Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented to C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University graduates whose accomplishments and dedication to their professions, their communities and their families provide inspiration to our graduating students. Of C.W. Post’s 99,000 graduates, only 123 have received this honor.  Recent award winners are as follows:

Distinguished Alumni Awards - 2007

BOB JAHELKA, CPA ’84
Managing Partner, Demasco, Sena & Jahelka LLP
President, Pioneer Mortgage Network Inc.
Partner, Pioneer Financial Group LLC and Pioneer Land Services LLC
President, C.W. Post Alumni Association

When Bob Jahelka graduated from C.W. Post in 1984 with a degree in accounting, he already was a rising star. Four semesters of cooperative education internships at local companies paid off by leading to a full-time job with Touche Ross & Co., a major accounting firm. After two years, Mr. Jahelka accepted a position as the chief financial officer of American Security Technology, where he had interned while attending C.W. Post. Simultaneously, he founded the accounting firm of Demasco, Sena & Jahelka LLP, where he currently serves as managing partner.

Soon thereafter, he launched a second business, Pioneer Mortgage Network Inc., which he named after the C.W. Post Pioneers for whom he was captain of the football and lacrosse teams, in addition to being named to the 1st Team National Academic All-American Football Team and winning the C.W. Post Roy Ilowit Award. He is president of Pioneer Mortgage and partner in Pioneer Financial Group LLC and Pioneer Land Services LLC.

Mr. Jahelka is a CPA who holds Series 6, 7 and 65 licenses. He also is a specialist in forensic accounting and has testified several times for the Securities and Exchange Commission and other governmental agencies. Despite the rigors of running thriving businesses, Mr. Jahelka is a tireless community volunteer, giving his time and talents to Project Real, a not-for-profit agency that provides group homes for mentally ill adults, and to the Garden City Athletic Association, where he is a director and coach. Mr. Jahelka also is the president of the C.W. Post Alumni Association, in addition to serving as director of five not-for-profit agencies.

Mr. Jahelka has been a generous supporter of the C.W. Post Campus. The athletic director’s office in the Field House and a conference room in the Kahn Discovery Center are named for his family. He lives in Garden City with his wife, Patricia, whom he met while working at Touche Ross, and his son, Stephen, and daughter, Jacqueline.

FRANK F. VILLANO ’69
Founder, Villano Miller Inc., Computer Research Group,
Electronic Processing Source Inc.

As a young man, Frank F. Villano considered a career as a physician, however, that dream died when his father passed away. Instead, he pumped gas and drove a cab to help his family make ends meet while attending the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Upon graduating in 1969 with a bachelor’s in sociology, he founded his first business, Villano Miller Advertising, which catered to a financial services client base. In 1975, Mr. Villano and business partner, Thomas Miller, launched Computer Research Group, a software development company that serviced Fortune 100 clients.

Always searching for a new challenge, in 1984, Mr. Villano became co-founder of Electronic Processing Source Inc., a Mineola-based firm that provides credit card processing and financing services to the travel and entertainment industries. Mr. Villano and his son, Christopher G. Villano, a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef (and law student), also own Mickey Mantle’s Restaurant and Sports Bar and are partners in Solera, an upscale Spanish restaurant on 53rd Street in Manhattan.

In 2003, after beating prostate cancer, Mr. Villano, grateful for his health, decided to devote more of his time and financial resources to charitable causes. He became a major benefactor of the Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection, a division of The New York Foundling, a child and family care agency, establishing the Villano Family Endowment. Earlier this year, he was selected as one of the first recipients of the Foundling’s Hearts of Gold award. In January, Mr. Villano also was named a knight of the Order of Malta, a lay order of the Roman Catholic Church.

Mr. Villano lives in Old Brookville with his wife and their daughter, Danielle. His other children are Linda Rose Villano, founder and proprietor of SerendipiTea Life in Manhasset, and Jennifer Ann Villano, who earned a master’s degree in elementary education from C.W. Post in 1997 and is a substitute teacher at Munsey Park and Shelter Rock elementary schools in Manhasset.

Previous Distinguished Alumni Awards Recipients