Jeff Genthner
Senior Vice President, Bally Sports South
Genthner is a 1980 telecommunication graduate and 2013 Outstanding Alumni Award recipient. He served as president of the ComArtSci alumni board from 2018 to 2020.
What was it like serving as president of the ComArtSci alumni board?
It was a humbling privilege to serve along side so many incredibly accomplished Spartan alums who share a common passion and generosity in giving their time and financial support for the benefit of ComArtSci. Collectively, the Alumni Board is an invaluable resource that can have such a significant impact on the success of the college and career path of the students
How has your MSU degree or experience benefitted your career?
The combination of my ComArtSci degree, my relevant internship experiences and the networking connections and other related job experiences I created for myself without a doubt gave me a competitive advantage in starting my career and bending trajectory of my professional growth upward.
What is your hope for the future of ComArtSci?
Three words that I use almost every day: Anticipate, Innovate and Communicate. These words are my compass point for constantly thinking about how we navigate our path in today’s wide open world of how content is created, filtered/processed, delivered and consumed. Collectively, these words keep me focused on where we are going as content creators, thought influencers and distributors. My hope is that ComArtSCi continues to build upon its many accomplishments and recognition as a leading institution by training students to anticipate what the future of “content” might look like, innovate how a society can best create and universally share content and make us mindful as a society how we can instill greater social responsibility to define and defend the integrity of all that is communicated.
What role can alumni play in the future of ComArtSci?
This is the question that unfortunately sends too many alumni into the abyss fearing they will land on the fundraising call cycle for eternity. But the fact is everyone who ever graduated from ComArtSci, no matter how many decades ago, still shares in the legacy of the College with its many accomplishments and outstanding international recognition and ranking. As a ComArtSci alum, there is so much one can do to pass on this legacy, YOUR legacy. Make yourself available as a mentor to counsel and network with today’s ComArtSci students. Be a ComArtSci ambassador in your community by reaching out to other alums and encouraging them to reconnect to the College. And a start can be as simple as making the journey back to campus to see for yourself the state-of-the-art CAS Media Greenhouse and/or spend 30 minutes with a member of the CAS staff or Alumni Board to explore how you can get involved. You will be amazed at how memorable just one day back on the MSU campus can be.