News & Views 2018

News Views WINTER 2018

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THE MAGAZINE OF THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AT ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

VARNER GIFT CREATES LASTING LEGACY PLUS • The COB celebrates 50 years • Students help organize furniture for families • COB chair receives international award for research

News Views &

Message from the Dean

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Feature articles

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The Year was 1967 Furniture for Families Outstanding Research Leads to Prestigious Award Varner Gift Creates Lasting Legacy The COB Works on Paying It Forward

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COB news

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New Faculty/Staff Staff Changes

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2017 Hall of Fame Inductees

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2017 Early Career Achievement Awards

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Business Week 2017

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On the cover: Professors Carson and Iris Varner

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Illinois State University, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding affirmative action, nondiscrimination, and anti-harassment. Illinois State University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, order of protection, gender identity and expression, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, genetic information, unfavorable military discharge, or status as a veteran in employment, educational programs and activities, or admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed by contacting the director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access by email at EqualOpportunity@IllinoisState.edu, by calling (309) 438-3383, or by mailing to the office at Illinois State University, Campus Box 1280, Normal, IL 61790.

University Marketing

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Communications • 18-3275 printed on recycled paper

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arm greetings from the College of Business at Illinois State University.

I am delighted to share with you the great news that our college has received a philanthropic gift of $1 million from Drs. Iris and Carson Varner. The Varners are pioneers of international business education at ISU since 1975. The college is very grateful to them for their untiring efforts to promote globalization in the curriculum and, more important, in the mindset of our students, all these years. They were among the first to recognize that global business is the norm, rather than the exception, in the modern world.

The generous gift given by the Varners will help us enrich the educational experience of N our students by supporting global learning and study abroad. I expect this gift will be truly DEA E H transformational in that it will elevate the visibility of our international business programs MT from the national to the global stage. This higher level of visibility will attract more students FRO who are interested in studying global business and help recruit and retain talented faculty who have academic interests in the area of internationalization. In deep gratitude to the Varners, the International Business Institute at the College of Business will be named the Carson and Iris Varner International Business Institute. The story of the Varners’ journey is fascinating, and I strongly encourage you to read it in full detail in this issue of News & Views.

This year we celebrate the 50th year of our founding. In the fall of 1967 the Department of Business became the College of Business. We now have a proud history of half a century of educating students to be ethical leaders in the world of business. Our alumni network is over 35,000 and spans not only the state of Illinois but extends across the country and the world.

A conservative estimate of the contribution of our alums to the annual gross national income of the U.S. is an astonishing $1.75 billion.

I enjoy meeting with alums. I am pleasantly surprised how widely our alums have dispersed and the positions of responsibility in the world of business. This year I met with some of our alums in Bloomington-Normal, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington D.C. Without exception, they have very warm feelings for our college of business, and they all speak of the high quality of education they received here.

Many of them have gone on to amazing accomplishments, including corporate-suite level responsibility in Chipotle, Deloitte, Microsoft, State Farm, and Wells Fargo, just to name a few. What is equally amazing is that no matter where they live, or how high they rise, they still have characteristic Midwestern modesty about their accomplishments.

This year also marks our emergence as a global player in the field of business education.

We will be offering two of our stellar academic programs outside the U.S. in Panama City, Panama. These programs are the undergraduate International Business Major and the MBA. Panama City is an important business center serving much of Central and South America.

Many large multinational corporations have chosen to locate their regional headquarters here, given that the country has good infrastructure, a stable political system, is business friendly, and is easily accessible from U.S. airports. Further, their currency of choice is the U.S. dollar. I see a great opportunity here to give our students global experience, international internships, and faculty the means to further develop their global expertise.

Back home in the State Farm Hall of Business we are moving ahead with significant renovation of classroom/computer lab space and collaboration spaces. Increasingly, the configuration of contemporary classrooms is reflective of the major role played by group activities and collaborative projects in the process of learning.

Dean Ajay Samant Finally, you may have heard of Redbirds Rising, the capital campaign for Illinois State University, which went public in September 2017. We're most grateful for the support we’ve received that has already impacted our students and programs. Our vision is to become the business college of first choice in Illinois, and donors are helping us attain this goal. I invite you to consider how you can help elevate our academic programs further through your support of Redbirds Rising. I would like to thank all our supporters who have given time, effort, and resources to the continuous improvement of our college and university. Your philanthropic investment is greatly appreciated, and you have made a positive impact on more lives than you may know.

Thanks again.

It’s great to be a Redbird!

E G A S MES

Warm Regards,

Ajay Samant Ajay Samant, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Business

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ith the University’s founders’ focus on creating a school to train teachers when Illinois State was established in 1857, it’s not surprising that decades passed before the curriculum expanded beyond education courses.

Campus historians trace the growth of multiple programs in a variety of disciplines to the late 1950s and 1960s. Helen Marshall recorded in The Eleventh Decade that a multipurpose goal was approved by the University’s governing board in 1965. The board “authorized the University to offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in liberal arts and sciences as well as teacher education,” Marshall wrote.

Soon after in 1966, the University announced plans to reorganize academic programs into separate colleges. The College of Business was in place by September of 1967, according to historian Roger Champagne, who authored A Place of Education. The college began with three departments: business administration, accounting, and business education.

There was significant growth in the college during its first decade.

Under the leadership of Dean Frank Harrison, undergraduate majors and minors were added in management, marketing, finance, office administration, and consumer education. Graduate degrees were created in accounting and business administration.

“That program development, in combination with the recruitment of additional business faculty and professional service activities,

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transformed the College of Business into one of the most dynamic and fastest growing units of the University,” Champagne recorded.

Not only did the course offerings increase, but expectations of students also rose under Harrison. He announced in March of 1977 that business majors entering as of the fall of that year would be required to maintain a GPA of 2.0. The move was made at the same time that the college was experiencing an increase in students.

Champagne documented that the college enrollment had risen dramatically, going from 1,752 majors in 1970 to 3,245 in 1976.

The growth occurred as teaching positions dwindled, resulting in students selecting “fields of study which held out greater hope of job opportunities and good salaries after graduation,” Champagne wrote.

“Business programs were particularly attractive to students for those reasons, especially accounting and business administration.”

Harrison served as dean until 1980, when Andrew Nappi took the position. The University was experiencing “unstable and bleak funding circumstances” at that time, according to Champagne. And yet, the College of Business continued to flourish. In 1981, a fiveyear accreditation for undergraduate programs from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business was obtained.

Corporate ties strengthened under Nappi, who led the college until 1989. Mark Wyman, author of The Fourteenth Decade, documented Nappi’s efforts to engage industry for increased student

internship opportunities and input on curriculum. For example, the Accounting Department created a professional advisory council to guide course requirements and changes so that graduates would be better prepared for the workplace.

Partnerships with the industry resulted in an exciting opportunity for the College of Business in the early 1990s, at which time Robert Jefferson was dean following Nappi. President Thomas Wallace worked with top insurance executives to develop a program that would prepare graduates to join the industry. The Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services was consequently created, with corporate donations of $930,000 pledged. Those funds grew to $4 million through the support of 55 insurance firms by the end of 1997, according to Wyman.

Nappi was chosen to oversee the initiative, which placed the college in the international spotlight. A group of executives from Lloyd’s of London visited the college in 1996 for a week of training provided by industry leaders recruited from across the country. The college created an insurance major and in 1997 opened the Institute for Insurance Ethics. “Illinois State soon ranked in the top 10 among the nation’s some 70 university insurance programs,” Wyman wrote.

One of the greatest moments in the college’s history occurred in February of 2001. It was then that ground was broken on the south end of the Quad for a new building that would house all of the college’s classes and faculty offices. Work on the $28 million facility was completed in January 2005, allowing students and professors to be consolidated into one location for the first time in the college’s history.

Later named the State Farm Hall of Business, the building provided nearly 74,000 square feet with high-tech classrooms, auditoriums, and unique rooms such as one to conduct focus groups. Dixie Mills, who became dean after Jefferson in 1997, called the building’s completion miraculous. It had been proposed in the late 1990s and became a reality in part through a $9 million gift from State Farm.

Private support continued to be crucial to the college’s advancement under interim dean Chuck McGuire, who held the position for two

years after Mills retired in 2007. Scott Johnson followed from 2009 to 2013, at which time Gerry McKean became interim dean for three years.

During McKean’s leadership, the college received one of the largest individual gifts in the University’s history. Alumnus Gary Gemberling ’63 committed to a significant investment that created student scholarships, two endowed professorships, and launched a new entrepreneurship startup fund for student-run businesses.

With such solid financial support, stellar students, and exemplary faculty who advance their field through scholarship, it is not surprising that the College of Business is now known across the country for its excellence in both undergraduate and graduate programs.

