Alumna’s gift doubles down on student support
A gift from alumna, trustee Susan Mucciarone will expand leadership development opportunities
Susan Mucciarone grew up just east of Cleveland in a family of restaurant entrepreneurs. That environment fostered a resourceful, can-do mindset and a belief in education as a pathway to opportunity. She became the first in her family to attend college, then earned her Master of Business Administration degree at Case Western Reserve University while working full time.
“My time at Weatherhead taught me how to think in even a sharper way. The group learning introduced me to broader strategy management, ethics and the foundational aspects of effective leadership,” said Mucciarone (MGT ’84). “It provided me with the qualifications and exposure to disciplines that would prove to be most useful as I progressed in my career.”
Mucciarone went on to develop new product lines and business initiatives in the financial industry, including having co-founded and led one of the industry’s first multi-client family office practices while at Wachovia, later Wells Fargo, and contributing to its national growth. Later, she joined The Glenmede Trust Co. as managing executive and a member of the management committee, leading efforts to expand and modernize its private client wealth management business.
Now retired, she is eager to expand access to education that can change lives, as it did hers. She serves as a trustee at Case Western Reserve and is expanding her investment in students who can become leaders—just like herself—with a $1 million gift to Weatherhead School of Management.
“The Weatherhead Leadership Institute feels like a nucleus for cross-pollination among the various colleges and disciplines ...”
— Susan Mucciarone
“Susan is committed to creating transformative opportunities for students that enable them to connect what they learn in the classroom with real-world experiences,” said CWRU President Eric W. Kaler. “Her generous support for both of these scholarships will prepare our students to become leaders who analyze and solve problems by thinking across disciplines.”
The new gift builds on Mucciarone’s $1 million commitment in 2020. Half of the new funding will fully endow the Susan P. Mucciarone Scholarship for Weatherhead School graduate students, while the remaining $500,000 will establish the Susan P. Mucciarone Undergraduate Scholarship for participants in the Celia Scott Weatherhead Leadership Institute.
“For me, it starts with a sense of responsibility and a gratitude for my education,” Mucciarone said. “The Weatherhead Leadership Institute feels like a nucleus for cross-pollination among the various colleges and disciplines, and it gives me great satisfaction to imagine how the students’ fully formed leadership ethos will manifest to benefit their clients, the organizations they serve and, possibly, the world in which we all live.”
