Marianne Carlton was appointed LMU Loyola Law School’s Associate Dean for Finance and Administration in 2018 after nearly 25 years as a corporate adviser, watchdog and accounting professional.
Carlton’s portfolio as associate dean is broad. A principal responsibility is overseeing the law school’s financial affairs and operations. In addition to fiscal affairs, she oversees a diverse team that ensures that the behind-the-scenes administrative functions keep the school running smoothly; from campus operations and facilities to faculty administrative support, from campus security to the in-house graphics office – not to mention the bookstore and Sonia’s Café. Additionally, her portfolio includes the law school’s instructional technology team, which maintains essential classroom infrastructure and remote learning systems.
In one of her first major projects, Carlton collaborated with the tax law faculty to launch the virtual component of the school’s prestigious Graduate Tax Program. She directed a competitive bidding process to identify a qualified vendor partner for the project and negotiated the partnership agreement. A cross functional team of staff worked alongside the faculty and vendor throughout this process to onboard the new system in record time.
Carlton’s involvement across the university is broad. In addition to her responsibilities at LLS, university leadership called upon Carlton to serve on steering committees that oversaw the competitive bidding for new human resource and financial software systems, bookstore improvements as well as various hiring committees.
Carlton received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from LMU in1993, and passed all four parts of the CPA exam in her first sitting during her final semester. She joined KPMG’s audit practice upon graduation, eventually serving as an audit senior manager. Over the course of her 19-year tenure with KPMG, she also led the campus recruiting department in Los Angeles and directed resource management for the audit practice, where she oversaw staffing of client assignments for a 500 member team across the Pacific Southwest. She also served on the board of KPMG’s Network of Women (KNOW), served her alma mater as a founding member of the Accounting Advisory Board, and worked with accounting faculty to launch a mock interview program for accounting students.
She later brought her recruiting expertise to Tatum, a company that recruits and places interim C-Level executives. Within one year, Carlton quadrupled the firm’s pool of executives and increased its revenue by 1,200%. While at Tatum, Carlton returned to LMU as a volunteer adjunct professor to co-teach “The CFO Perspective” course in the graduate College of Business Administration. As a result of her many years of dedication to LMU, and her distinguished achievements in the field of accounting, the LMU Department of Accounting honored Carlton as the 2018 Alumna of the Year.
Long passionate about education, Carlton co-founded and serves on the board of a foundation that provides support, resources and educational opportunities for students and schools in her hometown community of Lennox, CA. In addition, she has led her local PTA and volunteered with Junior Achievement and the Girl Scouts. She resides in Redondo Beach with her husband, two daughters and one son.