Brian Bracey, who enjoyed a successful career in pharmaceutical sales and marketing, has been named an associate vice president for development with the Marshall University Foundation, Inc., Dr. Ron Area, the foundation’s CEO, announced today.
Area said he is excited about the addition of Bracey to Marshall’s development staff.
“Brian brings a wealth of experiences in sales and marketing to the foundation,” Area said. “He is bright, smart and a relationship-builder. Brian will help the foundation and the university go to the next level of private support.”
The Marshall University Foundation’s newest major gift officer has lived in Huntington for just nine years, but it wasn’t long after his arrival from the southern part of the country that he and his family developed a love for the community and Marshall University.
“I have a great pride for this community and Marshall is in the center of this community,” said Bracey, who assumed his duties at MU July 1. “I see the balance between the operations of the city and the university. They co-exist together and are strengthened by one another. I do believe one wouldn’t be here without the other.”
Bracey, his wife, Angie, and their children, Michael, now 23, and Megan, now 20, arrived in Huntington after moving from Atlanta nine years ago in a job-related move.
At Marshall, Bracey describes himself as “a broker between people’s desires and affinity for this university and matching them with the needs and direction and the vision of this campus.” In other words, he helps raise funds for the university to support its growth.
Angie Bracey works for the City of Huntington as an executive to mayor Steve Williams. Because, Brian Bracey said, of his wife’s persistence, he earned his master of business administration (MBA) from Marshall in December of 2009, which earned him the credentials needed for his current position at the foundation.
“It was a bucket list goal for me,” Bracey said. “I had come up with every excuse not to do it. Marshall had an open house, advertising their executive MBA program, and my wife saw it in the paper. She cut it out of the paper and said, ‘You need to go to this.’ ” I walked in to the open house and there was an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was (Marshall professor) Uday Tate, who had taught where I went to undergraduate college – at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana. “I thought, ‘what are the odds?’ Marshall University opened the door for me to do it. It was the right time. As my wife said, ‘It was meant to be.’ I had no more excuses.” So, Bracey pursued and received his MBA.
Bracey earned his bachelor of science in business management from Nicholls State in 1995. He has held multiple leadership positions throughout his career and has received numerous awards, recognitions and certifications.
