Machtley’s influence clear at Bryant and beyond

QUICK LEARNER: Ronald K. Machtley acknowledges he didn’t know much about operating an insitution of higher education when he was first hired as president at what was then Bryant College. The school has since become a university. He’s stepping down in May, after 24 years on the job. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
QUICK LEARNER: Ronald K. Machtley acknowledges he didn’t know much about operating an insitution of higher education when he was first hired as president at what was then Bryant College. The school has since become a university. He’s stepping down in May, after 24 years on the job. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

2019 PBN Business Excellence Awards
CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP: Ronald K. Machtley, President, Bryant University


When Ronald K. Machtley was growing up in Johnstown, Pa., he knew college was “the only ticket out,” or he’d likely end up toiling away in one of the nearby steel mills.

He attended the U.S. Naval Academy, then went on active duty, spending some of his time in Newport in 1971. He decided to make Rhode Island his permanent home.

Machtley, Bryant University president since 1996, has devoted his life to public service, including a stint as a Naval officer, serving in the Navy for five years and the Naval Reserve for another 20 years, and being a U.S. congressman from 1989-1995.

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“My parents were a huge inspiration to me,” in terms of kick-starting his lifelong community service, said Machtley, who is set to retire from Bryant next May. “They were always involved in the community, be it with the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, or coaching sports teams. They did whatever they could do.”

With five children, Machtley’s parents worked hard, “saving for milk, not college, but wanting us all to go to college,” he said. “And we did; they made it work.”

Machtley said one of his childhood mentors was a high school football coach who was an English teacher and “had a different philosophy on sports; you had to be good in the classroom, first and foremost. We still keep in touch.”

‘You can be more successful than you or anyone around you thought.’
RONALD K. MACHTLEY, Bryant University president

Later in life, another mentor was the late President George H. W. Bush, whom he accompanied to China during Machtley’s time in Congress; Bush had served in China as head of the U.S. Liaison Office from 1974-1975.

“President Bush was definitely one of my heroes and a role model,” Machtley said. “I was pleased and honored to know him, and in 2008, he was our commencement speaker at Bryant.”

Machtley acknowledges that he was hired at Bryant “not knowing anything about management of higher education,” but he was guided throughout his tenure by various chairmen of the board who were “all very unique and great mentors, all of whom inspired me to lift my game up.”

His contributions to community are many, including serving on the board of directors for the Rhode Island Foundation for 10 years. “It’s the largest charitable organization in the state,” he said. “It helps so many groups and people, it really makes a difference. Being on that board was very meaningful.”

Machtley currently serves as a director for the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council, where he is a past president, and in 2012, he earned the Rhode Island State Merit Award in Higher Education from the New England Board of Higher Education.

He points to many things that highlight his community involvement, but he said one that’s had an especially gratifying impact on the community is the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership, which began in 2010 at Bryant. It was an idea that came about during a dinner Machtley had with Alan G. Hassenfeld, a former Bryant trustee and former CEO at Hasbro Inc.

He is also quick to credit is wife, Kati Machtley, for her community involvement; she co-founded the Women’s Summit at Bryant 21 years ago; he said his only connection to the popular event “is having married a woman smarter than me who runs it.”

In February, the couple gifted $1 million to boost the Expanding the World of Opportunity capital campaign at Bryant past $100 million.

When Machtley turned 70 last year, he said, he realized it was time to “stop at the top of my game and do something else. It’s a demanding job and I wanted to keep working in a capacity where I could do it, and not have someone say, ‘It’s time to go.’ ”

As to his legacy, he said with a laugh, “Well for one thing, I hope it’s that, ‘He wasn’t bashful about trying.’ But mostly I hope people look at Bryant and see if you work hard, are committed, find your passion, you can be more successful than you or anyone around you thought. You can make a difference.”

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1 COMMENT

  1. Whatever the magnitude and (sometimes debatable?) nature of Machtley’s achievements at Bryant, they don’t really justify the 6.2 million “bonus” extension he received from the College a couple of years ago when he was already on the brink of retirement. A “golden parachute,” or what? Remember, he was already receiving 800k+ as his regular salary and his wife also received a tidy annual sum. Is this really an example of the equity, efficiency and fiscal responsibility of the “private sector” in our era of capitalism’s growing economic disparities in America?