SPRING 2014
This Issue: SPRING 2014
ON THE COVER: Bob Davis Photo By Steven Hertzog
PUBLISHER: Mark Kern Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Ann Frame Hertzog ART DIRECTOR: Rory Harms CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Hertzog GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Charles Lewer EDITORIAL SUPPORT: Claudia Kressig FEATURE WRITERS: Anne Brockhoff Mark Fagan Steven Hertzog Emily Mulligan Daisy Wakefield Liz Weslander CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Hank Booth Janic Early Megan Gilliland Rosita Elizalde-McCoy Lisa Scheller Sally Zogry CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER: Patrick Connor
INQUIRIES & ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT: info@LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com www.LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC 730 New Hampshire, suite 110 Lawrence, KS 66044 Lawrence Business Magazine, is published quarterly by Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC and is distributed by direct mail to over 3000 businesses in the Lawrence & Douglas County Community. It is also distributed at key retail locations throughout the area and mailed to individual subscribers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reprinted or reproduced without the publisher’s permission. Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Statements and opinions printed in the Lawrence Business Magazine are the those of the author or advertiser and are not necessarily the opinion of Lawrence Business Magazine.
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Non-profit: The Beach Center
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Education Tools: AllofE
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KU School of Engineering: Growing Minds
34
Engineering Firms: Engineering Today
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Business of Announcing: 30 Years with Bob Davis
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KU Endowment: What do they Do?
52
Smoke Stacks: ICL Performace Products
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KU School of Business: Building Blocks
62
Foundation Awards Ceremony
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Why Local: Practical Learning
Departments: 5 Downtown in Focus 8 Business on the Hill 12 Professional Spotlight 16 City of Lawrence 60 Boomer Perspective 66 Lawrence Memorial Hospital 72 Newsmakers 74 Local Scene
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DOWNTOWN IN FOCUS by Sally Zogry Executive Director, Downtown Lawrence, Inc. photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
Downtown has a spring in its step! There is a lot to be excited about in Downtown Lawrence as we move into spring. Loads of plans are in the works for the spring, summer, and beyond. In the past six months Lawrence, Inc. has enhanced its strong collaborative relationship with the City as well as with the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau. All three entities are committed to working together to maintain and enhance downtown as a destination and downtown business as a whole. Here are a few updates on some projects and collaborations that they have been working on over the past several months. After a bustling holiday season, downtown was still glowing all the way through January. Downtown Lawrence, Inc. was successful in lobbying the City of Lawrence and Parks and Rec to keep the beautiful holiday lights up through Valentine’s Day; they received incredibly positive feedback via social media, email, phone calls, and in person. Community members enjoyed their beauty and warmth and said that the lights were welcoming to out of town visitors as well as to commuters returning home. The plan is to request the extended lighting again for the 2014-2015 holiday season and to develop more winter events to take advantage of it. Since the lights were up downtown threw a party to celebrate and make the most of them, in the form of a new event, “Winter Nights Under the Lights,” held on January 30. This initiative encouraged community members from across Lawrence as well as out of town visitors to spend time in Downtown Lawrence and enjoy the lights. Forty-two downtown businesses including retailers, personal
services, bars and restaurants participated in the event, offering special discounts on regularly priced merchandise, deep postholiday discounts, and food and drink specials. Participants also offered in-store events like free chair massage by Winning Touch Therapy at Phoenix Gallery, hand treatments by The Fix Salon at Goldmakers Jewelry, and yummy treats from The Roost at The Etc. Shop. The addition of family activities at the Watkins Museum and a scavenger hunt with prize drawings in collaboration with Lawrence Kids Calendar were a big hit and added to the all-ages appeal of the event. Next year’s event promises to be bigger and better! Downtown’s “6 Days of Sweetness” Facebook promotion in February was another big hit. The “12 Days of Christmas” Facebook event in December encouraged easy and appealing downtown holiday shopping by promoting a variety of gift ideas. More than 20 businesses like Mass Street Sweet Shoppe, Au Marché, and White Chocolate stepped up to do the same for Valentine’s Day giving. Both customers and merchants applauded the promotion – look for more virtual events like this on the Downtown Lawrence Facebook page in the coming months. A “Downtown Madness in March” Facebook event is on the March calendar as is a “Spring Fling” shopping spree and contest in collaboration with the Lawrence Journal-World. As spring approaches, look for two new large format downtown maps and business directories. DLI has collaborated with the City and the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau on the placement 5
of a downtown map and business directory in the new Vermont Street parking garage. In addition to the downtown portion, this piece will include a panel on Lawrence’s history and attractions and a citywide map. A new printed downtown business directory and map is being produced in conjunction with this piece and will be distributed by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Visitors Center, DLI office, Chamber office, KU Dean’s office, local hotels, and downtown businesses to Lawrencians, visitors, and tourism organizations alike. The new map and directory will be an asset in promoting Lawrence as a destination for tourism, conventions, and meetings, and also encourage patronizing local businesses and exploring downtown. Yet to come is a merchant directory kiosk donated by First Management and Treanor Architects that will be
built on the northeast corner of 9th and Massachusetts later this year. Downtown is thrilled with the addition of these wayfinding pieces that will enhance visitors’ experience. Also in the pipeline are a host of community wide events including Final Fridays, the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17, Downtown Professional Shot Put competition on April 18, the Lawrence Arts Center’s Free State Festival and Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Tour of Lawrence Bicycle Races the last weekend in June, the 55th Annual Sidewalk Sale on July 17, 8th Annual Lawrence Busker Festival on August 22-24, and the revival of the Downtown Summer Film Festival. There is always something going on downtown –in the heart of the city! ■
BUSINESS ON T HE HI L L by JOE MONOCO
Program will help students achieve entrepreneurial success The KU Catalyst, a new student-business accelerator, will provide the workspace, mentoring and access to capital students need to build their business ideas into successful startup operations “Before KU Catalyst, KU provided an excellent education in entrepreneurship but left the student without the resources to commercialize their passion,” said Wally Meyer, director of entrepreneurship programs. “Now, with the addition of this new program, we’re providing end-to-end new business launch capability.” The KU Catalyst is a joint venture of the School of Business and the Bioscience and Technology Business Center (BTBC). The program will operate initially from the newly expanded wing of the BTBC building, located on west campus, starting in February, prior to opening the KU Catalyst’s home in the new School of Business building, which is scheduled to be finished in spring 2016. “If a student has an idea for a company, we will provide space for that student to help germinate that company and germinate that idea,” said E. LaVerne Epp, executive chairman of the BTBC. “Our interest is to help the students create the company, help the company get going and then keep the company in Kansas.” Epp said that, previous to the KU Catalyst, the BTBC already enjoyed a good working relationship with the Center for Entrepreneurship partly because they are both interested in the same thing: creating business. Until now, the university hadn’t provided the resources for students to turn a business idea into a successful startup. Alumnus Clay Blair makes $100,000 gift for KU Venture Fund University of Kansas alumnus Clay C. Blair III, of Olathe, has made a $100,000 gift for the KU Venture Fund. The university and KU Endowment established the fund to help startup companies move research discoveries from KU 8
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into the marketplace with the goal of sparking innovation in Kansas. This is the largest gift for the fund to date. “Encouraging KU faculty to transition their ideas to their realworld economic conclusion is long overdue,” said Blair. “Faculty can and should be risk-taking entrepreneurs. Why not? Startups don’t have to take much money to see if it works. They and their university should benefit from their hard work.”
University of Kansas alumnus Clay C. Blair III
Blair, a real estate developer in Johnson County and owner of Clay Blair Services Corp., previously served as the first chair of the Kansas Bioscience Authority and as chair of the Kansas Board of Regents. He earned two degrees from KU — a bachelor’s in business administration in 1965 and a doctorate in higher education policy and administration in 1969. He also earned an MBA from Indiana University in 1966. ■
P RO FESSIONA L SPOTLIGHT CINDY MAUDE CEO Callahan Creek
genuinely respect and like each other. The people who work at Callahan Creek are the most important aspect of our success. How many people does your business employ? Around 60. Twelve are in Torrance, CA. How many of those live in Lawrence? 20 live in Lawrence. Others live in Kansas City, Topeka or the surrounding areas. 12 live in California and, 1 lives in Salt Lake City. Does your company encourage people to live in Lawrence? Those of us who live in Lawrence love it and regularly talk about how great it is to live here. So, yes we do encourage people to live in Lawrence. However, the world is changing, so we are also looking at telecommuting and other ways of working. No longer do we need to lose a valuable employee if they decide to move to another market, which is truly a new way of managing how we work.
What is your company’s most important commodity or service? Callahan Creek is a marketing agency focused on specialty brands. We create success for our clients by developing effective and strategic marketing ideas and communications that engage customers and then turn them into brand advocates. Other than monetary, what is your company’s most important priority? The success of our clients and our employees is our top priority. We strive to make our clients the envy of their categories, and we try to provide an environment where people want to work, where creative thinking can truly happen and where each employee feels valued and rewarded. What has been some of the most important aspects of your success? Creating a culture where our core values drive everything we do: the decisions we make, the way we treat one another and the way we interact with our clients. Doing this has enabled us to attract the top talent, truly smart people, and best of all, people who
How do you and your business make a positive impact on the Lawrence community? We hope that we have made a positive impact on the Lawrence community since moving our business here in 1999. One of our values is ‘generosity’, and we share a percentage of our profits, our talent and our time with the community and KU. We have provided numerous scholarships to KU’s School of Journalism and to its Design Program for aspiring students in our profession. We also support many other organizations throughout Lawrence, both financially and by sharing the great talents of our staff to provide branding, marketing, research and creative services. Several of our staff members serve on the Boards of local organizations. We employ passionate people who care deeply about the organizations they support, and we encourage them to share that passion with the community. What do you see as your personal responsibility and your company’s responsibility to the community? We feel a great responsibility to the community and supporting the many needs of our city. We moved our business to Lawrence in 1999 for many reasons, one being the creative vibrancy of the downtown area. So we have a special interest in helping to maintain it as a hub for creative businesses, arts and culture. The economic growth of Lawrence is dependent on its quality of life and
Memories should do more than gather dust... They should gather compliments. its ability to focus on the strengths that make Lawrence unique. We are committed to being a part of promoting that quality of life with the goal of attracting more creative-sector businesses like artists, as well as more cultural events and ours. That will in turn create more economic development opportunities for the entire city. What would you change about doing business in Lawrence? It seems that business recruitment and retention is improving with the current City Council, but there is often too much red tape for a potential business looking to locate in Lawrence. We need to all work together to create and promote opportunities for companies to thrive in Lawrence.
How do you manage your day-to-day stress of business? It helps to have great people to work with, good friends and family to share with, exercise when I can fit it in, good books to inspire me and a nice glass of wine at the end of the day. How do you reward excellent work performance? How do you manage poor performance? We celebrate people who go above and beyond in living our values every day through our “C-note” program and each month at our staff meetings. We reward innovative ideas at our “CALLY” awards program. We have a discretionary bonus program that recognizes excellent work. And we have many impromptu celebrations that usually include good food. Performance is managed through daily coaching, if needed, and through quarterly touch-base reviews to assess progress toward reaching goals. We strive to utilize people’s strengths to their fullest and do our best to make sure that they are in the position to succeed.
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Working in the rapidly changing and growing field of marketing, how have you managed to remain relevant and profitable? Or, how has your business changed over the years to remain relevant? Our business has probably changed more in the past two years than in the entire time I’ve been in business, and that’s a long time! While our agency still handles all forms of traditional marketing and advertising (TV, radio, print, direct mail, billboards, etc.), the proliferation of media has made the ability to connect with our clients’ customers much more complicated than it used to be. The customers are totally in charge of what they want to tune into, whom they want to talk to and listen to and how they’re going to receive messages. And the speed in which those decisions change requires many different skills than in the past. In order to keep up, we invest a lot of time in learning, research, trying new approaches and bringing in partners and employees with new skills. It’s an exciting time in our business – there is never a boring day!
4821 W. 6th Street, Suite J, Lawrence KS 66049 Serving the Lawrence community at the same location since 2000.
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exp. (12/31/13) 4821 W. 6th Street, Suite J, Lawrence KS 66049 Serving the Lawrence community at the same location since 2000.
