UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Penn State Smeal College of Business alumnus Timmy Garde graduated with a degree in accounting and a minor in quantitative business analysis in 1978, his relationship with the college was just beginning.
His dedication to Penn State Smeal has been defined by more than 40 years of volunteerism and philanthropy.
Garde made his first gift to Penn State Smeal — a $10 gift to the Smeal College of Business Alumni Fund — in 1983 and has given consistently to the college since then. Last fall, he pledged $100,000 to create the Tim R. Garde Discretionary Fund for the Department of Marketing. Discretionary funds like this provide flexible financial resources that University leadership can use to support a wide range of student programs and scholarships, faculty research and facilities enhancements.
He previously endowed the Tim R. Garde Trustee Scholarship and the Tim R. Garde Open Doors Scholarship at Smeal, helping dozens of students pay for their education.
According to Corey C. Phelps, John and Karen Arnold Dean of Smeal, discretionary funds like those from Garde’s gift are crucial to Smeal’s success.
“The flexibility of discretionary funding allows us to swiftly address immediate needs, support strategic initiatives, and seize opportunities that enhance education and research, and I am profoundly grateful for Timmy’s generous gift,” Phelps said. “His unwavering commitment to advancing our students’ marketing knowledge as a volunteer has been extraordinary. This gift will have a lasting impact at Smeal, empowering us to continue delivering excellence in marketing education and research.”
Garde enrolled at Penn State expecting to join his family’s business, a publicly held pharmaceutical distribution and health care manufacturing company, after graduation. He said he thought that learning about subjects such as financials, economics and marketing would help him be successful.
After graduation, he began his career as a staff accountant before joining a subsidiary of the firm in home health care and long-term care manufacturing and distribution. While there, he became a senior adviser to the board of directors responsible for corporate marketing.
When the firm was sold to another publicly held company in the late 1980s, Garde was entrenched in the marketing world.
His career in the life sciences industry grew to include the role of director of program development at Arbor, a market research firm, where he secured and oversaw marketing programs in the pharmaceutical, home health care, long-term care and managed care industries. He also spent time as senior vice president at Vox Medica and executive vice president/chief operating officer at Star Group/Calcium and chief innovation leader at LevLane, leading product launches and advising Fortune 100 life science companies on growth and brand strategies.
More recently, Garde has focused on marketing strategy and communications for clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech, digital technology, medical device and diagnostics sectors. He also provides strategic counsel and marketing services to health systems, hospitals, provider networks and payer organizations.
He currently serves as the chief growth officer at Ardelis Health, a position he’s held since 2023.
Garde said he started coming back to Penn State’s University Park campus to meet with students and talk about his career trajectory early in his career.
“I had been coming back to campus for a decade when I got a call asking me if I’d like to be even more involved at Smeal. A few meetings quickly grew into more than 12 years on the Alumni Society Board. The more I got involved, the more I wanted to do,” he said. “I met (clinical professor of marketing) Jennifer Coupland in the 2010s, and things really took off from there.”
After meeting Coupland, Garde’s volunteerism grew to include guest lecturing about life sciences marketing in Coupland’s advertising class.
“Whether he is sharing a case study or teaching students how to write a great positioning statement, Timmy really shines in the classroom,” she said. “He’s been back every year, and the students love having the opportunity to interact with him.”
Garde also conceptualized and moderates Smeal’s "Forging a Career in Branding" panel event, which is organized by the student-run marketing organization Penn State Prime. Panelists include Penn State alumni and industry experts who share their insights and experience with all aspects of branding.
“Timmy puts so much work into the branding panel — he helps set the theme, invites panelists, secures approvals to use corporate logos, drafts emails and sets questions in addition to moderating on the day of the event,” Coupland said. “Our students get a great education working with him.”
Both Coupland and Garde were proud to share that this fall will be the 10th “Forging a Career in Branding” panel event. According to Coupland, the panel has featured more than 50 Penn State alumni (mostly from Smeal) and more than 2,000 students have attended these panels to date.
Garde also was a leader in bringing the Saxbys Experiential Learning Platform to Smeal in 2018. Among the benefits to Smeal students, each semester Saxbys employs a number of students under the direction of a Student Café Executive Officer, who manages all aspects of Smeal’s Saxbys’ business. Since its inception, the Smeal Saxbys location has employed hundreds of student leaders and team members.
In recognition of his volunteerism to Smeal, Garde received the Service to Smeal Award in 2023.
“It meant so much to me to receive that award,” he said. “It took me back to something I learned from my father — if you can afford to give back your time, your energy, your knowledge, you do it. I think the same thing is true of philanthropy. That’s our responsibility. We leave Smeal with a great education, and when we find success, it’s time to give back. It’s not an ask. It’s a must do.”
Donors like Garde advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development; and increasing the University’s impact for students, families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.