A Savvy Investor Puts Stock in Northeastern

“I’ve been very fortunate,” she says, “and my education was the foundation of my life.”

Bullard remembers the instant her career took flight. Working full time as a secretary in an investment firm to finance her evening undergraduate studies, she became transfixed by asset management.

“I told my boss, ‘I’d really like to do what you do,’” Bullard says.

His reply: The company would never hire a woman to manage money. “It was a fabulous motivator,” she says, “and the year I graduated from college, I had his job.”

And she didn’t stop there.

As the lone woman among her corporate peers, Bullard knew that a top-performing portfolio and a graduate degree would be key to her success. So after 31 years working for others and earning her MBA at Northeastern, she struck out on her own and today manages assets for 100 clients as founder and president of the one-woman investment advisory firm A.T. Whitehead, Inc., which she named in honor of family members.

At Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Bullard seeks to help others’ careers soar. With a generous provision in her will, she intends to fund a distinguished professorship, an endowed scholarship, and an international co-op stipend—all in her name.

“I want each student to be the best person they can be,” Bullard says. “Not only academically, but as a balanced individual who relishes life because they’re prepared and well-equipped for it.”