What is the biggest challenge you feel your company faces? Keeping up with the daily changes in the way people communicate throughout the world, and making sure we stay ahead of the trends to ensure that we are providing the best thinking and advice to our clients. Over the course of your career, what has been the single largest change in the Lawrence business environment? There was a time that our company was in Topeka when Lawrence was growing, and most new businesses desired to locate in Lawrence. Everyone looked to Lawrence as the example of positive economic development in the state of Kansas. It seems that something happened that broke down the collaboration between city, chamber, planning commission and Lawrence leadership and the vibrancy seemed to stall. I am beginning to see that collaboration begin again, which I think is critical for the future of our community. ■
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ROOM to G R O W
by Megan Gilliland, Communications Manager, City of Lawrence
The city’s ongoing efforts to redevelop a former fertilizer plant in Lawrence have created an area prime for development and business expansion. The City of Lawrence began efforts to redevelop a former fertilizer plant on the eastern outskirts of town in 2010. The site is now ready for development and offers businesses new opportunities to expand in an area that prime for development. Welcome to Lawrence Venture Park. Lawrence VenturePark is a new business park located in Lawrence, Kansas. VenturePark is located on more than 200 acres and is adjacent to the existing East Hills Business Park. Lawrence is an exciting and vibrant community with an excellent business climate, exceptional schools, outstanding recreational amenities, a thriving downtown shopping and entertainment environment, and numerous arts and cultural opportunities. Lawrence is consistently named a best college town in national publications and websites and was named a “Best Small Place for Business and Careers” by Forbes in 2013. As home to the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence’s population is approximately 90,000 and is located 30 minutes west of Kansas City. Lawrence has an excellent regional workforce with 80% of the available labor pool having at least some college experience and 99.4% of the workforce having at least a high school diploma. Transportation Access Lawrence VenturePark is conveniently located on K-10, a fourlane divided state highway providing direct access to the Kansas City metropolitan area. Lawrence also enjoys three exits on I-70, providing quick access to the Kansas City metro to the east and 16
Topeka to the west. In 2016, the State of Kansas will complete a loop of K-10 that provides a direct connection to I-70 from VenturePark. The completion of K-10 will also provide convenient access to US-59, which connects to I-35. Utilities VenturePark is development ready. City water and sewer infrastructure is available. The site is also served by shared stormwater facilities that incorporate leading-edge environmental management practices. The site can be readily served by a number of telecommunications providers and city-owned fiber optic cable is directly adjacent to VenturePark. Special assessments will be applied to the lots over a 20-year period to fund infrastructure improvements. Rail VenturePark is directly adjacent to a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) main rail line. Incentives The City of Lawrence and its economic development partners have a strong interest in creating primary jobs in the community and will be very aggressive in offering a competitive incentive package for a company bringing significant capital investment and quality job creation to the community. Incentives may include free or reduced land, property tax abatement, industrial revenue bond financing, infrastructure, special assessment waivers and job training grants.
Special Features Lawrence VenturePark has been designed as a space for businesses, industry, residents and visitors alike to enjoy. The park’s Master Plan calls for a series of trails to be installed throughout the park to provide pedestrian access within the park and to adjacent developments. This will also serve as a recreational amenity for employees working in the park. The planned infrastructure includes sidewalks and bike paths throughout the park, with plans to connect the paths to the city’s already-extensive trails and bikeway system.
Redevelopment of the Park Lawrence VenturePark is a located on the site of a former Farmland Industries nitrogen plant facility. The site was acquired by the City of Lawrence in 2010. Since then, the city has made significant investments in the site to provide additional industrial and business park expansion opportunities in the community. The city is engaged in limited environmental remediation of certain portions of the site and will remain responsible for any necessary environmental remediation within the Park. For More Information Detailed site information, including downloadable maps, topographic maps, environmental reports, geotechnical reports, and special assessment information is available at www.lawrenceks.org/LawrenceVenturePark. â–
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The
Beach Center
Not Living in the Disabled World
by DAISY WAKEFIELD
Ann, Rud & Jay Turnbull photo by Diane Guthrie
Rud and Ann Turnbull are distinguished professors, research scientists, and critical influencers in the world of disability policy. But before that, they were parents. Their son, Jay Turnbull, had significant developmental disabilities, and his quality of life was the major motivator and inspiration for the Turnbull’s professional careers. In 1988, they co-founded KU’s Beach Center on Disability, a research and training center that seeks to make positive change in the lives of people with disabilities and the people who support them. In the last 25 years, the Beach Center has become a leading disability research and training center with worldwide influence. The Beach Center on Disability is affiliated with The Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies and the School of Education’s Department of Special Education. Funded by KU, KU’s Endowment Association, and federal and state agencies, the Beach Center was named after Ross and Marianna Beach, owners of the Douglas County Bank and major contributors in the field of disabilities in Kansas. Since 20 Non Profit
its inception, the Center has generated an average of $1.6 million a year to fund its research and programs. In 2012, it was the recipient of a 5-year, $24.5 million grant given by the federal Department of Education for special education research. “But it’s more than that,” says Rud, “The real effect of our work is what we’ve been able to do for families, creating jobs and training for people with disabilities, improving quality of life through research-based practices and public policy, and giving families a different expectation and vision.” The Beach Center has anywhere from 20 to 50 researchers at a time who conduct research, carry out training, and provide leadership and service in the field of disability. They directly interact with families through parent mentoring programs and by speaking at family education conferences. But most of the work is done in the policy and research arena, which creates best practice approaches for direct providers and professionals who work with families. The Beach Center has been intricately involved in policy making regarding
treatment of newborns with disabilities, assistive technology, reform of guardianship laws, and federal and state special education laws. Researchers at the Beach Center also publish books and articles on disability and create scales for measurement of factors such as family quality of life. The Turnbulls have authored two major textbooks on special education, which are used worldwide in training special education and general education teachers. And Rud’s book on disability policy sets benchmarks for formulating coherent concepts of policy on disability. The Center is also an incubating ground for graduate students who are trained and then dispersed across the US and other countries. Ann says, “Some of our greatest pleasure comes in mentoring the younger generation. They keep us young. They’re smart, they have energy and vision and a strong work ethic.” Currently the Center is working on projects such as training families and individuals with disabilities in a dozen campus
Rud and Ann Turnbull at home Jay Turnbull Celebrating his 40th Birthday at Abe & Jakes Landing singing with Sarah Niileksela Jay Turnbull at office job
communities on how to act as employment capitalists for their children, accessing resources for competitive employment and moving away from sheltered workshops to work in typical environments. The research shows that people are excited and satisfied with the training, and that there is a significant increase in the number of jobs that have been attained after training. As well, the Beach Center is working with the Department of Defense to help craft a policy for all armed forces to provide support to military personnel who come back from war disabled. The impact of that work will reach millions of veterans and their families. Much of the past disability research focused on the pathology and challenges of living with disabilities. But for the Turnbulls, the professional and personal convergence of caring for a loved one with disabilities steered them to research and recognize the positive and empowering side. They envisioned a life for Jay that would be satisfying, productive, and inclusive. To do that, they
created structures of support for Jay to live as an adult in his own home, work at KU, and have a social network of friends. “The typical way that adults with disabilities live in the world is to live in the disabled world, living and working with people with disabilities, ” says Ann, “We went out on a limb as parents envisioning a different type of life for Jay, living and working as a full citizen of Lawrence.” It is this different vision and expectation for their son that fed into much of the Beach Center’s programs and research for helping others with disabilities lead independent and nonsegregated lives. By personal example and by research, the Turnbulls, through the Beach Center, led the way for other families to envision an exceptional life for their loved one with disabilities. Ann says, “It’s like the Robert Frost poem about two roads diverging, and choosing to take the road less traveled. People have not known how to take the road of inclusion. Our work has shown that that road is more challenging and risky, but more rewarding.” ■
Education Tools All of E
for a data world
by LIZ WESLANDER photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
AllofE Solutions, a Lawrence-based software development company, operates on the philosophy that the road to student success is paved with data -- accessible, well-organized data.
“What we have is information overload. We have so much data, but most people don’t know how to make sense out of it.”
AllofE specializes in creating web-based systems that help educational institutions manage and effectively utilize the abundance of information they accumulate. For example, every student in a school comes with myriad standardized assessment scores, class grades, behavior and attendance records, demographic data, and health information. Educational institutions are tasked with meeting the academic needs of these individual students, while also meeting state and national academic standards. Throw in the social and emotional needs of students, and things quickly become complicated. “What we have is information overload. We have so much data, but most people don’t know how to make sense out of it,” says AllofE CEO Amit Guha. “In order to improve student performance, we need to be able to organize data in ways that it can be useful.” In response to this problem, AllofE has developed a data management system for K-12 institutions called Matrix. When a student enrolls in a school district, Matrix collates all of the student’s disparate information and organizes it in a way that allows administrators, principals and teachers to access the information on one dashboard. Having clear and relevant data at their fingertips
24 All of E Solutions
allows administrators to better assess where teachers are excelling and struggling, and allows teachers to more easily determine individualized education needs for students. Easy access to well-organized data is something that has the potential to make teachers and administrators more effective, which ultimately improves the educational experience for students, says Guha. For example, using Matrix, school districts could not only easily identify that a certain school in a district is struggling to meet state standards, they might also be able to see that students in a specific demographic who are using a new curriculum are struggling with one or two specific skills. School principals and teachers can use this sort of specific data within their schools to modify the way they are organize classrooms and present material, which will ideally improve individual student performance. “In the past teachers were not able to use student data on a daily basis to drive instruction,” says AllofE team member Tracey Kemp. “The overall goal with Matrix is to get teachers to that point where they have performance data of students so that they can use it on a more frequent basis.” Matrix is part of a larger software suite that covers the entire umbrella of what a K-12 district could possibly need to track, says Tracey. This includes things like curriculum mapping,
testing results, grade reporting, student management and professional development. AllofE has also developed a software management system for Health Science programs at secondary institutions called eCLAS. Guha describes eCLAS as a broad system that administers every aspect of a Health Science program student experience by mapping curriculum, scheduling and tracking clinical work, and organizing assessment information. AllofE serves clients in 35 states with their education management systems, including school districts in Arkansas, Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana.
AllofE is housed in an unassuming building tucked among apartment complexes on West 6th Street and has a staff that fluctuates between 15 and 25 people. Guha says that the company tends to recruit engineering, business and journalism majors from the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. No one at AllofE has a title and there is no official hierarchy, says Guha. “Our focus has always been to have a smaller group of very dedicated professionals,” says Guha. “We are very selective about the people we hire, and finding the right person is key. What we do requires a certain amount of knowledge, but it is more about attitude – we want a passion and commitment.”
Guha, a former KU professor who founded AllofE in 1998, says that he did not set out with the specific intention for AllofE to focus on education. The company has a successful sports branding and sponsorship data management system called Brandbase that is used internationally by television networks and major sports leagues to make decisions related to marketing and sponsorship. AllofE’s education specialization has evolved simply because there are a number of challenging problems in the education sector that call for innovation. The company’s team also believes that education is the ideal arena for creating positive impacts through technology.
Guha says that despite the high demand for technology professionals in other parts of the country, AllofE is able to attract qualified candidates because the work they do is fun, creative and has the potential to make a major impact. However, he does concede that there is a pervasive belief in the technology field that forward thinking innovation only happens on the coast. Guha says he would like to think that AllofE plays a small part in putting the Midwest on the map as a place where people are making a difference in the technology field.
“With a background in education, an interest in the education sector came somewhat naturally,” says Guha. “But education is a field that drives everything else, and education is a field which can potentially be transformed by technology. When you think about making a mark, there is no better way than making it a little better for the next generation.”
