PROSPECTUS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
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ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Soft Skills, Hard Experience
The Challenge of a Business Major
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IN THIS ISSUE ■
ISU’S NEW PRESIDENT
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FRED HOIBERG INTERVIEW
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H O M E C O M I N G AWA R D S
PROSPECTUS
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Raisbeck Endowed Dean. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Labh Hira Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dan Ryan Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katie Raymon Bob Elbert Writers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dennis Smith Dan Ryan Deborah Martinez
Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PUSH Branding and Design
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phillips Brothers Printing Contact College of Business Robert H. Cox Dean’s Suite 2200 Gerdin Business Building Ames, Iowa 50011-1350 515 294-7188 business@iastate.edu www.business.iastate.edu Prospectus is prepared twice per year by the College of Business at Iowa State University. It is sent without charge to alumni, friends, parents, faculty, and staff of the College of Business. Third-class bulk rate postage paid to Ames, Iowa, and at additional mailing offices. The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent official statements or policy of Iowa State University but are the personal views and opinions of the authors. Prospectus welcomes correspondence from alumni and friends. Send your comments to Dan Ryan, editor, at the above email or postal address. Prospectus reserves the right to edit all correspondence published for clarity and length. Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran. Inquiries can be directed to the Director of Equal Opportunity and Compliance, 3280 Beardshear Hall, 515 294-7612.
The College of Business at Iowa State University is accredited by AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The AACSB is the premier accrediting and service agency and service organization for business schools.
Features
4 Skating on Thin Ice Challenging assumptions about the business major.
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Tough Enough Hard truths about “soft” subjects.
Meet Dr. Steven Leath Iowa State University’s next
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president starts in January.
What Do Employers Want? The skills employers look for in student hires.
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The Power of Presentation Past achievements are a springboard for future success.
Coach Mayor An interview with the College of Business’ most popular alum.
ON THE COVER
Departments
RECENT BUSINESS GRADUATES ALYSSA VOGEL AND BRIAN GUALILLO BUILT STRONG RESUMES
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Dean Labh Hira Briefs Alumni News
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Faculty and Staff News
AS UNDERGRADUATES
Development
PRESTIGIOUS JOBS.
Dr. Charles Handy
THAT HELPED THEM LAND
M ESSA GE FR O M THE DEA N
Democracy ‘Defaults’ to the Business Major OK, I’ll jump in feet first with a theme in this issue of Prospectus: is business the “default major” for the Discerning consumers understand the value of an Iowa State business degree. — LABH HIRA
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unprepared, the unmotivated, or, dare I say it, the uninspired? Only, I would suggest, if business is a “default career” for anyone graduating from a four-year institution of higher learning. By that measure, just about anyone who doesn’t park himself permanently in academia might fit that characterization. But, of course, they don’t. Certain fields of study have the advantage of a scientific and mathematical rigor that inspires students to “self-select” into the major. But even at that, any number will wash out, others will underperform yet complete their curriculums, and still others will excel and become leaders in their fields. And so it is with business. Certainly, we attract students who lack and (we hope) seek focus, but so too does elementary education and English literature. And like those fields, we also attract many blazingly brilliant, focused, and motivated students who can’t be challenged enough, people who would have excelled in any field they chose to study but chose business. For most young people, college has become a “default” pathway to anything remotely resembling a rewarding career, both from a vocational and a financial perspective. In that regard, the university has supplanted high school in preparing students for meaningful careers in an increasingly unforgiving 21st-century economy. To cite Whitman (Walt, not Meg), the “Ship of Democracy” that was formerly America’s public schools has now grown to include America’s public universities as well.
For the fact is that land-grant universities are quintessentially democratic institutions, with a duty to educate a wide range of students with varying degrees of preparation and motivation. And of all the majors offered at land grants such as Iowa State, business is among the most democratic simply for the wide range of students we enroll—you’ll see greater diversity in the halls of Gerdin, I’d submit, than in any other building on campus—and the equally wide range of opportunities and professional pathways available to these students. One feature of our “democratic” land-grant character is that the various curricula throughout Iowa State are fundamentally consumer driven, and that our “consumers” are not just students but the businesses that hire them. And over the years, those consumers have made it clear that they want business studies to have a central role. But that doesn’t have to mean a lowering of standards. To the contrary, the College of Business has taken measures to raise those standards across the board. Through the introduction of differential tuition and other economies, we have increased faculty and reduced class sizes. This has given us the opportunity to make coursework more rigorous, especially in majors such as management and marketing, which in the past have had too many large lectures and not enough opportunities for facultystudent interactions. Ultimately, the harsh reality of today’s job market will motivate students to raise their game to the next level. Along the way, we can only do our best to prepare and maybe even inspire them to demand more of themselves—and of us. ■
Labh S. Hira, Raisbeck Endowed Dean
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Dr. Steven Leath
Named Iowa State’s Next President Dr. Steven Leath, vice president for research and sponsored programs for the University of North Carolina system, was selected as Iowa State University’s 15th president in a unanimous vote of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, on Tuesday, September 27. Leath will succeed Dr. Gregory Geoffroy, Iowa State’s president since July 2001.
