Charlton Center for Ethical Investing
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
2021
Bio:
Richard “Dick” Charlton has devoted much of his life as a leader to the financial industry. Because of his trademark forward-thinking and innovation, he has received national honors; and through his philanthropic giving to University of Detroit Mercy, he is ensuring that more people will use those same attributes to make the field more ethical and inclusive in the future.
Mr. Charlton is a 1965 graduate of the University of Detroit’s College of Engineering & Science and earned an MBA from Wayne State University. In 1986, after obtaining experience at Michigan Bell, AT&T and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, he founded New England Pension Consultants. Today NEPC, as it is now known, is one of the largest and most well-known consulting firms in the industry; Charlton continues to serve as its Chairman Emeritus. He is in demand across the country as a speaker and has earned many honors for the ethical leadership he demonstrates in the field.
Early in his career, Mr. Charlton believed it was important that the people in management positions at the companies he worked for should be representative of the community they served. He worked to achieve that goal, which led to a lifetime focus on creating opportunities for women and minorities.
In 2019, Mr. Charlton established the Charlton Center for Ethical Investing with a $3-million gift to the College of Business Administration. It is the largest-ever gift to the University from a living alumnus. The Center, one of several centers of excellence at the University, recruits minority students into the financial markets field by providing scholarships and partnerships with institutional investment companies. The Center also hosts a speaker series of prominent investment experts and provides programmatic support for finance students to participate in investment competitions and visit financial industry leaders. The University and Mr. Charlton expect the Center to make a direct and measurable impact on the recruitment of minority students into the financial service industries for many years.
For these reasons and so many more, University of Detroit Mercy is proud to bestow Richard M. Charlton with the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Commencement, University of Detroit Mercy, May 15, 2021.