“The university, especially the engineering school, graduates a lot of smart people and a lot that talent goes out of this community, when some of them might actually want to stay back if they had the opportunity,” says Guha. “Hopefully we can attract similar sorts of businesses here that allow that talent to stay back in Lawrence rather than graduate and move out.” ■
KU School of
Engineering Growing Minds, Building a Future by EMILY MULLIGAN photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
These days, the University of Kansas School of Engineering is most recognizable by the giant crane adjacent to the School’s buildings on main campus. The crane is but one representation of the changes and expansions that are happening at the School. Inside the buildings and on West Campus, more students have more opportunities than ever to both specialize their coursework and do research projects. The School is building new relationships with the business community and the community at large every day, to make sure those opportunities continue to abound – and that the students keep coming to KU. The School of Engineering offers 12 undergraduate degree programs and 15 graduate degree programs. There were more than 2,900 students enrolled in the School in the fall, about 650 of them graduate students. The most popular majors are in chemical and petroleum engineering and civil, environmental and architectural engineering – with mechanical engineering a close third. The School’s outreach efforts range from local children to international assistance. The annual Engineering Expo for students in elementary and middle school brought more than 2,000 students to KU in February. The student chapter of Engineers Without Borders has traveled to Latin America and installed water filters for local residents there.
All of the School of Engineering’s goals seem to have one word in common: “more.” School of Engineering Dean Michael Branicky, who began his position in July 2013, lists these as some of the short- and long-term goals: generating more graduates; recruiting more diverse students, both in gender and race/ethnicity; hiring more faculty; helping more people understand what engineers do; and creating more partnerships between classes and business and industry for projects. Between now and 2015, another “more” on the list is buildings. That is where the crane comes in. Since 2013, work is underway on the $80 million, 135,000-square-foot project, known as the Learned Engineering Expansion Phase 2 (LEEP 2), which consists of two separate buildings, one at the engineering complex, which should be ready for fall 2015, and another on KU’s West Campus, which is slated to open this fall. The learning and experiences that will take place inside the buildings are what is most important to the long-term success of the School. Branicky credits the late Steve Jobs for helping people to understand the range of things that engineers can study and do. “A lot of technology is sort of under the hood and so seamlessly integrated into our lives, that we don’t see the hard work, design and testing that goes into it,” he said.
Much of the faculty at the School of Engineering are working hard at making connections for their students with the community and local businesses, to give the students learning opportunities that will prepare them for their road ahead. Research in city facilities Assistant Professor of Engineering Belinda Sturm has connected with the Lawrence community in quite an intimate way: She has been up close and personal with the city’s wastewater. Sturm and her students have worked for the past three years at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, testing the wastewater and diverting it to pilot reactors for testing. The researchers grow algae to add to the wastewater, with hopes of removing nutrients – specifically, nitrogen and phosphorus. Once the nutrients are removed, a biomass is created that can be turned into a fuel. “I approached the city my first week here, because you can’t do meaningful research without someone as a collaborator,” Sturm said. “We get to use actual wastewater with all of its complexity and changes – that’s how to test in a meaningful way.”
“Early on as an educator, I‘ve learned you can relate to the everyday, you can de-mystify science and engineering.”
All of those happen at the School every day, and will expand with the new facilities. Branicky hopes that more businesses will bring their projects and problems to the School, so classes can have the real-world opportunity to solve them. “We want to have culminating design and problem-solving projects, industry-sponsored projects that we can give to our students. The Mechanical Engineering Department has more than 10 going on this semester, for example, and they’re looking for more for next semester,” he said. Of course, research projects are not the only things the School is seeking from local companies; it is also continually seeking jobs for its graduates. More than a dozen companies in Douglas County, including DARcorporation, Berry Plastics and Schlumberger, recruit and hire School of Engineering graduates. “The other way our graduates are finding jobs is that people are becoming entrepreneurs and part of start-ups. This generation’s culture is to want to do different things in their careers or to take big risks,” Branicky said. But in order to make those leaps into the professional world, either with a firm or on their own, students must first focus on what will get them there: engineering skills.
The research won a 2012 Excellence in Environmental Engineering Award from the Academy of Environmental Engineers, even though the full scope of the research will not be completed until later this year.
In this fourth year of the four-year study, students will work, as they have for the past three years, from spring break to fall break at the Lawrence wastewater treatment plant, testing and experimenting almost every day. “This summer, we hope to harvest enough algae to produce biocrude oil,” Sturm said. The research not only has prompted ideas for future research about the calcium content of hard water and its potential results, but it also has applicable results for wastewater treatment plants in Lawrence and across Kansas. “Ninety percent of treatment plants in Kansas are based in lagoons. We might be able to optimize algal growth for the lagoon systems to achieve nutrient removal – and beyond that, can we produce fuel from the solids we make?” she said. It is because of research like Sturm’s that nationwide the term “wastewater treatment plants” is beginning to be replaced with “resource recovery facilities.” What used to be an end product may now become the beginning of many sustainable fuels and products. Sustainable building for sustainable research Another place for engineering students to do hands-on work in the name of the environment has opened in the past year on West KU School of Engineering 29
Campus. The Hill Engineering Research and Development Center, also known as the EcoHawks building, was completed on Becker Drive on West Campus in late spring 2013. The facility houses engineering research programs for transportation and sustainability, including indoor space where students can create and repair battery-powered and electric vehicles, as well as outdoor space for mechanical engineering projects with solar and wind energy. The building was designed and constructed by architecture students in KU’s Studio 804, which wove the façade out of surplus aircraft aluminum and installed glass from a failed building project in Kansas City. “I could’ve never dreamed this, never even thought of this,” said Christopher Depcik, associate professor of mechanical engineering, who is in his sixth year at KU. “I try and stress with my class the practical application of theory. This year is the most projects we’ve ever had. Everything here is for the students.” This spring, three electric vehicles occupy the garage floor on the first floor of the building: a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle that is roadlicensed and runs on low-lead acid batteries; a GMC Jimmy that runs on lithium-ion batteries and boasts amenities like power steering and heated seats; and a General Electric neighborhood electric vehicle, which looks like a large golf cart, that is having its acid batteries replaced with lithium-ion batteries and eventually will carry replacement batteries so it can “refuel” away from a charging station.
Dean Michael Branicky & Professor Belinda Sturm
“I try to teach my students basic things to apply to their engineering work. One, keep it simple – the simplest design usually works best. Two, make decisions – don’t hem and haw. Three, go!” Depcik said. “They do things that I can’t do. It’s just amazing to see what they can do. When you’re in an academic environment, there’s nothing like learning every single day.” Depcik’s students are collaborating with a variety of businesses, and he encourages his students to seek out local resources and sponsors for their projects. “It gets the students to talk about their project,” he said. Depcik echoes Dean Branicky’s desire to seek out projects from local businesses. “We’re always looking for projects in energy and transportation. We like to have industrial partners instead of just me,” he said. “Companies that are interested can do it.” Depcik hopes the EcoHawks building and its potential will help KU Engineering’s recruitment efforts and galvanize enthusiasm for engineering among school-age students. He recently taught a sixth-grade class about mechanical engineering and taught eighth through 12th graders at Science City in Kansas City, Mo.
30 KU School of Engineering
Maya Welde, Oak Hill Elemtary Overland Park
Engineering in the everyday Depcik is not the only KU engineering professor seeking out the next generation of engineers. Assistant Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Prajna Dhar founded KU’s Occidental Discovery Lab program, which provides hands-on demonstrations of engineering for elementary students, particularly girls, to learn what engineers do. “Our generation doesn’t think differently about women in science, but a lot of women don’t go into science and engineering because they think it’s geeky or they just can’t – that is not true,” she said. “Women are scared about going into engineering, and that shouldn’t be the case – but there aren’t enough role models.” A combination of her own experience as a female in engineering and her innate desire to be an educator led Dhar, in her fourth year at KU, to begin the Discovery Lab. The lab is open to any groups of students – male and female, from elementary through high school – who would like to learn more about engineering through applications of everyday materials. “Early on as an educator, I‘ve learned you can relate to the everyday, you can de-mystify science and engineering. We do things like melt chocolate – different products melt differently because they have different things in them,” Dhar said. “We also simulate purifying water by separate food coloring. Every day you’re using a water filter. Scientists set it up, but who and how?”
Cure’ of ARS Leawood , KS Dhar staffs the Discovery Lab with undergraduate students who put her ideas into practice. She says the students are motivated like she is and, male and female, all see the value in providing the early exposure of engineering to young girls, in particular. “Based on my very limited research in the area, I think a lot of people think that girls means dolls. Girls are not encouraged to build stuff. They are supposed to like make-up – but no one told them that make-up is made of something by chemical engineers and scientists for a particular reason. It’s a problem of perception,” she said. Dhar’s other research includes a collaborative project with faculty in chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry to understand how vaccines interact with cell membranes. She also has worked on research to develop an artificial surfactant for premature babies’ lungs, to help them breathe until their lungs allow them to breathe on their own. “We all want to make sure the research we do has an impact on society,” she said.
32 KU School of Engineering
Oak Hill Elementary Overland Park, KS
KCK Quest KC, KS Her research about how the lipid system inside the lungs interacts with the nanoparticles of secondhand smoke in adults garnered her laboratory an interesting honor in 2013, when an image of damaged lung surfactants was one of 10 finalists in the national Biophysical Society’s Art of Science Image Contest. Sturm, Depcik and Dhar agree that growth and change at School of Engineering are not just represented by the construction projects at their buildings. Sarah Bernard, Eisenhower Elementary Fort Leavenworh
“There is a definitely a sense that big things are going to happen, and there is excitement about that,” Sturm said. ■
KU School of Engineering 33
by EMILY MULLIGAN photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
Engineers thrive on finding solutions to problems – even if that problem was a slumping U.S. economy that was affecting their business. Three longtime Lawrence engineering firms found ways to continue their success during the past few turbulent years, with one of them even doing more projects than ever, and they have emerged with business models designed to sustain them for the long term. All three firms are headed up by University of Kansas, School of Engineering graduates, and they have chosen to stay close to the University, in Lawrence, for reasons both similar and different. Wetzel Engineering The collapse of energy giant Enron led Kyle Wetzel back to Kansas after years in California working on the company’s wind energy projects. Armed with knowledge and experience in the field, Wetzel, who is originally from Topeka and has his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from KU, came back to assist one of his former professors with a contract from the Navy. Right away, he established his engineering consulting business and specialized in research and development related to wind turbines. He had no idea that in just a few years, his business would grow exponentially and become one-of-a-kind in the country. “We are one of a half a dozen companies in the world that designs wind turbine blades – we are the only company in the United States that does,” Wetzel said. Now, the firm has 14 engineers and does 80 percent of its work overseas in places like China and Germany. “Our largest project right now is in Korea, where we are designing a blade for a three-megawatt turbine for a power generation company. That is very large,” he said. Interestingly Wetzel Engineering’s business boom came at a time when most of the U.S. was struggling with a recession. Wetzel said that success was a result of two things converging at once: a client who needed a large scope of services for a project and, most significantly, winning two contracts in China. He knew he couldn’t go it alone, so he turned to KU’s School of Engineering, and all of his first hires were KU graduates. The 34
Amool Raina and Kyle Wetzel, Wetzel Engineering, Inc., inspecting wind turbine blades at Infigen’s Kumeyaay Wind Farm Near San Diego, CA.
company’s productivity shows no signs of slowing down. “In the first eight or nine years I was in business, I did about 30 projects. In the past four years, we have done about 70 projects,” Wetzel said. He said that in the past year or so, the firm has picked up several projects in the United States. Farmers and schools are becoming interested in developing medium-sized wind turbines for power generation. “We are trying to pursue a lot of work with the owners of wind farms, also, solving engineering problems of maintaining older turbines – that’s called engineering forensics,” he said. Even with all his work and travel, Wetzel stays directly connected to the KU School of Engineering. He is an adjunct professor in aerospace engineering, and he collaborates with the faculty regularly – on their research and his own.
Landplan Engineering was started in Lawrence in 1978. Struble worked at the firm part-time as a drafter while he pursued his engineering degree at KU. He had moved to Denver after graduation, where he worked for several years designing wastewater treatment plants and specialized in land use. Struble and his wife came back to Lawrence when Brian Kubota, Landplan Engineering’s founder, called Struble and asked if he would like to be a partner in the firm. “I’ve been sitting in the same office for 20 years. But I have four junior partners coming up behind me – I didn’t want to be the last one turning out the lights,” Struble said. Struble built and grew the company doing residential and commercial developments, among a few other specialties, beginning with the real estate boom in the 1980s. Business was steady and growing – until 2008, when the U.S. economy began to falter.