“DR. LEATH HAS DEMONSTRATED extensive expertise in all areas that are critical to leading Iowa State University,” said Craig Lang (’73 Dairy Science), president of the Iowa Board of Regents. “His specific experience with university research and technology transfer, and their application to economic development, will be an invaluable resource in leading Iowa State and its many contributions to the state of Iowa, particularly for Iowa’s bioeconomy industry.” The search committee was cochaired by Labh Hira, Raisbeck Endowed Dean of the College of Business, and Roger Underwood (’80 Agricultural Business), who chaired
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the recently completed Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose. They stuck to an aggressive timeline that completed a successful search less than four months after the committee’s formation and just more than six months after Geoffroy announced his decision to step down. Leath also serves as the interim vice president for academic planning. He held several positions at North Carolina State University, including associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the NC Agricultural Research Service. He also was a research leader and plant pathologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research
Service and an extension plant pathologist at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Leath helped develop the North Carolina Research Campus, a privatepublic venture that fosters advancements in biotechnology, nutrition, and health. He received three plant sciences degrees—a bachelor’s (1979) from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; a master’s (1981) from the University of Delaware, Newark; and a doctorate in plant pathology (1984) from the University of Illinois. He will begin his tenure at Iowa State University on January 16, 2012. ■
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S K AT I N G ON THIN ICE
TA L K I N G B A C K TO THE B SCHOOL CRITICS
Are business studies more than a “default major” for the unfocused and unmotivated? Iowa State students and faculty challenge a few assumptions.
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lder ISU alumni—say, those nearing retirement—may remember when “going off to college” was not so much an expectation as a privilege. Many of one’s peers stopped at their high school diplomas. Some entered the military. Others got decent jobs in factories, packinghouses, or agriculture. Still others worked in offices where ambition and application might land you on a management track— even without a college degree. “Going off to college?” That depended on whether or not you were “college material.” Good
grades in high school, strong SAT or ACT scores, and a family that recognized the value of higher education were all important factors. And most important was a desire for knowledge, if not for its own sake then certainly to show employers you were a person of depth, exposed to a range of ideas and capable of learning more, a critical thinker capable of moving to the next level and taking others with you—in short, a leader. There was no “College of Business” at Iowa State back then, only a Department of Industrial
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Administration, a relative backwater to ISU’s flagship schools of engineering and agriculture. “Business” was, in fact, an adjunct to the College of Liberal Arts where students were taught a curriculum that offered something akin to what a bright high school graduate might pick up through several years of “office work” in the real world. Things have changed.
SLIPPING INTO A C A D E M I C ‘ D E FA U LT ’ ? Today, roughly 20 percent of students who enroll at Iowa State are business majors, mirroring national averages. And in the continuing democratization of higher education since the Second World War, says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, last year nearly 70 percent of American students graduating from high school enrolled in colleges and universities. That’s 20 percent higher than in 1960 when only about half of high school grads went to college. While not responsible for all of that increase, the explosion in b-school enrollments the past 50 years represents a disproportionate amount of the growth in American higher education. But accompanying that growth has been what recent observers consider a drop in standards, both in the level of preparation of students for
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STUDENTS CROWD THE STEPS OF THE GERDIN BUSINESS BUILDING DURING THE FALL SEMESTER. ABOUT ONE IN FIVE UNDERGRADUATES AT IOWA STATE ARE BUSINESS MAJORS.
college-level challenges and • That students enroll in Today, roughly in the curriculum intended business schools primarily 20 percent to challenge them in the to network, not to learn. of students first place. who enroll at Last spring American • That there is no consensus Iowa State are business schools had among faculty as to what business majors, their feathers ruffled by constitutes core “knowlmirroring the joint publication in edge” in much of the national The New York Times and business curriculum, averages. The Chronicle of Higher particularly in the fields Education of “The Default of management and marMajor: Skating Through B-School,” keting, which lack clear standards an article by David Glenn focusing and, therefore, academic “rigor.” on the low motivation and marginal performance of many undergraduate • That schools and colleges of business majors. The article offered business represent cash cows for three basic premises: financially strapped public institutions, with a commensurate F U RT H E R R E A D I N G :
To read the feature story from The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher
Education, visit www.business.iastate.edu/prospectus/fall_2011. The feature story and accompanying stories from both publications are linked for you to read in full.
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SKATING ON THIN ICE
TOM CHACKO CHAIRS THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS’ DEPARTMENTS OF MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING. HE IS NOT SURPRISED AT THE SCRUTINY HIS DISCIPLINES HAVE RECEIVED.
lowering of standards in order to keep admissions (and thus revenues) high. Citing any number of exceptions to these premises—mostly in the form of programs at elite schools with deep pockets—the article challenges b-school faculty and administrators to justify their practices, if not their very existences. But while Iowa State faculty read the Times-Chronicle piece with considerable interest last spring, there was little gnashing of teeth or rending of academic garments in the halls of Gerdin Business Building. In fact, some faculty agreed with much of what the article had to say— with a couple caveats.
A GENERAL SLACKENING Take Tom Chacko, chair of the departments of management and marketing—two disciplines that came under especially withering scrutiny by the Times and Chronicle.
