Dave Beirne ’85 embodies the tenacity of the Bulldog. A perennial trailblazer, Beirne has disrupted established industries — and invented new ones — over the course of a career worthy of the cover of Forbes.
His professional success began in the early 1990s at his first firm, Ramsey/Beirne, where his team flipped the recruitment industry on its head by building executive search specs for clients; they also took equity in lieu of payment with promising startups, including Netscape. Beirne then applied his tech and team-building expertise to Benchmark, where he and his venture capital partners invested in — and helped build — eBay, Twitter, and other Silicon Valley giants.
Today, he heads up X10 Capital, a wholly new private equity model that invests in professional athletes, and gives back to his alma mater in myriad capacities, from supporting Bryant athletics with the David M. ’85 and Terry Beirne Stadium Complex to serving on the Board of Trustees. In his four years as chair, from 2020 to 2024, Beirne ushered in a new president, a new School of Health and Behavioral Sciences, and the university’s Vision 2030 strategic plan.
Below, Beirne muses on his path to, and through, Bryant and where the university is headed next:
On his role model: “My father was a manufacturing guy at General Motors. He was one of the smartest people I ever met, but was never afforded the opportunity to study anywhere. At 17 years old, he forged his birth certificate to get the job. His family needed money; he was the oldest of four, and times were tough. He rose through the ranks and had a wildly successful career.”
On being first-gen: “The eight closest friends I have in the world I met within the first 24 hours of coming to Bryant — and every one of them was the first generation to go to college. It’s classic Bryant. Today, six out of the eight are multimillionaire entrepreneurs; the two others are in corporate America, and they’ve done very well.”
On Bryant’s underdog rep: “The first thing anyone ever asks you when you go to a cocktail party is: ‘What year did you graduate from Stanford?’ I don’t even have my MBA; I went to this gem in Rhode Island. I went to the school of hard knocks, and I learned by building businesses from 22 years old on.”
On the road to no. 1: “There is no reason we can’t run all the way to the number one undergraduate business school in America. What we teach is what the world is looking for right now. Every person I’ve ever hired from Bryant — they’re high achievers. They’re switched on. They really make a difference.”
On giving back: “There are a lot of places you can give your time or your money. But there are few places where you’re going to have a greater impact than Bryant. You can move the dial for an entire generation of students who are learning the right stuff to be successful. Impact is everything.”