“We have a good barter with KU: I teach up there, and they provide engineering consulting,” he said.
“We figured out that the housing industry isn’t going to come back as the same level it was,” Struble said. “We went from developments being 70 to 80 percent of our business to 20 to 30 percent of our business. We had to come up with a new something to do.”
Landplan Engineering As its name implies, Phil Struble’s firm, Landplan Engineering, stays a little closer to the ground than wind turbines. In fact, much of the company’s work is actually in the ground – designing commercial and residential developments and their water lines, sewer systems and stormwater systems.
One of the new things that Landplan began to do was to design senior retirement communities – which they are working on in Des Moines, St. Louis and Kansas City. Struble said they looked at their combination of engineers and landscape architects that had planned developments for years and realized it was the ideal set-up to create new and different facilities.
Phil Struble, Landplan Engineering
“It is tremendously rewarding work – you can really impact people’s lives,” Struble said. The new retirement communities are designed to better reflect modern seniors’ lifestyle choices. For example, many are located in neighborhoods where residents can go for walks and see families out and about, maybe even visit a playground. Many have small health clubs with amenities similar to today’s private health clubs. And, a lot of them have their own bars, so friends and family members can come and relax with a favorite beverage during their visit. “You can’t just build it like an apartment complex, because they are there all day long,” Struble said. In addition to expanding its project repertoire, Landplan has expanded its reach. The firm opened an office in Houston with six people. Struble says that large developments are still happening in Texas, even after the recession, so the firm is still doing planning, including a huge 1,100-lot subdivision, which Struble says is being developed without anyone in Texas “even batting an eye.” About half the work done in Texas is done out of the Lawrence office. Thanks to the wonders of technology, engineers can meet with their clients over Skype and walk them through schematics and plans in real time, so it doesn’t make a difference where they are. Struble says he is pleased that the firm has found its niche after the rough patch in the economy. The main thing that has changed for him is that he used to do about 80 percent of his business in Douglas County – now that figure is about 25 percent. He had previously been involved with volunteer projects in the community and at KU School of Engineering, but now he must travel and network with the local municipalities where his projects are underway. “From a business perspective, I can’t do what I used to do. It’s one of the unfortunate casualties,” he said. Grob Engineering Services Dean Grob spent more than 15 years working as an engineer for other companies before he decided it was time to work for himself. He started Grob Engineering Services in 2005, after working for R.D. Johnson Excavating for eight years and Kansas City engineering firm Black & Veatch prior to that. A Lawrence native who has both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from KU in civil engineering, Grob knew that setting up shop in his hometown would have its advantages. “Forty percent of the work I’ve gotten has been referrals from people I’ve known. I never have really marketed or looked for work outside the county,” he said. 38 Engineering Firms
Grob Engineering is Grob and one other engineer. They specialize in site plans for commercial sites, working with the city and regulations, and also do land development and public improvement plans such as streets, water lines and utility lines. “One of the reasons I started the company was that other firms had gotten quite large and had larger fees. A lot of people I worked with had projects that didn’t need a larger staff,” he said. Even with that cost and resource advantage, the economy affected Grob pretty strongly. He managed to piece together enough projects to survive. “2009 was bad – there just wasn’t any work, and it wasn’t that other firms were getting it,” he said. Grob said that he can tell the economy is on the upswing, and he thinks it is improving at a slow enough pace to sustain the improvement. “The engineering side is pretty strong. Cities have done street projects and infrastructure things when the cost is lower to them,” he said. Technology has improved efficiencies for engineering, but Grob says that nothing compares to field experience and general knowledge for making engineers successful. “In civil engineering, dirt is dirt, and it won’t change,” he said. To that end, Grob stays connected with KU’s School of Engineering when he can. He uses some of his former professors for specialized consulting work. “It is still a strong program. Anytime a school is growing, you know they’re doing something right,” he said. ■
William Abraham and Ken Lee, Wetzel Engineering Inc., inspecting wind turbine blades at Nextera’s Southwest Mesa Wind Energy Center in McCamey, TX.
Dean Grob, Grob Engineering
“
“
Even today, people will come up to me and say,
‘You don’t know me but I really feel like I know you.’
And that is about the biggest compliment you could possibly receive — to have someone feel like they know you because they listened to you on the radio.
The Business of Announcing by STEVEN HERTZOG photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
It is a question where the only right answer is your own. How often should hall-of-fame radio broadcaster Bob Davis give the score during a University of Kansas basketball game? Davis, who has been calling the action for Jawhawk fans for decades, ponders the question for a moment before offering his point of view. “You cannot give the score too much,” he says. “No broadcaster I know has ever been criticized for doing that.” Davis’ wife, Linda, all at once his most ardent fan and harshest critic, offers a lighthearted but no-less contrarian opinion.
“Bob doesn’t give you the score enough,” says Linda, a twinkle in her eye. And so it goes for the venerable broadcaster, the man entrusted with providing fans with a words-eye view courtside at a basketball arena or serving as their pragmatic beacon of hope from a football stadium press box. Davis is in his 30th year calling the play-by-play for Kansas football and basketball, and 46th season overall in the business of sports broadcasting. He serves as host of the weekly radio call-in program HawkTalk, which features the Jayhawk football and basketball coaches. He retired last year as a Kansas City Royals announcer after 16 seasons behind the mike. Born in Iola, Kansas, Davis the native son followed a blue-collar path from the grassroots up to the top of his profession as he sharpened the tools of his trade. In any given year during those early days, a listener could tune into the local radio station and hear him announce 50 to 60 basketball games a year or call play-by-play for college and high school football games on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Davis claims he must have done more than a thousand small college and high school games. Throw in American Legion Baseball, plus emceeing parades and sports banquets, guest speaking at high school sports functions and hosting award shows throughout Hays and every part of western rural Kansas, his voice has become synonymous with local sports. KU Athletic Director Dr. Sheahon Zenger was only 4 years old when he first started listening to Davis broadcast college and high school football games on the radio out in Hays, Kansas. Then when Dr. Zenger played high school football, Davis called his games. “I still have cassette tapes my friends would record of Bob calling those games so my buddies and I could listen to them the next day while eating donuts,” Dr. Zenger says. “Those are some fond memories.” The Business of Announcing 41
“In 8th grade, listening to guys like Merle Harmon, Monte Moore, Max Faulkenstien, Bob Nelson, Tom Hedrick and Jack Buck, I knew I wanted to be a sports announcer” Davis says.
names correctly, as the station’s owner, Bob Schmidt, was a stickler for getting it right. So before going to call his first game, Schmidt sat Davis down to go over the correct pronunciation of some of the more difficult names. He reminded Davis, “I will be listening,” to which the smart aleck know-it-all young Davis replied, “Well, I hope so, it’s your station.” Davis is always quick to point out how lucky he was to break into sports broadcasting at a place like that where there were so many opportunities.
So after graduating from Washburn University in Topeka with a degree in History, then trying a year of law school, Davis decided to go for his passion. He got his first radio gig in Hays for TV/radio station KAYS. Davis worked a board shift, a three-hour time slot as a disc jockey, a TV news show I have always said about sportscasting, and the weather updates. He also you can study it, read a book about it, ran camera for the local news, you can have guys lecture to you about weather and sports at 6 p.m., then how to do it, but you’ve just got to do it. again at 10 p.m. “And I did this all for the princely sum of $400 a month,” Davis says. It was the summer of 1968 in Hays, Kansas, when Davis got his break, doing play-by-play for the state American Legion Baseball tournament. The usual announcer was away for a funeral, so Davis told the station manager he would like to give it a try. He was knowledgeable about the sport at that point of his career but had never broadcasted a single game. In fact, he was so inexperienced that the station had to send along another staffer to help him set up the equipment because, as Davis recalls, “I didn’t even know how to open up the door to get in.” The station manager was adamant that Davis pronounce players’
- Bob Davis
In those early years it was a family affair, as Linda was his statistician and spotter. She was a sports fan, so when they first started dating, it was a way for her to attend sporting events. But then it turned into a team effort.
“He asked me if I had ever spotted tackles,” Linda recalls, “I said no but I knew I could do it so I went with him and told him who made the tackle. And as the official stat crew was on the other side of the stadium, I became his statistician too.” David Lawrence, a former KU all-Big 8 lineman, has been working with Davis for 20 years as an analyst and says he’s learned plenty about sports broadcasting from his veteran coworker. Lawrence reminds us that Davis was a well-respected announcer and journalist who, as he worked the smaller venues, honed his craft covering sporting events that young, aspiring announcers may scoff at today.
Bob Davis at Lemonade Stand, Johnson County Late 70’s State Basketball Championship
Bob Davis interviewing Ft. Hays State Football Coach Bill Giles “I think now some young people think they are above doing that kind of stuff. He did the blue-color route to work his way up here,” Lawrence says. “Davis did it the hard way, but it also made him great.” “I have always said about sportscasting, you can study it, read a book about it, you can have guys lecture to you about how to do it, but you’ve just got to do it,” Davis says. “I learned a lot about not only the broadcasting business, but business in general. The idea is to make a profit and serve your audience.” Jason Booker, Executive Director of the IMG/Jayhawk Sports Network, says Davis brings an illustrious history and knowledge of broadcasting to the network. Davis’ understanding of advertising and experience in knowing what the network is
doing from day to day to bring in sponsorship revenue and working with their partners is invaluable. Booker says Davis is willing to do anything for the network or university. “Bob speaks at our partner symposiums, and he understands the bigger picture of not just being a broadcaster, but being someone who is a representative of our university and the entire network, which includes helping us market our brand through our corporate sponsorships,” Booker says. Dr. Zenger says Davis is a significant part of the athletic program’s brand. “When you hear Bob’s voice, you know it’s KU,” Dr. Zenger says. “You don’t even have to introduce who he is. That’s just the voice that carries everything KU athletics.”
The The Jayhawk Sports Network receives many requests from sponsors and partners for Davis to read their on-air ads and promos. The network includes 32 stations across the state and gives its partners like Pizza Hut, the Kansas State Lottery and Delta Dental a chance to reach into local communities. In fact, sports programming is one of the only events people still consume live, allowing for a direct dialog between the network’s partners and fans. “Certainly when we have conversations with partners,” Booker adds, “they want to figure out a unique way to tie their brand closer to us, and what’s better than using Bob Davis, Bill Self, Greg Gurley, David Lawrence or Chris Piper to help promote that business.” It is clear to Davis’ listeners that his passion for doing playby-play has never waned. “As the play-by-play guy,” Davis says, “your job is to grind away at the basics, what is the score, where are we in the ballgame, who’s ahead, where is the ball, and it is continuous bookkeeping. That is the challenge and the fun.” “Theater of the mind” is what Linda Davis says her husband calls it. And if that were true, then Davis can be considered the Shakespeare of college basketball radio. And radio is different than TV. Piper, who had worked a lot of TV before doing radio with Davis, points out one major difference: “On TV, you can go off and talk about something else while the game continues to be lousy. But if it’s a lousy game and you’re calling it for a radio audience, you still have to talk about it.”