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“I’m not surprised by this,” in any subject area before arriving Chacko muses. “We’ve discussed at college, so they often balk at the shift in students I’ve seen in my greater requirements in a university career over the past 30 years. And curriculum. And combined with some of the comments made in the classrooms groaning under enrollarticle reflect that. ments numbering hundreds of “Where people take umbrage is students to a section, overworked when they say business students faculty are hardly in a position to are the weaker students,” he conassign substantial reading—let tinues. “I don’t know that. You can alone the corresponding writing take any program and look at what that is the hallmark of a classical I’ll call ‘national schools’ and ‘notliberal arts education. so-national schools,’ and you’ll see This outsized growth in business a huge difference.” education, Chacko is quick to note, Much of that “slippage” in stanis simply a response to both condards, Chacko suggests, can be sumer and industrial demands. traced to the democratization— Yet beyond the corporate recruiters if not outright commoditization— looking to identify and slot freshly of higher education in the post-war minted graduates into specific period. With the massive jobs requiring narrowly I just keep influx of students into defined skill sets, executives saying, this is higher education, he at the top are looking what employers observes, comes an inevitafor a different breed of want. You’re ble lowering of standards in graduate altogether. going to be everything from admissions “The people running the writing way to curriculum to class sizes show want people who can more than you and more. think broad and think big,” think you are. But that’s hardly limited Chacko stresses, “people S U E R AV E N S C R O F T to business studies. who can solve problems. “I think there’s a general But the people who come slackening taking place,” says here looking for students are saying, Chacko. “And if you want to get ‘can you do this particular job?’ into root causes, it goes back to high “Those are two very different school and earlier—that sets up who things,” he continues. “And I think you are in terms of learning.” smart businesses go to the liberal One significant challenge for arts schools, and they hire because educators across post-secondary they’re getting a certain kind of disciplines, Chacko says, is that student in terms of their education students simply don’t read enough and how they think.”
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E N G A G E D B E YO N D B U S I N E S S Chacko would get no argument from Roger P. Murphy Professor of Accounting Sue Ravenscroft, who started her own academic career as an undergraduate philosophy major before studying business in graduate school, and who today remains an avid reader and writer in a broad range of subjects beyond business. And while she recognizes the economic constraints on large public institutions such as Iowa State versus small liberal arts colleges, Ravenscroft’s abiding passion for the written word has led her to be an advocate for a greater emphasis on writing in the College of Business. “I just keep saying, this is what employers want,” Ravenscroft tells her students. “You’re going to be writing way more than you think you are. I’ve had a former student come in, a tax advisor who told me he spent 60 percent of his time writing—real documents you have to put together, not just slide off in a quick email. “We’re so driven by technical content that we don’t do big-picture stuff very much,” she adds. While there is little chance Iowa State will give Grinnell College or any other small liberal arts school a run for its money in turning out young philosopher kings (and queens) to seize the reins of industry, Ravenscroft and like-minded colleagues are not content for students
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WHEN COMPARING HOW
women than men take the test in
well different undergraduate majors are
Southeast Asia—and trail the guys
prepared to compete in business, there
by only four points.)
are lies, damned lies…and the Graduate Management Admission Test, or “GMAT.”
+ More undergraduate business majors
But the GMAT doesn’t measure the qual-
take the GMAT than all other majors
ity of education a student receives in his
combined, which might partially
or her college career so much as it does
explain the overall lower mean score
the quality of the student: an engineering
for business compared to certain
major scoring 80 points above a business
other majors.
major on the GMAT likely scored commensurately higher than that same
+ The mean score for all business
business student on his SAT or ACT
majors was 524. Compare that to the
before coming to Iowa State.
GMAT champs from physics at 603, engineering at 593, and philosophy
Still, here are a few numbers to chew
at 587. Trailing were fine arts
on from The 2010 Profile of Graduate
at 504, agriculture at 495, and
Management Admission Test Candidates,
education at 482.
published by the Graduate Management Admission Council.
+ Within business, operations management/production (“supply
+ Men outscored women by a mean of
chain management” at ISU) came
555 to 526. (Take heart, ladies: that
in at an impressive 578, while
difference is probably rooted more
marketing trailed at 493; management
in culture than gender, as more
scored a 503.