When current Dean Ajay Samant arrived in 2016, he took the reins of a college consistently ranked as one of the best undergraduate business schools in the nation. The list of accolades is lengthy and impressive, including that the college is one of only 181 schools in the U.S. to have achieved accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The college is one of only 23 American business schools to have full membership status in the Consortium for Undergraduate International Business Education.

The insurance risk and management program has been named one of the country’s top programs, while the professional sales education program is nationally ranked as well. Graduates have the highest pass rate for public universities in Illinois on the certified public accounting exam and rank in the top five nationally on each of the exam’s four parts.

With an enrollment of approximately 4,000 and more than 31,000 graduates, the College of Business has evolved over the past 50 years to become a thriving academic arena where students discover and develop their individual interests and passions. There is no doubt the tradition of exceptional programs and people will continue within the College of Business as the next chapter unfolds in the decades ahead.

50TH ANNIVERSARY TAILGATE The weather cooperated and the sun shone brightly on the COB’s 50th Anniversary Homecoming celebration. Over 400 people gathered to share stories, memories, and laughs and to enjoy the festivities. Comfort food from Avanti’s brought nostalgia for many, and traditional tailgate fare was on hand to satisfy the tailgate experience. Each year the College of Business puts together a special tailgate for alums traveling back for Homecoming. However, 2017’s tent expanded to commemorate the COB’s 50th birthday complete with a history wall of COB pictures and the 2018 Business Week team on hand to serve as tent hosts.

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FURNITURE FOR FAMILIES

FOR BIS MAJORS, ONE PROJECT HAS MAJOR IMPACT

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ssociate Professor Rosie Hauck’s Advanced Business Systems Analysis class is all about bridging business needs with technology solutions. It also offers a great deal of real-world, practical experience for those majoring in business information systems (BIS).

Each semester, Hauck works with a local organization in the community to improve some kind of business process. Her students spend the semester working with the chosen organization to identify challenges and implement solutions. The ultimate goal is to pull all their classes together, such as marketing, management, accounting, and technology, into somewhat of a capstone project.

Frank Downes, Furniture for Families Recycling

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“It’s a great culminating experience for the major, internships, and classes,” said Hauck. “This gives students a chance to use everything they’ve learned with a real organization.”

In the past, Hauck’s classes have worked with a variety of local organizations including the Baby Fold, Vitesse Cycle, Epiphany Farms, and Miller Park Zoo. “Small businesses and nonprofits don’t have a lot of resources to do systems development,” she said. “Our BIS students have knowledge and expertise. Plus, this is a great way to give back to the community.”

Hauck’s most recent spring 2017 class partnered with Recycling Furniture for Families (RF4F), an organization that accepts and distributes furniture to families living at or below the poverty line.

RF4F was in need of new data systems to help the organization grow. “Our systems were created many years ago; they have limited memory and an outdated database structure,” according to Executive Director Frank Downes. “We needed something that could be modified easily with the changing needs of the community.”

Hauck’s students helped RF4F with an inventory-tracking system, improved its client database, and created an interface that streamlined the process for gathering client and volunteer information.

To get a true real-world experience, Hauck ensures her students have complete ownership of the project. “They get to decide what is best for the client and what deliverables will be valuable,” she said. “It’s their opportunity to step away from being a student and serve as a professional, working with real people and real solutions.”

In addition to practical experience, students graduate as a certified ScrumMaster (CSM). This project management credential is valuable in the workplace as it fosters collaboration and productivity for high levels of performance. Hauck incorporates Scrum into her class as a way to approach projects in a nontraditional manner. It also allows students (and professionals) to deliver a product in a short amount of time.

“We only have eight weeks to complete a project, and since I’ve used Scrum, I can tell students are able to deliver so much more,” Hauck said. “The client is getting a better value, and we’re able to go a lot further when it comes to implementation. It’s a very usable system.”

Kristen Dunne and Tyler Walgren were part of Hauck’s class and are grateful for the practical experience they received.

“The class taught us how to work with real-world problems, which helped us grow personally and professionally,” Dunne said.

Walgren added: “It was unreal compared to any other experience.”

The “real problems” Dunne and Walgren faced were everything a true professional might encounter, including group communication, technical challenges, and stressful timelines. And just like a professional, they had to use the issues as a learning experience.

“There were a lot of ‘I don’t knows,’” Walgren said. “If we didn’t know how to do something, we had to learn it.”

Encountering those kinds of issues made students unsure of what

the outcome would be, but in the end, it was worth it.

“To see ourselves overcoming a learning curve and our products implemented is the coolest thing. I can’t wait to watch people benefit from them,” Dunne said.

Thanks in part to the experience of Hauck’s class, both Dunne and Walgren graduated in May with jobs as support engineers at iManage, a leading provider of work product management solutions for professional service firms.

“Dr. Hauck and her class definitely helped us in this aspect,” Walgren said. “This gave us real-world experience and was a great talking point.”

The efforts of Dunne, Walgren and the rest of Hauck’s class will likely have a major positive impact on RF4F. Downes said the systems this project produced will allow the organization to have a solid foundation to run well into the future.

“I hope the students were able to see the impact that organizations like Recycling Furniture for Families have in their communities and how important their knowledge and experience can be to help nonprofits fulfill their mission to the communities,” Downes said.

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OUTSTANDING RESEARCH LEADS TO PRESTIGIOUS AWARD

PRESTIGIOUS INTERNATIONAL AWARD HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSOR’S RESEARCH

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rofessor Roberta Trites has a message: “Girls, boys and non-binary children matter equally.”

Trites is a distinguished professor at Illinois State and is currently serving as an interim department chair in the College of Business. However, most of her time at ISU has been spent in the Department of English where she helped build one of the strongest children’s literature programs in the country.

Trites’s research examines female empowerment in children’s literature and includes six published books as well as countless scholarly articles, essays, and editorials. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and is known by scholars from around the world, but her most recent recognition might be the most surreal. She’s the recipient of the 16th International

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HING T T N ORTA LLY.” P M I MOST ER ETHICA E H T T H AT N E A N O T H S E U A RG E F O R O S I H T “ CAR S I O CAN D Brothers Grimm Award, an honor given biannually to one global scholar who contributes outstanding research to children’s literature.

Fitting with her focus on female empowerment, Trites is the first American woman to receive the award since it was established in 1987.

“Seeing my name linked with other scholars of such high caliber is almost unbelievable,” she said. “These are people I’ve learned from and who have been like mentors to me. This is truly a great honor.”

Trites is not aware who nominated her for the award but explains that all nominees are sent to a panel of 400 reviewers around the world. The reviewers vote and present a shortened list to a committee of former award recipients, who then select the finalist.

As the recipient, Trites gave a presentation and be recognized on October 1, 2017 in Osaka, Japan. Staying true to her message, Trites plans to present a portion of her latest book, Twenty-First Century Feminism in Children’s Literature, which examines how female empowerment is present in modern literature for children.

PROMOTING FEMALE COMMUNITY

Ethics of care is one of the topics Trites explores in her new book.

“This argues that the most important thing we can do is care for one another ethically,” she explains. “It’s not a male-female thing, but more of a feminist gesture. How can anyone experience equality if there’s not a network of people caring for them ethically? It’s a social responsibility to be ethically caring.”

Equality is a common theme throughout her work. In her first book, Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children’s Novels (1997), Trites emphasizes that feminism is not about hating men, but more so about empowering girls, giving them a voice and female community. Like many of her other publications, the book was translated into different languages, including Japanese. Several years ago, she was asked to keynote and speak about the book at an event in Kyoto, Japan, and was particularly touched by a reporter who approached her after the address.

“She had tears in her eyes and said, ‘Your book is the first book that taught me I can be a feminist, remain positive, and still love men.’ This moment moved me. Realizing someone has read your work and had their life changed by it is most gratifying.”

Trites’s interest in children’s literature also stems from an early age.

“I was a sickly child so I spent a lot of time in bed reading,” she said.

“In second grade I came down with pneumonia and was looking for something new to read. My grandpa went to a bookseller and ended up bringing home Little Women, and I fell in love with it.”

One reason Trites felt a connection with Little Women was due in part to its family structure. Like the book, Trites was one of four children and also constantly battling illness, similar to the character Beth.

“After reading Little Women, I suppose you could say I never really outgrew children’s or even adolescent literature.”

TEACH THROUGH STORIES

Bringing equality and children’s literature together, Trites has found a unique niche in research that has made her a well-respected, global scholar. Receiving high accolades such as the prestigious International Brothers Grimm Award is another strong indicator that her work continues to be relevant and important.

“Children are the most exploited group of people on the planet,” Trites said. “It’s the only marginalized group we have all belonged to yet we ignore the vulnerability and marginalization experienced during childhood. We must pay attention to what we teach children through the stories we tell them.”