“I just love radio,” Davis says. “We have so many means of communication now, but what could be better than a human voice. Radio is one-on-one communication. You’re sitting with a guy in his car driving along, or the guy that has a radio in his shower — now how intimate is that?” Gurley is in his second year with Davis covering KU basketball. It is his first radio gig after doing TV for the Jayhawk Sports Network for 12 years. “I wasn’t a radio guy and until I took this job,” Gurley says. “I didn’t understand how many people really enjoyed the radio over the television guys. You hear the word ‘legend’ a lot, and we have been fortunate to have Max Faulkenstien 44 The Business of Announcing
for 60 years and now Bob for 30. It’s fun to be able to go around to all these cities with Bob and see just how many people he knows and how well respected he is.” Many a local announcer with the cache Davis has would want to move over to a national network. But Davis says he never really wanted to do network broadcasting. Doing network requires the announcers to be impartial, and he says he always cared about who won. He loves the relationship he has with his audience, but he also appreciates the relationships he develops by following a team year in and year out, building empathy for the players, traveling with them on the road and watching them grow under the guidance of hall-of-fame coaches like Roy Williams, Larry Brown and future hall-of-fame coach Bill Self. To Davis, this is one of the many aspects of the job that makes college broadcasting so rewarding. “It’s such a fun deal to follow a team and build a relationship with your audience,” Davis says. “You have to be an objective observer of the game, that’s true, but it’s OK to want KU to win because most of our audience does too.” When the basketball and football teams go on the road, so do Davis and the rest of the Jayhawk Sports Network team. with a grin. “Our players look to Bob and our radio team as being a part of our official travel party, just like our trainers and our associate athletic directors. Bob is the equivalent of all those guys.” Faulkenstien, a retired hall-of-fame announcer, theorizes that what makes a great announcer is enthusiasm, accuracy and a knack for getting listeners to feel they are experiencing the emotions and thrills as though they are actually at the game. Davis says there are as many ways to be a good announcer as there are announcers. He has seen guys who are biased or down the middle, excitable or almost dull, and in every one of those types, he has seen someone go on to become successful. “The big thing is to be who you are,” Davis says. “Don’t try to imitate (long-time Los Angeles Dodgers radio announcer) Vin Scully or someone you think is great, because that is not you.” Davis landed the job at KU in 1984. He had filled in for both Hedrick and Faulkenstien, a few times driving all the way in from Hays to cover those games — again, putting in the hard work to get his next break. When Faulkenstien was first paired with Davis, he admits he was a little apprehensive about this new partnership.
Coach Bill Self & Bob Davis at Hawk Talk Davis was brought in to do play-by play and Faulkenstien was asked to transition from play-by-play guy, which he had been for 37 years, into the role of color analyst. “Bob made the whole thing so easy, and he was such a fun guy to work with and he had a great sense of humor,” Faulkenstien says. “He was very generous and kind to me so we started off on a good note, and that never changed all those years we were together.” Davis reflects on his pairing with Faulkenstien, saying the key to a successful partnership is the desire to see your partner to succeed. And with that mindset, the broadcast will thrive. And thrive Faulkenstien and Davis did, becoming the most memorable sports broadcasting duo in KU history. “They were, without question, the most respected broadcast team in our conference,” Lawrence recalls. “When they walked into a press box, the opposing team’s athletic director and sports information people would all come right up to those two. Max and Bob commanded everyone’s respect.” Walking the broadcaster’s razor’s edge of impartiality can be a tricky avenue for any seasoned reporter. So how does one be a pro-Kansas announcer yet still call a game objectively? Caption XXXXXXXX
Hays High School vs Thomas Moore Prep Basketball Feb 11,1975
Another broadcaster with arguably some biased observations on Davis’ ability to straddle that fence is Steven Davis, Bob’s son and an accomplished announcer himself, with six seasons calling men’s basketball for the University of Missouri-KC, minor league baseball the past nine seasons and, starting this spring, KU baseball. “Pop is just another fan, but he’s a fan with the mike, calling the game,” says the younger Davis. “Some people, especially fans of the other team, may not like it. They call it being a ‘homer,’ but that is what makes him great. His passion comes through, which I think is the most endearing quality about him. He’s a Jayhawk.” Jayhawk Sports Network producer Bob Newton calls Davis a master of his craft, explaining that Davis paints pictures with words yet doesn’t go into excruciating detail that will go over the head of the casual fan. “He is enthusiastic about our teams,” Newton says. “We are the Jayhawk Network, but he never calls us ‘we.’ Instead, he says, ‘That was a real turn of events if you are a Kansas fan.’ He refers to them as the Jayhawks, not ‘us.’” Davis has been honored 13 times as Kansas Sportscaster of the Year. He is a two-time winner of the Oscar Stauffer Award for excellence in high school sports reporting, and he has received the Sportscaster of the Year Award from the Kansas High School Athletic Directors Association. He was recognized for his contribution to Kansas sports broadcasting with the Hod Humiston Award, presented by the Kansas Association of Broadcasters (KAB). He was also inducted 46 The Business of Announcing
into the Fort Hays Sports Hall of Fame and the Topeka West High School Graduate Hall of Fame. Then in 2007, in recognition of a lifetime of accomplishments and contributions to the profession, Davis was inducted into the KAB Hall of Fame John Morris, the voice of the Baylor University Bears, has been an admirer of Davis since the inception of the Big 12 Conference in 1994 and calls him a “pro’s pro,” one of the real giants in the sports broadcasting world. “I always try to tune into Bob’s broadcasts on satellite radio whenever possible because I enjoy listening to his work, and I definitely learn from him,” Morris says. “Kansas fans have been very fortunate to have Bob Davis relaying all the highlights of Jayhawk athletics for so many years.” “Bob understands voice inflection, the impact of a play, and he knows how excited to get yet he’s spontaneous and thinks on his feet,” Lawrence adds. “And he knows his trade. He has great pipes, he admits he has a ‘radio face,’ and he certainly has radio pipes. He’s a legend.” Coach Self calls Davis the consummate pro: “He doesn’t have bad days, and he’s always prepared. I wish I did my job as well as he does his. He’s as good as I have ever been around.” Davis has been around. Thirty of those years have been here in Lawrence. His face may not be well known, but his voice is the sweet sound of one of Lawrence’s and Kansas’ finest commodities — Jayhawk basketball.
Greg Gurly, Bob Davis & Bob Newton There is probably not a car speaker in any vehicle on any road here, or table radio in someone’s kitchen, that has not sang out with sweet anticipation and unbridled enthusiasm as Davis calls a game-winning shot for a KU basketball game. Davis’ call from the 2008 NCAA Championship game that sent the contest into overtime,
“Three-point lead, here they come… Collins, seven seconds to go in the game… Collins got pushed … falls down … Chalmers shoots … OHHHHHHH … A THREE!!!!! The game is tied … 2.1 seconds … Memphis inbounding … a half court shot … no good! Overtime, OVERTIME!” Davis takes a deep breath and clears his throat as he searches for the words to convey the reason why he loves what he does. “Even today, people will come up to me and say, ‘You don’t know me but I really feel like I know you.’ And that is about the biggest compliment you could possibly receive — to have someone feel like they know you because they listened to you on the radio.” ■
The Business of Announcing 47
KU endowment
What Does KU ENDOWMENT Do? by ROSITA ELIZALDE-MCCOY and LISA SCHELLER
When most Lawrence residents think of local organizations that drive economic growth, the name KU Endowment probably doesn’t come up. Yet, its influence on this community is surprisingly far-reaching..
Since its founding in 1891 as the nation’s first foundation for a public university, KU Endowment has provided more than $2 billion in philanthropic support to the University of Kansas. It operates as an independent nonprofit whose whole job is to raise and manage funds on behalf of KU, with the mission of building a greater university. For the sixth year in a row, contributions to KU Endowment broke records in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2013, amounting to $174.2 million. At a time when state financing covers less than 20 percent of KU’s total operating expenses, private gifts are increasingly vital to virtually all the university’s endeavors. “We’re moving with unprecedented momentum,” said Dale Seuferling, president of KU Endowment. “Our donors have shown an unwavering belief in the power of philanthropy to transform lives.” The remarkable achievement in philanthropy fuels the local economy in direct and indirect ways. Of the total amount donated last year, about 42 percent came from donors outside the state. This translates into jobs, cultural offerings, visitors and economic growth.
48 KU Endowment
World-class facilities Throughout its history, KU Endowment has funded, in whole or in part, construction of more than two-thirds of KU’s buildings and has provided more than 85 percent of KU’s land holdings. Many buildings funded through private philanthropy enrich the quality of life for the Lawrence community. Examples include the Lied Center of Kansas, the Hall Center for the Humanities, the Dole Institute of Politics, the Spencer Museum of Art and the Booth Family Hall of Athletics, to name a few. Over the past 10 years, KU Endowment has funded $240 million for campus construction projects. And fundraising is under way for several new facilities, including a new $65.7 million School of Business building, and the De Bruce Center—an $18 million addition to Allen Fieldhouse that will house James Naismith’s “Rules of Basket Ball” and serve as a student center. Currently, KU Endowment is partnering with the city of Lawrence and KU Athletics to build a major recreation and athletics complex called Rock Chalk Park. Construction is under way for the 89-acre complex, located near the northeast corner of 6th Street and K-10. The city’s recreation center will house volleyball courts, an indoor turf field, an indoor track, a weight room, a gymnastics area, and
Photo by Lisa Scheller, KU Endowment Pictured from left are Drue Jennings, chair of the KU Endowment Board of Trustees; and Dale Seuferling, president of KU Endowment. Photo by Mark McDonald
outdoor tennis courts. The KU Athletics portion will include a track and field stadium, soccer field and softball stadium. The track will replace the one inside KU’s Memorial Stadium as the site for the Kansas Relays. KU Endowment acquired the land for the KU Athletics portion and is overseeing its construction. The city of Lawrence is building the recreation center. Rock Chalk Park is expected to be completed by fall 2014. Transforming lives But KU Endowment is about more than land, bricks and mortar. It’s about the magic that takes place inside classrooms — the education of students who will be the leaders of tomorrow. Each year, KU Endowment issues about 10,000 scholarships, awards, fellowships and loans to deserving students, and 83 percent of them are Kansas natives. Virtually all KU scholarships originate through KU Endowment. “It’s so fulfilling for us to help young people reach their aspirations,” said Seuferling. “They fan out throughout Kansas and beyond, marshalling their KU education to create a better life for themselves and their communities.” KU Endowment also works with donors to reward and recruit outstanding faculty. Donor-created funds support named, endowed professorships, as well as awards for outstanding teaching
and research and lectureships. Moreover, private philanthropy provides critical support for KU’s academic programs and promising research. An outpouring of donor generosity resulted in more than $107 million raised in support of the effort for The University of Kansas Cancer Center to attain designation as a cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, which was achieved in July 2012. National recognition KU Endowment’s trend of success has received national accolades. In 2013 — for the second consecutive year — KU received a prestigious national award for overall performance in fundraising from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. KU was one of only four universities in the nation honored in the category of public research/doctoral institutions with endowments over $250 million; others receiving this award were the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Virginia; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The support of private donors is vital to our efforts to achieve the university’s bold aspirations,” said Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little. “The staff at KU Endowment helps match our donors’ passions with KU’s goals, and their success in that effort is reflected by the national accolades they’ve received.” KU Endowment 49
Seuferling added that the staff is driven by the core values of passion for KU, partnership with donors, perpetual support and a people-centered approach. Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas The university is in the midst of its fourth comprehensive campaign. In 2012, KU publicly launched Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas, a $1.2 billion fundraising initiative for KU and The University of Kansas Hospital. Far Above seeks support to educate future leaders, advance medicine, accelerate discovery and drive economic growth to seize the opportunities of the future. The campaign has surpassed the $1 billion mark and is scheduled to conclude in July 2016. To date, gifts to Far Above have created, among other initiatives: •
More than 477 new scholarships and fellowships;
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Twenty-nine new professorships and directorships in a wide range of disciplines;
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A Lied Center expansion
•
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Plans for the DeBruce Student Center, an Engineering Research and Development Center and a new School of Business building; Enhancements to patient care at The University of Kansas Hospital;
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Funding to strengthen research and academic programs;
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Expansion of the School of Medicine-Wichita to a fouryear program, and creation of a new four-year School of Medicine site in Salina.
