By Julia Mericle
News Assignment Editor
On Thursday Feb. 19, alumnus Thomas Marra, ‘80, returned to campus to speak in a series of events for the Building Extraordinary Leaders program. His main talk, titled, “The Art and Science of Leadership,” included a presentation and question-and-answer session for students in the William F. Walsh Science Center Auditorium.
Marra is the president and chief executive officer of Symetra Financial Corporation.
Marra’s presentation focused on his personal leadership experiences and passing them on as advice to current Bonaventure students.
Marra’s main points included the importance of building a network and not ‘burning bridges.’
For example, Marra worked in the actuarial department of Symetra. However, he said he made sure to get to know individuals from the sales and marketing departments as well.
Marra also said he reached out to individuals from other financial corporations to expand his network.
“I made a decision very early on in my career, that I would develop as broad a network as I could,” Marra said. “It would help me if I knew as many people as possible in the industry, not just in my company, but in the whole industry.”
Travis Barber, a sophomore psychology major, said Marra’s talk gave him a new perspective on networking.
“He describes how important it is to never burn a bridge between yourself and employees,” Barber said, “You may encounter that same person somewhere else and if you had a bad relationship working with him or her, he or she may not want to cooperate with you.”
Marra said another important aspect of leadership for students to remember is dealing with pressure and failure. As a previous player for the Bonaventure baseball team, Marra connected his work experience to that of the sport.
“A good baseball player gets one hit every three times up,” Marra said. “So two out of three times you’re failing.”
Barber said the presentation taught him that becoming a leader doesn’t have specific requirements to fulfill first.
“I learned that you don’t have to be the best in your class or anything like that to be a leader. You just have to be determined enough to go out of your way to make a good impression on many others who will appreciate what you do,” Barber said.
Marra continued his presentation by commenting on his role as a leader in Symetra. He said he does not like to think of himself as the boss.
“My philosophy is that every person in the company is as important as I am,” Marra said. “I might be responsible for certain strategies and leadership, but that doesn’t mean I’m more valuable than the person answering the phones.”
Michael Padlo, junior management major, said he came to the presentation because he has met Marra a few times before and was interested to see what he had to say.
“I think it certainly was a very informative and positive lecture series by a great alumnus and leader,” Padlo said. “I think it helped give me a better perspective of the role of a CEO, and judging from how open and friendly Tom was to us all, I think he is definitely the type of leader the School of Business would want us to be someday in the future.”
