MEDIA, Pa. — Penn State alumnus Steve Panton, who earned an MBA from the Smeal College of Business, has been appointed to the Penn State Brandywine Advisory Board. Advisory Board members serve as ambassadors for the campus and provide guidance on many areas, including academic programs, student life, civic engagement, and career pathways and preparation.

Panton was connected to Brandywine by fellow Advisory Board member Chris Bradley, whom he had met professionally.

“I was looking for a new opportunity to give back to students or young adults,” Panton said. “I want to provide my expertise and communicate to the students of Brandywine that success is not linear, and if you continue to stick with the goals that you set for yourself, you'll eventually achieve those goals.”

“I hope to give back from my experiences that I have attained over the years, because it was not always easy. I want to impress upon the students at Brandywine that although you may fail at times, you shouldn’t let it keep you down, and instead, take that opportunity as a learning experience and grow from it.”

Panton added that he wants to help promote the Penn State brand in the region and attract more students to Brandywine.

Panton is currently communications and collaboration manager for Gannett Fleming, a global architecture, engineering and construction company with more than 50 locations across the U.S. and internationally. He oversees network infrastructure and unified communications services.

“I started off my career as a telecom technician, moving physical phones, adding and changing phone numbers in a mortgage call center,” Panton said. “While working for this company, I attended telecommunication training courses through Global Knowledge. These courses sparked my interest in information technology, which I eventually obtained my undergraduate degree in. A few years later, I made the decision to obtain my MBA from Penn State Smeal to assist me in understanding the business aspect of what I was doing. After graduation, I moved into management and began leading global teams.”

His experience prior to Gannett Fleming included managing telecommunications for a global law firm where his travels took him to Japan, Shanghai and other international locations to open sites and manage international teams.

Panton said his graduate work at Penn State helped prepare him to advance in his career.

“I had a wonderful experience in my MBA program,” he said. “Smeal gave me the confidence to hone my leadership skills. The biggest thing I learned at Smeal was how to speak business to people and tell them how things will affect them from a business standpoint because it’s a different language than engineering.”