George "Trigger" Burke,  a trial attorney in Quincy, Mass.,  was a basketball standout while a student at UMass Amherst and went on to play for the Boston Celtics.  The Athletic Hall of Fame at the Mullins Center on the Amherst campus is named in his honor. He has endowed a scholarship fund that has enabled dozens of students from Quincy to attend UMass. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in government from UMass Amherst in 1956, he earned a law degree from Boston College Law School. Burke received an honorary doctorate from UMass Amherst in 1996 and was awarded the Chancellor's Medal in 2001. Burke lives in Quincy.

Paul J. Carney is a private investor and consultant for start up technology companies. He was the first corporate controller at Google Inc., and has served as a corporate controller at Adept Technology Inc., Ampex Corporation, Xylogics Inc., and Laventhol & Horwath, CPA. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting and information systems from UMass Amherst in 1982 and a master’s degree in business administration from Suffolk University. Carney lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Douglas Cliggott is chief investment officer at Dover Corporate Responsibility Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut based investment management firm. He has held key positions with Brummer & Partners, J. P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Alfred Berg Securities. Cliggott is a member of the UMass Foundation Investment Advisory Committee and the UMass Amherst Economics Department Advisory Board.  He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from UMass Amherst in 1978. Cliggott lives in Westchester  County, New York.

Thomas W. Cole Jr. has been interim chancellor at UMass Amherst since September, 2007. He was the first president of Clark Atlanta University, a historically black, four-year liberal arts college, created in 1988 when Atlanta University merged with Clark College. He led the school from 1989 to 2002, when he retired and was named president emeritus. Cole previously served as chancellor of the West Virginia Board of Regents, president of West Virginia State College, and president and CEO of Great Schools Atlanta. He holds a B.A. from Wiley College and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago.