Alumni Gift Supports Community and Connection

By Gene Rebeck

As a tax principal at Deloitte, Renae Welder, ’93 BSB, builds strong connections with clients. Relationship-building is deeply important to her, and she views her recent gift to the Connecting Carlson building transformation as a way to help create “more connection between students, faculty and alumni, which also is crucial outside of the classroom.”

Welder has had a successful career providing corporate tax advice to clients for 30 years. She’s currently based in Los Angeles but spends much of her time traveling for clients. Welder has noticed that among her firm’s newer hires, “so much of their interactions are via technology that some of the training we’re doing now is beyond the technical aspects. How do you build relationships with clients? And even with each other?” In Welder’s view, a strong and connected learning community can provide important professional benefits.

Last year, Welder was seeking a new opportunity to benefit her alma mater. She learned about Connecting Carlson through serving on Carlson’s Board of Advisors. The building transformation targets core spaces within the school to promote greater student collaboration and elevate experiential learning opportunities, among other objectives. Remembering her own experience as a Carlson student, Welder became excited about the idea of adding more community spaces where students could spend time together outside of class.

There was another impetus behind Welder’s gift to the Connecting Carlson project. Last fall, Carlson Director of Development Abigail Loyd connected Welder with Marilyn Carlson Nelson, for whom the school building will be named. Welder was thrilled to meet Carlson Nelson, whom Welder describes as “an inspiration as a female leader and a philanthropist.”

“She was very inspiring,” Welder recalls. “We talked about the importance of students, especially women, seeing other women’s names” associated with the Connecting Carlson building project.

Welder’s gift helped the Connecting Carlson fundraising campaign hit its $40 million goal. Hers was one of the last gifts to the project, which will be completed this fall. It’s her hope that “this kind of space to practice interpersonal relationships will benefit students in so many ways, personally as well as professionally.”

Prior to supporting Connecting Carlson, Welder established scholarship programs at Minnesota Carlson and the University of Minnesota Law School, where she earned her JD in 1996. Along with annual giving, Welder participates in special fundraising campaigns for both schools. It’s easy for her to come up with reasons why she wants to continue supporting her alma mater: “Carlson is so advanced in its curriculum beyond a lot of other business schools,” Welder says. In addition to providing technical business education, Carlson has “become an overall professional development program.”