{"id":1138,"date":"2019-04-01T13:25:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/me.business.holycross.edu\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2019-04-01T13:25:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:25:59","slug":"ciocca-center-intern-interviews-bob-guillocheau-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/2019\/04\/01\/ciocca-center-intern-interviews-bob-guillocheau-82\/","title":{"rendered":"Ciocca Center Intern Interviews Bob Guillocheau \u201982"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Guillocheau \u201982
\n<\/strong>Chairman & CEO of Ascensus<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very much a mission based company, values driven, and a lot of that came from my learnings at Holy Cross. \u00a0The \u2018men and women for others\u2019 very much resonated with me and it\u2019s something I bring with me everyday when I go to work.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Bob<\/a>On March 22, 2019, Ciocca Center Student Intern Sarah Anderson \u201920 interviewed Bob Guillocheau \u201982 to learn about his journey from HC into the financial services industry. \u00a0Bob was an economics and accounting major and currently serves as the Chairman & CEO of Ascensus.<\/p>\n

Who\/What inspired you to enter the business world?\u00a0 <\/strong>I graduated Holy Cross with an economics accounting degree and, typically if you have a accounting degree, you get recruited by what was back then the big eight accounting firms. \u00a0There have been mergers and today it is the big four accounting firms. The world has changed a lot from 1982 when I graduated, but getting recruited is what got me into financial services and the business world. \u00a0I took an accounting class in high school, taught by a woman by the name of Mrs. Ellis. She made it really fun and interesting and she was a businesswoman who explained to us how the world works and how accounting and finance plays into any aspect of company.<\/p>\n

What was the trajectory of your career path? \u00a0From COO to President and CEO to now Chairman and CEO, was this a goal of yours? <\/strong>When I initially started working at Price Waterhouse, I thought maybe I\u2019d make a career there. It\u2019s a great firm, a teaching and learning place. \u00a0I thought I might become a partner. But, I found that you\u2019re sort of like a mercenary: you get assigned a certain number of clients and you go in, do the audit, and are part of a small group of individual contributors. \u00a0I learned that I liked being part of a bigger team. When I was doing these audits at bigger companies, I said wow I think it would be fun to be part of that. I had an opportunity – a Price Waterhouse client was looking for someone to join as an assistant controller in the private corporate world, and I eventually became controller of that company. \u00a0At that stage of my life, I aspired to become CFO. I then left there to work at Mellon which at the time they were just a standalone business based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mellon bought a company up in Boston where I was working and I was hired there as controller\u00a0 and then became CFO. I was probably 28 at the time and it was a fortunate series of events to be at that level at that age. \u00a0That business ultimately was sold to what today is First Data Corp, at the time it was American Express then part of AMEX that acquired us. At First Data, they very much believed in the financial people being groomed to run businesses. I was the VP of finance for First Data Investor Services Group which is a half a billion dollar revenue business. We did an acquisition to get into the administration of retirement plans and they asked me to move over to the business side, which is something I was really interested in and expressed the desire to move out of finance and into the line of business. \u00a0I originally started in our retirement unit as the Chief Operating Officer and then a couple years later, I was promoted to Business Unit President in 1995. I was thirteen years out of school and running a business. It was a very small one at the time I started, probably about 10 million and then by the time that business was part of a larger transaction to PNC bank, the business had grown to about 80 million in revenue. I have been running these kinds of business ever since.<\/p>\n

How would you describe Ascensus and the work you do? <\/strong>The company that I work for today was originally part of a publicly traded company which I joined in 2003 and I\u2019ve been here ever since. \u00a0It\u2019s very exciting, I love being part of a team and particularly a service-based business. That\u2019s what I really love! Ascensus is an intersection of people, technology, and serving others. \u00a0I always say I\u2019m part of a team of 3,000 people at Ascensus that go to work everyday with a noble purpose. We help more than 8 million Americans save today for a better tomorrow. Through a whole host of different tax advantage savings whether it\u2019s employer-sponsored 401(k) plans, state-sponsored retirement plans, individual retirement accounts, college saving accounts, and able accounts, we help people save. \u00a0We are very much a mission based company, values driven, and a lot of that came from my learnings at Holy Cross. The \u201cmen and women for others\u201d very much resonated with me and it\u2019s something I bring with me everyday when I go to work with the other 2,999 folks at Ascensus.<\/p>\n

As a pure play service provider, what is the primary financial focus at Ascensus? <\/strong>We\u2019re in the tech-enable services side, in support of tax advantage savings vehicles. \u00a0So, large financial institutions partner with us. We provide all the service and technology that powers the small market solutions from big name companies that offer those type of investment savings to companies and individuals. \u00a0We are the technology and service behind it. If someone works at a company and their company uses different firms that partner with Ascensus, we do all the trading. We are not investment managers. When we say \u201cpure play\u201d that means we don\u2019t do anything to compete with our clients. \u00a0We are just there to help our clients be as successful as possible and to save in the most cost effective way. That\u2019s what we do! We\u2019re the company that when someone picks up the phone and has a question or wants to take a loan from their 401(k) plan, someone answers the phone and that\u2019s one of our 3,000 associates that makes up our team. \u00a0When someone gets a statement in the mail, that comes from us. We do all the trading of the dollars and all the regulatory reporting, all the nuts and bolts that comes with these saving vehicles.<\/p>\n