RECOGNIZING DISCREPANCIES AND CONNECTING WITH LITERATURE

Trites can pinpoint an exact moment in life from which her message of equality is derived. At 7 years old, she and her twin brother received birthday cards in the mail. “His was addressed as mister and mine was miss. It sparked a conversation with my mother about name prefixes. She explained to me that when I get married, I’ll become missus and get to change my last name. I didn’t understand why I had to change my name, and my brother got to keep his.”

From that moment on, Trites started paying attention to how she was treated differently than her twin brother, which later helped her recognize discrepancies as she got older.

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VARNER GIFT CREATES LASTING LEGACY COB’S INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE TO BEAR FAMILY NAME

By John Moody

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he Varner family and the College of Business (COB) at Illinois State University have been teamed up for better than four decades, dating all the way back to 1975. And, now with their generous gift of $1 million, the International Business Institute, the very institute that Carson and Iris Varner founded, will bear their names. It is the largest cash gift from faculty in Illinois State University history.

“The gift is our legacy,” Carson said, underlining the lasting impact of gifts given today that will be felt for the next half century and more. “Our legacy of people who’ve known us directly will extend into the next century. It’ll last a very long time.”

Iris called it exciting, especially since their gift will help give “an identity to the program,” and will be, she said “an official recognition that it is a separate program.”

But, in the end, she said, what really matters is that it will create opportunities for students, which is the ultimate purpose.

Ajay Samant, dean of the College of Business, was the one to broach the subject of a naming gift with the Varners.

“The College of Business at Illinois State University is very grateful to Drs. Iris and Carson Varner for their generous gift to the International Business Institute,” Samant said. “The international business program at ISU would not have been possible without the steady encouragement and exemplary service that the Varners have provided to the college for decades.”

Samant called the Varners’ gift transformational, noting that it will enhance student global learning experience through study abroad, in addition to facilitating the acquisition of global expertise by faculty.

“It will,” Samant said, “elevate the visibility of our international business program from the national to the global stage.”

At first, the Varners said they needed time to get used to the idea of such a large gift. In fact, Iris, upon hearing Samant’s proposal, admitted later to being reluctant because of the amount.

“I thought, ‘He’s dreaming,’” she said with typical good humor.

“I hope we kept a straight face.”

They went home from their meeting with Samant and then didn’t speak about it for several days. Their children, daughter Katrin, a longtime COB faculty member, and son Eric, a professor of music at Lynn University Conservatory in Florida, encouraged them to move forward with the donation.

The deciding factor for both, Iris said, was simple: “It would truly make a difference in terms of the international business education. And, I mean we had devoted our entire careers to that.

This is looking forward to the future.”

Carson agreed that it was a big, but happy, decision, and it was the right time. He added that it came down to knowing what it is that they care about most here at the University.

“With the students, there was really something close and meaningful,” he said. “Therefore, hey, do it for the students.”

Early on in her career, Iris had been impressed seeing a colleague’s plaque on an office wall denoting that she had donated to the University for several years.

“She’d been doing this for five years,” she said recalling the impression it made on her.

The Varners’ giving began incrementally many years ago (“a little bit here and there,” as Iris described it) with their involvement in replacing the bell used during annual Founders Day ceremonies.

Their motivation was simple—the bell lacked a respectable tone.

“The bell would go bonk to nervous laughter,” Iris said. “It was embarrassing. We needed to get a new bell.”

Iris also had the idea that when the College of Business moved into its new building that it should have a world clock and map, so the Varners donated the money to make that happen. Her thinking was that such a feature would remind passersby that business is a global enterprise.

They also established The Carson and Iris Varner International Business Scholarship with a gift of $50,000 that annually helps students who are active in the Illinois State chapter of the International Business Club. In addition, they made a donation that went toward building the theater on the grounds of Ewing Manor.

“I guess in all honesty, sometimes we’re still gulping a little bit,” Carson said, calling this latest gift “a different order of magnitude than anything we’ve done up until now.”

For anyone who might be considering a gift, Iris offered some sensible advice.

“Big gifts make the big splash, but when you look at political campaigns, for example, it’s very often the very small donations, if you have enough of them, that really can swing things,” she said.

“And, I think it’s the same thing.”

Opposite: Iris and Carson Varner News & Views

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She suggested finding a cause to focus on, and be encouraged.

She said, for example, that if enough people got together to contribute to a scholarship fund, it could benefit one student on a regular basis.

“No one should be discouraged that they will not be able to give a huge gift; most people can’t,” she said. “But still they can really make a difference.”

There is indeed generosity at work here and a sense of gratitude to the place that’s been so much a part of their life, but there’s also a large measure of pride.

“We celebrated sending our 1,000th graduate out about a year ago, and we’re the only international business major at a public university in Illinois,” Carson said. “The students go out with a bit of a swagger that they’ve gotten a degree from Illinois State University.”

There’s a deserved pride here, he said, and he reminds his classes regularly that they are attending a great school.

“I tell my students in no uncertain terms that as an undergraduate business school, we are second to none,” he said.

“No one is better than we are.”

Iris agreed, adding how proud she is of establishing the International Business Institute. And, that pride continues in the accomplishments of today’s students under the leadership of the institute’s current director Barbara Ribbens.

“Developing the institute gave it more visibility within the college and also within the University,” Iris said. “The cooperation and support of the international business faculty were integral to its success.”

As a result of the program, over 50 faculty have taken part in the international experience by taking students abroad. They’ve had opportunities to teach at Illinois State’s international partner schools and get involved with the Export Project. The Export Project, which has been around since 2005, helps Illinois companies increase their overseas profiles. The project helps the companies while it helps students get valuable international experience.

In the aggregate, this relationship between the Varner family and COB has now rolled up 100 years of togetherness. That figure takes into consideration the careers of three family members—two parents and a daughter—all of whom have been a member of the faculty, beginning with Carson in 1975.

As the patriarch, he got things started by joining the faculty in the fall of that year. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, he came to town after earning an MBA and his law degree at the University of Oklahoma. He also has a bachelor’s degree from Miami University, and his master’s degree in English is from Northwestern University.

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Carson’s ambition included studying abroad, and he did so in Reading, England, where he went as part of the foreign student club.

It was a fortuitous decision that would have a lifelong impact on him.

“While there I saw the prettiest girl on October 15, 1966,” he said of Iris, a native of Germany, whom he would marry on December 21, 1968. “And, 49 years later she’s still my wife.”

Their wedding day was notable also for a famous NASA launch.

“That’s the same day that Apollo 8 left Earth’s gravity and went around the moon,” Carson said. “And our marriage was a joint German/American venture, just like Apollo 8.”

Iris was there majoring in English and physical education as she studied to become a high school teacher. By the spring of 1969, she had joined her new husband at the University of Oklahoma (OU), where she began teaching at a local high school in Norman, Oklahoma. Their two children were born in Norman. Katrin arrived first in 1972, followed two years later by her brother Eric.

In 1975, Carson saw a small job ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education for a business law assistant professor at Illinois State, which was an unfamiliar place to him. He’d lived in Illinois most of his life, but he “had never heard of the place,” Carson said. Despite all that, he got the job.

Within a month of his arrival on campus, he paid a visit to the department of languages to recommend that the department teach a more relevant curriculum that included not only the languages but also the culture and people of a country. The department head was receptive, Carson said.

“My proposal was German for business,” he said. “And, we did that for 10 years. I taught vocabulary related to the topic and politics, geography, history, law—very practical for anyone across campus interested in a Gen Ed course.”

Six student Fulbright scholars came from that experience, according to Carson. He and the department head, Richard Whitcomb, also earned Fulbright scholarships.

“We created our luck because this was different because these were business students, and the Fulbright committee liked that,” Carson said. “We have believed that our international program is an interdisciplinary program.”

The program’s focus expands beyond business, he said, adding that it includes history, geography, language, political science, and classes in all functional areas of international business. This way of thinking, he said, came out of his liberal arts background.

“It’s not just business,” Iris said. “You have to be able to relate to where you are by knowing the history, culture, language, politics.

Students have to have a broader understanding of the world.”

To that end, she designed the course, Business in a Multicultural Environment, which focuses on the cultural influences of international business.

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Iris, Katrin, and Carson Varner

By 1983, the Varners had helped establish overseas contacts that placed ISU students in Europe for summer studies. The program continues today, with most students going to either Germany or France. Over the years, England, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, and Mexico have been destinations. Since 1985, students from Illinois State have gone to Paderborn, near Iris’s hometown in Germany, while their students come here.

“Our part is still going 30 years later,” Carson said. “It is run through the international studies and programs office. For the last eight years we’ve had a joint degree program. Students earn a degree from Paderborn and an MBA from here.”

Lloyd Watkins, former president of the University, was instrumental in approving international business as a major in 1985, Carson said. He added that President Larry Dietz is a big promoter of the program.