A century-plus strong, KU Endowment represents a legacy of generosity. Were it not for private funds, the main campus in Lawrence, as well as the campuses in Kansas City, KS, Overland Park, Wichita and Salina, would be vastly different. “As long as there is a University of Kansas, KU Endowment will be here. Our goal is to support KU in perpetuity, to help it achieve its aspirations and reach greater heights,” said Seuferling. ■
Robert J, Dole Institute of Politics Photo by Steven Hertzog
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little introduces Chancellors Club Scholars at a fall 2013 celebration. Each year, the Chancellors Club honors 16 freshman National Merit finalists with generous renewable scholarships, which helps the university attract and retain top students. Photo by Lisa Scheller, KU Endowment As a KU doctoral student in pharmaceutical chemistry, Joshua Sestak investigated therapeutics to treat multiple sclerosis. Today, he is founder of Orion BioScience , a Lawrence bio-tech company focused on development of immune therapeutics to treat chronic diseases. Photo by Brian Goodman
KU Endowment 51
What do soft drinks, cake mix, toothpaste, cat food, detergent and microchips have in common? They all contain phosphate-based ingredients manufactured in north Lawrence by ICL Performance Products. “Not a day goes by that you don’t use something with one of our products,” says Kevin Loos, the acid business manager for ICL’s Lawrence plant, which produces phosphoric acid and sodium phosphate products for the food, cleaning, dental, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, asphalt, semiconductor and other industries. The plant, which is located at North Ninth Street and East 1650 Road, looks much as you would expect it to. A low, tan brick office building sits by the gate. Steam and carbon dioxide puff from several tall chimneys. There are multi-story metal buildings and storage tanks, the Union Pacific railroad runs nearby and I-70 is only a couple miles away. It’s a compact site, but it has a surprisingly global reach as part of Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL), which is based in Tel Aviv and in 2013 generated $6.27 billion in sales. The publicly traded company’s three divisions include a fertilizer business that is one of the world’s largest potash producers. Its industrial products segment generates about one-third the global supply of elemental bromine, which is used in flame retardants and other products. ICL’s performance products subsidiary is a leading supplier of phosphoric acid and a global one for phosphates, among other products. It has production facilities around the world, but there are only two in the U.S.—the Lawrence plant and one in St. Louis, where ICL Performance Products is also headquartered. Both are survivors in an industry that’s consolidated mightily over the past three or so decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were 11 such plants in the U.S., says Terry Zerr, vice president of global operations for ICL Performance Products. ICL’s are two of the remaining three. by ANNE BROCKHOFF photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
“The Lawrence plant is a good example of when you have a plant with a good workforce, that supports and is supported by its community, that fills essential needs, you really do have a good combination and a combination that is sustainable,” says Zerr. Not that the Lawrence plant hasn’t seen its share of changes. It was built in 1951 and purchased in 1958 by FMC (known at the time as Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation). In 2000, FMC combined its phosphorus holdings— including those in Lawrence—with Solutia’s to form a joint venture named Astaris. ICL purchased Astaris in November 2005 for $266 million, according to the company. Since then, ICL has spent about $50 million improving plant efficiency and adding and expanding product lines. The investment wasn’t just about the bottom line, though, Loos says. “It was also having the wherewithal and strength to invest in a variety of projects concerning the environment, health, safety—things that help you maintain the right to operate in the community,” he says. “We know that if we don’t take care of those things, we’re not in business.”
Acid Business Manager for ICL, Kevin Loos
In addition to meeting government, customer and internal production, quality, health, safety and other standards, ICL strives to strengthen ties with local
ICL Performace Products located at North Ninth Street & East 1650 Road
residents, the city of Lawrence and Douglas County. The company interacts regularly with its own community advisory panel; collaborates with the fire department on emergency response training; partners with Woodlawn Elementary School through the Lawrence Education Achievement Partners program; and supports Junior Achievement of Lawrence and United Way of Douglas County. ICL also has a long-standing relationship with Leadership Lawrence, says Loos, who was in the class of 2006 and later served on the group’s board of trustees. Other plant executives have also gone through the program, and Leadership Lawrence classes regularly tour the plant, which is just outside the city limits. “We want them to understand how ICL fits into economic development as a primary employer, and to take some of the mystery away,” says Loos, who is currently chairman of the city’s Parks & Recreation Department advisory board and in 2012 received the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s Wally Galluzzi Volunteer of the Year Award. ICL’s Lawrence plant has 145 employees, most of which live in Douglas County. Of those, 89 are hourly workers involved with
operations, maintenance and other aspects of the business with an average tenure of 15 years. The remaining 56 are salaried. While there are plenty of engineers, many have backgrounds in chemistry, biology, analytics, environmental safety, quality control, information technology and human resources. “The people working here have a lot of responsibility,” Loos says. “They take a lot of ownership and accountability for themselves and their community.” Loos himself is originally from Lincoln, NE, and he received a B.S in chemical engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After a stint with the Department of Energy, he joined what was then FMC in Lawrence in 1996 and remains on the plant’s management team. Loos received an MBA from the University of Kansas in 2003, an experience he says was well worth it. “A lot of its value is in the intangibles,” Loos says. “It’s having the background to talk to the finance department, H.R. or I.T. Engineers don’t get a lot of training in that.” Zerr also has Jayhawk ties. He grew up in Park, in northwest
Kansas, and earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from KU in 1986. He started his career with FMC, and then left Lawrence for other opportunities, both with FMC and other companies. Zerr joined Astaris in 2002 and is now based in ICL’s St. Louis headquarters. Neither executive would speak to the possibility of future investment in the Lawrence plant, although both indicated an increased emphasis on food products such as those manufactured there. Phosphate-based food ingredients that do everything from improving leavening, texture and flavor to extending shelf life account for about half the plant’s output, Loos and Zerr say. ICL as a whole is seeking to expand its leadership in such products, known as functional foods, according to its 2013 financial report, and it makes sense that the Lawrence plant would play a role in that, Zerr says. “We are interested in growing our food business, and Lawrence is obviously a place we’re looking to continue investing in to support our food strategy,” Zerr says. ■
of Business KU School Building Blocks for the Future by ANNE BROCKHOFF
John and Jack Dicus with Neeli Bendapudi in front of Capitol Federal headquarters in Topeka
Most basketball fans streaming into Allen Fieldhouse don’t even glance east across Naismith Drive, to the corner lot where the University of Kansas’ outdoor tennis and volleyball courts now are.
tor. “It’s going to be of huge benefit to the university and the state at large.”
That will change in 2016, when the School of Business moves into a state-of-the-art, four-story structure that will change how the world sees business at KU.
The yet-to-be-named building is expected to add resources, boost recruitment and facilitate relationships with corporate partners that will benefit both teaching and research. Such opportunities are harder to come by in the school’s current home, the 54-year-old Summerfield Hall, faculty say.
“This is bigger than the School of Business,” says Austin Falley, the school’s communications direc-
For one thing, while 25 percent of incoming KU freshmen express an interest in business, there
56 KU School of Business
Jack and John Dicus, of Capitol Federal Foundation, celebrate their $20 million gift with students Oct. 2012 at the new building lead gift announcement. “We have to make it a great place to learn for students, we need to make it a great place to work for faculty, and we need people to look at it and see it’s a great place to invest.” Neeli Bendapudi, H.D. Price Dean and Professor of Business.
simply isn’t enough physical space to accommodate them all, Falley says. Classrooms are static, research facilities limited and the overall impression is of a space nobody wants to linger in for long. Not that any of that is news. Planning for a new building began about a decade ago, but the economic recession sidelined discussions. When Neeli Bendapudi took over as the H.D. Price Dean and Professor of Business in 2011, the effort regained momentum. “We have to make it a great place to learn for students, we need to make it a great place to work for faculty, and we need people to look at it and see it’s a great place to invest,” says Bendapudi, who is also co-chair of the building committee. “People only invest if they think it’s a great place to learn.” Certainly alumni, businesses and other KU supporters are convinced. The $65.7 million price tag will be funded entirely by donors. As of mid-February, KU was just $4 million shy of that total, thanks to support from the likes of the Capitol Federal Foundation of Topeka, which donated $20 million to kick off the fundraising campaign in October 2012. “We call that a market test,” says Bob DeYoung, the Capitol Federal Professor in Financial Markets and Institutions. “Folks are willing to put up money for a new building because they all feel that facilities matter.” KU is contributing about $10 million toward required infrastructure, including demolition of the existing courts and maintenance, Falley says. Construction on the building will begin this spring, as soon as those courts are relocated elsewhere on campus, allowing the classes that take place on them to continue uninterrupted. The building will be completed by 2016, and some faculty, staff and activities will move in immediately. The school will operate fully from the building beginning with the 2016-17 academic year, says Doug Houston, who is a professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Although the final floor plan and architectural renderings hadn’t been released as of press time, one thing is clear—the design embodies the school’s dual priorities. There are two sides to the building, which was conceived by Gensler, a Chicago-based architecture
KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little
and design firm, and Kansas City’s Gastinger Walker Harden + Bee Triplett Buck. Administrative, faculty, classroom and other academic facilities are grouped on one side. The school’s research, entrepreneurial and similar resources are on the other. The two sections are bridged by a spacious, welcoming atrium. “One of the prime goals was to construct a place which is in fact a building people want to come to, stay in and spend time in,” says James Guthrie, the William and Judy Docking Professor of Business and co-chair of the building committee.
leaving Summerfield, they sit on hallway floors, squeeze into the building’s single study room or scramble for one of the few tables. That makes working on group projects especially challenging, says Maggie Zehren, a senior with a double major in business administration and psychology. “If we’re not able to snag something, we make the walk up the hill to one of the libraries,” says Zehren, who last year won a $10,000 scholarship from the American Business Women’s Association.
KU School of Business
The new building will have meeting rooms, seating in the atrium, a coffee shop and other informal areas. These so-called “sticky spaces” create a comfortable atmosphere for both scheduled meetings and impromptu interaction.
Undergraduate degree programs: 7 Graduate degree programs: 5 Research centers: 5
“The architects call it planned serendipity,” Bendapudi says. “You want faculty, students and industry folks to casually run into each other. Who knows what’s sparked by that?”
Undergraduate Enrollment Now: 1,125 In 5 years: 1,650 Undergraduate Degrees Awarded Annually Now: 500 In 5 years: 750 Graduate Degrees Awarded Annually Now: 280 In 5 years: 350
That committee—comprised of Guthrie, Bendapudi, Houston, chief of staff Kelly Watson Muther and Mark Strand, the director of facilities management, academic and administrative services—has spent untold hours figuring out how to do just that. Where did they begin? “It starts with the students,” Guthrie says. And students mean classrooms. Most will be more flexible than the traditional sort, allowing for the experiential type of learning that’s now second nature for business majors. Furniture that can be moved to accommodate team-based problem solving, extra monitors and interactive technical capabilities and plenty of plug-ins are all essential. Additionally, there will be a communications center where students can work on projects and presentations and dozens of other spots where they can gather, collaborate and socialize—something they don’t currently have. Now, if students want to do homework between classes without
With a 350-seat auditorium, 125-seat classroom and a “consortium room” facing Allen Fieldhouse that has a capacity of 100, there will also be ample facilities for research workshops, small conferences and other events. Research will be furthered by expanded laboratory space, including one lab dedicated to financial markets and another for the kind of behavioral research that benefits marketers and managers. “All this will help fulfill the research mission of the school of business,” Guthrie says. That’s important for KU, which is considered a Tier One research university and is one of the Association of American Universities’ 62 members. The school carries its weight through five research centers. They include the Center for Business Analytics Research, which was created in 2012 to examine the skills, technologies, applications and practices businesses use to understand information and make decisions. It in December announced a three-year partnership with Kansas City’s DST Systems to help the company better manage what’s known as “big data.” The Center for Applied Economics is charged with advancing economic development in Kansas and throughout the region and has produced white papers on topics ranging from airfares and broadband service to the state’s oil and gas industry and charter schools. The Center for Banking Excellence focuses on that industry’s performance, practices and regulation, as well as helping bankers network with students and graduates. Individual and corporate integrity is the focus of the International Center for Ethics in Business, while the Center for Auditing Research and Advanced
Technology conducts research in auditing practices and develops auditing technology.
community is also expected to grow. Everyone’s welcome, Houston says.
The school will soon launch a sixth research center focusing on strategic leadership for management and executives, Falley says.
