The university will continue to invest in the growth of the Office of Corporate Engagement and Partnerships to advance the university’s strategic plan, Beyond Boundaries, and enable Marquette to strengthen all aspects of corporate engagement and broaden its portfolio of strategic corporate partnerships.
To that end, the office has added a senior director of corporate engagement operations to improve its processes across the university and also provide program leadership to manage Marquette’s contributions to the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute — a partnership between Marquette, Northwestern Mutual and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Sumathi Thiyagarajan, director of program management in the Office of the President, has been named to the new position. She most recently led the project management and process improvement efforts around implementing Beyond Boundaries.
A Certified Project Management Professional with 15 years’ experience in project management roles, she has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Benedictine University (Illinois) and a master’s degree in management and information systems from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
“Growing and adding process rigor to the Office of Corporate Engagement and Partnerships is important at this moment in Marquette’s history,” says Dr. Maura Donovan, vice president for corporate engagement. “Through her work on Beyond Boundaries implementation, Sumathi has demonstrated a keen ability to make projects more efficient and scalable — she will do well in this new role.”
Donovan says the Office of Corporate Engagement and Partnerships is ideally positioned for growth at this time.
“In our months-long existence, we’ve already built out our infrastructure, including an internal campuswide Council for Corporate Engagement and an external advisory board,” Donovan adds. “Further, the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute, which is a key partnership for the university, now needs someone who can lead on those efforts. I’m delighted to have Sumathi join the team.”
President Lovell says the university will continue to grow strategic areas throughout campus in the face of demographic and financial headwinds in higher education.
“Through our Office of Corporate Engagement and Partnerships, we are involving all of Marquette—faculty, staff and students from all colleges, schools and divisions—to be ready to respond to the challenges and opportunities our corporate community faces every day,” he said.