At the urging of her husband, Iris earned her MBA and a Ph.D. at OU in social foundations, which is history, philosophy, and sociology. Not long after their arrival in Normal, she began teaching a business writing course at Illinois State. An intro to business course was soon added to her responsibilities.

Iris served as director of the international business program from 2000 to 2010; she retired from teaching in 2009. In all, she was a teacher for 41 years, all but six of those years were spent at Illinois State. With Carson’s 42 years of teaching and Katrin’s 17, that makes a full century in the classroom for the family. And, Carson intends to keep on going.

He recently turned 72, but he says he’s still having fun. He obviously still likes the work, and it helps that there’s always been a real emphasis on education and students here, he said.

“Students count in a way that they don’t in a lot of other institutions,” Carson said. It’s one of many important reasons they stayed, and it continues today.

“The school has never lost its focus on the students,” Iris agreed, noting that foreign students come here and notice immediately that “office doors are open, people are in their offices, and professors are approachable.”

She called it a valuable holdover from an earlier time on campus.

“We have not lost the relationship with students,” she said.

Carson described Illinois State as having “a certain warmth around here that other schools don’t have. You just sort of feel it when you walk across campus.”

And, now the Varners’ time and influence and their affinity for Illinois State University will carry on for generations to come. With their generous gift they are focused on the long view and making an impact on students, but there is a practical side to their philanthropy, too.

“What I’m looking forward to is to see a separate office for international business,” Iris said. “That’s been a dream of mine forever.”

It’s similar for Carson who is happy that the program that didn’t have secretarial help or even a graduate assistant will reap the benefits of their generosity.

“It will be really nice to have some really good space that says international business over the door,” he said. “With our name on this program, we’ve got 40-some years of former students who will look at that and say, ‘Well, I know them.’

“Hopefully, we’ve done something good for them.”

News & Views

11

THE COB WORKS ON PAYING IT FORWARD

STUDENTS HELPING STUDENTS

By Rebecca Gropp

A

s described by senior marketing major McKenna Hofflander, the MPW Pay It Forward Business Scholarship is about “students helping other students.”

The initials in the endowed scholarship’s name pay tribute to former Interim Dean Gerry McKean, former Senior Director of Development Norris Porter, and its founder Ron Whitton. The latter developed the idea for the scholarship around the time of his daughter’s graduation from ISU two years ago as he looked for ways to boost support for the school among current students and recent graduates.

12 Illinois State University College of Business

Professor Hulda Black takes a pie in the face for charity during Pay It Forward week.

The scholarship’s funding base was provided by a group of alumni, including Whitton, Paul Koch, Erick Miner, Gary Ritchie, Katie Hill-Gottesman, Nate Webb, John Denning, Jay Jochums, Andrea Whitton, and Jonathon Rdzak, who together pledged to contribute about $6,000 a year over a five-year period.

With that healthy start, Whitton ushered in a new phase of the scholarship this fall when he announced a matching campaign. The 1980 ISU alum issued a challenge to current students in the College of Business to make donations to help their peers and promised to personally match their gifts dollar for dollar.

He spoke highly of the benefits of getting students in “the habit of giving” back to the school before they graduate so that it becomes “part of who they are.”

Utilizing the hashtage “#saveyoursingles,” for the week, the Pay It Forward team successfully raised over $1,400 during the four-day fundraising campaign in September that included such activities as a hot dog-eating contest, a pie the professor event, and luncheons featuring the following community partners: Avanti’s and Krispy Kreme.

Planning for the event, which was called Pay It Forward Week, originally started as a class project during the spring semester.

Hofflander was among the students given the task of developing marketing strategies for engaging students and inspiring them to get involved in supporting the scholarship program. She enjoyed the process and decided to serve on the student committee to help implement some of the class’s ideas. The senior shared that being on the planning team and learning how to take ideas and put them into action has been “invaluable.”

Also serving on the committee were Abby Turczyn, Sidney Laughllin, Ashley Becker, Trysten Florey, and Jessica Hoberg, who described the scholarship as “an easy way for students to help each other achieve their dreams.”

Unlike a typical scholarship that focuses on developing students academically, the Pay It Forward program seeks to support professional development and to help launch young people into a career.

“We’re setting people up for success in the future,” Hofflander said as she described how applicants can receive smaller monetary awards to cover such things as the cost of attending a conference or pursuing certification training.

“Just donating something as simple as 25 cents makes a difference in helping another student who applies for a grant to buy a suit for an interview,” Hoberg said. “I think this is important because it shows that while the business world is competitive, we can still take the time to help others achieve their dreams, too, as we are chasing our own.”

This fall’s fundraising efforts during Pay It Forward Week were about building momentum, according to Whitton. His hope is that the scholarship will serve as a template for other colleges at ISU to follow.

“It’s going to make a difference,” he said. “It’s fun to watch something grow from a little seed.”

The Pay It Forward promotional team poses with Reggie during Pay It Forward week.

Gerry McKean

“IT’

Norris Porter

O T G N S GOI

Ron Whitton

D A E MAK

I

.

E C N E FFER

News & Views

13

”

Rise hallenge C to the

For more information about Redbirds Rising: The Campaign for Illinois State, contact your College of Business Directors of Development.

Liz Adams Senior Director of Development (309) 438-2903 eadams2@IllinoisState.edu

Aaron Von Qualen Assistant Director of Development (309) 438-7682 aevonqu@IllinoisState.edu

H

ow do we ensure that today’s business students are prepared to thrive in an ever-changing global environment where new careers and fields are continuously emerging?

At the College of Business, we believe the answer begins by developing students who can move the world forward with an innovative mindset, entrepreneurial approach, and creative solutions to our most complex problems.

Join fellow College of Business alumni in supporting Redbirds Rising: The Campaign for Illinois State. There are multiple ways to support the College of Business within key funding categories: • EXPANDING STUDENT SUPPORT • ATTRACTING AND DEVELOPING TOP FACULTY • PAVING A PROFESSIONAL PATH • SUSTAINING EXCELLENCE • COLLABORATION ACROSS DISCIPLINES

Together, we will further empower our community of scholars and business professionals, while simultaneously blazing a path of even greater distinction and discovery.

Visit Giving.IllinoisState.edu/Opportunities/College-Business to learn more about how you can invest in the College of Business.

NEW FACES AROUND THE COB

Mona Bahl Mona Bahl joins the MQM Department as an assistant professor in fall 2017. She teaches courses primarily in areas of strategic management and international business. Her research interests lie at the intersection of strategy and international business and include topics related to knowledge management, international strategy, and corporate governance. Her research is published in Strategic Management Journal, International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets (forthcoming) and International Journal of Production Economics. Before joining ISU, she taught at Youngstown State University from 2013-2017 and at Coastal Carolina University from 2012-2013. She received her Ph.D. in strategic management from Purdue University in 2013. Before starting her Ph.D., she worked at Tata Motors Limited, India in the areas of joint ventures and collaborations and investor relations.

Niharika Dayyala Niharika Dayyala joins the Department of Accounting in fall 2017 as an assistant professor.

Dayyala earned her Ph.D. in business administration with specialization in information systems from The University of Texas at El Paso.

She has a master’s in information technology from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India, and a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Andhra University, India. During her master’s she also earned a collaboration certification from the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.

Dayyala worked as a lecturer and a visiting assistant professor at The University of Texas at El Paso for five years. Her teaching interests include data analytics, database management, information systems security, business application programming and statistics. She also worked for three years as a software development senior analyst at Dell International Services Pvt. Ltd, where she worked on several data warehouse projects.

16 Illinois State University College of Business

Ryan Fiala Ryan Fiala joins the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods as an instructional assistant professor in spring 2018.

He will be teaching a class in entrepreneurship for the George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepeneurial Studies. Fiala earned his B.S. in entrepreneurship in 2004 and his MBA in 2006.

He opened D.P. Dough Calzones in Uptown Normal in 2008. Fiala has since purchased and extensively renovated the property and expanded the store to three times its original size. “The entrepreneurship sequence at Illinois State gave me the confidence to start my own business. The exposure to various aspects of entrepreneurship, from business plan writing to securing financing and the difficulties of going through the startup process, was instrumental in my opening a successful business,” he said. A graduate of the 2012 class of Leadership McLean County and an active member of Bloomington Rotary and the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, Fiala also serves on the Advisory Board of the Means Center.

Brandon Grant Brandon Grant joined the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods as an instructional assistant professor in spring 2017.

Grant presently is a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the School of Labor and Employment Relations. He is an ISU alum and holds a B.S. in MQM (HR Management Sequence) from ISU. He also holds a M.S. in human resources and industrial relations from the University of Illinois. Grant has approximately 10 years of work experience in restaurant management as well as two years of career advising. His scholarly research primarily focuses on labor and industrial relations, corporate governance and shareholder activism, stakeholder management and alignment, corporate social responsibility, and cooperation.

