Prosperity and Partnerships

Partnerships expand and enhance prosperity. Collaborations combine and leverage each partner’s unique knowledge and talent to create synergy. The benefits do not stop there. These efforts can have an impact that influences the success of other organizations outside the partnership – that expansion of knowledge and talent is prosperity.

That is the case for the long-standing partnership between Deloitte and Mays. Originally a recruiting effort designed to bring Aggies to the Big 4 company, the partners’ combined efforts have created a deep, rich, and expansive collaboration that influences both organizations as well as some other businesses and universities.

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Corporate & Foundations
Organizations recruit, hire, and give back in meaningful ways to Mays including these partners who stewarded their resources in support of Mays in 2020.

See the 2020 Corporate & Foundations Giving

Adding Value

In building this partnership over the years, Deloitte’s leaders have remained focused on several pillars. “These pillars are meant to create an environment of connectivity that allows us to foster a stronger relationship with the university, engage our alumni in our university—whether financially or through classroom presence or activities—and expand our network in the marketplace,” said Robert Penshorn, ’89, Deloitte’s lead university partner to Texas A&M. “We also want to enhance our brand and our eminence on campus so we can attract the top talent. We think of Texas A&M as a client, so we make sure that the level of service that they are getting is consistent with those of our best clients.”

Deloitte’s leaders appreciate the reciprocal nature of the relationship and the importance of their participation, which includes bringing Deloitte experts into Mays’ classrooms and engaging company leaders on the school’s various advisory boards. “We want to make an impact at Texas A&M. Our partners and our team—including a lot of non-Aggies who love Texas A&M along with many employees who are Former Students—want to see Texas A&M, Mays, the students, faculty, and administration be successful,” said Brian Pinto ’93, Deloitte’s advisory university partner focused on Texas A&M. “The more successful Texas A&M is, the more successful we will be at Deloitte. Texas A&M is one of our biggest sources of talent in the nation. Anything we can do to influence the success of that contingent is something we want to work hard to do – one contribution to advancing the world’s prosperity.”

The depth of this collaboration also has an impact across the industry. “The programs and classroom activities that Deloitte collaborates on with Mays provide students with real world experiences and better prepares them for the job market,” said Penshorn. “These students become either part of our organization or part of our clients’ organization. That connective tissue, because of the uniqueness of Texas A&M, transcends beyond the experience in College Station. It is a lifelong experience and lifelong connection that is beneficial across the board.”

Fostering a Corporate Aggie Community

Currently, Deloitte employs approximately 881 Aggies. The company hires roughly 200 Texas A&M graduates each year and its roster of employees averages between 650-700 Aggies — and climbed to 850 in 2020.

Deloitte wants to connect Former Students to each other—and to leverage those connections back to Texas A&M. These relationships recreate the sense of community that Former Students felt at Texas A&M and galvanizes them to maintain their commitment to extending the Aggie core values into the workplace. To that end, Deloitte created its A&M Club in 2019. “We were the second organization behind Exxon Mobil to have that type of club,” Pinto said. “It’s another avenue for Deloitte Aggie Former Students to connect and support the university. These individuals can celebrate being at Deloitte as well as the common bond they have as Aggies.”

This club provides a strong connection to the Texas A&M Foundation and the Association of Former Students, two of the university’s major fundraising organizations. The company provides 1-to-1 matching of employees’ gifts of up to $25,000, significantly increasing the impact of each Former Student’s investment in their alma mater.

Supporting Diversity and Inclusion

Another example of Deloitte’s commitment to creating a quality partnership is its efforts to support Mays Office of Diversity and Inclusion through scholarships and advanced technology. “Diversity is an area that not only has an impact on Mays, but also a greater impact on the university and its attraction to a broader group of students we want to see on campus,” Pinto said. “We know that’s something that only makes Texas A&M better.”

Taking Partnerships to the Next Level

Mays’ partnership with Deloitte deepens each year and now includes faculty development, curriculum support, and enhanced student experiences. This collaboration also expanded to provide support to administrators and to help set strategy as Mays moves forward.

Deloitte’s commitment to supporting incoming Mays leadership began after Dr. Eli Jones ’82 became Mays’ dean in the summer of 2015. “It has been a natural transition as we engaged more because the partnership was valuable to us – and the university,” Penshorn said. “We invited Eli to take part in a transition lab at Deloitte University that allows senior executives to reflect on the role that they are going into, set their priorities, and understand the stakeholders and the supporters.”

This transition lab gave Jones the opportunity to engage Mays’ leadership team in developing the school’s 2017-2021 strategic plan—and Deloitte stepped up in new and innovative ways to help with Mays’ new chapter. “That took the partnership to a whole new level – engaging the intellectual resources of the firm, not just financial,” Penshorn said. “We used the resources of our lab program, classroom activity, Deloitte University, and Deloitte Press to support Mays’ new chapter.”

Being able to help facilitate the Strategy Lab experience and go along on that journey with Mays’ leadership created a natural output that engaged a group of individuals from Deloitte who love Texas A&M.

– Brian Pinto ’93
Deloitte’s Advisory University Partner Focused on Texas A&M

This effort galvanized not only the Mays leadership team, but also Deloitte’s employees. “Getting to assist building the strategy and vision for Mays was important,” Pinto said. “Being able to help facilitate the Strategy Lab experience and go along on that journey with Mays’ leadership created a natural output that engaged a group of individuals from Deloitte who love Texas A&M. It became a call to action on our part to rally around our university, the faculty, and administration that we call colleagues and friends.”

That experience sparked and, in some cases, deepened the support of Deloitte as a whole, as well as its employees. The beneficiaries included support for the building campaign of the Mays Business Education Complex, the underwriting of the Mays Innovation Research Center, and the opportunity to engage Deloitte Digital team’s work on campus.

Replicating the Prosperity of Partnerships

Because of its partnership with Mays, Deloitte is considering forming and deepening partnerships with other Texas A&M entities in relation to the company’s growing interest in STEM education. “We’re taking all that effort and energy that we put into Mays and trying to find ways to replicate that in other parts of A&M,” Pinto said. “We hire from the College of Engineering and started branching out to other A&M programs because we’re hiring more STEM and other types of skillsets that are important to Deloitte’s success.”

Additionally, Deloitte showcases its partnership to other universities to show what is possible. A prime example is Mays’ Professional Program in Accounting (PPA), which the company has supported over the years.

Deloitte is expanding its efforts to create meaningful partnerships by inviting top business schools to participate in a Dean’s Summit. Mays has had a prominent place at the table and Jones, while serving as dean, was part of the advisory committee that planned the meeting. Deloitte is also replicating this effort with deans who oversee STEM-related colleges, highlighting how partnerships expand prosperity beyond natural boundaries.

Moving Forward

Mays’ partnership with Deloitte continues to have a bright future. “We are excited to remain involved with the journey through which Texas A&M and Mays will become a recognized top choice for larger numbers of students and faculty,” says Penshorn. Mays’ leaders are also looking forward to seeing how this partnership will continue to evolve to support future generations of Aggies. “It is hard to overstate the value and importance of our partnership with Deloitte,” said Dr. Nate Sharp, head of the James Benjamin Department of Accounting. “They are with us every step of the way, bringing firm leaders into our classrooms, helping us define the strategic path forward for our programs, providing internships and full-time opportunities for our students, and contributing financial resources to support our department’s highest priorities. We look forward to a bright future of partnering with Deloitte to advance the world’s prosperity.”

What type of partnership would interest you?
Call the Mays Development team today.