New executive leadership fellow program to provide students access to executives, mentorship and national leadership speakers

For Betsy (Williams) Lancaster, BSHEC ’70, and Raymond Lancaster, BBA ’68, it was as much the learning experiences outside of the Ohio University classroom as within that set them up for success. Now, the Lancasters are making those same experiences possible for OHIO students today.

This semester marks the start of the new Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Fellow program, housed in the College of Business’ Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership. Established by Betsy Lancaster, the program will support an executive fellow, enhance a system of student mentorship and fund a new speaker series – all as a means of preparing OHIO students to be the trailblazers of tomorrow.

“We made a pact a long time ago that at some point when we were able we would make a gift to Ohio University because the bottom line was that Ohio University made a lasting impact on our lives going forward,” Betsy Lancaster said. 

The gift – the second largest ever made to the Water Center for Strategic Leadership – honors the husband she met at Ohio University, his legacy as a business executive, his commitment to lifelong learning and his desire for fellow Bobcats to have robust executive experience opportunities.

It was guest speakers offered through the College of Business that steered Raymond Lancaster, who passed away in 2015, toward his college major and inspired him on a career path that brought him success and happiness. And it was mentors – from his childhood through college and his early career – who were key to his success and instilled in him a passion for mentorship.

After graduating from OHIO, Raymond Lancaster embarked on a successful 41-year career in finance that included working with manufacturing and distribution companies, serving as chief financial officer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and earning a master’s and doctoral degree while working full time. In 2011, he retired as managing director of Candlewood Partners, a privately-funded Cleveland-based investment firm.

“His love of learning never stopped, and that, of course, influenced his career,” Betsy Lancaster said of her husband, who she met when he was an OHIO student working in the cafeteria of Lindley Hall, the residence hall she was assigned to her first year on campus. “There were many things that he did that I think made his career, and he appreciated the mentors that he had from the time that he was a child to some of his professors and his early career mentors. You take a little bit of all of that – from all parts of your life – and use it as you move forward.” 

In creating the Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Fellow program, the Lancasters are expanding the opportunities offered to students through OHIO’s Walter Center for Strategic Leadership. Open to students of all majors, the center provides students access to executives in residence and various levels of mentorship, and its leadership development programs boast a 100 percent job placement rate after graduation.

“We believe that through exposure to executives and speakers and through mentorship that we can help students envision what they could be, the kind of leaders they could become and the kind of leadership impact they can create,” said Tim Reynolds, BBA ’87, who has served as executive director of the Walter Center since its founding in 2012. “The Lancaster family has helped us to be able to create more opportunities and doorways to do that.”

According to Reynolds, the Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Fellow program will fund a named fellow with extensive executive experience who will be charged with taking the Walter Center for Strategic Leadership’s mentorship program to the next level. The Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Fellow will serve as a resource, training and qualifying the center’s executive mentors, while building a mentorship ecosystem for students that includes executive, faculty and peer mentorship. 

The Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Fellow program also will fund a new speaker series that will bring national leadership speakers and key thought leaders to campus, providing another avenue of learning for students.

“It only takes a sentence of some sort to inspire someone, to give them something that they can use in their life,” said Betsy Lancaster. “These are opportunities away from the classroom with people who have had experiences that might show students the route that they took to reach their goal and make them realize that they can also create a similar route to their goals or point them in a subject area that they haven’t thought about.”

For Reynolds, the opportunities provided through the Lancasters’ generosity speak to the words inscribed on Ohio University’s Alumni Gateway: “So enter that daily thou mayest grow in knowledge, wisdom and love.”

“As faculty, we can help with some of the tactical knowledge-based learning in the classroom,” Reynolds said. “But the chance to really work on the wisdom piece is to experience, to use that knowledge. The more we can create experiential learning, opportunities for students to sit down and talk with executives and hear from people who have had more years of experience, now you’re getting cross-sharing of wisdom.”

And then there’s love – demonstrated through the generosity of the Lancasters and Cardinal Health Corp., whose gift honoring the company’s founder, retired chairman, CEO and Ohio University graduate Bob Walter, BSME ’67, created the Walter Center, and through the executives, including OHIO alumni, who give their time and talent to mentor students. 

“We hope that Ohio University students will take the initiative and take advantage of what the Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Fellow program has to offer and be inspired to continue to learn, to be excited about the future and also to be a mentor themselves as they continue through their life,” said Betsy Lancaster. 

The new speaker series will debut Sept. 30 and feature Tony Marino, BBA ’85, an Ohio University graduate and chief human resources officer at Fiserv, Inc., a leading global technology provider serving the financial services industry. The event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Walter Hall Rotunda and will include the naming of the first Raymond A. Lancaster Executive Leadership Fellow.