Grant has presented papers (including three Best Papers) at academic conferences including the Academy of Management and the Labor and Employment Relations Association. His doctoral dissertation is on Labor Union Pension Fund Shareholder Activism.

Sandeep Jagani Sandeep Jagani joins the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods as an assistant professor in fall 2017. His teaching focus is in the operations management area. He is a Ph.D. candidate in manufacturing and technology management at the University of Toledo. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from South Gujarat University in India an MBA with specializations in finance, marketing, and international business from University of Toledo. He is Certified Six-Sigma Green Belt from American Society for Quality (ASQ). He has over six years of experience with manufacturing and operations management across industry. His research interests include sustainable operations management, green business, and technology management.

Matt Lastner Matt Lastner joins the Department of Marketing and the Professional Sales Institute. He earned his Ph.D. earlier this year from Louisiana State University and also holds a B.S. in marketing from James Madison University and an MBA from the University of Maryland. His current research interests include channel relationship formation and the impact of disruptive events in buyer-seller relationships.

His research has been published in the Journal of Business Research and the Journal for the Advancement of Marketing Education and has been recognized on several occasions, including winning best paper awards at the Academy of Marketing Science (2014), the Society for Marketing Advances (2014), and the Academy of Management Meeting (2015). He is currently working on publishing his dissertation research investigating the impact of disruptive events on buyer-seller relationships in a B2B context. At ISU, Lastner is scheduled to teach MKT 234 (Personal Selling and Relationship Marketing) and MKT 324 (Advanced Professional Selling and Negotiations). Prior to academia, he spent seven years working in sales and business development.

Lastner and his wife Aimee have two children, Kylee (age 5) and Braeden (6 months) and live in Bloomington.

POSITION CHANGES AT THE COB Véronique Parmenter Véronique Parmenter joined the Academic Advisement Center as a new advisor this summer. She completed her undergraduate degree at Lincoln College, majoring in health service administration. She comes to ISU from Lincoln College, where she was the academic advisor for business management, organizational leadership, entrepreneurship, health service administration, and criminal justice. She is currently pursuing her M.S. in public health.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her two children, Kamari and Damien, serving with an international missions organization, and camping.

Pui Ying Tong Pui Ying joins the Department of Marketing as an assistant professor, teaching in the marketing analytics area. Prior to joining ISU, she taught at West Virginia University, where she earned her Ph.D. She is an ISU alumna.

She earned her MBA at ISU and was a graduate assistant in the Marketing Department. She holds a B.B.A. from Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

Her research focuses on examining principal-agent relationships in business-to-business and sales manager-salespeople contexts. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, table tennis, and video games.

Debbie Lindberg Professor Debbie Lindberg joins the College of Business Dean’s Office as the new interim associate dean for Accreditation and Operations.

Lindberg is a professor in the Department of Accounting at Illinois State University, joining ISU in 1997. She earned a doctorate from Boston University, an MBA from Florida Atlantic University, and a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa. Lindberg teaches both undergraduate and graduate auditing classes. She is a CPA and a member of numerous professional and academic organizations, including the Illinois Society of CPAs, Beta Alpha Psi, Beta Gamma Sigma, the American Accounting Association, and the Institute of Internal Auditors.

She received an “Outstanding Educator” award from the Illinois CPA Society in 2009. She has also received numerous teaching, service, and research awards at the Department of Accounting, College of Business, and University levels. She was the: • Recipient of the William and Nancy England Faculty Accounting Scholar Award for 2016-2017.

• Recipient of the Caterpillar Faculty Accounting Award for 2015-2016.

• Recipient of the Ernst and Young Faculty Accounting Award for 2014-2015.

• Recipient of the Stephen Hagge Faculty Accounting Award for 2013-2014.

Lindberg has published in numerous journals, including the IMA Educational Case Journal, The International Journal of Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Issues in Accounting Education, The CPA Journal, Internal Auditor, Strategic Finance, and the Journal of Insurance Regulation.

Terry Noel Terry Noel became the assistant MQM department chair in January 2017. He is an associate professor and has served as the associate director of the George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepreneurial Studies for two years. He has taught courses in management, small business, and entrepreneurship since arriving at Illinois State University. Noel has also delivered numerous workshops and classes in the Center for Teaching and Learning Technology. He has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Management Education, the Journal of Entrepreneurship, and the Journal of Entrepreneurship Education. He is author of the book Empty Nest Egg: Why You Must Start Your Own Business NOW and The Vigil, both available on Amazon.com. Noel performs weekly with Improv Attack!, a local improv troupe. He also conducts workshops on the use of improvisational theater techniques in teaching and management.

News & Views

17

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

HALL OF FAME 2017

CELEBRATING THE SUCCESSES OF OUR OUTSTANDING COLLEGE OF BUSINESS GRADUATES AND SUPPORTERS IS ONE OF THE MOST REWARDING THINGS WE DO AT ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY. THEIR COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE NOT ONLY REFLECTS THEIR PROFESSIONAL DEDICATION AND SERVICE TO OTHERS, BUT THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS ALSO ADD VALUE TO OUR PROGRAMS AND THE ILLINOIS STATE BRAND FOR ALL OF OUR GRADUATES. IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE THAT WE HONOR THESE INDIVIDUALS.

Penny Cermak ’89, MS ’91 Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Baylor Scott & White Health Penny Cermak joined Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, Texas, as a senior vice president in 2012 at which time she had responsibility for the system’s revenue cycle operations, corporate accounting, tax, governmental finance, and academic operations finance. Following a merger with Baylor Health Care in October 2013, she is now the CFO for Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH)–Central Texas, one of two divisions formed through the merger, and is a key member of the Central Texas executive operations team and the Baylor Scott & White executive finance leadership team. BSWH is the largest not-for-profit health care system in the state of Texas, with over $11 billion in assets and $9 billion in revenue. Cermak has been employed in the field of health care finance since 1996, and prior to joining Baylor Scott & White, she served as chief financial officer and treasurer for (Advocate) BroMenn Healthcare System in Normal for nine years and was previously system controller. Cermak began her career with five years of public accounting experience at Illinois Agricultural Auditing Association in Bloomington.

Cermak has been actively involved in Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), where she is certified as a fellow and is a current member of the HFMA National Board of Directors and also serves on the executive committee. She is a past president of the McMahon-Illini chapter and served on the HFMA National Board of Examiners. Cermak has also served as a member of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Solutions Board of Directors and currently serves as the financial expert on the AHA’s audit committee. She has served on numerous additional joint venture and community boards over the course of her professional career, including the startup of

18 Illinois State University College of Business

Immanuel Health Center, a not-for-profit clinic now serving those in need in west Bloomington.

Cermak was recently the recipient of the Austin Business Journal’s 2015 Best CFO Award in the Non-profit category.

Cermak received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Illinois State University and is a CPA. She resides in Temple, Texas, with her husband Mark and daughter Eve.

Jamie Huff ’96, MBA ’09 President, Progressive Impressions International Jamie Huff is president of Progressive Impressions International (pii), a Bloomington-based company. Pii was founded in 1991 with a core group of three people and a contract with a national insurance company for the largest newsletter in circulation. With a vision of providing personalized marketing programs in a time when it was unprecedented, pii excelled through the ’90s and 2000s. The pioneering spirit of pii and its founders has guided it through each decade keeping the company at the forefront of emerging technology.

Pii is a data-driven, customer-engagement company that focuses on helping its customers create and deliver their marketing communications messages to the right people at the right time. Owned by Taylor Corporation, pii combined with 80-plus other companies making Taylor the third largest graphic arts communication company in North America today. Pii has three U.S. locations and three international locations. Serving Fortune 1000 accounts in the insurance, health care, and automotive industries, pii also relies on the strength of that Taylor network. Through that relationship, pii has access to 7 million square feet of operations capacity and 12,000 professionals around the world.

Huff has served many roles during his tenure at pii including vice president roles in

finance, business development, and technology.

Additionally, he stays active in several local and national not-for-profit organizations through pii’s commitment to giving back to the community. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1996 and an MBA from Illinois State University in 2009.

Kris Lutt ’06 MBA President | Sweeteners and Starches, Archer Daniels Midland Company Kris Lutt is president, sweeteners and starches, in Archer Daniels Midland Company’s corn processing business unit. In that role, he is responsible for all commercial activities of the company’s North American sweetener, starch, and acidulant businesses.

Lutt joined ADM in 2002, and most recently served as president of ADM subsidiary Golden Peanut and Tree Nuts, a leading handler, processor, and exporter of peanuts and tree nuts, with processing facilities in major growing areas in the United States, Argentina, and South Africa.

Before that, Lutt was president of ADM’s milling business, and before that, adviser to the office of the chairman. Within ADM’s corn business, he has served as general manager, specialty feed ingredients, and vice president, corn processing.

