HUNTSVILLE – The University of Alabama in Huntsville College of Business and wealth advisory firm Keel Point recently celebrated the start of their new $100,000 collaboration – the Keel Point Professorship in Family Wealth – and welcomed the return to UAH of the professor who will fill that role, Dr. Frank Mullins.
UAH and Keel Point representatives described the significance of the partnership during a check presentation ceremony at the Business Administration Building on the UAH campus. The professorship begins this fall.
“The Keel Point Professorship in Family Wealth is important and impactful,” said UAH President Dr. Charles Karr. “When you have a name like Keel Point associated with UAH, it’s a stamp of approval, not just for our faculty but also for prospective students and other faculty members we’re trying to recruit. We really appreciate this, and we’re excited about joining with you and serving this role.
“Certainly, we are extremely excited that Dr. Mullins will be serving as the inaugural Keel Point Professor in Family Wealth.”
Dr. Jason Greene, dean of the College of Business, added his thanks while introducing Mullins. For many in attendance, it was a reintroduction.
Mullins received his undergraduate degree at Oakwood University. Then he worked for IBM before earning his Ph.D. at Syracuse University. He joined the UAH faculty in 2017 but left in August 2023 to teach at the University of Rhode Island. He returned to Huntsville last summer.
Greene praised Mullins’ accomplishments as a researcher, citing more than 10 published articles, including five in a journal on the Financial Times’ Top 50 journals list.
“That speaks to the influence of his research and the recognition that it gets,” Greene said. “He’s also been a guest editor for the journal Human Resource Management on that Top 50 list. That’s a privilege very few academics get, and it’s in recognition of his leadership in the field.”
Greene also noted that UAH students have expressed their appreciation for Mullins’ teaching talents in past evaluations.
“Getting great faculty to work with our students, to mentor them, to teach them, that’s really important, and professorships are a key component of that,” Greene said. “We partner with those in our community to build innovation in business and business education.
“I think this professorship really exemplifies that kind of partnership and that kind of collaboration.”
Keel Point CEO Robert C. Mayes, a UAH alumnus, said that he and his colleagues were honored to collaborate with Mullins and the College of Business.
“I’m very fortunate to work among 80 men and women who have an incredible heart and a desire to care for clients,” Mayes said. “We serve over 1,200 families, mainly throughout the southeast United States, and 30 or more of those families require family office services. We have to help these clients be able to harness their wealth to live with peace and purpose, and that, to us, is total alignment with the research and innovation that you, Dr. Mullins, bring to UAH.
“We’re excited to be a part of this, and we simply say, ‘Welcome home.’”
For Mullins, the Keel Point Professorship in Family Wealth is further proof that the professional risk he took two decades ago was the right choice.
“It was 20 years ago this month that I left a promising career as a future HR executive at IBM to pursue a dream of becoming a business professor,” Mullins said. “Now that I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on my career, I’ve come to the conclusion that this risk that I took proved to be worth it.
“I found that not only was I educating students, but I was inspiring students as well. Not only was I producing research or publishing articles, I was also impacting organizations. Not only was I sitting on committees, but I was also influencing policy and practice in both academic and professional settings. While I found these activities to be personally rewarding, I never imagined I would one day merit an honor such as this. Yet, here I stand, and for this I am extremely grateful.
“To Robert Mayes, I would like to personally and publicly thank you for your gift and for believing in my research, which places a strong emphasis on family businesses and broad-based employee ownership. I look forward to partnering with you and the Keel Point team in the months and years to come.
“To Jason Greene, my dean, I would like to thank you for your persistence and efforts in helping to make this happen.”
Mullins also thanked his personal support system: his wife, Dr. Maquisha Mullins; their children, Jared, Darin and Caleb; his mother, Deborah Mullins, and God, “my ultimate career manager.”
And with a nod to Karr, Mullins fully reclaimed his UAH identity:
“Go Chargers!”
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