Alumni Profile Series: Melville Mummert '79

Name: Melville Mummert

Class Year: 1979

Major: Engineering

Current Residence(s): Munich, Germany

Current Position: Executive Advisor at Mummert Advisory

Melville Mummert ’79 grew up in western New York, near Lake Chautauqua, and he attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. His maternal grandparents encouraged him to learn foreign languages from a young age, and he even enrolled in a Princeton German course on Expressionism while a senior in high school.

At Princeton, Mummert studied engineering but often made room in his schedule for foreign language courses. He also spent a summer working in Paris through the Princeton-in-France program. After graduating from Princeton, he attended Harvard Business School.

In 1984, he joined IBM as the company was going through a major reorganization to compete with rising tech firms. After a while, Mummert decided that he wanted to pivot to investment banking in Europe. He figured that Germany, as a country, would be more open to English speakers and Americans.

Mummert moved to Munich, where he lives today. He married in 1994 and has three children. He has offered internships to two Princeton students, one of whom he ended up hiring after she graduated.

“The Summer Work Program is really the way to open young people’s minds to the point of a language,” said Mummert. “It’s not just reading a language – it’s part of having a career in this global village we live in.”

Because of worldwide travel restrictions in response to the ongoing pandemic, Mummert’s work has changed considerably.

“For me, as an investment banker who has spent 30 years traveling constantly to meetings, it’s been a nice respite from flying to places,” said Mummert. “Between Microsoft Teams and Zoom, it’s amazing how much you can get done. It’s much more efficient, especially for the environment. It’s a much better way to do business.”