Before joining ADM, Lutt worked for Minnesota Corn Processors, which ADM acquired in 2002.

Lutt holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from Illinois State University. Lutt also serves on the Acacia Fraternity Foundation and the Community Foundation of Macon County. Lutt is a member of the College of Business Advisory Council at Illinois State University.

William J. Motchar ’85

Ron Whitton, Jr. ’80

President and Chief Executive Officer, Navis Global

Co-Founder/Owner, Dentsmart

Will Motchar is the president and chief executive officer of Navis Global. Founded in 1929, Navis Global is the leading finishing machinery supplier to the global textile industry. Based in Lexington, North Carolina, the company designs, engineers, and manufactures high-tech machinery for the global knit, woven, non-woven, technical, and geotextile industries. Navis has sales and service offices in over 60 countries, with manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Taiwan.

Motchar graduated from ISU in 1985.

Following graduation, he spent 13 years in progressing responsibilities in sales, marketing, and global business unit management with National Starch and Chemical Company. Motchar spent most of his time in the international business unit with extensive travel in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Motchar joined Navis Global in 1998 as vice president, global sales and marketing. In 2005, he was promoted to president and CEO. In 2011, Motchar purchased the company from the private equity ownership group.

Motchar also serves as chairman and member of the Board of Directors of the American Textile Machinery Association. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Illinois State University and an MBA from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Motchar serves on the College of Business Advisory Council at Illinois State University.

Ron Whitton graduated from Illinois State University in 1980 with a major in business administration, a minor in economics, a partial in accounting. That same year, Whitton started working as a sales rep for Standard Brands—Food Manufacturer. A year later, he went to work for PMI, a food broker headquartered in Chicago.

In 1988, Whitton purchased Spring-Green Lawn Care in Peoria and completed the Account Executive College Program at Northwestern University. In 1991, he purchased Jimbos Jumbo, a takeout restaurant located in Pekin. In 1998, Whitton won the Peoria Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award with SpringGreen. In 2001, he purchased a commercial building in Peoria and started Dentsmart with Dave Haxton. In 2002, Whitton started developing body shop and insurance company partnerships in Illinois and had one Dentsmart technician in Illinois, and in that same year Whitton won the account executive of the year award while still working in the brokerage business. In 2005, he sold Jimbos restaurant and Spring-Green Lawn Care to focus on the growth of Dentsmart. Soon after, Whitton started developing the Dentsmart brand in Iowa. In 2006, Whitton began licensing the Dentsmart brand in other states, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee, in addition to Illinois and Wisconsin. In 2011, Dentsmart was approved by the federal government to change to a franchise system in all active markets. In 2016, Dentsmart had more than 100 people serving 12 markets, including newly added Nebraska and Arkansas.

In 2010, Whitton’s daughter Andrea started attending ISU as a freshman. Her attending ISU got Whitton involved in supporting the school with time, talent, and treasure.

Here is a recap of his ISU involvement: Established the Ron and Cathy Whitton endowed scholarship for an incoming freshman or transfer student majoring in business, established the “Pay it Forward” College of Business endowed scholarship for a student involved in COB Registered Student Organizations, established a marketing scholarship and entrepreneur scholarship and is a member of the Alumni

Board, College of Business Advisory Council, the MQM and Means Center advisory councils and participates in the Alumni Scholarship program, and hired and worked with interns from PSE business organization to facilitate the Dentsmart social media presence. Whitton also enjoys supporting his church and other charities.

Whitton has been married to his wife Cathy since 1981, and she has been on this journey with him since the beginning. They have two children, Derek, who lives in Pekin and Andrea, who lives in Baltimore.

Drew Butts Group Talent Manager, Enterprise Holdings, Chicago Drew Butts started his career with Enterprise 25 years ago as a management trainee in Cleveland. After five years in branch operations, Butts was promoted to manage the newly created recruiting department for Northeast Ohio.

After achieving success in Cleveland, Butts was promoted to manage the recruiting and training departments for Chicago and Northwest Indiana in August of 2000.

In his current HR role, Butts is responsible for developing strategies for effective recruiting and training for the Enterprise, National, and Alamo Brands. Butts sits on several University Employer Advisory Boards, and most recently served as the only two-term president for the Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers. He has presented numerous keynote addresses to student organizations and faculty on topics of diversity, leadership, networking, interviewing, and building effective partnerships between employers and colleges.

His professional affiliations include the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the Society for Human Resources Managers, The Chicago Urban League, and the Illinois Small College Placement Association. Butts is also very active in the community and is currently serving his second three-year term as a deacon at Calvary Church in Naperville.

Butts is a 1986 graduate of The Ohio State University, where he received a B.A. in journalism.

Butts and his wife Jessica live in Aurora and are the proud parents of four children: Veronica, Amber, Austin, Ryan, and their beautiful granddaughter Laila.

News & Views

19

JAM ES ALL END ORP H ECA A ALL -STAR

KYLE BARBER

JOH N CON RAD

ECAA ALL-STAR

ECA A ALL -STAR

CAS EY EM ERI CH ECA A ALL -STAR

EARLY CAREER ACHIEVEMENT JAMES ALLENDORPH ’08, BS | BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Upon graduation, James Allendorph volunteered with the Peace Corps in Belize. He organized, coordinated, and hosted community-wide health fairs to raise awareness of vital sanitary practices. He also recruited U.S.-based dentists to travel to Belize to provide free care to impoverished regions. There, he learned what true struggle, sacrifice, and interpersonal relationships are all about. Allendorph used his time there as a backdrop to launch a legal career.

After he returned, Allendorph attended John Marshall Law School. He served with the Honorable Judge Scotillo in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Third Municipal District. He also served as a teaching assistant while at John Marshall. He graduated with his J.D. in 2012. He also held other prominent positions throughout this phase of his career with Goodman Networks, Blitt and Gaines, P.C., and the City of Des Plaines as consumer protection coordinator.

He is now an associate attorney general for the state of Illinois, a position he has held since 2015. Allendorph has found that public service and helping others has been a rich and fulfilling career move. He is grateful for Illinois State University for opening his eyes to that.

KYLE BARBER ’09, ’12, BS | ACCOUNTANCY, MS| ACCOUNTANCY, BSMPA Kyle Barber is a graduate of Illinois State with his bachelor’s and M.S. in accountancy. He is a certified public accountant. He is also an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran having deployed to Afghanistan soon after graduation, serving in the Air National Guard from 2006-2012.

Barber is currently a senior staff accountant II for Caterpillar, the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. Since he began with the company in 2011, he has held a variety of positions within Caterpillar of increasing responsibility ranging from legal entity inventory accounting, sales analysis, and product line financial support within various business divisions including Large Power Systems Engines and Earthmoving Machines. Caterpillar has recognized him as a top performer by consistently exceeding performance expectations. He enjoys the many challenges of his career and considers himself a continual learner, focusing a lot of his time on teaching himself various data mining software tools and techniques.

Outside of work, Barber is an active participant in serving his community.

In 2013, he co-led a team of 20 volunteers that raised $56,000 for Easter Seals.

In 2014, he supported the development of a young professional’s organization for The Salvation Army called Echelon. He is past chairperson for the Red Hot Christmas event, raising over $15,000 for The Salvation Army. In 2015, he completed Peoria’s Chamber of Commerce Community Leadership School,

20 Illinois State University College of Business

which chooses emerging leaders and aims to develop and promote service within the community. He currently devotes his time and energy to The Salvation Army with 500-plus service hours since 2015. In 2016, he received The Salvation Army’s Young Leaders Award. He has also supported and participated in events for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Barber spends the majority of his free time watching his beloved World Series Champion Chicago Cubs and even attended Game 7 of the World Series. He is a proud, diehard Illinois State basketball fan and is hopeful Coach Muller will be getting us to “the dance” very soon. He lives in the Peoria area and will be marrying his beautiful fiancee, Danielle Daluga, in November 2017. He claims he was even able to turn his fiancee, a Bradley graduate, into an Illinois State athletics fan, although she may disagree. They have one dog-child named Ivy that they adore.

JOHN CONRAD ’11, BS | BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS Following graduation, John Conrad began working at software company Autonomy as a support engineer. Over the next six years the company went through a number of acquisitions, into Hewlett-Packard, and into divesting to become a wholly management-owned organization of iManage in 2015.

His current position with iManage is manager of support operations, which includes directing a team of support engineers, driving systems and operational changes, managing enterprise customer issues, and assisting the Cloud and professional services team with implementations and escalations.

Conrad is a member of the Business Information Systems Advisory Board for the College of Business, where he has made a huge difference in the BIS Program. He has been instrumental in students having successful internships and employment at iManage.

One of the most valuable things about his experience at Illinois State University was the study abroad program. His time studying in France provided him with amazing experiences and new relationships.

