Alumni Spotlight: Dennis Gilmore

Less worry and more fun is the philosophy of Dennis J. Gilmore (’81, marketing). After 18 years of taking on jobs that were considered a “challenge” at First American (Fortune 500, #398), Gilmore was named chief executive officer of the company’s Financial Services Group in January, 2008.

Gilmore attributes his success to creating his own positions within the company – usually a position that took on a problem area within the organization with the goal of finding a way to make it profitable and streamlining operations. He also said part of this process involves having a passion for what he was doing and learning how to get along with people – skills that he helped to develop while he was a marketing major at San Diego State.

Originally from the Los Angeles-area community of Lomita, California, Gllmore said he chose to attend SDSU because it could be “reached from home on a single tank of gasoline, but it was too far to live at home”.

Once at SDSU, he joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, where, he said “the Animal House experience was not far off. We had lots of fun at Monty’s and the Aquatic Center at Mission Bay. My parents struggled to understand why they were paying for a waterskiing class.”

Dr. Michael Belch (here in 1994) was one of Gilmore’s favorite professors.

But, even though Gilmore was thoroughly enjoying college life, he was also honing social skills that would serve him well in his career. He chose to major in marketing because he liked working in group settings and he was fascinated by his marketing classes that taught how businesses operated.

He also enjoyed the classes taught by marketing professor, Dr. Michael Belch. It was Belch’s classes that took on the group projects that Gilmore liked, but Gilmore also recalls that Belch was “just a great guy. He knew how to enjoy life.”

It was also at SDSU that Gilmore went into his first business venture by renting a big house near the campus, then subletting rooms in the house to friends. In the end it didn’t work out as well as he hoped. “It was a poorly thought-through business plan,” concedes Gilmore. But it was Gilmore’s first real-world business lesson and a learning experience.

Upon graduation in 1981, Gilmore embarked on a career in the lending industry and joined First American when they acquired TRTS Data Services, the company he was working for at the time. He progressed within the company, not only by taking on trouble spots, but by taking on additional tasks. “Every company likes someone who takes on more responsibility,” said Gilmore. He also put aside any fear of failure with these challenges by adding “If you are worried and always looking behind, you’ll never move forward.”

Gilmore says that today’s SDSU business students should take a diversity of classes, especially accounting, finance and marketing and he says not to focus on one skill set because a person’s career may change as they progress through life. But most importantly, he advises students to enjoy their time at SDSU and have fun because “social skills ARE important.”