WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley University Athletics Be a Force Series continued earlier this month with former college football player and more recently business executive Frank D'Amelio who spent time with the football team via Zoom.
 
"Our program would like to thank Frank for taking the time to speak with us," said Bentley head football coach Saj Thakkar, whose team reached the season's midpoint with a 4-1 record. "Frank gave valuable insight to our young men on dealing with adversity and lessons he still uses from his time as a collegiate football player. The information and knowledge Frank provided will help our guys as they navigate being high level student-athletes and as they prepare to succeed in the world of business."
 
The Be a Force Speaker Series was created by Rick Miller '80, the Executive-in-Residence for Bentley Athletics, and Grace Carter, the Manager for Student-Athlete Development at Bentley. The program connects student-athletes with former student-athletes who are role models that maintained their high levels of success after graduation, in both their careers and in their commitment to community service.
 
D'Amelio started his college journey at the University of Florida as a recruited football student-athlete. He received his bachelor's degree in accounting from St. Peter's University, earned his MBA from St. John's University and started his business career at AT&T.
 
When AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies, D'Amelio continued his climb up the corporate ladder with his positions including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Miller praised his former co-worker by saying "if business gave out awards like the National Football League does, Frank would be a consistent 2-way All-Pro."
 
D'Amelio went from Lucent to Pfizer as Chief Financial Officer and he later became Executive Vice President of Global Supply Chain, with his responsibilities including managing the largest COVID vaccine program in the world.
 
When he retired in 2022, D'Amelio had been ranked among the top CFOs in America for 13 years by Institutional Investor Magazine and led teams that had delivered hundreds of billions of dollars to shareowners. Today, Frank's counsel continues to be in high demand as he serves on a number of public company boards of directors.
 
"Frank talked about leadership and the skills you need to have when entering the corporate world," said Bentley graduate running back Vinnie Holmes. "One quote that stuck with me is that he said football made him the hardest worker in the office every day. He discussed how work ethic was his number one key to success over the years and that nobody was going to work harder than him both on and off the field.
 
"Translating the hard work we put in on the field into the workforce was very insightful to the team as a lot of us will be moving into this stage of our life after this year," continued Holmes.
 
Senior defensive lineman AJ Norton-Jefferson had a similar takeaway from the presentation, one of four that will be part of the Speaker Series this fall semester. "The experience and knowledge from football translates over extremely well in the corporate world. Attributes like teamwork, leadership, and being accountable are what the corporate world is built on and football gives you these life skills from the very beginning."
 
D'Amelio discussed the high pressure situations he dealt with during the pandemic while with Pfizer.  "He explained that you have to be able to not fold under the high pressure situations, no matter how big or small it may be," said Norton-Jefferson. "If you are a leader, you must keep a calm head and ensure that the people looking to you for guidance aren't questioning that you aren't able to perform but rather they trust you to get them through the situation as a leader."
 
The speaker series will continue in November.