MassMutual CEO Highlights Collaborative Partnership with CICS

In a recent opinion piece featured by MassLive, Roger W. Crandall, chairman, president and CEO of MassMutual, explains how his company’s collaborative relationship with the UMass Amherst College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) has helped to build a talented workforce and strengthen the economy in Western Massachusetts.

Crandall highlights a 10-year, $15 million grant given to CICS by the MassMutual Foundation in 2016 to help the college enhance its data science and cybersecurity programs with additional faculty and more courses. Crandall points out that this collaboration helped grow CICS enrollment to more than 2,300 students, with more than sixty percent of graduates choosing to remain in Massachusetts. 

“This growth not only helps build a talent pipeline to fill one of the fastest growing segments of our economy,” writes Crandall, “but also serves the greater good—whether graduates use their skills to safeguard people’s privacy, fuel advances in medicine, or make financial security more affordable and accessible to those who need it the most.” 

MassMutual and the CICS Center for Data Science have worked together in a variety of additional initiatives, including the MassMutual Data Science Development Program—which offers full-time employment, mentorship from senior-level data scientists, and graduate tuition sponsorship in related courses—and MassMutual’s sponsorship of the college’s Data Science for the Common GoodTM initiative.

Read the op-ed on MassLive: https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2020/02/wmass-must-maintain-momentum-to-move-regional-economy-forward-outlook-2020-viewpoint.html