Educator's Blood, Business Brain: Alum brings global experience to Foundation board

A love for education runs in Jay Nibbe's blood. "The passion is strong in my entire family. My father is a teacher, my sister is a teacher, I would have been a teacher but I'm instead focused on business and economics," he says.

While that zeal was shifted away from teaching, he still finds a way to contribute to furthering quality education through his family's private foundation, and recently, through joining the Minnesota State University Moorhead Foundation board.

"Being on the Foundation board is a way to give back to a place that was instrumental in starting my career," he says.

Jay graduated from MSUM in 1985 and immediately started as a tax advisor at Ernst & Young, working his way up to senior management over the course of his career until he retired as the global vice chair of markets in 2024. By the end of his career, he was responsible for leading the overall market approach for this big-four accounting firm, a company that spans the globe providing services in over 150 countries.

"The success I've been able to have I can trace back to the foundational education experience I had at MSUM," Jay says. 

What initially drew him to MSU Moorhead was the campus and the proximity to home, as well as his friends that were in the Fargo-Moorhead area. While majoring in accounting & finance, Jay not only learned technical skills, but a variety of soft skills that he attributes to being one of the reasons he's had such an illustrious career.

"Going to college, and learning under professors with guidelines, taught me the need to know my audience, which has helped me in leadership in my career," he says.

Jay also worked at the post office and as a Resident Assistant (RA) in his time at MSUM, which is a role that grew his skill of mediation, and imparted on him the responsibilities of leadership.

"I had to make sure students were safe and respectful of those around them, and do it in a way that's respectful and doesn't create confrontation and conflict," he says.

Jay sees leadership and empathy as skills learned at MSUM that directly carried over to his role in management positions: "That skill helped me to lead teams and develop others, but also understand the needs they have," he says.

These skills are what Jay sees as something unique that higher education offers, due to the diversity of students and cultures presented at a university. These new experiences and cultures get students out of their comfort zone, and allows them to grow in a positive way. 

"We're better when we understand cultural differences and ways in which people listen and communicate," he says.

It was these foundational experiences gained at MSUM that propelled Jay to value higher education and provide better access to college through his philanthropy. In joining MSU Moorhead's Foundation board, he's hoping to continue that goal.

"The Foundation is providing opportunities to people who may not otherwise be able to afford college, which is important," Jay says. "I'm hoping to bring to the board the knowledge of what is happening in the business world and the increasing skill sets businesses need and want."

In bringing his expertise back to Minnesota State University Moorhead, Jay is giving back in a big way to the university that has given so much to him and his family: "My father, sister, brother, two of my nephews, and three of my cousins graduated from MSUM."

Jay is continuing to pave the way for future generations, providing access to the quality educational experience that has stuck with him his entire life.