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SKATING ON THIN ICE
simply to “skate through last spring. And while Here I think stub-school” like their peers conceding the difficulties dents probably in the Times-Chronicle see management of imposing academic rigor piece. That’s one reason in their fields as outlined or marketing Ravenscroft assigns more in the Times-Chronicle as a tougher writing in her own classarticle, they nonetheless degree, because rooms and was an early feel they are more than they have to get through some champion of the college’s up to the challenge. of us they perCommunications Center “I don’t think our ceive as tough (see “Learning the Power students see management teachers. of a Polished Presentation,” as a ‘default’ major or as J I M McE L R OY page 19 in this issue) ‘skating,’” McElroy asserts. where students can work “In fact, here I think they not only on their writing, but also probably see it as a tougher degree, presentation and other “soft” skills because they have to get through that take them beyond technical some of us they perceive as content to a higher level of preparatough teachers.” tion and performance in business. He adds with a chuckle, And Ravenscroft isn’t alone “Although if they plan it right, in demanding more from—and they can probably avoid us.” achieving more for—Iowa State business students. Other colleagues NO EASY CONCLUSIONS are taking advantage of the smaller For all its good humor, McElroy’s class sizes and additional resources observation underscores an essential made possible by revenues from the truth about higher education at college’s recently implemented difIowa State or anywhere else: ferential tuition plan to assign more students have more power over writing and give more face time to their educations than they think, their students—even in the soand even in a large program at a called “soft” disciplines of marketing big school like Iowa State, any and management. given student is limited only by Like Chacko, Jim McElroy and the boundaries of his or her own Russ Laczniak, professors of manvision and ambition. agement and marketing, respectively, If you think that’s just so much have witnessed and participated in public relations boilerplate, you the evolution of the college from may wish to consider Alyssa Vogel its earliest years to the arguably and Brian Gualillo, two spring “revolutionary” changes of the past 2011 graduates now with Principal several years profiled in Prospectus Financial Group in Des Moines.
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Each, in her or his own way, explodes the stereotypes of the Times-Chronicle article: while Gualillo studied the supposedly “soft” disciplines of marketing and management, Vogel was a veritable Renaissance woman who left Iowa State with two majors and three minors across a variety of business and humanities disciplines. Yet despite these differences, both find themselves—only months out of their undergraduate degrees—in one of the most prestigious and competitive leadership programs that business has to offer. The articles in this issue of Prospectus examine the seeming contradictions between the generalizations about business education in America today as offered by critics such as the Times-Chronicle author, and the particular examples of Iowa State faculty and students who frustrate easy conclusions about business students today. By looking more closely at the challengers and the challenged— educators such as Chacko, McElroy, Laczniak and Ravenscroft, as well as super-achievers Vogel and Gualillo—you’ll see how the College of Business at Iowa State is redefining standards of business education for the twenty-first century. ■
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TOUGH ENOUGH Three leading College of Business professors offer some hard truths about “soft” subjects.
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M
ore than any other educational “product” in America today, business education reflects market principles of supply and demand: as long as consumers (a.k.a. “students”) demand it, suppliers of education—whether private, public, or for-profit—will provide it. But consumers of education are themselves products in someone else’s supply chain—namely, the employers who increasingly look to undergraduate business schools as the primary source of new talent for their operations. That wasn’t always the case.
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TOUGH ENOUGH
Whether the humanities they attract the kind of or social sciences, in the student who, though Unlike other business majors, past academic success often otherwise bright enough, management and might wish simply to “skate correlated with career marketing are success. Businesses would through b-school” on the often viewed as take on raw brainpower way to a set of credentials “soft” disciplines with the expectation that that will painlessly kick lacking in rignew hires could quickly off a business career. orous academic learn the ropes and rise Is it time to dump content and conto their full potential. the management major? crete skills that That’s changed, as a Surprisingly, you’ll get no employers can review of any school’s use immediately. argument from Tom Chacko, curriculum shows. Today, chair of the departments of companies hire not only management and marketing. accountants out of undergraduate “There are people who suggest b-schools, but also people specifithat management should not be an cally trained in supply chain, undergraduate major, and I’ve said logistics, finance, and information that here too,” Chacko readily systems, among other narrower admits. “In fact, I’ll say that the business specialties. whole of business should not be What they don’t hire are managers. an undergraduate major.” Chacko notes that many of the A Q U E S T I O N O F M O T I VAT I O N top b-schools—Harvard, Stanford, Unlike other business majors, manand Dartmouth, among others— agement and marketing are often don’t even have undergraduate viewed as “soft” disciplines lacking programs. But while scuttling in rigorous academic content and the undergraduate business major concrete skills that employers can might work in the Ivy League, in use immediately. These fields, most state-supported institutions, critics say, rely heavily on instinct, it’s here to stay—along with innate leadership ability, and powmarketing and management. ers of persuasion that perhaps can be cultivated but not “taught” the ‘COMMON SENSE’ AS way you can teach a sophomore MANAGEMENT NONSENSE the fundamentals of spreadsheets That’s not to say that Chacko and or financial statements. his colleagues don’t have strong— Moreover, the rap continues, even controversial—opinions about management and marketing appeal to management and marketing, as well less motivated students—particularly, as ideas on how to improve their those averse to math, technology, and instruction for undergraduates. The tough analytical challenges. In short, first order of business, Chacko will
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tell you, is to dispel the notion that, because management and marketing as professions require the cultivation of so-called “soft” skills, their study in the university must necessarily be “soft” as well. “People think management is ‘common sense,’” Chacko says; “it’s ‘soft’ and anyone can do it. I don’t think that’s the case. There is theory and research behind it. We need to understand certain things. “If management were common sense,” he adds, “then every organization should be clicking. Every organization should be functioning exceptionally well.” That’s a refrain Jim McElroy, Raisbeck Professor in Business and university professor of management, has heard ad nauseam over the course of more than 30 years of teaching. “Yeah, a lot of students view management as ‘common sense’,” McElroy chuckles. “And then they get into my class and wonder, ‘Why is this class so hard? It’s just common sense!’ But it’s not common sense. If it were just common sense,” he adds, echoing Chacko, “then why do we have so many crappy managers?” More than a set of specific skills based on concrete knowledge and historical practice, McElroy says, management is a “way of thinking.” But that begs the question: How do you teach people to think? Especially 19-year-olds whose brains, according to neuroscientists, literally are not
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TOUGH ENOUGH
JIM McELROY, THE RAISBECK PROFESSOR IN BUSINESS AND UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT. HE SUGGESTS ONLY ALLOWING MANAGEMENT STUDIES FOR UNDERGRADUATES ONLY AS A SECOND MAJOR OR A MINOR.
