Zicklin Alum Wins Baruch Changemakers Award for Lifetime of Service

“I’ve always had a passion to be consequential,” says Glenn C. Davis (BBA, ’70), the principal emeritus for risk advisory services at Kaufman Rossin & Company, an accounting, tax, and advisory firm. “But I always viewed myself at the least intelligent person in the room. Thus, I wanted smart people around me who also shared a passion to be consequential.” 

While at the School of Business, Glenn served as class president and won the Senior Class Service Award. But his big chance to become consequential didn’t happen until 21 years later.

In 1991, after more than two decades at a Big Four accounting firm, Glenn left his position as a partner at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) to become CEO of a home healthcare company. New York was in the throes of the AIDS crisis at the time, and his company would ultimately emerge as the largest provider of HIV/AIDS care in the greater New York metropolitan area. During the nearly 10 years Glenn was in charge, the company provided care to more than 50,000 men, women and children with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other devastating diseases.

How does a CPA successfully run a healthcare company? “My clients were in the healthcare sector, so I had a good understanding of healthcare financing and operations,” he explains. “I created a board of directors that included the CEO of a large New York hospital; the head of infectious diseases from an area medical school; the chair of the department of preventative medicine and community health at another leading institution; and a deputy mayor of the City of New York,” he adds. “I recruited really smart people who guided and mentored me.”

He follows the Golden Rule in this respect: “Mentoring young people has been among the most rewarding roles I’ve had in my life. It has not been just a passion for passing on knowledge or advice; it’s about investing in someone else’s potential and watching them grow into their own.” he says. “The value in mentoring is that it’s a two-way street—I didn’t just teach, I also learned.” Indeed, one of his mentees was Einat Laver (BBA ’15, MS ’16), whom he met through the Zicklin Undergraduate Honors Program and who nominated him for the Changemakers Award. 

Glenn’s dedication to helping society’s underserved stems from his years at the School of Business, marked by the Vietnam War, the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the shootings at Kent State. He learned that while you may lead, others may not follow; moreover, a sense of humor is essential.  

“There were riots at the uptown campus of City College, and in that spirit a group of us decided we would liberate Gramercy Park”—which is locked to the public—“and declare it the ‘people’s park.’” he deadpans. “We climbed over the black iron fence and sat on the benches for a while, only to discover that nobody really cared. Eventually we got cold and hungry and gave up the crusade to return to our creature comforts.”  

Among his remarks upon accepting the Baruch Changemaker Award, Glenn stated “that being consequential—being a changemaker—isn’t about grand gestures or public recognition. It’s about the choices we make every day—the moments when we choose to act, to speak up, to make a difference, even in small ways. Because real changemaking isn’t measured in applause, or by certificates you can adorn your home or office, but in the lives we touch, the paths we open, and the courage we inspire in others.”

Categories: Alumni News, News