JoAnn Ash characterizes the Carlson School’s Master of Business Taxation (MBT) Program as generally quiet and unassuming. But when you’ve got something this big to celebrate, you’ve got to break loose. A year of celebratory events will culminate in a Silver Jubilee Gala May 8 to cap MBT’s 25 years as a program at the Carlson School.

(At right, Jim Ramstad, Ann Rest, Bill Frenzel, and Fred Jacobs celebrate at an earlier event, a joint Tax Executives Institute and MBT session on federal tax history.)

Despite the less-than-exciting aura surrounding such topics as taxation, MBT staff and alumni are a fun-loving bunch, said Ash, MBT Program administrator. “It’s really a fun program,” she attested.

That sense of fun comes to the forefront at the Silver Jubilee Gala, which will feature the humor of Dudley Riggs’s Brave New Workshop, the Minneapolis-based satirical comedy theatre  troupe. While Ash doesn’t know the content of the troupe’s performance, she noted that taxes and tax accountants can’t help but draw a few good-humored jabs.

The other highlight of the gala will be less jocular, but just as important, Ash said. Staff and faculty will honor important people in the history of the program and its 25 years, giving recognition and thanks to those people from the school and the business community who have made the MBT program such a success.

The germ of the MBT Program sprung up around 1973, when professor and current director Fred Jacobs, then Accounting Department Chair Bob Zimmer, and the College of Continuing Education began developing the idea of a program that centered on business taxation.

The drive for such a program came from the Twin Cities’ business community, said Ash. Businesses wanted graduates with more advanced tax skills. An advisory panel of 12 business leaders joined those at the University in developing the MBT program. The program—what staff and faculty like to call the finest graduate-level tax program in the nation—was launched officially in 1978 after years of curriculum and program development.

Focusing not only on taxation, but on business taxation, was a fortuitous move. The Carlson School’s MBT program is one of only a handful in the country that focuses specifically on business taxation. It also requires a broad variety of business courses, equivalent to an undergraduate degree in business, providing graduates with both the necessary business fundamentals and expertise in business taxation.

Twenty-five years later, a few of the founding members and long-time tax faculty members are still around, including Jacobs, Bruce Erickson, Mike Sher, Glen Berryman, Paul Gutterman, and Gary Carter.  And now it’s time to celebrate.

The gala marks the culmination of various celebratory activities throughout this academic year, including an MBT golf scramble last August and a joint Tax Executives Institute and MBT session on federal tax history last October that featured former congressman Bill Frenzel, congressman Jim Ramstad, and Minnesota state senator Ann Rest as speakers. (See picture, above right). December featured a faculty and planning committee appreciation lunch. (At right, former MBT faculty member Murray Klane and current faculty member Mark Sellner chat at the appreciation lunch.)

These have all been highlights for the MBT program, said Ash, but they’re not the hallmarks of its history. The real rewards have been watching MBT students’ careers advance and in meeting and serving people of the business community, she said.

As the program enters its second quarter-century, it looks forward to more of the same—more of the best and the brightest of business tax students, and more fulfilling partnership with the community that has helped it get this far.

The Silver Jubilee Gala for faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the MBT program will be held in the Great Hall of the McNamara Alumni Center. Dinner will be served by D’Amico & Sons.  To register, individuals and organizations are asked to contact the MBT office at 612-624-7511 or at mbt@tc.umn.edu.