yet fully formed enough to exercise the self-restraint, self-criticism, and judgmental capabilities—call them “soft skills,” if you wish—that are the cornerstone of sound management practice?
(ACADEMIC) FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION While admitting that his own field has faced some of the same criticisms as management regarding standards and curriculum, Stafford Fellow in Business and Professor of Marketing Russ Laczniak believes marketing has evolved to enjoy advantages not available to his colleagues in the management department. Laczniak feels that, as an academic discipline, marketing has better defined practices and competencies that can effectively be taught to young minds not yet mature enough to fully absorb the subtler principles of management “philosophy” typically addressed by MBA programs. These competencies,
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moreover, match up better to actual communications minor might help a entry-level positions for undergradmarketer land a job in promotions. uates than the more theoretical “That can distinguish you in the approaches of management studies. job market,” Laczniak says, “so “What a business does is more that an employer can say, ‘This applied than what we do as academic person knows what they want to marketers.” Laczniak concedes. “But do; they’re really prepared.’” what we do is probably way more applied than what somebody in ‘THE WORST basic psychology or sociology or U N D E R G R A D U AT E M A J O R ’ anthropology is doing in terms of Jim McElroy would take Laczniak’s theory development.” recommendation even further: rather Or, for that matter, management. than simply encourage students to “What does ‘management’ take on another subject to complemean?” Laczniak asks. “Managing ment their management majors, people? An organization? Sure, we he suggests allowing management can teach marketing as a ‘philosostudies at the undergraduate level phy’. But there are functional areas only as a minor or second major to of marketing. a more “marketable” degree. “How do people come up with “I tell my kids that management is ideas to create new products?” the worst undergraduate major you Laczniak continues. “We can can have,” McElroy says, train students in that. How “but it’s the best second It’s not common do you get it to market? major or minor. There’s no sense. If it were There’s promotion, advertisjob called ‘management.’ just common sense, then why ing—and we can teach that. It’s management of somedo we have so How do you price the prodthing: marketing manager many crappy uct so the customer will buy or audit manager— managers? it, but at the same time the something functional J I M M cE L R OY company makes a profit? associated with it. To just Again, that’s a function we have a management major can teach.” leaves you vulnerable.” That’s not to say, Laczniak adds, Many students declare managethat young people choosing marketment majors, McElroy believes, ing majors would not benefit from simply because they want a general additional studies to enhance their “business” degree—which Iowa own marketability with prospective State does not offer—and so they employers. A double major or minor look to management as a field in in economics, he notes, would which they can get a general expoburnish a candidate’s résumé as sure to business principles, if not a potential market analyst; or a practices. That has value, McElroy
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TOUGH ENOUGH
BETTER STUDENTS? or T O U G H E R MAJORS? HERE’S A CONUNDRUM for you: are undergrads majoring in finance and accounting better students? Or are marketing and management tougher majors? Those questions aren’t as naïve as you might think. In the College of Business’ two most heavily enrolled majors last year, 62.4 percent of finance majors and 61.4 percent of accounting majors scored overall GPAs of 3.0 or higher, according to data from the college’s Undergraduate Programs Office. By contrast, only 50.8 percent of marketing and 45.6 percent of management majors met or beat a 3.0. At first glance, you might assume that future financiers and accountants had it all over aspiring marketers and managers. But here’s a curve ball: those GMAT-slaying supply chain mavens (a 578 mean score) place only about 50 percent of majors at 3.0 or better, and the sub-group of supply chain management reports less than 40 percent—GPAs comparable to marketing and management. So, better students? Or tougher majors?