CASEY EMERICH (MILLER) ’09, BS | BUSINESS TEACHER EDUCATION Casey Emerich (Miller) graduated from Illinois State in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in business teacher education. After graduation, she began her teaching career at West Aurora High School where she taught business and computer education courses. In addition to teaching, she co-sponsored West High’s DECA Business Club, an organization that prepares students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management.

She left high school teaching in 2013 to become a full-time faculty member at the College of DuPage, Illinois’ largest community college. As an

ROSANNA FU

GATE

TA R ECAA ALL- S

KATHRYN HENKEL-SLADE ECA A ALL -STAR

MATT HORSCH

LER

ECAA ALL- ST AR

AWARD WINNERS 2017–2018 assistant professor in the office technology information (OFTI) program, she teaches face-to-face and online courses, develops course curriculum, and is a member of the Business and Technology Division Curriculum Committee.

She also serves as the program’s co-coordinator by managing course scheduling, dual credit agreements with partnering high schools, instructor staffing, and degree and certificate development and revision. She recently completed a Master of Science degree in Online Teaching and Learning from California State University-East Bay. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Joe Emerich ’10, a commercial insurance broker. The two met in Schroeder Hall and hosted their 2016 wedding at Illinois State.

ROSANNA FUGATE ’08, BS | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, MARKETING Rosanna Fugate works in Samsung’s Global Strategy Group based in Seoul, South Korea. In this role, she is responsible for executive-level projects under the office of the chairman that drive Samsung’s growth in key emerging markets and industries. Prior to this role, Fugate worked for MetLife, a leading global insurance provider, in the New York City and Chicago areas.

In her six years there, she held a number of roles including a position in the chief of staff office for the head of the Latin America region in which she managed a number of cross-functional initiatives related to regional governance, executive travel, communications, employee development, and quarterly reporting for the Office of the Chairman and CEO. In addition, Fugate was chosen for the Leadership Development Program, a highly selective three-year rotational program for high potential talent.

Throughout her career, she has been passionate about supporting others in their professional development. At MetLife, she led the MetLife INROADS Alumni Network affinity group (MIAN). In this role, she transformed MIAN from an informal grassroots organization to an officially recognized employee affinity group through the creation of a formal leadership structure and national programming. Because of her efforts, MIAN was recognized for its best practices in employee recruitment and retention by INROADS, Inc. in 2014. At Samsung, Fugate is currently responsible for developing and establishing the first diversity and inclusion training and corresponding governance for the Global Strategy Group, a department of 80-plus employees representing 20-plus nationalities.

She received her BS in international business and marketing from Illinois State University in 2008 and her MBA from the Harvard Business School in 2016, where she served as co-president of the LGBT Student Association.

KATHRYN HENKEL-SLADE ’03, ’04, BS | ACCOUNTANCY, MS| ACCOUNTANCY, BSMPA Kathryn Henkel-Slade started her career with the Comptroller of the Currency as an assistant national bank examiner. She worked there for a little over three years when an opportunity came up to work at ADM. HenkelSlade started her career at ADM in 2007 as an accounting analyst working with ADM Latin America doing accounting for joint ventures in the Latin America region. It was while working with these regions that she had the opportunity to help open a new office in Panama.

Starting in 2011, she spent a year working with the ADM Grain North office in Minneapolis, doing accounting for grain elevators. She moved back to Decatur in 2012 and shortly after was promoted to accounting supervisor for the NA Cocoa Accounting division. ADM made the decision to divest of this business in 2014, at which point she accepted a promotion to accounting manager and helped to lead the North American team through the largest divestiture in ADM history.

Henkel-Slade wrapped up her work with ADM Cocoa in 2016 and accepted a role with the 1ADM team, which is a project focused on business transformation and working toward putting the company on an integrated system. In this position, she has helped educate employees on product costing and has helped standardize accounting procedures as they relate to inventory costing.

In October, she will move to a new role as a global controller for Global Fixed Assets. In this role, she will manage a team of 12 and will be the global policy leader on accounting for ADM’s fixed assets. In addition to this, she also oversees the accounting department’s new hire and intern recruitment.

She is a CPA and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

When not at work, Kathryn is married and is the mother of a 1-year-old boy. In her spare time, she serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Accounting Department at Illinois State University. In the past, she has served the community with her work with Big Brothers Big Sisters, both as a “big” and as chairman of the local advisory board.

MATT HORSCHLER ’09, BS | FINANCE, INSURANCE While a finance student, Matt Horschler secured a highly selective paid internship with State Farm Insurance Bank and decided to double major in finance and insurance. His decision to double major in insurance was the start of a remarkable post-graduate career. Upon graduation, Horschler accepted a full-time employment offer from Pekin Insurance. At Pekin

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CLY DE MIL LER ECA A ALL -STAR

JEFF RILEY

RON NEL L ROB INZ INE

ECAA ALL-STAR

ECA A ALL -STAR

EARLY CAREER ACHIEVEMENT Insurance, he underwent training to be a property insurance field adjuster.

He quickly mastered the skill set and was promoted to the catastrophe team within one year of full-time employment.

After two years with Pekin Insurance, he took an opportunity to move to Indianapolis with American Family Insurance in 2011, one of the largest property and casualty insurance companies in the United States. He worked to develop the company’s large loss property division and its national catastrophe team.

While working for American Family Insurance, he traveled all over the United States as a member of the company’s catastrophe adjuster team helping policyholders who had endured severe weather.

In 2014, Horschler moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to the Auto-Owners Insurance south regional catastrophe team. He was in this role for 18 months when he was asked to join their highly selective catastrophe team of 40 total adjusters in the United States.

Horschler was asked to be the first employee and catastrophe team lead on a newly developed catastrophe team while facilitating management with progress and managing the states of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.

In January 2017, Auto-Owners recognized Horschler’s leadership by promoting him to the position of assistant manager over the South Regional catastrophe team. At age 29, he is currently the youngest member of management in this department.

He earned his CPCU and AIC designations and plans to continue to pursue his education.

CLYDE MILLER ’08, BS | MARKETING (PROFESSIONAL SALES) Clyde Miller is a 2008 graduate of Illinois State University with a major in marketing and a concentration in professional sales. As a senior, he was a sales scholar (among the top students in the sales sequence) and mentored new sales students. He also participated in many other activities including the sales scholar program, Illinois State Cheerleading, the Red Alert Executive Board, and was a member of Delta Sigma Pi. Illinois State offered opportunities, of which Miller took full advantage. He held various jobs and internships around campus.

Since graduation, he has held a series of financial management, sales, and data analytics positions at Wells Fargo, Infogix, Information Builders, and now at Salesforce. He began working at Salesforce in 2015 as a solution engineer, and after 18 months was promoted to lead solution engineer. He has steadily advanced in his career from individual contributor to his current position of team leadership. He has continued his growth through attaining new certifications and designations at Salesforce, becoming a certified

22 Illinois State University College of Business

salesforce platform app builder in 2015, certified salesforce administrator in 2015, and a specialist in the Salesforce data visualization product, Wave.

Miller has shown substantial commitment to others and the embodiment of College of Business principles through his service involvement with Habitat for Humanity, Feed My Starving Children, Technovation juvenile entrepreneurship training, and the Ronald McDonald House.

In particular, he has given back extensively to ISU over the past year and a half as an alum readily willing to share with students his insights on careers in data analytics and sales. Miller participated in 2016 and 2017 Business Week as a panelist at the analytics sessions. He was a guest speaker in three sales management and introduction to professional sales classes. Additionally, in the spring of 2017, Miller gave a video-recorded interview on the benefits of studying marketing analytics and organized a field trip for Illinois State University sales and marketing analytics students to tour the Salesforce headquarters in Chicago, network with analytics professionals, and complete a series of use case studies.

Miller has made significant contributions to the learning experiences of the College of Business analytics and sales students over the past year and a half.

He met his wife 10 years ago on the Illinois State cheerleading team, and they were married three years later. They live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and have two amazing kids, a daughter and a son.

JEFF RILEY ’08, BS | BUSINESS TEACHER EDUCATION Jeff Riley is in his ninth year in education and currently serves as director of strategic partnerships at Joliet Township High School District 204. This district-level administrative position is responsible for coordinating strategic partnerships that positively impact student learning and achievement, including school business partnerships and special projects that support district initiatives.

Previously, Riley was a dedicated teacher at Joliet Central High School for five years. He taught accounting, marketing, and computer applications while contributing to numerous academic and community initiatives. His primary focus was to provide his students with authentic and valuable learning experiences that go beyond the classroom.

Riley has continued to be a lifelong learner, receiving his master’s degree from the University of St. Francis in Educational Leadership with his principal’s endorsement and is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in school business management from Northern Illinois University.

He is married to his wife Brittani ’11 and is the father of future Redbird, Grant, born in November 2016.

