Champlain View - Spring 2011 | Champlain College

Magazine for Alumni & Friends of Champlain College

Features

At the Center of a Financial AWAKENING,
Champlain College LEADs the Way to A Rational Relationship with Our Wallets

Last December in Roger H. Perry Hall, President David F. Finney stood up before a packed room to unveil the College’s latest project — The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College. He introduced its director, John Pelletier, who up until that day was a bit of a mystery man to most people on campus.

The morning news conference was the culmination of a 10-month whirlwind journey for Pelletier, who in seeking a change of lifestyle and looking for new challenges, decided with his wife that they would relocate with their three young boys to Stowe and he would start his own consulting business. His previous work for nearly two decades had been in Boston serving as the chief operating officer and chief legal officer at some of the largest U.S. asset management firms, including Natixis Global Associates, the owner of Loomis Sayles and Oakmark Funds. It was time for a change, he felt, in both his work and his personal life. It was time to step away from the rarefied business and trading world where dollars are counted in billions. Time to find a way to help prevent a repeat in the future of the economic turmoil suffered by businesses, families, and individuals who made poor financial decisions resulting in the Great Recession of 2008-09. Continue Reading >>

Who Are You Going to Be?

As we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am reminded once again of this question and the challenge inherent in it. I am reminded that this was Martin Luther King’s story. After all, he was a black man and he felt the sting of segregation personally.

But it also was not his story. He was a middle-class, educated man, who earned a Ph.D. at 26. He had a relatively comfortable life in front of him as a pastor, with a committed congregation and a family and community that loved him. Security seemed certain. He could have created a life that insulated him and his from the brunt of segregation. He could have found a way to be happy, even in the midst of terrible societal circumstances. Continue Reading >>