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concedes—but not in lieu of practiments.” He adds, “I got to know cal skills, especially in today’s everybody in both of my classes hyper-competitive hiring market. last semester.” And, he admits, in addition to stars and standouts, the major D E V I L I S H LY D I F F I C U LT tends to attract not only students PROFESSORS who are less focused than their But though faculty like McElroy, peers in accounting or management Laczniak, and Chacko may now information systems but also those have the resources to give students who are less motivated as well. more attention individually, does “The good students we have in that translate into increased acamanagement are as good as they’ve demic rigor—and, by extension, ever been,” McElroy insists. “I do better preparation for a tough job think, however, there are fewer of market in these “soft” disciplines? them. I think the distribution is McElroy would tell you that, even skewed a little bit to the lower end in a lecture course of 300, his stuof the scale, and I think it’s a funcdents never viewed him as “easy”— tion of effort, not ability—they just and he has the evaluations to prove don’t work as hard as they used to.” it. Characteristic, he says, are his One reason for that, both numbers on RateMyProfessors.com, Chacko and McElroy acknowledge, an Internet bulletin board where is a question of resources: students can offer opinions I tell my kids with class sections as large and ratings for their profesthat manageas 300, management prosors. While his “overall ment is the fessors have little time to quality” is 3.1 on a fiveworst undergive students the individual point scale that includes graduate major attention they might need, “helpfulness” and “clarity,” you can have, if not desire. Yet with the McElroy’s “easiness” rating but it’s the best recent adoption of differencomes in at a GPA-withering second major or tial tuition, the College of 1.6—no springtime walk minor. There’s Business has been able to across central campus. no job called hire additional faculty to “Reading all the negative ‘management.’ the point where, today, reviews about him,” one rater It’s management class sizes have been opines, “you would think he of something. reduced to 50 and 60 was the devil, but that is far J I M M c E L R OY students per section— from the case. The class is and that can make a not easy, but if you respect it world of difference. and do the readings and keep up, “In a big class, I tended to do you’ll do fine. I overall liked the guy, group assignments,” says McElroy. thought he was interesting and was “Now, I’ll do more individual assignpassionate about the subject.”
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TOUGH ENOUGH
RUSS LACZNIAK, THE JOHN AND CONNIE STAFFORD FELLOW IN BUSINESS AND PROFESSOR OF MARKETING, SAYS THAT WHILE MARKETING HAS DEFINED PRACTICES AND COMPETENCIES THAT EQUIP STUDENTS FOR THE REAL WORLD, EVEN MARKETING MAJORS WOULD BENEFIT FROM A DOUBLE MAJOR OR COMPLEMENTARY MINOR.
McElroy does not disagree, and concedes that whatever perceptions his students have of him are based, at least in part, on his approach to the subject. “I‘ve made it more rigorous,” he acknowledges. “I think that’s why I’m viewed as ‘tough.’”
C H A L L E N G I N G YO U T H F U L MISPERCEPTION Just like finance or supply chain, though, a rigorous approach to management only underscores the inherent difficulty of the subject, especially for younger learners. Management concepts are challenging, McElroy says, because they are often abstract, and individuals with little work or life experience lack the context to understand them in depth. “The idea that there’s an environment out there that affects organizations is very abstract to a 19- or 20-year-old kid,” McElroy says. “They don’t understand that not only do people make choices, organizations make choices—
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and the choices they make come back either to haunt them or help them. That’s a complex thought process for a 19-year-old.” By contrast, McElroy offers, his colleagues in the marketing side of the department have pretty much the opposite challenge: it’s not that their subject is “abstract,” but instead that it may require much more precision than students anticipated. “Russ Laczniak is viewed as ‘tough’ because his course is mathematical, and people who gravitate to marketing tend not to be as adept mathematically,” McElroy observes. “If you’ve got a real sound foundation in math, you tend to go into accounting and finance.” For his part, Laczniak, like McElroy, downplays his personal “toughness”—his RateMyProfessor difficulty factor is a relatively benign 3.4 out of 5—but does not deny that his students appreciate the rigor of his subject. “I don’t know that I’m ‘tough,’” Laczniak says, “but I think that my course content is hard. Often students think decisions in the real world are made on the basis of instinct or gut feelings, and we introduce them to the notion of data—what good data is and how to analyze that data in such a way as to be able to make an informed decision. “To some of them, that’s so new and different that it’s hard,” he adds. “It’s not that I’m hard!”
LOOKING FOR BRAIN POWER Despite the more candid opinions of senior faculty in the college, there is no indication that faculty or administrators are prepared to limit the study of management, let alone marketing, to minors or second majors only. Both fields have long established their academic bona fides, and there are any number of students majoring in one or the other discipline who shine both in and outside of the classroom. For while disciplines that are less rigidly “structured” than accounting, finance, and MIS might attract the unmotivated and unfocused, they also hold great appeal for the very best students—those who are creative and driven, whose minds seek ever greater challenges to prove their mettle. “What employers are looking for is brain power,” Chacko reminds. “Give me somebody who is excited and involved and can do these big things. We can train them in the nitty-gritty of our business.” That’s a sentiment shared by Chacko’s colleague. “After the first job, it really doesn’t matter what you majored in,” McElroy says. “Sure, some companies have a filter—if John Deere comes here, they’re looking for operations or logistics folks, not marketing people. But for internships and stuff like that? They’re looking for good people who are interested in what they’re doing.” ■
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W H AT D O E M P L OY E R S WA N T ? What employers really want are legions of applicants like the two recent ISU grads profiled in this story. What they must settle for is, often, something a little short of that.
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hat do employers really want? That question may seem disarmingly naïve, but the answer isn’t as obvious as you might think. And knowledgeable people don’t always come to the same answer— even employers. As Tom Chacko noted (see the previous story, “Tough Enough”), often employers simply want the best raw brain power they can find, and favor that over particular “skill sets” they feel most new hires can acquire on the job. Yet students are
nonetheless well advised to come to that screening interview with skills and knowledge in accounting, finance, MIS, or whatever other “hard” discipline a hiring manager needs to fill a particular slot. In other words, for most positions, marketing and management majors need not apply.
