The School of Management’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) has named attorney, CPA and entrepreneurship advocate Thomas A. Palmer an executive in residence.

In that role, Palmer will provide strategic and financial oversight of the CEL and serve as an adviser to the center’s managing director, Erin McGee.

He also will organize and act as chair of a small committee with members from the center’s advisory and alumni boards, along with select strategic partners, to work with the dean of the School of Management to explore the CEL’s long-term direction and leadership.

Palmer assumed the part-time position May 1 following the departure of Tom Ulbrich, the CEL’s executive director since 2011, who stepped down to lead Goodwill of Western New York. Palmer will assist until a new executive director can be hired.

Previously, Palmer served as a member of the business practice group of Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, and prior to that as managing partner of Jaeckle, Fleischmann & Mugel LLP. For 40 years, he counseled and represented privately held businesses with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, and business succession and estate planning, as well as daily business issues.

A member of the CEL advisory board and former senior fellow in entrepreneurship, Palmer helped launch the center’s Allstate Minority and Women Emerging Entrepreneurs program. He has received multiple awards from the School of Management for his contributions to entrepreneurship and service to the school.

Palmer earned his MBA and JD from UB.

Established in 1987, the CEL provides participants with individualized and interactive education in entrepreneurship. More than 1,400 CEL alumni employ more than 23,000 Western New Yorkers, and their businesses are worth more than $2.3 billion to the local economy.