“I’d like to thank Jim Lakso, Pat Weaver, Kathy Baughman and the rest of the business department for their wholehearted embrace of this program,” says Thomas Kepple, Juniata president. “All too often higher education institutions look beyond their own alumni rolls to bring in experts on various subjects. It’s a particular testament to the business students and faculty that we have been able to bring in executives with amazing depth of experience and deep loyalty to their alma mater.” The residency project was inspired in part by the formation of the Information Technology advisory board, which comprised a variety of Juniata alumni. The project started with a list of possible executives and then the department laid out what the residencies should look like. Each executive would be matched with several professors whose courses complemented the executive’s area of expertise and spend time in the classroom. Executives would be available for one-on-one consultations for students such as résumé evaluation, career counseling and other questions. Each business leader would deliver a public presentation of some kind.
The first Executive in Residence participant was Todd Kulp ’80, now with Ecopetrol America Inc. and a Juniata Trustee, who taught students about ethics in business, based on his experiences at Enron Inc.
Juniata
Photo by Alison Rihs ’11
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“In a classroom setting, students are able to observe how executives carry themselves. There is a lot to be learned from presentations on how they communicate with people.” —Gabe Castro ’12, an analyst at Vanguard Inc.