A member of the Emory Board of Trustees since 1990, Budd also is a member of the Lamplighters Society, a member of the Board of Trustees of Wesley Woods, Inc., and a former member of the Board of Visitors. He was president of the Association of Emory Alumni from 1987 to 1989, chaired the Association of Emory Alumni Founding Board of Governors, and served as president of the Business School Alumni Association. He received the Emory Medal in 1989. In 1986-87, he chaired the Emory Alumni Fund. He also was a member of the Blue Ribbon Committee that reshaped Emory's alumni programs in the 1980s.
In 1989, Budd received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Emory Business School Alumni Association and the Business School Club of Atlanta for demonstrating "outstanding qualities of leadership" in business and in the community.
"Coleman Budd has been extraordinarily generous to Emory with his time and resources," Vice President for Institutional Advancement William H. Fox '79Ph.D. says. "We have benefited enormously from the leadership he gives at so many levels of the University, but clearly his hard work, insights, and commitment to Emory's future ensured that the Emory Campaign would be a huge success. We are grateful that in Coleman we have such a distinguished and loyal alumnus."
In addition to his Emory degree, Budd holds an MBA degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and attended the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania from 1962 to 1965. During the course of his career, he was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, the Midwest Stock Exchange, the Securities Industry Association, and the National Association of Securities Dealers.