5 UConn Faculty of Enterprise alumni, who’ve excelled in fields as numerous as school basketball, power-tool manufacturing, and complicated monetary companies, will likely be inducted into the Faculty of Enterprise Corridor of Fame this spring.
The Corridor of Fame, the Faculty’s signature occasion, will start at 6 p.m. April 26 on the Hartford Marriott Downtown. Tickets are $175 every. The formal occasion is black-tie non-obligatory. For added data or reservations, please go to alumni.business.uconn.edu.
Dean John A. Elliott says this 12 months’s inductees aren’t solely spectacular of their skilled accomplishments but in addition significantly engaged with the Faculty of Enterprise.
“These excellent alumni exemplify our historical past, exhausting work, and traditions. They’ve excelled in an array of industries and actions,’’ he says. “Their accomplishments remind us of the good basis our enterprise college offers for numerous endeavors.’’
The inductees are:
Antonietta ‘Toni’ Boucher ’02 MBA is a former Fortune 500-company govt, the co-founder of a number of startups, a frontrunner who devoted 22 years of service within the state legislature, and an avid philanthropist. Immediately, Boucher is the primary selectman in Wilton and is presently writing 4 books.
Boucher earned an MBA in worldwide advertising and marketing from UConn in 2002. She is the previous director of Commonfund, one of many nation’s main non-profit asset administration firms. She has additionally held govt positions with Fortune 500 firms, spearheading new enterprise growth, managing billion-dollar budgets, and main groups with tons of of workers. She has additionally co-founded a number of startups.
Boucher devoted 22 years of service within the Connecticut Normal Meeting, together with 10 years because the Chief Deputy Chief within the Connecticut State Senate. Her experience included tax coverage, finance, transportation, and training.
A passionate philanthropist, Boucher’s $8 million naming reward to the UConn Faculty of Enterprise created the Boucher Administration & Entrepreneurship Division. The reward is a tribute to her late husband Henry “Bud” Boucher, and displays the couple’s ardour for entrepreneurship, alternative, and funding within the state’s financial progress. The Bouchers have additionally supported pupil scholarships and school fellowships at UConn.
Along with her curiosity in enterprise, authorities, and training, Boucher is a powerful supporter of analysis, know-how, bioscience, and conservation. She serves on the board of quite a few organizations in southwest Connecticut.
Jamelle Elliott ’96 (BUS), ’97 MS (EDU) is an assistant coach for the UConn Girls’s Basketball staff and helped lead the Huskies to 5 nationwide championships.
A standout athlete throughout her pupil years (1992-96), Elliott helped construct the UConn basketball dynasty. As a junior, she was an integral a part of an undefeated Huskies staff that gained the 1995 NCAA Nationwide Championship over the Tennessee Girl Vols. She grew to become solely the second participant at school historical past to move the 1,000-point and 1,000-rebound milestones. Elliott by no means missed a recreation or a follow throughout her four-year school basketball profession.
Head coach Geno Auriemma has stated of his former participant: “I’ve coached a number of brilliant gamers, however Jamelle is the neatest and the hardest.’’ At lower than 6-feet tall, Elliott thought of herself “undersized’’ as a basketball participant however made up for it with energy, willpower, and a aggressive spirit.
Elliott is a two-time Husky, incomes a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration in 1996 and a grasp’s diploma in sports activities administration in 1997. She grew to become an assistant coach at UConn for 12 seasons (1998 to 2009), taking part in an instrumental position within the 2000, 2002-2004 and 2009 staff championships.
She then grew to become head coach on the College of Cincinnati, main the Bearcats ladies’s basketball staff, from 2009 to 2018, and guiding the staff to the WNIT playoffs. Beneath her supervision, each student-athlete who accomplished their eligibility throughout her tenure earned her diploma.
As well as, Elliott had the chance to serve on Coach Auriemma’s workers for the gold medal-winning USA ladies’s basketball staff within the 2016 Olympic Video games.
