Mary Beth Farrell ’79, former executive vice president of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, will be presented with the University’s President’s Medal at the President’s Business Council (PBC) Tenth Annual Award Dinner on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, at The Pierre in New York City.

Farrell joined Equitable Life, later to become AXA Equitable, in 1999 as a senior vice president and deputy controller, overseeing expense budgeting and forecasting, analysis of budget versus actual expense results, expense accounting and accounts payable. She spent more than 10 years in various senior-level management positions with the company. She held the position of executive vice president of finance and corporate administrative services and later became the executive vice president of service delivery and vice chair of AXA Advisors, LLC, the firm’s retail distribution channel. She was also a member of the company’s Executive Management Committee.

Among her responsibilities at AXA were oversight and management of the approximately 1,400 employees who provide service to the sales force and the end customer. The service centers provide business support for new business, in-force accounts. Total customers served exceeded three million. She also oversaw and prepared the company’s strategic plan, management of the AXA Way (Six Sigma) programs, management of various financial functions, as well as management of corporate sourcing and procurement.

Prior to joining AXA Equitable, Farrell was senior vice president and controller at GreenPoint Financial/GreenPoint Bank, where she managed staff in the functions of SEC, regulatory and Board of Directors Financial reporting and all accounting and treasury operations. Before GreenPoint, she was with Citicorp/Citibank where she held positions of increasing responsibility, including: vice president and accounting policy officer, director of financial reporting & accounting policy at Citibank FSB (California) and director of accounting policy and taxes at Citibank FSB (Illinois). Immediately after her graduation from Scranton, Farrell began her career at KPMG Peat Marwick as a staff person and was an audit senior manager when she left in 1987.

A native of Scranton, Farrell graduated with honors earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She is a current member of the University’s Board of Trustees including serving as vice chair from 2007 to 2009, the current chair of the President’s Business Council and a former member of the Alumni Board of Governors. In addition to being a driving force behind the PBC since its inception, she is very committed to her alma mater in many ways, including serving as a mentor to the many Scranton alumni working at AXA and regularly speaking with current students to offer career direction.

In presenting an honoree with the President’s Medal, the University and the PBC recognize excellence in their field and extraordinary compassion for others. Tim Pryle ’89, executive director of the PBC, commented, “Mary Beth’s selection for the Tenth Annual Award Dinner is an excellent choice by the Honoree Selection Committee. She has been extremely instrumental in the PBC’s first decade and is a living example of the objectives that we seek to achieve.”

Proceeds from the Annual Award Dinner support the University’s Presidential Scholarship Endowment Fund. For more information on the PBC or the dinner, please contact Timothy J. Pryle ’89, executive director, at (570) 941-5837 or pbc@scranton.edu.