A L E X R U B IN TA R ECAA ALL- S

BRE TT SCH AEF ER

JON WORTHEY

ECA A ALL -STAR

ECAA ALL- ST AR

AWARD WINNERS 2017–2018 RONNELL ROBINZINE ’09, BS | FINANCE

BRETT SCHAEFER ’07, BSMPA | ACCOUNTANCY

After graduating from the Illinois State University College of Business in May 2009, Ronnell Robinzine attended the University of Florida Levin College of Law to pursue a career as a business lawyer. After graduating from law school in May 2012 and passing the Florida bar exam in the summer, Robinzine began his legal career in private practice as an associate at Bush Ross, P.A. in Tampa, where he practiced commercial litigation, corporate, and real estate law.

In July 2014, Robinzine joined the Miami office of Akerman LLP, a national law firm. While an associate at Akerman, he focused his practice on real estate law, representing financial institutions and investors in commercial mortgage-backed securities originations, as well as purchase, sale, and financing transactions. Robinzine also represented clients in real estate aspects of corporate transactions, including merger and acquisition deals and bond offerings.

Robinzine recently accepted an offer to join the international law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP as an associate, continuing his legal career as a business law attorney concentrating on commercial real estate.

Brett Schaefer is a senior manager of Assurance Services with RSM US, LLP. He specializes in audits of middle market companies in the industrial products, consumer products, logistics, and technology industries.

Since graduation, Schaefer has been a major supporter of the accounting programs at Illinois State, where he was a Presidential Scholar and a graduate assistant in the Accounting Department. He frequently gives back to the Accounting Department by judging case competitions and assisting in recruiting.

He is a CPA and a member of the Illinois CPA Society and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Schaefer lives in South Elgin with his wife Melissa (also an ISU graduate), their daughter Emerson, and Bailey, their German Shepherd.

ALEX RUBIN ’11, ’12, BS | FINANCE, MS| BUSINESS Alex Rubin’s career began at a global staffing firm in Minneapolis. He quickly realized that there were gaps to be filled in the industry and wasted no time starting his own business, that is now New Roots Solutions, at the age of 27.

His current job, as principal of his company, tasks all employees with client business development and recruiting and staffing solutions.

He has been able to use his transitional skills to launch a platform for a more “boutique” service that could offer tailored and exclusive experience to clients with staffing needs. At the core of what drives his business’s success is an overall engagement with clients to understand their needs and goals and to reach beyond what Rubin’s company has previously done to provide the best possible service to each and every client.

Rubin drives the success of his business model through his commitment to the core principles outlined during his tenure at Illinois State University as both an athlete and a student.

He continues to invest in his community, using his business platform to help various charities and causes, as well as providing his employees with opportunities for expanded learning, career growth, and professional development.

JON WORTHEY ’12, BS | HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS TEACHER EDUCATION Jon Worthey is the global planning and analytics lead– Americas HR for Mondelez International, the $26 billion maker of Oreos. He graduated in December 2012 with a double major in human resource management and business education (Distinguished Honors in both).

After graduating, Worthey spent two years in Indianapolis working for Cummins on the workforce planning and analytics team and later returned to the Chicagoland area when an opportunity to lead HR Reporting and Analytics opened at Mondelez.

He played a critical role in the multi-year, $3.5 billion transformation program undertaken at Mondelez, which included Zero Based Budgeting, organizational restructuring, setting up a shared services organization, and supply chain reinvention. This project took him all over the world, including stops in Dubai and London, and positioned him as a trusted adviser of senior management at the company. He is a part of the North American HR Leadership Team at Mondelez and supports global and Americas-based strategic initiatives.

Worthey resides in the northern suburbs of Chicago with his fiancee Jacquelyn. He is pursuing his master’s in analytics from The University of Chicago.

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BW business

ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY

week 2 0 1 7

A LOOK BACK AT THE BUSINESS WEEK THAT WAS

Business Week has continued to change, grow, and adapt during its 38-year life. It continues to open students’ eyes to experiences outside of the classroom and allows them to hear about “life after Illinois State” from alums willing to take the time to share their practical knowledge and their understanding of the business and professional world.

The unique student experience is put together by a student team that meets weekly beginning in August. Over the course of the year, the team not only becomes a close and tight-knit family but gains valuable real-world experience working with industry leaders and COB faculty and staff to create a series of valuable events for their peers. Business Week alums often look forward to the day they can return to the University to “sit on the other side of the desk” and share their experiences with students.

Below is a brief recap of the 2017 Business Week.

MONDAY—PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DINNER: “TAKE THE BACK ROADS”

Dave Magers ’77, MBA ’86, chief executive officer Mecum Collector Car Auctions TUESDAY—TRANSITION SEMINARS

The transition from college to corporate life can be daunting but with well-directed guidance from experienced professionals, students can achieve it. The topics covered in each seminar were chosen to better prepare students as they enter their prospective industries. Each seminar is constructed to provide unique insights that students would not otherwise gain. To help ease the transition, distinguished College of Business alumni return to campus to share their experiences.

24 Illinois State University College of Business

WEDNESDAY—INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SHOWCASE KEYNOTE

William J. Motchar ’85, president and chief executive officer Navis Global Charlotte, North Carolina THURSDAY—KEYNOTE ADDRESS “ADAPTING TO A CHANGING INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE”

Steve Hagge ’73, president and CEO of AptarGroup, Inc. FRIDAY—INSPIRE: A WOMEN’S EXCHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE

The Business Week team will put on a conference geared toward women for the second year in a row. This event is open to all students, and we strongly encourage all females to participate.

Inspire will include breakout sessions held at the College of Business followed by a keynote address at the Normal Theater.

Students will learn about various topics surrounding embracing women in the workforce and encouraging them to be strong leaders.

Each breakout session will help further understanding of gender dynamics in the workplace and empower you during the process.

INSPIRE KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Lynne Weil, Great Lakes Regional Hedge Fund and Mutual Fund Leader and Audit Partner | RSM

Business Week 2017 team members Executive Team Brett Gilbert president

Ellen Marr

vice president

Katie Hudson

vice president of logistics

Marketing coordinators Marie Bedoun Miles Neilson Cidney Scalpelli Professional Development Dinner coordinator Emily Schoenfeldt

Inspire Coordinators Nick Dall Erin Myatt Corporate Social Responsibility coordinators Maggie Flynn Shannon Killian Golf Outing coordinators Trysten Florey Ryan Ponton Mentor Program coordinators Ashley Cassens Tom Kleszyk

Transition Seminar coordinators Eric Puccini Abby Wright

Implementation Team Sammy Boyne Meagan Hayes Jacklynn McClain IT Specialist Kyle Zulz Advisor Steve Vandiver

COB executive director of Marketing and Communications

PLATINUM PARTNER

CONTRIBUTING PARTNERS

State Farm Companies Foundation

GROWMARK

LEAD PARTNERS

Kensington Realty Advisors Inc.

Archer Daniels Midland

Little Jewels Learning Center

Caterpillar

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

COUNTRY Financial

Widmer Interiors

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Assistant Mentor Program coordinators Cole Breitenbucher Anna Fishbein Mackenzie Riechers Brittney Zullo

Featured Partners

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DAY

Caterpillar PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DINNER

Archer Daniels Midland Commerce Bank Deere & Company TRANSITION SEMINARS AND IB SHOWCASE

Commerce Bank

GOLF OUTING

Cintas

COUNTRY Financial

Deere & Company

Enterprise Holdings Foundation

Cintas

Dentsmart

Dentsmart

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

State Farm Companies Foundation

Enterprise Holdings Foundation

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25

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Illinois State University

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS Campus Box 5500 Normal, IL 61790-5500

ALUMNI UPDATE FORM Name Major

Graduation year

Mailing address City

State Zip

Phone Email

Career and/or life update

YES! YES!

I would be happy to share my expertise and am interested in reconnecting with the College of Business. Please contact me about the possibilities.

I want more information about how to make a charitable gift to the College of Business and/or Illinois State.

To submit an alumni update, either fill out and return the form above or fill out the online form at Business.IllinoisState.edu/Alumni. You can also access the electronic form by scanning the QR code to the left.

IF MAILING, PLEASE SEND YOUR INFORMATION TO: Steve Vandiver, Director of Marketing Illinois State University | College of Business Campus Box 5500 | Normal, IL 61790-5500

P U R A E G irds!

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You asked, and we heard you! We’re happy to announce that

This document is available in alternative formats upon request by contacting Steve Vandiver at (309) 438-2646. An equal opportunity/affirmative action university encouraging diversity. University Marketing and Communications • 18-3275 printed on recycled paper

RedbirdGear.com now offers College of Business clothing displaying COB logos. While you’re on the site, we invite you to shop around and find even more cool Illinois State items. Purchase for yourself, family, or friends.

Fifteen percent of all proceeds directly benefit the Illinois State Alumni Association.