Wesley Pandoff receives 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award
Wesley Pandoff, senior vice president and corporate controller at Sonic Automotive, received the School of Business Administration’s 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award at the school’s Annual Recognition and Awards Program at the Detroit Institute of Arts on May 2.
In his position since 2007, Pandoff is responsible for all accounting policies, corporate accounting, financial analysis and financial reporting for the Fortune 500 company with $8 billion in annual sales.
An active alumnus, Pandoff is a dedicated supporter of the business school’s students in both in the classroom and workplace. Each semester over the last two years he has returned to campus from his home in North Carolina to lecture three class sessions of BA 2020, Introduction to Business. Additionally, in the last 18 months he has hired seven graduates into promising management positions at Sonic Automotive.
“I decided it was time for me to start giving back. I have been the most fortunate person on Earth, enjoying many career opportunities in my 31 years since graduating from Wayne State,” he explained.
A tireless believer in today’s youth, he also started a college recruiting program at his company called the “Controller Foundation Program,” concentrating on recruiting graduates from urban schools who have maintained good GPAs and worked while attending school.
Pandoff received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Wayne State University School of Business Administration in 1981 and an MBA from the University of Detroit in 1991. He and his wife Susan are the proud parents of four adult children and live in Charlotte, North Carolina.
