Abington alumnus named Penn State Alumni Fellow

Edward J. Fitzpatrick, who spent two years at Penn State Abington and graduated from the University in 1988, recently received Penn State's most prestigious alumni award, the Alumni Fellow Award. Fitzpatrick, one of 23 recipients of the award in 2010, was honored for his outstanding professional accomplishments.

The Alumni Fellow Award has been given out since 1973 to select alumni who, as leaders in their professional fields, are nominated by an academic college or campus and accept an invitation from the president of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty and staff. Only 665 alumni have been honored with the award -- each holds the lifelong title of Alumni Fellow.

Fitzpatrick is the senior vice president and chief financial officer of Motorola Inc. He joined Motorola in 2000 and was named CFO in 2009. Before joining Motorola, Fitzpatrick was assistant corporate controller for General Instrument Corp. and senior manager at Price Waterhouse. After graduating from Penn State, Fitzpatrick earned a master of business administration degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Fitzpatrick attended Abington for two years before completing his business degree in accounting at University Park. He is actively involved with Penn State Abington business students, regularly speaking in classes on topics such as career paths, business ethics and finance benchmarks. He also advises students and shares his experiences and perspective from more than 20 years in the finance profession.

During his acceptance speech, Fitzpatrick made reference to the recent Wall Street Journal article that named Penn State the number one pick for corporate recruiters.

“It’s nice to see that the rest of the country is starting to see what we’ve known all along, that Penn State is such a special place. Looking back, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I’m very glad that I chose Penn State and I’m so proud to be a Penn Stater,” Fitzpatrick said.

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