GRAMBLING, LA – Eddie Martin, senior vice president at Bank of America, has been named the keynote speaker for Grambling State University’s 2015 Founder’s Day Convocation, which will be held at 11 a.m., Sept. 29 in T.H. Harris Auditorium.
Grambling State University will celebrate the 114th anniversary of its founding with a week-long celebration. The official opening of Founder’s Week will begin with a short ceremony at the bust of Grambling’s founder, Charles P. Adams, at 7:30 a.m., Sept. 28., followed by the annual Founder’s Week Community Fellowship Breakfast from 8-10 a.m. in the Black & Gold Room in Favrot Student Union. Martin’s speech is entitled, “When Faith and Preparation Collide with Opportunity.”
“The founding fathers laid a foundation for all students that lasts to this very day,” Martin said. “Without the founding fathers having that vision in their beliefs to set up an institution, regardless of the obstacles that were in front of them, they believed that it would make a significant difference to future students. The folks that are living today in 2015 are really benefitting from the work that they did back in the day.”
Martin, who grew up near Saline, Louisiana, followed his older sister to college at Grambling State University in 1981. While attending Grambling, Martin was a member of the Accounting Club and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and became senior class president. He is a 1985 honor graduate of Grambling State University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. He credits Grambling for laying the foundation for his successful career.
“Grambling really laid the foundation for me,” Martin said. “As a young person, Grambling provided me with a lot of tools and direction that molded me to really be prepared for what was next, my future. On a daily basis, I go back into my Grambling toolbox and pull out the things I learned at school, like how to deal with conflict, how to prioritize your day-to-day activities and how to dream.”
After leaving Grambling, Martin worked as an internal auditor for Pizza Hut, Inc. and JCPenney, Inc. He also worked as a manager for INROADS, where he created personal development programs for high school and college students.
Martin has maintained a very successful financial career at Bank of America. He started off performing financial reviews and preparing financial statements as a commercial credit analyst and has worked his way up to his current position of senior vice president on the Global Risks Fair Lending Team as a senior enterprise compliance manager.
Throughout his time at Bank of America, Martin has worked in many roles, including a commercial credit review officer who managed a $1-billion portfolio, director of Private Lending Training and Development and a change consultant on Business and Private Lending. He has served as a senior vice president in seven divisions, including Consumer Real Estate, Information Security Business Continuity, Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Global Risk Initiative and Portfolio Management and Mortgage Services and Operations.
Martin is an award-winning public speaker, a former member of the Chamber of Commerce and an avid golfer. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, Rhonda, and two children, Camille and Julian.
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