A LUNCH-MONEY ENTREPRENEUR Brian Gualillo didn’t get that memo. A marketing major with a manBRIAN GUALILLO’S UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE FEATURED MULTIPLE INTERNSHIPS BEFORE ULTIMATELY LANDING IN PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL GROUP’S LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT ROTATION. agement minor, Gualillo’s academic pedigree would seem the kiss of death in a hyper-competitive job secret to Gualillo’s success in summer internship with Apple, market that presumably favors hard competing for the job? Gualillo first in Cupertino, then back in the skills. But Gualillo, who graduated leans back in his chair and thinks Midwest after his sophomore year, in May, isn’t holed up in his parabout it for a minute. pushing the computer maker’s eduents’ basement trolling the online “Yeah,” he responds, “I had ‘soft’ cational products to universities. He job boards. Instead, he occupies majors. But I had hard experience.” managed to cram an IT management one of only four slots awarded And that experience didn’t begin internship with commodities giant annually in the Principal Financial when he came to Iowa State, but Cargill in between the Apple gigs, Group’s elite Leadership extended back into his childhood. A then an internship with Principal Development Rotation born entrepreneur, Gualillo after his junior year at Iowa State. (LDR), a program in which displayed his enterprising But it wasn’t just grades and I had ‘soft’ the crème-de-la-crème of bona fides early—and often. aggressive interning that sold majors. But recent college graduates “I knew I wanted to Principal on Brian Gualillo. I had hard spend three years getting make money from a young Equally important were those experience. in-depth exposure in up to age,” he recalls. “So I set up “soft” skills companies look for BRIAN GUALILLO six different key areas of this little shop and sold my in future leaders. Communications Principal’s business—HR to toys back to my parents. savvy, relationship building, IT to real estate to international Then when I was in third grade, I networking, and community investments and more. sold candy on the school bus, makinvolvement—more than résumé It’s no secret that the LDR ing more money than I should, takpuffery, these were the qualities was instituted to groom future ing kids’ lunch money.” that formed the foundation of managers—even top executives— By the time he finished his freshGualillo’s relationship with his for Principal. So what was the man year, Gualillo had landed a future employer.
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WHAT DO EMPLOYERS WANT?
ALYSSA VOGEL IS ALSO IN PRINCIPAL’S LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT ROTATION. AT IOWA STATE, SHE MAJORED IN FINANCE AND TOOK ON THREE MINORS.
DISTINCTION OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM Josh Ingalls heads the campus recruiting operation for Principal. With a bachelor’s and a master’s in psychology from Northern Iowa, Ingalls is himself a poster child for the value of “soft” skills to an organization, branding Principal in the company’s “feeder” universities and colleges, building relationships with business programs in those schools, and cultivating top talent for the Principal’s internship programs, among other duties. “Hard” skills have their place in the general hiring scheme, Ingalls concedes. But that’s not his focus. “We look for situations where people have differentiated themselves through student organizations and other activities where they’re not required to be in class,” Ingalls stresses. “They’re not paying
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to be there, but they took time after nical” proficiency in a particular class to be at this certain activity. area. Relatively few have the sheer “What we found,” he continues, drive and determination of a Brian “is that self-selection into some of Gualillo, and those students are those activities helps us filter the well advised to burnish their students who are most engaged in credentials with some level of their educations and in pursuing technical expertise. professional opportunities.” Even Ingalls acknowledges that That sense of engagement 99 percent of Principal’s hiring is was evident to Ingalls the first position-based. “Generally, the time he met Gualillo—as a firsttechnical skills get you in the ball semester freshman in the college’s game,” Ingalls says. “If you don’t Gerdin Citizenship Program, an have a certain level of technical extracurricular opportunity Ingalls proficiency—if you can’t talk the tags for early identification of top talk—you don’t have a chance to students who go the extra mile differentiate yourself with your in their educations. soft skills.” “Brian was presenting a poster about the impact of C U LT I VAT I N G C O R P O R AT E Wal-Mart on local busi‘CITIZENSHIP’ We look for situations nesses and entrepreneurs,” Alyssa Vogel, another where people Ingalls recalls. “I was judgspring graduate of the have differentiing the poster competition, College of Business, is ated themselves and I challenged Brian as Gualillo’s teammate in the through student Principal LDR. And while it hard as I could. The thing I organizations noticed was that he stayed may seem remarkable that and other convicted to his cause—he ISU grads would grab two activities where didn’t waver because someof the four LDR slots in a they’re not body was saying, ‘I disagree single year, it’s not surprisrequired to be with that, and I’m from a ing when you consider that, in class. big company.’” like Gualillo, Vogel is herJOSH INGALLS That early first self a product of the Gerdin impression—a “soft” Citizenship Program. encounter—made an impact “It sounded like a really great on Ingalls that carried through opportunity just to help me become the years of his relationship with more well rounded,” says Vogel, Gualillo. But that’s not to downplay who herself first met Ingalls at a the importance of “hard” or “techGCP poster presentation. And
