Many members of the Tech community make volunteering a priority, but not many make a regular habit of doing so in a wetsuit. 

Jim Pierce, senior director for Bursar and Treasury Services, began volunteering with the Georgia Aquarium before it even opened in 2005. Over the past 10 years, he has spent nearly 400 of his 1,100 total volunteer hours at the aquarium underwater. He spends many evenings and weekends scrubbing tank walls, wiping windows, and sometimes speaking to an audience of visitors at the world’s largest aquarium, which sits less than a mile from campus. 

Pierce’s 25-year diving career began with an admiration of Jacques Cousteau and a curiosity of the unknown.

“It’s always been fascinating to me to see something other people haven’t seen,” he said. “It’s the closest thing you can get to being in outer space.”

Though Pierce spends around 100 hours a year volunteering at the aquarium — “the best scuba diving in the City of Atlanta,” he calls it — his favorite place to dive is in caves. The dirtier, muddier, and deeper, the better. His office walls bear images of many of the caves he has been in. 

Pierce is certified as both a cave diver and technical diver, the latter allowing him to mix a custom diving gas called trimix. The combination of oxygen, nitrogen, and helium can be adjusted to let divers go deeper without the negative physiological side effects that can happen at greater depths. He’s also working on completing requirements at the Georgia Aquarium to be a scientific diver, which would let him go out on research boats. 

Diving is a hobby and a love, but not something Pierce ever wanted to pursue professionally. He proposed to his wife underwater in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and in June, he traveled with his 14-year-old son’s Boy Scout troop to the Florida Keys, where his son earned his own diving certification. But Pierce likes his day job.

“I don’t want to ruin a good dive,” he said. “I like helping students and the state of Georgia. It’s the perfect compromise.”

When he’s not underwater, he can be found doing deep dives of financial plans for the Institute. In his professional role, Pierce works with Georgia Tech Facilities Inc. and other campus affiliates on financing for campus construction projects. He happily left behind a career in corporate finance, risk management, and audits when the opportunity to work at Georgia Tech came up 11 years ago.

His job responsibilities recently expanded to include the Bursar’s Office, not just Treasury Services, giving him a more direct line to the students he makes it a goal to serve. 

Pierce can relate well to Tech students — he was one. Before earning an MBA from Wake Forest University, he earned his bachelor’s degree in management from the Institute in 1990. 

“Co-op is what brought me here,” he said. “I thought it was a neat way to learn about something I wanted to do.” As a co-op student, he worked in Waffle House’s management training program and at Southern Company Services. He also worked as a resident advisor and participated in Tech traditions such as the Mini 500 race. 

As an alumnus, he suggests that all Tech employees experience a few of the things students themselves enjoy. Among his recommendations are a trip to Brittain Dining Hall (“It’s beautiful, and employees don’t know they can eat there.”), bowling at Tech Rec in the Student Center, going down the slide at the Campus Recreation Center (“It goes crazy fast!”), and seeing a DramaTech performance.

As an employee himself, he tries to use his sphere of influence to improve the student experience. 

“We’re always doing what we can to look at keeping the cost down and trying to offer additional payment options.” 

For students, he also offers a piece of advice, or a thought, about life at Tech and what helped make it memorable for him.

“Tech will provide you the best friends of your life — you’ll never again have a peer group that’s more like you.”