Brad Williams

If there was a scholarship fund established at OSU in your company’s name that was important to your professional interests, would you contribute to it?

Ernst & Young tax practice CFO Brad Williams said yes.  Williams, ’77 bachelor’s in agricultural economics and ’79 master’s in accounting, initially learned of the strategic importance and emphasis on the professional program in accounting (PPA) during a 2005 meeting of the year old School of Accounting advisory board. The school’s head and Kerr-McGee Chair Don Hansen charged the group with helping to grow the PPA program by increasing scholarship assistance.

“Previously, I had never paid a lot of attention to how much our E&Y alums contributed to OSU. When I started gathering the information, I came to believe that we could increase the size of our gifts as well as the percentage of our givers by giving our folks a tangible yet strategic project,” Williams said. “I floated the idea of an Ernst & Young-specific PPA scholarship fund, and the reception from our OSU alums was fantastic.”

In the first year, the Ernst & Young Professional Program in Accounting Scholarship raised more than $40,000, and total contributions to the business school were nearly double what was contributed the previous year. After three years of being in place, the scholarship fund has raised more than $175,000 from OSU alumni employed at Ernst & Young, including the firm’s matching gifts. What’s more is that the percentage of alumni at the firm who are donating to OSU has also doubled to nearly 40 percent.

“Williams was the driving force in establishing the Ernst & Young PPA scholarship fund,” Hansen said. “There is no doubt that the funds provided to students in the form of scholarships are one of the key factors that have enabled the School of Accounting to more than double the enrollments in the PPA/master’s program. Being able to afford an extra year of education is a critical part of a student’s decision to enter the program. Furthermore, the scholarship program has also been a major factor in increasing the overall qualityof students entering the PPA.”

 Along with directing gifts to a specific fund, Williams attributes the overwhelming increase in support to donors’ desire to see that their gift will make an impact.

“People want to give to something tangible,” Williams said. “They want to be able to point to something and say ‘I’m making a difference.’”

The difference these donors made is evident in the 22 students who are now called Ernst & Young PPA Scholars. 

“The generous support from Ernst & Young provided the extra funding I needed to reduce my outside work hours and focus on my studies,” Mary Oliver said. “Because of this scholarship, I have had the opportunity to pursue several campus activities and to fully embrace my coursework without worrying about my finances.”

For Williams, being an OSU champion at Ernst & Young is two-fold with both sides benefitting.

“OSU is a critical source of new employees for our firm,” he said. “Plus, it’s a source of extraordinary people – bright people with a strong work ethic and sense of loyalty. Further, the quality of the graduates and the program at this school is on par with any school in the country.”

Now that Williams has found a way to appeal to his fellow Ernst & Young coworkers, he believes the firm’s support of the school will grow each year as new goals, targets and priorities are set by the advisory board.

“It’s exciting to see how much the PPA program has grown as a result of the nearly $175,000 we’ve contributed in scholarships,” Williams said. “It’s quite a change from where we were and shows that people want to participate; usually, we just need  someone to get it started.”  

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