Alumni Association Welcomes New Volunteer Leadership
The Penn State Alumni Association is pleased to welcome new volunteer leadership, with Kelley Lynch ’87 beginning a two-year term as president on July 1. Fellow leader Anand Ganjam ’15 started his two-year term as vice president on the same day.
Lynch is the 82nd president of the Penn State Alumni Association. Her term as president runs through June 30, 2023.
"I am honored and excited to be president of our Alumni Association. We are the best and largest dues paying alumni association in the world thanks to our incredible network of volunteer leaders and creative and hard-working staff. One of my main goals is to help us to continue to evolve and to meet our members where they are and where they go – making sure we have programs and engagement opportunities for all alumni regardless of stage of life or career, geography, abilities, or interests."
She succeeds Randy Houston '91 who will serve a two-year term on the Penn State Board of Trustees as the immediate past president of the Alumni Association
“The Penn State Alumni Association is excited and proud to have an innovative and business-minded leader like Kelley Lynch leading our organization. Her passion for Penn State has shone brightly through her exemplary service to Penn State since her days as a Lion Ambassador and in every volunteer role she has held since.” Alumni Association CEO Paul Clifford ’20g said.
“Her vision to meet Penn Staters where they are by increasing support to our affiliate groups and by leveraging technology will help keep more alumni connected to Dear Old State.”
Lynch earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the Penn State Business School, now the Smeal College of Business in 1987, and her MBA from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business in 1994.
Professionally, Lynch has spent most of her career leading finance, customer satisfaction and human resources teams in helping to grow international companies based in and around Pittsburgh, PA. The industries she has worked in have varied from currently in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, to pharmaceutical services, medical equipment manufacturing, and engineering and construction companies.
Currently she is the Chief Financial Officer and VP of Operations for Othot. She enjoys working with cross functional teams to help scale and prepare companies for significant growth.
Lynch was appointed to the Council’s Executive Board in 2017 to serve as the Treasurer and Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. Prior to that, she served on the Alumni Engagement committee. Lynch was elected to the Alumni Council in 2016. She has served on the advisory board at Penn State Greater Allegheny since 2013 and is currently the co-chair for the Greater Allegheny campus' "Be Greater" campaign.
In addition to her volunteer work with Penn State, Lynch has also been involved in numerous community and church organizations in Pittsburgh including The Center for Victims, Leadership Pittsburgh, The Tepper School of Business and the finance council of her parish. She spends as much time as she can with her seven nieces and nephews, going to their various school, sporting and arts events, and working hard to make them all Penn State fans! She is also a loving fur-mommy to her dog Joey, who proudly wears his Penn State collar every day.
More on Anand Ganjam
A life member of the Penn State Alumni Association, Anand Ganjam got his start with Alumni Council with an Ex-Officio Term as the University Park Undergraduate Association President.
Ganjam became an appointed member in 2014 and served on the Development and Fundraising Committee and then the Communications Committee. In 2016, Ganjam became an Executive Board member of Alumni Council and the Committee Chair of the Young Alumni and Student Engagement Committee.
He followed that with chairing the Membership Experience Committee from 2018–2021.
Professionally, Ganjam, is a management consultant for Accenture. Anand graduated in 2015 from the Smeal College of Business and, as mentioned above, served as the University Park Undergraduate Association president during his senior year.