John: Operating partner, J.C. Flowers & Co.
UW Majors: Marketing
Anne: Former social worker
UW Majors: Social Work
For John and Anne Oros, UW–Madison has always been more than their alma mater — it’s where they built some of their most important relationships. “We met our closest friends — and each other — in Madison,” Anne says. “It’s where our entire life started.”
Anne Wackman Oros ’72 grew up in Westchester County, New York, with a deep appreciation for the UW and her father’s Midwestern roots. Kenneth Wackman ’35 hailed from Brooklyn, Wisconsin, built his career as an accountant in New York City, and served on the board of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. She arrived in Madison in 1966 to study social work. There, she met John J. Oros ’71 — a Chicago native and the first in his father’s family to attend college — who was studying business and serving in the U.S. Army Reserves. They were active in Greek life and formed a close friendship that eventually blossomed into romance years later in New York City.
Though Anne’s father passed shortly after they graduated and married, his lifelong involvement with the UW left a lasting impression. As Anne and John pursued different careers — he in business, she in social work and caregiving — their shared Badger roots continued to shape their lives, deepening through service, mentorship, and philanthropy.
John built a career in finance and investment banking and helped shape fiscal policy and financial regulation. He spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs, becoming a general partner in 1986, and chaired the Federal Savings and Loan Advisory Council from 1987 to 1989. From 2000 to 2018, he served as managing director of private equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co., providing crucial leadership during the 2008 financial crisis. He now continues with the firm as an operating partner.
He has also championed student mentorship through Badgers in Finance — a program that connects students with alumni in the financial sector — and serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards, including the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association Board and is the past Chairman of the Wisconsin School of Business Dean’s Advisory Board.
Anne began her career as a social worker before stepping away to raise the couple’s four children (two of whom are UW alumni). For two decades, she and John fostered more than 50 newborns, all of whom were medically fragile or born to mothers experiencing addiction. Anne recruited a dozen other foster families and served on the board of Children’s Aid and Family Services in New Jersey, where she and John received the organization’s Lifetime in Leadership award. She was also selected by Congress as an “Angels in Adoption” honoree.
In 2024, the Oroses established the Anne Wackman Oros Associate Professorship at the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work. The inaugural appointee, Dr. Tova Walsh, is a leading researcher in maternal and child health. “Social work is such a vital profession, but it’s not always the first one people consider when they choose to give,” Anne says. “We look for areas where a little help might make a big difference.”
That focus on meaningful, often under-the-radar causes inspired them to establish the Oros Family Professorship in Rare Skin Diseases through the Department of Dermatology with the UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. One of their grandsons has epidermolysis bullosa, a group of rare and painful genetic disorders that make the skin extremely fragile. The professorship will help expand clinical expertise and research in an area that remains underfunded, understudied, and deeply personal.
While their philanthropy touches many corners of campus, from speech and language pathology to athletics, their leadership has helped shape the university itself. As members of the All Ways Forward campaign cabinet, the Oroses helped guide the UW’s most ambitious fundraising effort, which raised more than $4 billion. They also helped champion the Wisconsin Naming Partnership — a bold experiment to celebrate collective giving and preserve the Wisconsin School of Business name, ultimately raising $120 million in unrestricted funds. Most recently, they served on the campaign cabinet for the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health capital campaign.
The couple is deeply connected with their fellow Badger alumni. What began as an investment club among John’s Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers has grown into a decades-long tradition of staying in touch through letters and reunions and warmly welcoming spouses into the social circle. Anne has remained close with six friends from her freshman year at Ann Emery Hall, who still reunite every other year — a tradition she’s now hosting near their home in New Jersey.
This summer, the Oroses attended Grandparents University, sharing campus experiences with three of their eight grandchildren in the same lecture halls and libraries where their own story began.
“Our involvement with the UW has never just been about giving,” John says. “It’s about being part of something lasting — something bigger than us. The friendships and shared purpose over the years have been a gift in themselves.” Anne agrees: “This university is powerful on so many levels — emotional, intellectual, personal. We’re very, very proud to be Badgers.”