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Alumna Robin Sasman ’18 was appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the prestigious Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

She started her new job on April 1, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The orchestra has plans to open its new home in the fall, a project for which the organization was involved in a 140 million dollars capital campaign.

Ms. Sasman is a 2018 graduate of Carthage with a music degree in piano pedagogy, studying under the guidance of Professor Debbie Masloski. Ms. Sasman was a non-traditional student with a family of her own. She already held a bachelor’s degree in journalism and finance, and also a master’s degree in finance. She had spent a long time in the corporate world until she discovered her love of music. She then decided to apply to Carthage to become a music major.

“Outside of Carthage, with the exception of my immediate family, everybody questioned me about this crazy decision. It is hard to explain that you want to do something just because you really love it,” Ms. Sasman stated. “But I must be totally honest — nobody inside Carthage ever asked me why I was doing such a crazy thing. They understood that if you are studying music, you know why; you can’t live without it.”

Upon graduation in 2018, Ms. Sasman started looking for opportunities combining both fields, and she got an internship at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). She eventually ended up taking an interim role there not long after her internship started.

“The director of financial planning and analysis at CSO, as planned, was taking a maternity leave only a few months after I started, and there was somebody lined up to take the position as the interim,” Ms. Sasman added. “However, that person had just received an offer for a permanent position in another organization so CSO was suddenly in need of somebody to cover for the director of financial planning and analysis position for several months; I was in the right place at the right time.”

A few months later, after completing her employment at CSO, Ms. Sasman found another job at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO). “I wanted to stay connected with the arts and work hard,” she said.

A short time after her arrival, the position of CFO became available, and they asked Ms. Sasman if she wanted to be considered for it. “One thing led to another, and here we are,” she said.

Ms. Sasman now holds the title of CFO for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, reporting directly to the president and CEO.

“I just think it’s ironic that I didn’t intentionally try to find synergy between the two fields. I didn’t see it coming together, but it really has,” she adds.

Ms. Sasman also expressed that, in her view, there is quite a need for people with management abilities but who also understand the music side as well. And she finished with a very good thought: “If you want to do something, get in the door, work hard, show that you care…and somebody will notice!”

Congratulations Robin Sasman! We are so very proud of you!

SPONSORING DEPARTMENT, OFFICE, OR ORGANIZATION:

Music Department

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, egarcianovelli@carthage.edu