Raleigh Ernst & Young Office Backs Wolfpack Spirit with Support of Accounting Programs

by Anna Rzewnicki

Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008

The new Ernst & Young offices in Raleigh's ParkLake area feature some of the latest ideas in work space for a mobile workforce, including white noise that controls conversation drift in the open office environment.

A tour of the facility also shows how much the Raleigh firm values its collegiate connections: They’ve installed wall-size sports-themed graphics in meeting rooms named for the Triangle-area alma maters of the firm’s accountants. The Wolfpack Room is a popular meeting space for the firm’s accountants who graduated from the NC State College of Management’s undergraduate and master’s accounting programs, said Mike Constantino, partner in the Ernst and Young Raleigh Office.

In early December, Constantino hosted a reception for Ira R. Weiss, dean of the College of Management; Frank Buckless, accounting department head, and other members of the accounting department and the college’s development and external relations staff. During a tour of the facility, he stopped at the Wolfpack Room to show his guests the NC State sports graphic. Constantino is at the left in the photo above, with Weiss; Mark Baxter, NC State MAC alumnus [‘98]; and Buckless.

The visual display reflects the strong ties between this E&Y office and NC State, and particularly the MAC program.

“Ernst and Young has a long relationship with NC State, going back to the ’70s,” Constantino said. When the accounting program was formalized at NC State, the firm’s office managing partner, who came to Raleigh from Baltimore, said “We need to know people at NC State,” Constantino told those gathered. Ron Scheeler reached out to Carl Messere, then head of the Department of Accounting which was part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the time.

“That got things going,” Constantino said. “When Horace Johnson became office managing partner in the late 1980’s, he turned his attention to recruiting and establishing an endowed development fund which has been supported by NC State MAC and undergraduate alumni who are part of the E&Y Raleigh office team,” he said. Constantino, who is former chairman and ongoing member of the college’s Advisory Board, continues in the firm’s tradition and is a staunch supporter of the NC State accounting programs.

The continued relationship with the accounting program at NC State “has produced a great pipeline for our firm in Raleigh, Atlanta, DC, Greensboro and Charlotte,” he said. “One of the program’s students is in California now, working for the firm.”

Constantino said the firm encourages its NC State College of Management alumni to remain engaged with the college by participation in recruiting, classroom presentations, and financial support. “The firm is all about engagement, and I look at this [support of the college] as an investment in our business, because it is a significant source of our future talent.”

Weiss said support from alumni and friends of the college like the Michael Constantino [‘84 and ’85] and his wife Lori [‘84]; Christine Holmes and her husband Charles, and other members from the Raleigh Ernst and Young firm, is very much appreciated. Donor support, especially unrestricted funds that help with program development and the recruitment of faculty for the college’s growing student population, is extremely important, especially with the current economic conditions. “Investing in the college today will help assure quality programs for students who will be moving into leadership roles as the economy recovers in the future,” he said.