Aggie Service Award 2015: Eamonn Dolan '83
By Margaret Wong
Financial expert Eamonn Dolan ’83 believes that UC Davis is a smart investment and its socially-conscious students and alumni are what set UC Davis apart from other universities.
“Davis has a sense of community, where you walk around and most people are friendly, and it’s really nice to be in a place where the standards are high,” said Dolan, recipient of the Aggie Service Award.
A member of the UC Davis Foundation Board, Dolan worked closely with UC Davis to revamp its investment strategy. Using much of his own money and expertise, Dolan invested countless hours and traveled across the country interviewing money managers. The end result was a very innovative strategy for managing the UC Davis endowment that helped the university weather the most significant recession since the Great Depression and grow its endowment to more than $900 million.
Despite his impressive 30- year career at multi-billion dollar investment firms, Dolan states that he’s most proud of his role as a mentor, which is why he teaches two classes each year at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.
“I worked with a lot of young people to give them some of the advantages I got that helped me in my career,” he said. “It’s extremely gratifying to see them not only professionally successful, but be very happy.”
When asked why he dedicates so much time to UC Davis, he said, “I’m really grateful for what UC Davis gave me in terms of the quality education, the relationships I developed and the inspiration for later career. And frankly I think that what I’ve been doing here, Davis has given back more to me than I’ve given to them.”
Dolan continues to invest his time, talents and resources to the university to ensure that the Aggie community will continue to produce quality graduates.
“Davis is the kind of place where, rather than going over people or around people, you go with people as you achieve success,” he said. “As the years go on, I just think UC Davis keeps getting better and better, and I’m really proud to be affiliated with it.”