Summing Up What Matters

In many respects, Bob Mulhall ’80 VSB is a numbers guy, but the true measure of his impact is a function of his values and humility.

An accounting major, Bob spent 30 years of his career with EY, mostly as an audit partner. He led the Wealth and Asset Management practice in New England for six years, where he added four large mutual fund complexes as well as expanding into hedge funds and private equity. In Philadelphia, he grew the mid-Atlantic region from a one-partner practice to more than a dozen, which generated double-digit revenue growth over a 10-year period that included the 2008 recession.

He also served as the Campus Coordinating Partner at Villanova for 11 years, leading a team of 20 who collectively recruited 400 students to EY. During his 20 years as an EY partner, Bob led the process to promote 25 EY employees to partner. To say he impacted the lives of many would be an understatement.

“Partnership is the crowning achievement in an accounting firm,” Bob shared. “Mentoring, advocating and supporting people to get to partner changes lives. While many people are involved in this process, leading the process was an absolute joy.”

Bob knows that success doesn’t happen in isolation. A first-generation college student, he recognizes those who made a difference in his life and he values those relationships. “I still have coffee with my high school coach a couple of times a year,” Bob shares. “He made a strong impact on me and helped me in many ways.”

Now retired from EY, Bob continues to find ways to give back by sharing his experience and knowledge with several for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Bob is an Independent Trustee and Audit Committee Chair of the Advisors’ Inner Circle (AIC) Funds along with serving on the Advisory Board of Xylyx Bio, a biotech company. He also sits on the President’s Advisory Council at Villanova and the Board of New England Disabled Sports, continuing to help make an impact on what matters to him.

“New England Disabled Sports is a program that changes lives and families for the better,” Bob explains. “One day, one of the coaches and I were working with an 8-year-old girl on skiing.  We spent two hours trying to get her to slide just 10-15 feet.  At the very end, she went 20 feet before falling to the ground. I ran down and found her with a smile from ear to ear.  When her parents picked her up, she couldn’t stop talking about it!”

He also supports the Villanova program at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution (SCI) Phoenix—formerly the Graterford Program. Through this program, incarcerated people earn a college degree based in the same critical thinking, life-long learning and moral reflection skills available through an on-campus Villanova education. “[When I attended graduation [at SCI Phoenix], I was so proud of these students who I only met that day.  It is a program that sums up Villanova in a nutshell.”

“[Villanova School of Business] had a profound effect on me,” Bob explains.  “I entered as a ‘know-it-all’ teenager and graduated as an educated 22-year old who knew he had much more to learn.  Villanova humbled me and grounded me.”