It Is Incumbent on us to gIve, so that others can follow In our footsteps. P. James “Jim” brady ’81
P. James “Jim” brady ’81 It was my time to give back
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James “Jim” Brady’s professional story is a saga of travel and suc cess. A CPA , he has risen through the ranks at multinational accounting firm Deloitte and Touche to become CEO of operations in India, which employs several thousand people and has allowed Deloitte to extend its hours of operation around the clock. He and his family recently returned to the Atlanta area after living in Hyderabad, India, for nearly two years. They also have lived in Rhode Island, South Florida, and North Carolina, and, from 1995 to 1998, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. Previously a regular donor to the Annual Fund at Bryant, Jim established a scholarship in 2009, the P. James ’81 and Barbara Brady Partners in Scholar ship Fund. He had reached a point in his professional life, he says, when he began to think back to his experience in college. Brady grew up in New Jersey and then western Massachusetts. “I chose Bryant because I wanted to go into busi ness,” he says. “I knew it offered a great program in accounting, and I didn’t want to be in a city. The campus is fabulous.” A financialaid recipient himself, he credits Bryant with being “an enormous component in my success. At Bryant I got the passion and the tools to become a CPA , and I’ve had a great run,” he says. “I’ve been in senior leadership positions for a dozen years, ever since I came back from Russia. I felt it was my time to give back. With all the traveling and living overseas I’d been doing for my job, I wanted to reconnect with the University in a meaningful way.” Without Bryant, Brady says, “my career with Deloitte would not have been possible. The University made an impact on my life in a real way.” Acknowledging that not every deserving student can afford a private university of Bryant’s cal iber, he and wife Barbara have stepped up to help. “It is incumbent on us to give,” says the father of two young teens, “so that others can follow in our footsteps.”
Janice wilbur sullivan All in the (extended Bryant) family
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rom the time she could walk, native Rhode Islander Janice Wilbur Sullivan felt at home on the Bryant campus, first in Providence and later in Smithfield. Her grandfather, Elmer Wilbur, was a Bryant dean for many years in the 1940s and 1950s. “My grand mother used to bring me to campus,” she recalls. “It was my grandfather’s dream to have everyone in the family go to Bryant!” While Sullivan herself is not a Bryant graduate, she married one — Peter Sullivan ’74 — and is now a member of the Bryant Board of Trustees. She and her husband live in East Greenwich, RI, where they raised their children and where she now runs an interior design business, Colors By Design. “My boys used to talk about their friends with tuition loans,” Sullivan says. “I was grateful they never had to take on
such a burden.” Through the support that she and Peter give to the Janice Wilbur Sullivan Scholarship Fund, Sullivan helps young women attend Bryant. “I’ve been fortunate in my life,” she says. “It’s rewarding to help someone else find their hopes and dreams, and walk away with a great education.” Janice and Peter Sullivan also have reaped tangible personal awards from their philanthropy. “There was one young lady who received the scholarship for three and a half years,” Sullivan says. “Kristen lived at home in Rhode Island and com muted to campus.” “We became very close; she’s a part of our family now. I even went to her wed ding. She will always be dear to my heart.” Kristen has gone on to do work that truly makes a difference, Sullivan notes. “She went on to graduate school in
It’s good to help someone else fInd theIr hopes and dreams, and walk away wIth a great educatIon. trustee Janice wilbur sullivan
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