“We want businesses to come in and feel comfortable in the building,” he says. “We want them to engage actively with our students. The whole primary mission of the school of business is to get our kids out into productive jobs, and we want to do that through engagement at every level.” ■
Besides a more productive research environment, the new building will provide a home for the school’s entrepreneurial programs. Those include the Center for Entrepreneurship and its programs: Redefining Retirement (RedTire), which matches graduates with retiring business owners in rural communities, and small businessfocused Jayhawk Consulting. It will also house the recently created KU Catalyst, a studentbusiness accelerator overseen jointly by the School of Business and the Bioscience and Technology Business Center. Students admitted to the program get a place to work on their start-up ideas and access to mentoring and capital. The energy generated by all that activity will aid in recruiting and retaining faculty and staff and boost student numbers, Bendapudi says. The school now offers seven undergraduate majors, plus a minor in business and other special programs and five graduate degrees. The new building is projected to increase undergraduate enrollment from 1,125 to 1,650 in the first five years, according to the 2013 Dean’s Report. It will boost graduates from 500 to 750 in the undergraduate programs; for graduate degrees, that number is set to jump from 280 to 350, the report says. Interaction with the wider campus, KU alumni and the business
BOOTH’S BOOMER
PERSPECTIVE by HANK BOOTH
DON’T STOP LEARNING About the last thing I expected while starting my trip into my middle 60’s, age-wise, was the discovery of a pent up desire to go back to school. What the heck, maybe it’s that long suppressed guilt over not doing it right the first time through. My grades were “OK” back in high school days, but I hated math, studied for tests only if absolutely necessary and did my best work in, you guessed it, classes that I could talk a lot (BS) for a grade. Off to college and the BS routine didn’t seem to work nearly as well. At least some math and a foreign language were required and 7:30 am classes were impossible to attend since I was usually sound asleep. Now I usually wake about 6 am whether I want to or not. I frequently talk to friends who are enjoying a new adventure in learning somewhere here in Lawrence, and they can’t wait to tell you all about how much fun they are having going back to school. The best part...grades are not a factor, tests are almost non-existent and everybody in the room is there because they want to learn something new or create a new skill. This great town is filled to the brim with opportunity sources for learning. Name the topic, you can probably find a class. Whether you want to learn how to dance, begin yoga, or create pottery, instructors are waiting and willing to teach you. Classes seem to be always ready to start somewhere all thru the year. So where to start? Lawrence Parks and Recreation, The Lawrence Arts Center, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at KU, and that’s just the start of the list. Pick up a catalog from Parks and Rec and just thumb through. It’s good exercise. Their focus is on health and making this area a healthy place to live, work gain complete wellness. How about Senior Strength Training, beginning and advanced, Beginning Tai Chi, (what the heck is that??), Silver Pilates, Zumba, Yoga, or just good old bike riding. The catalog and enrollment is available on line at www.lprd.org. I feel healthier just reading the lists of classes. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is an offshoot of KU Continuing Education. I’m happy they kept the Osher in Lawrence when they moved Continuing Ed to Johnson County. The list of classes is out of this world. Not all are taught in Lawrence, but there are enough and the instructors are top notch. Speaking of “out of this world” James Gunn teaches a class called The “Real” World of Science Fiction. Jim Gunn has written or edited over 42 books and has published over 100 short stories. The classes are coming up in April. Consider me booked! Next on my list will be a class taught by a wonderful young lady who grew up in Lawrence, Ashley 60 Boomer Persective
Davis. Ashley is an international recording artist with four albums and a master’s degree in traditional music from the University of Limerick in Ireland. Her class is Exploring the Roots of Irish and American Music”. There aren’t many of the classes that I wouldn’t want to attend and they are constantly being added to my list. My buddy the Brit, Jeremy Taylor teaches one about Winston Churchill and his personal war on behalf of the British Empire. This semester he’s teaching in Mission, KS. I’ll wait till he’s back in town. If getting outside is more your game, head out to the Douglas County Extension Office at the county fairgrounds. The Master Gardner group is always looking for new members or folks to train to become Masters of their own lawn and garden, be it large or small. I’ve just scratched the surface. Pick one out, give it a try, and you’ll be glad you did. It’s just another great reason for the Boomer generation to love living in Lawrence or out in the county. I can’t wait for the bell to ring! ■
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by EMILY MULLIGAN
Dr. Neeli Bendapudi delivering words of inspiraton to the attendees at the Foundation Awards Ceremony
Fourteen Douglas County businesses were recognized in February for their commitment to the local economy at the Lawrence Business Magazine and CadreLawrence Foundation Awards celebration. The Foundation Award honors businesses that are locally owned or locally franchised for-profit businesses that have been in business for at least three years. In 2013, they showed a growth in jobs by adding either 20 percent more employees or a total of at least 20 new jobs. “A key fact is that 80 percent of local job growth is done by existing businesses in a community, not new businesses,” said Ann Frame Hertzog, editor-in-chief of Lawrence Business Magazine and partner at KERN Marketing Group. “And the Lawrence Business Magazine and CadreLawrence want to honor those established companies, and celebrate their contributions to our local community.” “CadreLawrence is a group of individuals who desire to be active in the promotion and support of economic development in Lawrence and Douglas County,” said Zak Bolick, CadreLawrence President and Co-Founder. “Our ultimate goal is job creation, shifting the tax base burden off of city and county residents while not increasing the business tax mill levy, and providing balanced and factual feedback to our elected officials on these matters.”
In addition, one of those local businesses, OrthoKansas, LLC, was presented with the Footprint Impact Award. The Footprint Impact Award is presented for outstanding commitment to purchase and collaborate locally with other businesses, and volunteer and partner with non-profits within Douglas County creating a positive impact on the local economy. “We think it is important to not only think about what a business does but how they do business,” said Hertzog. “Our Local businesses, supporting our local businesses – keeping it local.” Dean Neeli Benapudi, PhD, University of Kansas School of Business, was the featured speaker at the event, and she said that the KU School of Business was committed to supporting local businesses by making a promise that they will utilize local vendors as much as possible. She also talked about the new business school building and that it is being designed for collaborative work. And in the spirit of collaboration, Bendapudi wanted local business owners to know that they will be welcomed at the new business school. With the assistance of master of ceremony Hank Booth, the awards were presented to the recipients by Lawrence Mayor Mike Dever; Zak Bolick; KERN Marketing Group Partner Mark Kern; and presenting sponsor INTRUST BANK’s Regional Market President Doug Gaumer.
OrthoKansas, LLC; and also the Footprint Impact Award recipient. OrthoKansas LLC began in the Lawrence community is staffed with 20 providers, including board-certified orthopaedic physicians and surgeons, physician assistants-certified (PA-Cs), and physical and occupational therapists, OrthoKansas provides a full range of specialty medical and therapy services. Having started with two physicians and two support staff, OrthoKansas now has more than 75 employees. In the past year, OrthoKansas treated more than 25,000 patients. OrthoKansas has expanded its facility to include therapy services with a heated pool and aquatic services and an MRI center, and has created partnerships with two spine specialists – all so that Lawrence and Douglas County residents do not need to travel to obtain the health care and specialty services they may require. 360 Energy Engineers, LLC 360 Energy Engineers works with clients primarily in the public sector throughout the Midwest and Rocky Mountains to help them upgrade their energy and facility infrastructure. They assist clients with design, implementation and performance of upgrades that will improve facility operation and reduce utility consumption and costs. ComfortCare Homes of Baldwin City ComfortCare Homes of Baldwin City provides long-term housing and around-the-clock care to residents with Alzheimer’s and other conditions that result in cognitive impairment. In 2013, ComfortCare Homes expanded its facility, which allowed it to double in capacity. Its certified caregivers and registered nurses provide care for residents from Baldwin City, Lawrence, Ottawa, Gardner, Eudora and Olathe. The Crystal Image The Crystal Image specializes in portraits of babies, children and high school seniors, as well as business services such as headshots, commercial projects, and photos of families and pet owners. The company also designs custom announcements for graduations, births and holiday cards. Kurt Goeser State Farm Insurance Kurt Goeser State Farm Insurance provides personal and commercial property and casualty insurance products, life and health insurance, disability and long-term care insurance, as well as financial services to about 2,500 households primarily in Douglas County. Danielsan Electric, LLC Danielsan Electric specializes in commercial and residential electrical and low-voltage wiring and service. The company, which is a full-service contractor, serves customers in about a 40-mile radius of Lawrence and plans to add a public interactive showroom this year.
Googols of Learning Child Development Center Googols of Learning is a full-time and after-school child-care facility for children between the ages of 1 and 12 years old in Lawrence. Children in the program are encouraged in their physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. The Granada Theater The Granada Theater is a live music venue and event space in downtown Lawrence that works to bring up-and-coming and sustained national level music artists to the Lawrence area. Almost half of the tickets sold at The Granada are from sources outside of Douglas County, which brings outside dollars to the community. Massage Envy SPA Massage Envy SPA offers therapeutic massage and skin facials that promote individual wellness. More than 1,400 people are members who receive monthly massage and facials. They emphasize education for their services as a way to “regularlyâ€? enhance wellness. Paradise Carpet One Paradise Carpet One is a floor covering store that is part of the Carpet One buying group, selling carpet, ceramic tile, hardwood flooring, vinyl tile, laminate, natural stone and countertops. They sell to builders, property managers, businesses and homeowners in Lawrence, Baldwin City, Eudora and the surrounding area. Pawsh Wash & Pawsh Pet Health Market Pawsh Wash and Pawsh Pet Health Market offer full-service pet grooming services, self-serve pet bathing and unique pet retail products. Pawsh Pet Health Market added a new location in 2013 with natural food and supplies for pets. Pennington & Company Pennington & Company provides fundraising counsel and support to sororities and fraternities in Lawrence and around the country, to help them provide life-safety and educational amenities to their members and residents. Pennington & Company has raised more than $350 million for clients on 121 campuses. The Results Companies The Results Companies has call centers that provide customerfocused contact solutions for a range of clients. They serve clients all over the world with their customer management and business process outsourcing capabilities. struct/restruct, llc struct/restruct, llc is a full service design and build studio specializing in older homes, in particular in East Lawrence, where it is based. Owners Eric Jay and Matt Jones also do new construction, with an emphasis in established areas of East Lawrence. â–
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LMH-On Elite List, 2nd Year in a Row by Janice Early, MBA,Vice President, Marketing & Communications, Lawrence Memorial Hospital
Top 100 On March 3, Lawrence Memorial Hospital was named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Truven Health Analytics. This is the second straight year in a row that LMH received the honor. Truven Health Analytics conducts research studies, such as the 100 Top Hospitals® study, with the goal of improving the cost and quality of health care. In the 2014 100 Top Hospitals® study, Truven Health Analytics compared 2,803 short-term, acute care hospitals in order to identify which provided the highest level of value to their communities. The company made this comparison by examining hospital performance in 10 areas: mortality; inpatient complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; and postdischarge mortality and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and pneumonia. “The Truven study is unique in that it evaluates hospitals on measures of overall organizational performance, including patient care, operational efficiency and financial stability. At LMH we aim to bring higher value to our community while confronting the challenges of industry-wide reform, and it is gratifying to earn outside recognition for our efforts,” says Gene Meyer, LMH President and Chief Executive Officer. LMH was one of 20 winners in the medium community hospital category, and was the only hospital in Kansas and in the Kansas City metropolitan area that made the 2014 list. Hospitals cannot apply to the study or pay to receive the award. A result of receiving this honor is that the community expects a higher quality of care from LMH. LMH is able to provide and improve patient care because of support from community. Hearts of Gold Ball One way that the community has helped support these improvements to LMH is through renovations, partially funded by the LMH Endowment Association’s biannual Hearts of Gold Ball. Kathy Clausing-Willis, VP and Chief Development Officer, says, “The benefit is it’s getting people involved with their hospital when they’re not sick, so when they are sick they can be confident and comfortable they’ve made this place what it is today.” 66 Lawrence Memorial Hospital
