A Powerful Relationship

MSOE and Direct Supply are driven to succeed

One was baffled by the word “partner” spelled with a lot of Rs. Another wondered why a guy was asking him so many questions during their shifts at WMSE. Yet another simply followed a professor’s instructions.

That’s how three people describe their early encounters with Direct Supply Inc. Sabrina Stangler ’20 SE, MSOE actuarial science senior John Williams, and Tom Hill ’01 CE each had different introductions to the company. All are beneficiaries of a corporate-university partnership that began with Direct Supply Founder, President and CEO Bob Hillis, who is also an MSOE Regent, and has grown deeper and broader over more than three decades.

Direct Supply, a technology, distribution and consulting company serving the senior care industry, has established itself as a constant presence at MSOE. It invites students to interact with its professionals, shares space for classes, supports student activities, hires faculty during the summer, and is a constant presence at career fairs and recruitment activities. It offers multiple internships—currently 22 are filled by MSOE students—and many of those lead to full-time jobs. More than 80 MSOE alumni now work for Direct Supply.

“It’s a powerful relationship,” said MSOE President John Walz, who doesn’t know of another one quite like it among engineering schools. “It’s good for faculty, it’s good for students, and I think it’s very good for Direct Supply.” That relationship entered an exciting new phase with the 2019 renovation of Direct Supply’s Innovation and Technology Center (ITC) in MSOE’s German-English Academy building. The ITC now occupies all five floors of the historic Neo-Romanesque structure.

Future Partners

It was freshman orientation, and Sabrina Stangler had questions. Why is that company’s logo on the orientation T-shirts? And what’s with the word “parrrtners” spelled with extra Rs? Eventually, she put two and two together. The logo belonged to Direct Supply, which is employee-owned and takes pride in calling its employees “partners.” And the MSOE Raiders’ mascot is a pirate who, as the initiated know, talks with a lots of RRRs.

Stangler laughs about it now, but tells the story to illustrate how Direct Supply seemed to be everywhere when she arrived on campus.

She got to know some Direct Supply employees—or rather, partners—through career fairs, and her work as president of the Society of Software Engineers (SSE). People like Wade Krogwold, campus and community recruiting manager, and Mark Baylor, software engineering manager, were big SSE supporters, helping with resume critiques and programming competitions. Stangler had opportunities to visit the ITC, too. She vividly recalls observing a Direct Supply “Sprint Review,” in which teams of engineers reported on projects and received feedback. To her surprise, they looked like they were actually having fun. “It was cool because we could see employees just being employees.”

In her senior year she bumped into Krogwold at the MSOE Career Fair. He asked, “OK, Sabrina, when are you going to apply?”

Today, Stangler is an entry-level software engineer at Direct Supply. “I feel happy that I landed where I am, and lucky to be here.”

Impromptu Interview

John Williams’ mother, MaKisha Williams ’15, earned the first degree in actuarial science awarded by MSOE. “From a young age I was told I was going to MSOE,” he said. And he did, studying actuarial science like his mom.

Williams’ encounter with Direct Supply came during work shifts at WMSE, the campus radio station. Some Direct Supply partners volunteer there, and one of them happened to be Senior Vice President Bob Klein. “We talked a lot,” said Williams, who politely responded to Klein’s queries, thinking it was a little odd that someone showed so much interest in his life’s story. “But he was actually giving me an impromptu interview,” said Williams, chuckling at the memory.

That led in his sophomore year to a supply chain analytics internship that would continue through graduation and turn into a full-time job offer; in May, he’ll become a rotational development associate. The internship had him toggling between classrooms, the ITC and Direct Supply’s north Milwaukee headquarters. He’d often learn something in class one week that he could apply to his internship the next.

Williams values the MSOE-Direct Supply relationship as a window into the professional world, giving MSOE students a powerful leg-up when starting their careers. Without it, he said, “I don’t think I’d have gotten a foot in the door.”

Shared Values

Tom Hill has taken on a growing set of responsibilities in his 22 years at Direct Supply, including a nine-year stretch living in China to establish the company’s presence there. He’s now group vice president of Direct Supply brands. But back when he was an MSOE computer engineering student, “I had no idea who Direct Supply was.” He learned about the company through one of his professors, who told him: You’re interviewing there. He didn’t argue.

Hill views the campus-corporate relationship as a deliberate extension of Direct Supply’s mission to improve the aging community’s quality of life through technology. “And we’ve done it by hiring a lot of MSOE engineers.”

The ITC is home to Direct Supply software engineers and special-project teams. It’s also where staff, students, faculty and community can convene. “It’s a place where both our teams and startup partners are building the future of senior health together. That spans everything from A.I. to software development to entirely new business development. It’s a fun Silicon Valley-like environment.” And a place designed, Hill said, to create “collisions.” Classrooms are placed near engineers’ workspaces, and there are plenty of common areas. “You can bump into worldclass talent while you’re walking to your classroom.”

Hill has done a lot of hiring in his time at Direct Supply, and he knows all about the competitive market for talented engineers. The recruitment pipeline is helpful, but so is a sense of shared values. “We always want to hire incredibly talented, driven people with the right brains, character and drive, and that makes this connection with MSOE so, so powerful,” he said.

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PARTNERSHIP AND THE WAYS IT’S IMPROVING THE LIVES OF SENIOR CITIZENS AND THE COMMUNITY AT DIRECTSUPPLY.COM/INNOVATION AND MSOE.EDU/DIMENSIONS.