s work.
Awards for Outstanding Alumni Volunteer were conferred to Fred Simpkins ’69, MBA ’78 and Marcia Simpkins ’75, MED ’77, MBA ’78. Ed Tokar MBA ’71 and Dana Law MBA ’78 were each recognized for 37 years of giving to the Mason School while Judie Snipes MBA ’88 was lauded for 30 years of giving, a perfect record since graduating from the Executive MBA Program.
The next MBA Alumni Weekend is set for May 17-18, 2019.
