By Erin DeGregorio '16
Former President/COO of Monster Worldwide, accomplished public speaker and writer, and 1980 Siena graduate Jim Treacy came back to his collegiate roots on Monday, November 16 to lead a lunchtime lecture titled “Work Hard, Play Hard, and Enjoy the Ride.”
As the third speaker of this year’s School of Business Lecture Series Program, Treacy reminisced on his time at Siena and explained his career paths to the students, faculty, and administration in attendance at the Key Auditorium.
With a major in accounting and a concentration in marketing from Siena, Treacy’s career began with Texaco, Inc. while he was attending St. John’s University to receive his MBA in finance. Following his time at Texaco, he worked as a strategic planner for the Ogilvy group of Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency. Thereafter, Sir Martin Sorrell, then treasurer of the American division of the advertising agency holding group WPP, employed him, which preceded his position with Monster Worldwide from 1995 to 2002.
With much experience from the last few decades in Corporate America, he encouraged students, from his stories, to seize opportunities; to take on extra tasks at work for benefits in the long run; and to network and make friends in the business world.
“The HR guy [at Texaco] comes into my cubicle,… and tells me, ‘I want you to run this athletic team for the Special Olympics.’ So I took this team on, and we won. And after we won, we went to the Nationals against all these other cities and we finished second. Next thing I knew I was on the fast track; they wanted to put me on a rotating program around the world in all their different divisions,” said Treacy.
When he moved to Ogilvy, Treacy was asked to coach the company’s team for the next Special Olympics Competition. Although reluctant at first, he took on the challenge and his team finished second to Texaco. Treacy’s willingness to step to the plate opened up many growth opportunities within his career.
“The following year we ran off six straight championships and won the Nationals once; it was a blast. The next thing I knew I was learning how to be an account executive at advertising; I never thought I would do that, and it was all because I ran a sports team a second time.”
He is now involved with helping to create and develop the recently launched “Divorce Dating” website and mobile dating app with famous divorce attorney and expert Vikki Ziegler, star of the Bravo TV series Untying the Knot.
“I would urge you in your life to take the opportunity where it is, and don’t spend so much time worrying,” said Treacy in his concluding comments. “Take the courses you like; work on the things you want to do; and work hard at everything.”
