UNE College of Business announces inaugural Executive Advisory Board of industry leaders
The University of New England College of Business has established its first Executive Advisory Board (EAB), a hand-picked group of senior industry leaders who will play a pivotal role in guiding the college’s continued growth and in preparing UNE students for professional success.
The new board, comprised of executives with decades of experience across many industries, including finance, entrepreneurship, supply chain management, marketing, tax and law, education, and technology, will serve as the college’s sole advisory body.
Board members will help position students for lifelong career success by providing counsel on the college’s strategic direction, shaping workforce-ready academic programs, supporting recruitment of high-quality students to New England, and fostering professional networks to create new pathways for internships, job placements, and industry partnerships for students and faculty.
Members, all with roots in New England, represent some of the industry’s top talent and include among them UNE alumni and trustees.
EAB Chair Andy Brenner, MBA, CPA, said the group’s leadership will assist in building a workforce of UNE graduates who are ready — from the first day of classes until they cross the graduation stage — to take charge in and improve the economic well-being of communities in Maine and the New England region.
“I think this group will help give ideas and keep the University of New England’s business college in touch with what jobs are out there and how to place students,” said Brenner, who is vice chairman of National Alliance Securities and brings to UNE over 25 years of fixed-income trading experience on Wall Street.
EAB members may also assist in philanthropic efforts to further strengthen the student experience in collaboration with UNE’s Office of Institutional Advancement.
Launched in 2023, the UNE College of Business offers a portfolio of innovative, market-aligned undergraduate programs — including finance, marketing, accounting, sport leadership and management, outdoor business and innovation, and marine entrepreneurship — alongside a new, flexible online Master of Business Administration program with three concentrations in health care administration, sport leadership and management, and supply chain management.
Recent college initiatives include student research partnerships with the Maine Mariners and Atlantic Hospitality, a speaker series to engage students in networking opportunities with leading industry professionals, and the launch of both the Center for Sport and Business Innovation and Center for Sales Excellence in 2024.
The College of Business was also recently accepted into the Babson Collaborative for Entrepreneurship Education — a global network for the advancement of entrepreneurship teaching and practice — underscoring UNE’s role in leveraging innovation as a tool for economic development, workforce growth, and student success.
The EAB will serve as both a strategic partner and a powerful advocate for its students — helping UNE bridge academic and professional worlds and ensuring graduates emerge as leaders ready to drive innovation and success across Maine, New England, and beyond, said Norm O’Reilly, Ph.D., dean of UNE’s College of Business.
O’Reilly noted the EAB is designed to complement UNE’s career preparedness efforts by embedding real-world expertise directly into the college’s operations and student experience.
“UNE has always been committed to making sure our students leave ready to launch their professional lives,” O’Reilly said. “With this Executive Advisory Board, we’re strengthening that mission by ensuring our programs are shaped in collaboration with the very leaders who are hiring and mentoring the next generation of business professionals.”
EAB members share a commitment to UNE’s growth and to Maine’s economic vitality.
“When Dean O’Reilly approached me to join the board, I was honored to continue serving the University,” said Gregory Paulhus, ’79, president of Paulhus Brothers Inc., who holds a dual bachelor’s degree in business administration and psychology from UNE.
David Harold Jackson, Ph.D., said he was honored to join the board as a lifelong and fourth-generation member of the nearby Ocean Park (Old Orchard Beach) community, saying he is “deeply committed to our ‘neighborhood’ in coastal Maine.”
“I am inspired by Norm’s vision of an innovative business school and enormously excited to meet and work with board colleagues,” Jackson said, while Karen Osterheld, Ph.D., senior director of the American Accounting Association, said she sees her membership on the board as “an opportunity to share what I have learned with a community I have been a part of for most of my career.”