Alumnus honored for decades of mentorship inspired by Alden, Rollins and Ohio Fellows
Ohio University graduate Frank Zammataro, BS’63, speaks at the College of Business’ Select Leader Annual Alumni Day after being surprised with the first-ever Walter Leadership Center Leadership Legacy Award. Photo by Jenna Hyman/Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership
Frank Zammataro, BS ’63, spent more than seven years at Ohio University, eventually earning a degree in biological sciences. But it was a gig he landed on campus in 1962 as the University was welcoming its 15th president that steered Zammataro to a successful career in business and inspired him to dedicate the past 25 years to serving the Ohio University students of today.
“When I look back at my life, every time it seemed like I was hitting a wall somewhere, somebody would step up and turn me around and turn me in a different direction,” Zammataro said.
When Zammataro was at OHIO, those somebodies were President Emeritus Vernon R. Alden and one of Alden’s former Harvard University colleagues, J. Leslie Rollins.
“Both Dr. Alden and J. Leslie Rollins took me under their wings and mentored me,” Zammataro said. “The sky became the limit.”
It all started in 1962 when Zammataro accepted a student job at and moved into the president’s residence. In the days leading up to Alden’s inauguration, Zammataro’s life began to change drastically.
“I began to meet people that were visiting the Aldens and people that I would never have had the opportunity to meet and talk with,” he said.
Among these guests was Rollins, who, at the time, was the assistant dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. Rollins took notice of Zammataro, talked to him about his future and even helped him obtain a summer internship with the Ford Motor Company, which became the first step in launching Zammataro’s career in business.
Pictured with Frank Zammataro are some of the many Ohio University alumni he mentored as students through the Ohio University Business Fellows program he helped conceive, launched and led for more than 10 years. Photo by Jenna Hyman/Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership
Rollins was recruited by Alden to help select the first class in OHIO’s new Ohio Fellows Program, a non-traditional scholars program designed to nurture future leaders outside the boundaries of academics and in service to society at large. As an OHIO administrator, Zammataro was tapped by Rollins to participate in the Ohio Fellows Program, serving as a resource to these emerging leaders while also learning from the great thinkers and leaders who engaged in the program.
Upon graduation, Alden opened yet another door for Zammataro, introducing him to the University’s director of admissions, Jerry Reese who hired Zammataro as his assistant director. Zammataro spent the next two years recruiting Bobcats to his alma mater before embarking on a more than 30-year career in the private sector. He served as director of human resources for a major division of Mead Corp. and a regional vice president for Kearney Executive Search before launching The Zammataro Company, a retainer-based executive recruiting firm in 1983.
Zammataro never forgot about Alden or Rollins or the Ohio Fellows Program, and when he was invited to sit on the new steering committee of the College of Business’ Executive Advisory Board (EAB) in 1994, Zammataro channeled the opportunities those individuals and that program offered him. The EAB was looking for ways to get its members more involved with the college’s faculty and students. Zammataro proposed the launch of the Ohio University Business Fellows, a mentoring and leadership development program that engaged industry professionals.
The Ohio University Business Fellows launched in 1997. Zammataro led it for over 10 years, impacting the lives of more than 130 student participants and helping them to pave pathways to success like Alden and Rollins did for him.
The Ohio University Business Fellows evolved into the Select Leadership Development Program, one of the College of Business’ most prestigious student organizations. This October, graduates from the Business Fellows, Corporate Leaders and Select Leaders joined together for the annual Select Leader Alumni Day, which this year was devoted to Zammataro who was presented the first-ever Select Leaders Robert D. Walter Leadership Legacy Award.
“We just can’t imagine someone more deserving than Frank Zammataro,” Tim Reynolds, BBA’87, executive director of the Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership, said of the inaugural award. “He exemplifies this idea of being a lifelong servant of the University and somebody who never took for granted the things that he was given or blessed with here.”
During the Select Leader Alumni Day program, approximately a dozen former Business Fellows took to the stage to share how their lives were enriched by Zammataro, his mentorship and his steadfast devotion to their success. Among those former Business Fellows was Laura Buck, BBA ’08.
Zammataro was Buck’s Business Fellows mentor for three years and led her 14-member Business Fellows group, providing the students a copy of Ken Blanchard’s “Leadership by the Book,” which, Buck said, drove home what Zammataro’s role would be in her life.
The book focuses on being a servant leader, a value that was crucial to the mission of the Business Fellows, Zammataro said, noting, “We really need to develop leaders who have the right kind of base and background, not just in their technology and intelligence, but also in the value system they have.”
Frank Zammataro not only mentored Laura, BBA ’08, and Bryan, BBA ’06, Buck but steered them both toward successful careers at Charles Schwab, unexpectedly playing the role of matchmaker for these two Bobcats. Photo courtesy of Laura Buck
Zammataro helped Buck secure her first internship at Charles Schwab’s 401(k) headquarters where she landed a full-time job after graduation. While at Charles Schwab, Buck met another OHIO Bobcat, Bryan, BBA ’06, who had known Zammataro growing up and who also was steered to the firm by Zammataro.
Buck jokingly considers Zammataro her and Bryan’s “matchmaker.” The two got married in the same church Zammataro and Beverly founded, and, to this day, their families see each other frequently; he is even known as “Frankie” to the Buck children.
“He saw us as much more than just a professional partnership,” Buck said of Zammataro. “He really was invested –and not just in Bryan and me but in all the students he had.”
Reynolds, who now oversees the Select Leaders with his wife, Tammy, saw Zammataro’s impact long before he returned to OHIO. Over the more than 22 years Reynolds worked at Whirlpool Corporation, he said he hired multiple OHIO students who were personally impacted by Zammataro as a mentor and through the Business Fellows. Whether it was through one-on-one coaching, team development or special industry trips, Reynolds said Zammataro has always been dedicated to volunteering his time to help students realize their full potential.
“All these special programs help our students break barriers of entry into the top-tier organizations in the world,” Reynolds added. “Today, we are proud to say we have students from these programs at Microsoft, Apple, Google, McKinsey & Company, just to name a few. And it all goes back to a legacy of someone who had the forethought to say: How do we help students who come here be able to look inside, see how much potential they have at an early stage in their career, and then expose them to what’s possible if they were to use that potential? And Frank did that so well.”
For Zammataro, the Leadership Legacy Award and the stories of success from alumni of the Business Fellows and Select Leaders programs validate everything he and his fellow EAB members set out to do back in 1997.
“Unequivocally, without a doubt, the Ohio University Business Fellows is the most joyful and rewarding thing I ever did in my entire career,” he said. “Nothing else that I did even remotely came close to the joy I got out of doing this and how much encouragement I got out of it.”