Peter and Jackie Berlandi

The 2012 recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal for Exemplary Leadership, Peter J. Berlandi ’69, has been a solid advocate for the University of Massachusetts and UMass Boston in particular. A former University of Massachusetts trustee, Berlandi is committed to accessible and superior higher education opportunities in Boston. This is exemplified by the very successful mentoring program that he founded for the men’s hockey team at Boston College.

A native of Hyde Park, Berlandi is a 1965 graduate of Boston College High School and a 1969 graduate of Boston State College, where he received his bachelor’s of science degree in political science and was class president. Upon graduating from Boston State College, he deftly applied his business acumen to political interests. Highlights from his very successful career include building his own business and political consulting firm, serving as chief fundraiser and a top political advisor to Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti and Governor William F. Weld, playing a pivotal role in the successful campaigns of Governor Weld in 1990 and 1994, and founding the Bingham Consulting Group in 1998.

After retiring from Bingham in 2005, Berlandi returned to his own consulting firm, Custom House Street Associates. He and his wife, Jackie, a pediatric perioperative nurse, reside in Plymouth. Berlandi keeps Boston State’s legacy of student-centered education by serving as a guest lecturer at UMass Boston and other Boston universities.

To honor Peter Berlandi’s commitment to the University of Massachusetts and higher education, the funds raised at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s 8th Annual Scholarship Gala established an endowment to support the Peter and Jackie Berlandi Scholarship. It is awarded annually to full-time UMass Boston undergraduates who have deep roots in the urban communities of Metropolitan Boston.