Mario de Armas and Ruth Ann McEwen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut don\u2019t let de Armas fool you. He may claim he\u2019s the one gaining from remaining close to FIU but the School of Accounting so appreciates his efforts that they named him their 2012 Alumnus of the Year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Mario de Armas does for this school and our graduates matters a great deal,\u201d said Ruth Ann McEwen, the school\u2019s director \u201cHis energy level, his dedication to our programs and the enormous way he helps graduates get their start in a competitive profession make very important contributions. This award is just a token of our abundant gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Armas, who has served as the chair of the school\u2019s advisory board since 2009, says he is very flattered to receive the recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the first graduating classes, students from the School of Accounting have had great successes in the Big Four firms, in the profession and in private enterprise,\u201d he said, his alumni pride showing through. \u201cThis strong reputation for producing outstanding graduates helped build the College of Business into what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surprise actually worked.<\/em><\/p>\nDe Armas found out about being named the school\u2019s Alumnus of the Year at a Meet and Greet for accounting alumni and students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a regular event and then they announced my award,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a bit of an ambush. Many people from my firm who were there knew about the surprise but never let on.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added with his usual humor, \u201cI was lucky to be wearing a tie that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
[set_id=72157631438254116]<\/div>\n
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Some alumni return to campus for nostalgic reasons, to relive the \u201cglory days,\u201d to stay connected with friends or for other sentimental reasons. Mario de Armas (BACC \u201985) comes back to Florida International University (FIU) to gather brilliant young graduates for his firm, the Florida offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where he serves as market managing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":19985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1748,2339,2388],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19960"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19986,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19960\/revisions\/19986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}