Elliott returned to UConn in 2018 as affiliate athletic director for The Nationwide C Membership – which helps UConn student-athletes to search out mentoring, internships and jobs by a community of alumni UConn athletes. She returned to teaching in 2020. “I’ve lived a life that different folks dream about,’’ she has stated.
Mary Jane Fortin ’86 (BUS) is an skilled enterprise chief, holding govt management roles with a number of the largest and most advanced monetary companies firms within the business.
Fortin was the President and Chief Business Officer of Thrivent, a Fortune 500 monetary companies firm, the place she was chargeable for rising the group’s insurance coverage and wealth-management companies.
Previous to becoming a member of Thrivent, Fortin was president of Allstate’s monetary companies and led the corporate’s life, annuity, and advantages companies, producing $6 billion of income. She served as a member of Allstate’s Working Committee and through her tenure led $2 billion of strategic acquisitions for the corporate. From 2006 to 2015, she held management positions at AIG, and performed a major position within the firm’s restructuring efforts.
Fortin, who studied accounting, graduated magna cum laude from the Faculty of Enterprise in 1986, with a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise. She earned an MBA from the Wharton Faculty on the College of Pennsylvania, and is a licensed public accountant.
Fortin is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Cupboard at UConn Faculty of Enterprise. She has been lively in monetary business associations, together with serving as vice chair of LL World Inc. and on the board of the American Council of Life Insurers.
She has been a trustee of the United Approach of Metro Chicago and of Better Houston and has served on the board of SEARCH, a Houston-based group targeted on ending homelessness.
Lee B. McChesney ’94 (BUS) is the senior vice chairman and CFO of MSA Security, a world chief within the growth, manufacture, and provide of security merchandise for folks and amenities. MSA Security merchandise combine a mixture of electronics, mechanical methods, and superior supplies to guard in opposition to hazardous or life-threatening conditions, most frequently within the oil, gasoline and petrochemical, fireplace service, development and mining industries, and within the army.
McChesney held senior finance and enterprise management positions at United Applied sciences and at Stanley Black & Decker. At Stanley Black & Decker, he was the CFO of the Safety and Instruments enterprise models, which included DeWalt, Stanley, Craftsman and Black & Decker manufacturers. He additionally performed a key position within the merger of The Stanley Works and Black & Decker, and the acquisition of each the Craftsman and Newell device companies.
McChesney graduated magna cum laude from the Faculty of Enterprise in 1994, with a significant in finance. He was the recipient of the Faculty’s Finance Excellent Efficiency Award. He later earned an MBA from the College of Massachusetts.
He serves on the Faculty of Enterprise Dean’s Advisory Cupboard and on the board of Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. Within the office, he has been a long-time advocate for underrepresented workers.
Randy Siller ’79 (BUS) is a co-founder and managing accomplice of Siller & Cohen Household Wealth Advisors, a nationally acknowledged agency that manages over $1 billion in investments and one other $1 billion in life insurance coverage.
Siller earned his bachelor’s diploma, with a significant in accounting and minor in finance, from UConn in 1979, graduating with distinction. He continued his training, incomes a grasp’s diploma in taxation from Tempo College and finishing a monetary management program at Harvard College. He’s a CPA and Licensed Funding Administration Analyst.
Siller started his profession with Coopers & Lybrand and Touche Ross, earlier than turning into a tax planning director at CIGNA Particular person Monetary Companies. There he met Jeff Cohen, who would develop into his decades-long enterprise accomplice.
Siller additionally served as Senior Vice President of Lincoln Monetary Advisers, operating the metro New York and New Jersey area. Beneath his management, the regional group grew in income and profitability from the center of the pack to the highest regional workplace in solely three years.
Siller is a member of the UConn Faculty of Enterprise’ Dean’s Advisory Cupboard. He additionally serves on the Hightower Advisors Government Management Committee. He was the latest chair of the NYS Society of CPA’s Property Planning Committee and has been featured in a best-selling monetary recommendation e book. Siller has additionally served on the board of the Neighborhood Well being Care Community for greater than 10 years. He has created a full scholarship within the Neag Faculty of Schooling, in honor of his father, Bernard, who was an educator.
