5 Questions with Bentley Trustee John P. Vaglica ’91, MBA ’94

John P. Vaglica ’91, MBA ’94 credits much of his career success to a willingness and ability to evolve his skills in tandem with company growth and market innovation. A case in point is his 20-year career at Accession (now Brown & Brown) providing strategic, financial and operational leadership in growing the firm from $9 million to $1.8 billion in revenue. After leading all aspects of the company’s accounting, financial planning and analysis, treasury, facilities and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities, he now focuses exclusively on M&A. 

Vaglica’s 35-year career is built around insurance and high-tech medical device manufacturing, as well as experience in senior care, real estate and defense industries. After serving on the Bentley’s President Council, he joined the Board of Trustees in 2026. We asked him about meaningful moments during his career, adaptable skills and educating students for today’s marketplace.  

What experiences or mentors have influenced your career and approach to leadership? 

I’ve been fortunate to work for or alongside mentors who made an impression on me from a leadership perspective. Throughout my career it’s been helpful for me to recognize that you’re bound to make the wrong decision if you consider “you” first. You’ll have a much better impact making decisions based on the needs of the organization and teammates and employees. 

The value of a good work ethic — and just showing up — can’t be overstated. Experiential and ad hoc work knowledge is invaluable. I spent a lot of time in my career investing in my skill set, and there have been times when I worked a lot more than I wanted to. But it all paid off. Sometimes you’re paid in experience; sometimes you’re paid in money. If you ever get an opportunity that pays you in both, don’t lose that job.   

What are the strongest skills needed to adapt to innovation like AI?  

AI can move data and tabulate it for you — and do it faster and more efficiently. But interpreting that and determining what it means to the business is going to be the value of this next generation of business leaders. 

Bentley’s Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship initiative couldn’t come at a better time for helping develop that skill set: critical thinking, the decision making, the ability to be nimble, because you're going to make bad decisions, but the speed with which you recognize the mistake and pivot is going to be the difference between winning and losing in a lot of cases.  

That’s one of the things I learned early on: being able to interpret where we are now, including patterns and data, to see what that might mean in a couple of years.

How can colleges and universities prepare students for today’s marketplace and workforce? 

As a student, the biggest thing I took away from Bentley was the importance of using facts to constantly challenge your own thesis. If you can do that, you'll be able to recognize patterns. 

The CEO of our company once told me that revolutionary changes are easier to see because a revolution happens in an instant: You can see what’s happening and rear up against it. But evolution is a process. If you’re not paying attention, gradual changes can be harder to see until it’s too late.  

By developing the ability to question what’s happening around you — and also question your perspective of what’s happening — you can end up with a better result because you’re less likely to be surprised.  

How has this played out in your own career? 

I’m not the same professional I was when I first joined Accession. Over two decades we increased revenue from about $9 million to $1.8 billion when we sold to Brown & Brown in 2025.  

Different skills were required to run it and grow it at various stages, and that requires constantly reinventing yourself, scaling both your skill set and your approach right along with the business. 

The various versions of me — some more likable than others — that evolved over 20 years included phases that were very challenging. Throughout your career, expect to find out that a lot of times you didn’t even know what you didn’t know.  

What is one of the most meaningful skills you learned through that process? 

It took me a while to develop, but the ability to read people and assess where they are. The softer skill set, including empathy and understanding how people think and what’s going to motivate them, is very important to be a successful manager or leader.