A Strong Foundation
Greg Collins ’79
Anyone who thinks that a career in accounting can’t be exciting or meaningful has not met Greg Collins ’79.
For more than 30 years, Collins worked in the sports and entertainment industry, holding executive positions at Columbia Pictures and AT&T and serving as the chief financial officer for Stevie Wonder’s business organization. He also spent time as a director at the New York-based accounting firm Koenigsberg & Parker, LLP and as a partner at Mitchell & Titus, LLP, the country’s largest minority-owned accounting firm. Collins capped this phase of his career managing his own boutique firm, G. Collins & Company, LLC.
All that success never clouded Collins’ view of the importance of ensuring that all children receive high-quality education. More than 20 years ago he helped establish the Marion P. Thomas Charter School in Newark, now part of the BRICK (Building Resilient Intelligent Creative Kids) Education Network, which helps the city’s neediest children succeed.
His support for Montclair State is also clear: “I never forget where I came from, and I believe that if people help you, you owe a debt back,” says Collins, now chair of the University Foundation board.
Collins learned of the University while attending Newark’s Malcom X. Shabazz High School, where his guidance counselor urged him to look at the school.
“I had a vision of becoming a corporate executive, so I majored in business,” he says. “When I got involved in the cooperative education program, I saw that the best jobs were in accounting, so I moved into accounting.”
He credits the Co-op Education Program and the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) with providing crucial support during his college years. “EOF really helped me make it through until I was self-sufficient,” he says.
Collins began giving back by serving on the University’s Co-op Education Advisory Board, then the Alumni Advisory Board and then with the Foundation, where he served for 17 years, before becoming chair in 2021.
“This is the first time that the Foundation has had an African American chair,” he says. “This is long overdue, which makes me especially excited to be stepping into this position.”
Collins is focused on growing the Foundation’s endowment and providing more resources to the University: “I also hope to strengthen what the EOF program can provide in terms of scholarships, support for books and other academic resources, room and board, and general sustenance.”
Proud of the growth and changes at the University, Collins says it is a “different place from when I went to school here – and not just because there are so many new buildings, majors and programs.”
“The diversity is such that the University is becoming a wonderful example of community, of all kinds of people working together,” he says. “It makes me proud to see so many different people getting along and taking education seriously, and to know professors who are so devoted to helping students transition into becoming professionals.”
–Michele Hickey