Mark Ross

About

Mark Ross ‘87 grew up on the East side of Cleveland in Mentor, Ohio. As a senior in high school, his best friend had the opportunity to visit his brother for a weekend at Miami, and he was invited to join. “The beauty of the University and how welcomed I felt, along with the reputation of the business school, sold me on Miami over that weekend.”

As a first year student, Mark joined a fraternity, which gave him significant leadership opportunities later on, including serving as pledge chair and vice president. Mark was initially a marketing major and was planning to change to finance when he saw one of his fraternity brothers, dressed in a suit, heading to an event on a Thursday night. Over a few discussions, he learned about the opportunities for accounting majors, organizations like Beta Alpha Psi (which he subsequently joined), the career opportunities of the Big 8, and most importantly, the reality that Miami accounting majors with good grades and a decent personality would have multiple job offers before Christmas senior year. “Given this intel, a little coercion from my roommate at the time who was an accounting major, and the fact that I really enjoyed my accounting classes, I switched majors, and never looked back.”

Mark started his career as an Audit Staff member at Price Waterhouse in Cleveland. His journey with the company took him to Miami, Florida, to lead the Deals and Advisory practices as partner, then to San Francisco to lead the West Region Deals business. His last move was back to Cleveland to become a market managing and office managing partner. This move allowed him to develop the PwC brand in Cleveland and engage on multiple nonprofit boards, building his passion for education, diversity & inclusion, healthcare, the arts, and economic development. After hitting the age 55 milestone for early retirement, he retired with the intent to focus almost entirely on his nonprofit boards and related roles. One new role he holds is that of PwC FSB Executive in Residence at Miami. Mark also teaches a mergers and acquisitions course at Miami.

“My last position at PwC (Office Managing Partner in Cleveland) was the most important and meaningful one as it allowed me to truly find purpose—using my time, talent and treasure to help nonprofit organizations achieve their missions.”