Every other year a different area of the hospital is chosen to benefit from the Hearts of Gold Ball. In 2012, it was 2 North, the second floor medical unit that received the proceeds to renovate the unit. Renovations within the hospital not only improve facilities, they also increase the satisfaction of patients, their families, and the hospital staff. The second floor has already seen this effect since its renovation. “Hearts of Gold impacted the unit incredibly,” says Deborah Rector, the director of 2 North. “It is so meaningful for our patients to have a private, therapeutic area where they can rest and can have peaceful moments with their families.” The proceeds from the 2014 Hearts of Gold Ball also will benefit the renovation of a floor at LMH: the fourth floor. The fourth floor is home to two programs that cater to seniors, a population that has been growing due to the quality of life that’s available in Lawrence and Douglas County. Teresa Kaiser, the fourth floor director, says, “The fourth floor of Lawrence Memorial Hospital is home to two important hospital programs and the patients who are served by those programs: the Acute Rehab Unit (ARU), and the Transitional Care Unit (TCU, also known as Skilled Nursing). The renovation of fourth floor will help fulfill the community’s expectations for a Top 100 Hospital, and this much-needed upgrade is an investment in the future. If fourth floor receives these needed renovations, both the ARU and TCU programs will better serve patients’ needs in an environment that enhances their comfort, privacy and convenience.” The 2014 Hearts of Gold Ball will be May 10 at the World Company Press Room, from 6 p.m. until midnight. The theme is “Press On” to remind attendees that patients on the fourth floor of LMH must press on, often spending longer periods of time in the hospital during the rehabilitation process. To buy tickets, support the renovation of the fourth floor, and help LMH maintain its status as one of the Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals®, contact Tracy Davidson at 785-505-3318 or tracy. davidson@lmh.org, or visit www.lmhendowment.org. ■
Why Local by MARK FAGAN
Practical Learning Ahead for COLLEGE & CAREER CENTER The newest public school in Lawrence won’t be fielding competitive sports teams, putting on theater productions or handing out diplomas. Think a little more practical. Slated to open in fall 2015, the Lawrence school district’s new $5.7 million College and Career Center will be expected to give as many as 250 students per semester opportunities to connect with professions, trades and overall employment opportunities — options long sought by the business community and now embraced by the community as a whole. Students will be able to enroll in courses offered by the district and through area community colleges, picking up knowledge and skills that translate into success. Students completing center work could find themselves furthering education or pursuing certification as a nurse aide, developing computer software, exploring solar technology, understanding HVAC systems or programming robotic manufacturing systems. “For our juniors and seniors in high school, college and careers are just around the corner,” says Patrick Kelly, the district’s director of career and technical education. “Exposure to college classes and authentic 21st century professions will provide them the opportunity to practice and develop the skills necessary for their future. Our students understand that real-world experience — whether it be with a business mentor, a service-learning project, an internship or early college courses — will separate them from their peers and prepare them for the future.” The new center will cover 30,000 square feet near 31st Street and Haskell Avenue, adjacent to an existing building taking shape as the Dwayne Peaslee Adult Education Center through the Economic Development Council of Lawrence & Douglas County. The College and Career Center is being designed to provide flexibility, transparency and collaboration, Kelly says. The center will include equipment and other materials to give students access to what they need to prepare for competition in a demanding employment marketplace. Programs will be focused in seven categories: TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, covering technology hardware, networking, software, operating systems, mobile devices, cybersecurity, and emerging technology. This program is intended for students interested in developing technical skills and knowledge ideal for moving ahead in technical development and support. The idea is to give students the tools they need, and then engage them in hands-on work to help understand what’s behind development of mobile phones, creation of Internet privacy programs and more. Students will solve actual problems in a professional environment, Kelly says. That means building a portfolio of work through software engineering, web development, operating systems, hardware technology, management information systems and other emerging technologies. 68 Why Local
HEALTH AND EMERGENCY SCIENCE, which includes college coursework, rigorous science content, real-world clinical experiences, industry recognized certifications and industry partnerships. The district already is working with Neosho County Community College on this category, with 20 students already earned in a certified nurse aide course. Consultations with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical have led to plans for assisting students interested in becoming first responders or emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and Johnson County Community College is working with the district on programming. COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING, a field that includes computer-aided design (CAD), computer numerical control (CNC), 3-D printing, rapid prototyping, and robotics. Manufacturing isn’t simply a matter of loading an assembly line or pushing a button. These days a production floor harnesses technology that could be on the Mars rover. And the next advance in efficiency could be born in a 3-D printer. Kelly envisions business partners coming to students with a need, spurring curiosity within a team of young minds ready to go to work: “Using advanced tools common in manufacturing plants, students will design and machine products that will address real-world problems.” BIOTECHNOLOGY & FORENSIC SCIENCE, a sector that spans project-based science, DNA testing, evidence collection and analysis, biotechnical processes, and research and design. Anyone wondering just how significant biotechnology is might consider reviewing the Kansas Bioscience Authority’s investments during the past decade: $272 million in commitments to more than 80 bioscience companies, institutions and programs. And forensic science appears to be popular, too, considering that “CSI” and its spinoffs manage to draw millions of viewers each week. Programs in this category will include coursework and hands-on experiences in matters ranging from biotechnical processes involving DNA, RNA and enzymes to evidence collection, serology and, yes, crime scene investigation. “Students who have a passion for science and a desire to learn through practical application will not only be right at home in these courses,” Kelly says. “They will be in high demand in the future.” LAW & GOVERNMENT, a category for students interesting in potential careers in law enforcement, courts, detention centers, fire departments, law firms and social service agencies. With the city of Lawrence, alone, ranking as the city’s fourth-largest employer, it’s clear that there are jobs in government work. The Lawrence Police Department has spoken with the district about its support for programs that might help fill the pool of qualified job candidates. Taking courses in this program will expose students to the inner workings of public administration and public safety. There even are plans for students taking advanced courses to participate in actual court proceedings, and Douglas County District Court is looking at the possibility of working with the center on establishing youth court program. CONSTRUCTION SCIENCE, reaching into building technology, electrical and solar technology, HVAC, plumbing and other trades. Evening classes in electrical and solar technology started in January at Lawrence High School, with financial support from Stanion Wholesale Electric Co. Other employers have indicated support for helping provide programming that could help meet their employment needs, with such training expected to be conducted at the Dwayne Peaslee Center.
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INTERACTIVE DESIGN, which calls for addressing real-world challenges and fostering design thinking by creating teams with various backgrounds and skills to pursue digital and physical solutions. TRANSLATION: INNOVATE The goal is for students to leave this program with intentions for making a difference — whether that’s through digital work such as web pages, animations or software, or through physical items such as printed materials, product prototypes and business plans. Who knows where their schoolwork might take them? “Students should be prepared to pitch ideas to a panel of community members,” Kelly says. The center’s plans won’t stop there. New technologies are emerging all the time, and businesses and industries are constantly adapting and taking advantage of the opportunities they offer. The center itself will innovate in its education of students so that they, too, can make the most of such opportunities — both now and in the future. “The center will tap into students’ real interests and allow them to practice those skills,” Kelly says. “It will be transformational.” ■
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
Lawrence Business Magazine adds Director of New Business. Lawrence Business Magazine is proud to announce the addition of Meredithe McCormick as Director of New Business to their team. The last 25 years, Meredithe has been at the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce as their Membership Sales Executive where she recruited new members, attended Chamber mixers, ribbon cuttings and other Chamber functions. In recruiting new members, Meredithe enjoyed working with new business owners, seeing new businesses before they opened, meeting new people, and being a contact for many businesses new to Lawrence. “It was interesting seeing the different kinds of businesses and meeting so many different people,” Meredithe stated. “I am very pleased, honored and excited to join the staff at the Lawrence Business Magazine as I have been a big supporter of the magazine since its first issue hit the street. I gave the magazine to Chamber prospects to show them what a great thriving business community we have. The Lawrence Business Magazine is a great vehicle for both Lawrence businesses and the public, and I look forward to helping the magazine grow and continue to be an even greater success.” Publisher, Mark Kern, states, “Meredithe’s experience, local business network and delightful personality make her a valuable addition to the Lawrence Business Magazine team. She will play a big role in the growth and continued success of the magazine.” Meredithe is married to Gary McCormick, the mother of two and an active volunteer in the community. Meredithe was the first recipient of the Wally Galluzzi Award, which is presented by the Chamber to active volunteer members. Dr. Venida S. Chenault anncounced as president of Haskell Indian Nations University Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Dr. Charles M. Roessel today announced the selection of Dr. Venida S. Chenault as president of Haskell Indian Nations University (Haskell) in Lawrence, Kan. Chenault, an enrolled member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Kansas, had been serving as vice president of academic affairs at Haskell since December 2004. Her new appointment was effective Jan. 12, 2014. “Dr. Venida Chenault is an experienced administrator whose leadership at Haskell Indian Nations University and strong commitment to American Indian higher education is well-known among her students and colleagues,” Roessel said. “Her familiarity with the needs of students, her respect for the school community and her vision for the institution itself has made her the right choice as Haskell president. I am proud to have her on my education management team.”
Lauren Lane joins The Metabolic Research Center The Metabolic Research Center announced the addition of Lauren Lane, weight loss consultant and registered dietitian, to its staff. Lane, a graduate of the University of Dayton, became a certified dietitian in 2011.
TCK Promotes Three The Trust Company of Kansas has announced the promotion of three people. Michael Smith, has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Trust Officer. Smith joined TCK in 2009 and has been instrumental in expanding the TCK. Christopher English, joined TCK Lawrence in 2009 and has been promoted to Vice President and Trust Officer. Kim Ebert has been promoted to Marketing Officer. Kim joined TCK Headquarters office in 2010 and has been responsible for marketing all TCK offices throughout the state. 72 News Makers
Douglas County Bank Announces Promotions Douglas County Bank has announced the promotions of the following bankers: Pat Slabaugh, President; Ted Haggard, Vice Chairman of the Board; Gina Baun, Executive Vice President; Sean Buffum, Senior Vice President & Information Technology Director; Ernesto Hodison, Senior Vice President, Loan Services; Tim Metz, Senior Vice President, Loan Services; Lisa Stuhlman, Senior Vice President, Cashier & Chief Financial Officer; Gwen Denton, Assistant Vice President, Human Resources and Rich Godbold, Assistant Vice President, Loan Services.
Peoples Bank Welcomes Mortgage Banker Steve Summers to our Mortgage Team Peoples Bank is pleased to announce the addition of Steve Summers as a Mortgage Banker. Prior to his mortgage career, he was a member of the Kansas City Comets. In 2004, he left soccer and became a full time mortgage lender. Most recently he worked at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Chase and First Mortgage Solutions. In making the announcement, Peoples Bank Mortgage Market Sales Manager Denise Philippi said, “Steve has extensive experience in the mortgage business and we are very excited that he is a part of the Peoples team. His strong knowledge of the mortgage industry will really help our Guests reach their goals.” “I am excited to bring my knowledge, skills and desire to help others to Peoples Bank. I love the way Peoples takes care of and values their Guests.” Summers said.
Grant Ryan Joins Sunflower Bank as Senior Vice President Sunflower Bank has hired Grant Ryan as Senior Vice President and Commercial Relationship Manager. Ryan works from the Sunflower Bank location in Lawrence, located at 4831 Quail Crest Place. Ryan possesses 18 years of experience in the financial industry, most recently as senior vice president at Emprise Bank. Previously, he served as executive vice president and chief lending officer at University National Bank. “Grant is a great addition to our Lawrence team,” said Glynn Sheridan, President of Sunflower Bank in Lawrence. “He brings a wealth of banking knowledge and experience, and most importantly, he has demonstrated a strong commitment to Lawrence, his customers and is the consummate community banker.” Throughout his career, Ryan has been active as a volunteer in this community, including: Quail Run Elementary Site Council, Leadership Lawrence, past president of Young Bank Officers of Kansas, Kansas Bank Association lending committee, and a youth baseball and basketball coach. Ryan, a Clay Center native, resides in Lawrence with his wife, Kristen, and their two children.
THE LOCAL
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Miles Schnaer Presenting Bev Billings with the 2014 ATHENA Award
Lawrence Chamber of Commerce
Hank Booth (center) being honored with the 2014 Lawrencian Award (Citizen of the Year)
Dancing Through the Decades
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Boy & Girls Club Mardi Gras Ball
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Home Show
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Lawrence Business Magazine Anniversary Bash
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WH OSE DESK? Be the first to correctly guess which local business figure works behind this desk. Winner receives a $50 gift card to 23rd Street Brewery. facebook.com/lawrencebusinessmagazine