How would you describe your leadership style on the Ascensus team and how do you measure leadership success? <\/strong>I always say that leadership at Ascensus doesn\u2019t bring privilege, it brings responsibility and that responsibility is to create the type of culture where people see working at Ascensus as a place to have a career, not simply to have a job. \u00a0I try to participate in all leadership training programs for newly promoted leaders. We\u2019re very much in the knowledge-based business. If you are interacting with an associate from a Ascensus, whether you’d be an employer that’s offering a 401(k) plan to their employees, or you’re one of those employees, or you\u2019re the state offering a 529 college savings program to your residents, if you\u2019re interacting with an individual at Ascensus that has eight years of experience, you are going to get a different and deeper relationship and depth of knowledge than someone who has been working here for eight months. \u00a0As much as we have good training programs, it\u2019s a combination of technology training and people who feel good about the organization and want to stick around. I think that\u2019s what leadership is all about – leadership is about creating the type of culture and environment where people feel recognized and rewarded for their efforts. They feel really good about being part of the organization and that in turn is a very real and tangible experience that the client feels. If they\u2019re interacting with people who are proud to be part of the Ascensus team and really know their stuff, they are going to have a different service and customer experience. \u00a0Those clients will have a good experience with us and they\u2019re going to stay with us for a long time – we\u2019re going to help them grown and that\u2019ll in turn help us grow. That\u2019ll give us a continuous improvement process, one that will enable us to grow and grow profitably and then be able to continue that virtuous cycle of recognizing and rewarding people giving them the right tools and training for them to excel.<\/p>\n

You love being part of a team. \u00a0What does the team aspect of business look like to you in regards to leadership? <\/strong>I’m a big sports guy. \u00a0In our leadership sessions, I say a leader is like being a great point guard in basketball. \u00a0It’s all about trying to make those around you as good as they can possibly be. It\u2019s really, in many respects, about being very selfless. \u00a0I remember when I was a little kid, I read a book about a football player named Gale Sayer. The title was \u00a0I am Third – and right underneath it, it read \u201cThe Lord is First, my Family is Second, and I am Third.\u201d \u00a0In the business world, I think there is a lot to be said for that. Leadership is all about putting the needs of others first and foremost. \u00a0I think if you look around and see people that you\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with and mentor and you see them growing and developing, that\u2019s probably one of the greatest rewards of being a leader.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite memory from Holy Cross and your time spent on Mount St. James? <\/strong>I learned a lot about discipline. \u00a0I learned you get out what you put in. \u00a0Obviously, it was a rigorous and demanding from an academic perspective. I had always done really well in high school and I thought I was a hard worker, and then my freshman year was a rude awakening! \u00a0I really learned about time management and to be successful you have to put the time in and learn to love the grind. I think for so many people, and what I\u2019ve seen over the course of my time in business, it\u2019s not necessarily the people who had the highest GPA – it\u2019s all about the intangible skills around discipline and hard work that drives success. \u00a0I found that certainly to be true in my career. At Holy Cross, I played lacrosse and interestingly enough, I always did better during the spring season when I had a lot less time to get the work done. I learned to use my time efficiently.<\/p>\n

I obviously had some great professors, Professor O\u2019Connell was one of our top accounting professors. \u00a0I learned a lot from him and that was a great foundation for my career. I spent a longer part of my career outside of finance and then became a business unit leader and ultimately became chairman and CEO of a company that has around 700 million in revenue. \u00a0At the end of the day, whether you\u2019re in corporate finance or accounting, you need to understand it. It\u2019s comforting to the shareholders and investors that I understand the balance sheet, income statement, and understand what\u2019s important to the economic side of the business. \u00a0To me, the economic side doesn\u2019t drive the business, it\u2019s really an output for having all the right inputs. The inputs are all around the culture, the values, and the mission of the company. The business has grown from about 600 people to the 3,000 people today. \u00a0The revenue growing from about 100 million to 700 million didn\u2019t happen because I understood the balance sheet or income statement, it happened because we have core values which are: people matter, quality first, and integrity always. Those guide our decisions and create the kind of culture at Ascensus. \u00a0When you get all that stuff right, then the numbers take care of themselves. The foundation in finance and accounting that I had at Holy Cross has certainly helped me a great deal. The foundation along with the ethos of \u201cmen and women for others,\u201d to me those two things coming together is really what enables businesses to be successful.<\/p>\n

How do you connect with millennials today who aspire to enter the business world post Holy Cross? \u00a0What advice would you give your kids or my fellow classmates? <\/strong>Well, I’ll give you a two part answer. \u00a0Roughly 30% of our 3000 associates that make up the Ascensus team are millennials. I think we’ve done a really good job being able to recruit and retain them because they love the mission based on the culture we have. \u00a0They appreciate the sense that we\u2019re doing something for the greater good, it\u2019s not just about managing money. This work makes me feel good about what I do. Trying to pursue something you believe in and that you have passion about makes it a lot easier to go to work every day when you feel like you\u2019re making a difference. \u00a0As folks are evaluating where they want to go, I think culture and mission has a lot to do with it. It\u2019s not just simply about the job, you\u2019re choosing to become part of something bigger than yourself that you can relate to. If that organization\u2019s mission and culture aligns with your vision for those kinds of things, then I think that\u2019s a great place to start. \u00a0The hard work and discipline and grind to get ahead has served me well and I think there is still a place for that. I agree with the work life balance. Being disciplined and working hard while being part of something you believe in is a great recipe for career and personal success.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading! Cassie<\/p>\n

Cassie Gevry, Associate Director of Student Engagement
\nCiocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Guillocheau \u201982 Chairman & CEO of Ascensus \u201cWe are very much a mission based company, values driven, and a lot of that came from my learnings at Holy Cross. \u00a0The \u2018men and women for others\u2019 very much resonated with me and it\u2019s something I bring with me everyday when I go to work.\u201d On … <\/p>\n

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