UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Scot and Lisa Warren have made a $400,000 commitment to establish the Warren Early Career Professorship in Accounting at Penn State Smeal College of Business.
Early Career Professorships provide funding for faculty members in the first decade of their careers to actively pursue research that can lay the foundation for a successful academic future. These positions can also sustain their growth as educators by providing flexible resources for curriculum development.
The Warrens’ commitment will leverage a $100,000 grant from Penn State as part of the university’s Faculty Endowment Challenge, creating an initial endowment value of $500,000.
The Warrens said they find the opportunity to make a difference through volunteering with the organizations that matter most to them more rewarding than just providing financial support. For Scot, a 1986 graduate of Penn State University with a degree in accounting, it means sharing his time and talent with accounting students and faculty at Smeal.
“Every college dean hopes to meet someone like Scot Warren. His professional success demonstrates the value of his Smeal education, but his passion for connecting with our students and faculty and his drive to foster an even better accounting program here at Smeal sets me apart,” said Charles H. Whiteman, John and Karen Arnold Dean of Smeal College of Business.
“He and Lisa understand how important it is for our students to be exposed to great researchers and educators, and their gift in creating the Warren Early Career Professorship in Accounting will help ensure our students are drawn from the best and brightest learn in the field.”
Scot said he was fortunate to attend Penn State and receive “an excellent education” that would set the stage for a career that would take an unexpected turn.
After graduating, Scot joined Arthur Andersen as a chartered accountant. He said he realized auditing wasn’t the right career path for him and switched to spend some time on the consulting side of the firm before taking a job at a regional broker-dealer — a move from which he said he changed his career path.
Scot earned a Masters in Financial Markets and Trading from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1996.
After positions at Goldman Sachs and CME Group, he joined The Options Clearing Corp in 2015 as executive vice president of business and product development. (OCC), the world’s largest clearing house for equity derivatives. As Chief Operating Officer since 2019, he oversees OCC’s financial risk management, operations, project management, business process optimization, finance, accounting and business development.
Despite his professional accomplishments, Scot said his greatest joys were his 30-year partnership with Lisa (whom he met at Arthur Andersen’s) and their three children, including a second-generation Penn Stater.
Lisa received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in 1987 and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 1997. She spent five years as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen and was subsequently appointed vice president of Heller Financial in Chicago. Though she’s no longer employed, “she’s done more community service than anyone I know,” Scot said.
Scot said it was always important to him and Lisa to do more than write a check to the organizations they care about. You want to be active and make a difference.
“When my kids were swimmers, I was a US swim official. When my son joined the Boy Scouts, I became a leader. Lisa feels the same way. She uses her financial skills and talent to support so many organizations in our community. She is a member of the Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 School Board, Treasurer of the District 95 Educational Foundation and is active in our community and the Saint Vincent de Paul Society,” Scot said. “If we can just write a check, we will. But it’s so much more meaningful for us to have a practical impact.”
Scot brings that philosophy to Penn State, where the Warren Early Career Professorship in Accounting is just one way he hopes to positively impact accounting education.
Earlier this year he joined Smeal’s External Accounting Advisory Board and regularly travels to campus to share his experiences as a guest lecturer and mentor with students.
Scot fondly recalled the educators who were the biggest influencers in his life, including a high school teacher who helped him realize he wanted to study business and a Smeal accounting professor who tutored and endorsed his final year exam class that accounting is much more and auditing than technical skills.
“Smeal students are so bright and motivated, but even the best and brightest aren’t going to reach their full potential unless they have great people to teach and inspire them,” said Scot. “It’s important to us that students have access to professors who can inspire them to do great things, and our gift is one way we can help.”
With the record-breaking success of A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, which raised $2.2 billion from 2016-2022, the philanthropy helps continue the university’s tradition of education, research and service to communities throughout Commonwealth and around the world. Scholarships allow our institution to open doors and welcome students from diverse backgrounds, support for transformative experiences allows our students and faculty to fulfill their tremendous leadership potential, and gifts of discovery and excellence help us bring to the world we share serve and influence them. To learn more about the impact of the donation and the ongoing need for support, please visit raise.psu.edu.
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