Rob W. Estes ’74, P ’06 sees numbers as more than figures on a page. Numbers tell stories, like the brain teasers he frequently challenged his children with at bedtime. Numbers can be surprising, like the roses he sent Jean Berger Estes ’75, P ’06 at the school where she was teaching to celebrate their first thousand days of marriage. 

Understanding the impact of numbers is crucial to achieving success in business. The principles of accounting Rob learned at William & Mary influenced his leadership as CEO and board chair at Estes Express Lines, allowing him to transform it from a regional transportation company into North America’s largest privately owned freight carrier, with annual revenues of more than $5 billion.

Through a $15 million gift to establish the Estes Center for Excellence in Accounting at William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business, Rob and Jean seek to attract more students to the dynamic field of accounting by leveraging W&M’s ideal size, its top-ranked faculty and the university’s reputation as a leader in business education.

“Humble, brilliant and true: Rob and Jean live out the Mason School value of principled achievement. Their giving has touched every part of our campus,” said President Katherine Rowe. “We are grateful for their latest gift to raise William & Mary’s global profile. Their message to aspiring leaders is clear: if you aim to sow prosperity in your organizations and communities, then William & Mary is the place for you.”

Jean, who studied elementary education at William & Mary, where she and Rob met, said they hope to spark more interest among students in accounting as a major: “We want them to experience the excitement that Rob did when he first saw how his accounting studies could be put to work in a business situation.”

The Mason School’s accounting program provides an excellent foundation for understanding how business works, Rob said. Through the Estes Center, he aims to expand perceptions of what students can do with an accounting degree.

“We want to bring accounting out of the back room and into the boardroom,” he said. “The accountant should be guiding the conversation.”

As an example, he notes that cost modeling helped Estes Express Lines better understand which of its 13 million shipments each year are profitable for the company and which are not, allowing the company to better allocate its resources.

“Understanding accounting allowed us to work through that and make our business better,” he said.

Similar to the business school’s Boehly Center for Excellence in Finance, the Estes Center will offer career treks, weekend seminars and networking through robust alumni and corporate partner involvement. It will provide experiential learning through case competitions and specialty courses. Supported by a dedicated staff, the Estes Center will integrate analytics and new technologies to prepare the next generation of highly skilled business leaders in the W&M Accounting tradition.

The Estes family, including Rob and Jean’s son, Webb Estes ’06, M.Acc. ’07, the COO and president of Estes Express Lines, have been longtime supporters of the business school, said Dean Todd Mooradian, noting Rob’s service on the W&M Business School Foundation Board from 2004-2020. In addition, Richmond, Virginia-based Estes Express Lines hosts a group of Master of Science in Business Analytics students and faculty each year for hands-on capstone courses. One of the student teams helped the company increase its annual profits by about $1 million by using a volume/truckload algorithm to identify opportunities to win new business through competitive pricing while maintaining strong margins.

“Through this extraordinary gift, we now have a sustainable center of excellence at the Mason School of Business that will attract the best and brightest students to William & Mary and, most importantly, will provide the best and brightest accountants and leaders to the business world for all time coming,” Mooradian said. “These students will experience how accounting today is so much more than number-crunching. It is a dynamic, decision-making paradigm — an understanding of the blood flow of an enterprise and a language for understanding business — that holds implications for strategy touching nearly every business function. We are thankful to the Estes family for their partnership and vision.”

Accompanying the Estes Center announcement is an April 24 showcase titled Pioneering Excellence: Shaping the Future Generation of Accounting, featuring interactive booths that highlight curriculum, case studies, research and industry trends.

In addition to serving on the business school board, Rob Estes is a current member of the W&M Board of Visitors. He was part of the For the Bold Campaign Steering Committee and co-chair of the Richmond Regional Campaign Committee, along with Jean; Webb also served as a committee board member.

A former W&M Foundation trustee, Jean currently serves on the W&M Alumni Association board. She is also a co-chair of the Reunion Committee for the Class of 1975, which is celebrating its 50-year anniversary during Traditions Weekend, April 25-27. In that role, Jean has been instrumental in raising funds toward the $20.75 million goal for the class gift, which includes a project to establish the Class of 1975 School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics Speaker Series Endowment. She envisions a similar series at the new Estes Center.

Rob and Jean also have contributed generously to W&M Athletics, the Muscarelle Museum of Art and expanded arts programs at the university, and have encouraged annual giving through the Estes Challenge, which supports students and faculty in the business school by funding scholarships, career development services and undergraduate initiatives.

Reflecting on his career, Rob said that his priorities have shifted from pursuit of success to a legacy of significance.

“That gets to the point of what principled achievement is,” he said. “It’s something that when you look back, you can be proud of. Jean and I are thankful to William & Mary and the Mason School for giving us the opportunity to create a platform like this. We’re grateful that we can be a part of it.”