Ron Butler '91 BSBA (Accounting) Wins 2024 Alumni of the Year Award

Each year, The University of Arizona acknowledges a group of alumni for their achievements, public service, advocacy for education, volunteerism and service to students, the colleges and the University. The 2024 Eller College of Management Alumni of the Year Award winner is Ronald (Ron) Butler ’91 BSBA (Accounting).

Butler grew up in the small mining town of San Manuel, Arizona. As a teenager, he was fortunate to land an office job with the mining company where his father worked, where he eventually received a scholarship to attend the University of Arizona—becoming the first in his family to go to college.

After earning his degree in accounting, Butler began his career in Tucson before moving to Phoenix to join Ernst & Young (EY). He is now the managing partner of the firm’s Phoenix office—a role he has held for over 15 years—and the U.S. Mining and Metals Leader for EY. 

While pursuing his successful career, Butler always finds time to give back to the community, the University and the Eller College of Management. Among his many contributions, he is on the board of directors of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, the Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Education Forward Arizona. He also is a member of the Eller College National Board of Advisors and the W.P. Carey School of Business Dean’s Council.

In 2004, Butler started the Business Career Awareness Program (BCAP) at Eller to introduce minority high school students to accounting and the business world. He has championed the program—and support for the college more broadly—at EY. The EY Foundation has contributed $500,000 in support of BCAP, and giving by the foundation and EY professionals to the Dhaliwal-Reidy School of Accountancy in the last 10 years has exceeded $600,000.

Butler, along with the other 2024 Alumni of the Year Award recipients, will be honored at the Alumni of the Year Awards Ceremony on February 22 at the DoubleTree by Hilton-Reid Park in Tucson, Arizona.