Martin Scanlon
| Funding Student Success! |
Martin Scanlon ’91 is a Finger Lakes native born and raised in Corning. He and his sister remain a permanent fixture in Corning as they both appear in “The People Wall,” the photo installation by Elliot Erwitt, a prominent New York City photographer during the 1970s, which remains on display at the courtyard side of City Hall in Nasser Civic Plaza. The wall, which was installed in 1976, features life-sized, full-color images of local Corning people who lived and worked in the area at the time. Martin shares the space with such prominent figures as then mayor and his wife, Joe and Eleanor Nasser, as well as former Congressman Amory Houghton, Jr.
Martin would make his way up the hill to Corning Community College in the early 1990s after transferring from SUNY Brockport. While at Brockport, he studied criminal justice but would eventually switch his major to business administration and receive his associates in 1991.
“Like so many students, I didn’t really know what I wanted to study in college or what I wanted to do for a profession. The access to and support of the CCC professors was a big differentiator and critical to making a pivot in my field of study. It was a great developmental and educational experience for me.”
In addition to his studies at CCC, Martin was a member of the Lacrosse team and like many students who studied business at CCC, found ample support from Professor David Quattrone. Martin is continually grateful for Professor Quattrone’s encouragement. Upon graduating from CCC, Martin continued his education at Binghamton University majoring in Management with a concentration in Finance where he graduated in 1993 with a bachelor’s of science.
With degree in hand, he would embark on his career journey. He started with the Hilton Hotels Corporation and would become Assistant Controller before leaving in 1998 for Sallie Mae where he worked for nearly 7 years as the VP of Finance. In 2005, Martin began work at Washington Mutual as a Vice President and National Manager. There he would lead the student relationships and education lending division. He would depart Washington Mutual in 2006 to become the Chief Financial Officer of EdFund. As CFO of EdFund, he directed and managed their strategic planning, tracked company-wide performance measures, and monitored their financial and business activities.
In 2010, Martin joined forces with his current employer ECMC, through a merger, where he began as the Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO. There he was responsible for finance across both the guarantor (ECMC) and career and technical education (ECMC Education) business lines. It was in this position that he would begin working on his MBA from MMS University of California, Davis Graduate School for Management. While pursuing his further education, Martin would become President and CEO of ECMC Holding in 2014 and remained in that position until August 2018. At that point, he began his current position as CFO of ECMC Group, which also included a move to Minnesota.
ECMC Group is a nonprofit corporation whose vision is to empower underserved communities to thrive through education. ECMC Group's mission is to help students succeed by creating, providing, and investing in innovative educational opportunities. In his current position, Martin helps promote and maintain ECMC Group’s mission through business development opportunities and overseeing all financial operations from taxes to budgeting.
Some notable milestones in Martin’s life include: receiving the “One to Watch” Alumni Association Award from CCC in 2003 and his marriage to his beloved wife Anna Shelton in 2006. Martin has more than 20 years of experience leading high-growth businesses, including multiple Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations and consumer finance firms. Martin currently resides in Folsom, California, a welcomed return to the sunny state after a few years in the Twin Cities of Minnesota area.