Local among top 40 at AU business school

By Dale Liesch | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Some say that it is important, no matter how successful one gets, to never forget where one came from and there is at least one former Dadeville resident who took that to heart.

Allison Gittings O’Sullivan was recently named one of the top 40 students in 40 years at the Auburn University College of Business.

O’Sullivan graduated as Valedictorian from Dadeville High School in 1981 before attending Auburn University. O’Sullivan graduated from Auburn in 1985 with a degree in accounting.

“Accounting is something I really enjoyed in college,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s been a great degree to have over the years.”

O’Sullivan said understanding the language of business by taking accounting has been very important to her over the years although she started in pre-law.

“Business school matched my personality much better,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan attributes her later success to her early days in Dadeville.

“My teachers helped me set high goals school,” said O’Sullivan. “I was always a good student. I was voted most likely to succeed.”

O’Sullivan now works for the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta and has for the past 19 years in many different capacities. She started as an accountant for the company before moving into the risk management department and finally into financial talent development.

“Its great to have had a whole career in different functions,” said O’sullivan.

O’sullivan will also have an opportunity to work with her alma mater as part of the college of business advisory board at Auburn to help steer and manage the curriculum for the future.

Although she now lives in Atlanta and has for almost two decades she is still and will always be a Dadeville resident.

“I’m still a small town girl,” said O’Sullivan. “I may live in Atlanta but I still come home to relieve the stress.”

O’Sullivan, her husband Mike, and three children Lacey, Bailey and Lauren visit Dadeville on a regular basis and spend plenty of time on the lake.

“I love Lake Martin, we come here a lot,” said O’Sullivan. “That’s what we do now we spend time on the lake. I still water ski and I am teaching my kids to water ski as well.”