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though she never interned at Principal, she feels that early contact kept her on the company’s radar—and Principal on hers. “I think it was beneficial for Principal to do that,” Vogel adds, “I think it said a lot that someone would come to meet us and ask us questions about our presentations.” Unlike Gualillo, Vogel’s choice of major was admittedly influenced by external factors, particularly the difficult job market in the wake of the 2008 recession. Yet her decision to pursue a finance major didn’t constrain her in the least when it came to distinguishing herself academically: not only did she also major in international business, she minored in Spanish, psychology, and accounting. For Vogel, that diverse exposure both in and outside the classroom made her an appealing candidate for hiring managers. But it was her specific subject expertise in finance and accounting that landed her a coveted six-month co-op with IBM in Rochester, Minnesota, over spring semester of her junior year. “My accounting coursework was very valuable to me in that, even though it was a finance position,” she stresses. Vogel served as an analyst in IBM’s financial services sector, managing contracts that clients outsourced to IBM. She forecast monthly revenues
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and costs, as well as analyzaerospace and defense I really want ing and adjusting for discrepcontractor Rockwell them to be ancies between forecasts and Collins. And while successful, so performance for previous polished plums like I want them months. In addition, she took Gualillo and Vogel to understand the initiative to author a occasionally drop into her some of those training manual to help her lap, Marshall finds that for barriers—how replacement hit the ground many the shift from college to write an running in the job. to corporate campus requires appropriate “In hindsight, I’m really intensive mentoring. business glad it was six months,” “It can be a shock,” etiquette email, Vogel says, “because that Marshall says. “Rockwell for example. gave me an opportunity Collins can be a conservaRHIANNON M A R S H A L L to get a really good undertive company—half our standing of my area. I think business is government— if you do just a three-month so obviously we have a lot position, about the time you’re of policies and procedures in place, leaving is when you really begin to and they have to be followed.” understand what you’re doing.” Many younger employees, Marshall says, might not appreciate P R E PA R I N G F O R the reasons for established procedures ‘ C U LT U R E S H O C K ’ and protocols at Rockwell, or might Another advantage to internships be tempted to use their technology in general—and extended co-ops skills to circumvent formal like Vogel’s in particular—is the communication channels within opportunity to immerse one’s self the company—she cites the example in the corporate environment and of new engineering interns instant its particular culture, which many messaging the company CEO to students soon discover to be far invite him to a happy hour after more demanding, not to mention work. So, she says, the company finds conservative, than their classroom it helpful to offer seminars on busiexposure to business at Iowa State. ness etiquette to acquaint interns Like Josh Ingalls at Principal, with the company’s hierarchy. Rhiannon Marshall serves as a “I really want them to be succampus recruiter with a handful cessful,” Marshall says, “so I want of select schools in Iowa and them to understand some of those North Carolina for the finance barriers—how to write an appropriate arm of Cedar Rapids-based business etiquette email, for example.
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Some students don’t necessarily get that kind of formalized training in school, and it’s a trial by fire when they JOSH INGALLS first start.” The Rockwell internship, Marshall says, is effectively a “twelve-week interview process” during which interns are continually evaluated not merely on their technical abilities in finance or accounting, but at least as important in their soft skills: communication and presentation, critical thinking, teamwork, and the ability to adapt to the company’s culture. “I can tell you, we’ve interviewed a lot of 4.0 or 3.9 candidates in our day,” Marshall says, “and that’s what gets them through the initial process. But if they go through the interview process and it just doesn’t appear their social skills would allow them to be successful at Rockwell, we don’t pass them through; we don’t make the hire.” Those accounting and finance candidates wishing to be considered for full-time Rockwell employment, Marshall says, go through a round-robin process near the end of the internship during which they must sit for six different interviews. “We have a saying,” she adds: “‘no compromises.’ And if there’s one person raising a red flag the rest
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agree is valid, then it’s a no go. That’s how seriously we take it.”
Even with the smaller class sizes enabled by differential tuition, the ability of ISU business faculty to offer ‘I AM MR. SOFT SKILLS’ students those extra opportunities is Those tough standards demand limited. That places the burden just as serious an approach to the squarely on the shoulders of studevelopment of soft skills that dents to take responsibility for their Vogel and Gualillo took through own career development, and to their participation in the Gerdin avail themselves of the resources Citizenship Program and other the college offers outside the classopportunities outside of the room, whether through business classroom at Iowa State. fraternities, the Gerdin Citizenship “I think the business Program—or even regular If you teach the culture skills are the most visits to the college’s technical skills, important,” Josh Ingalls Communications you’re going reminds. “Most of the peoCenter to work on to be in the ple we hire at Principal can their written and oral ball game as a speak clearly—intellectucommunication skills. university. But ally, they understand the “If you teach the technithere are schools points they’re trying to cal skills, you’re going to where the stumake. But it’s the politics; be in the ball game as a dents come it’s understanding their university,” Ingalls says. here and they audience they don’t have “But there are schools where do understand as strong of a grasp of, and the students come here and those politics that’s hard to teach in an and the business they do understand those academic setting.” politics and the business culculture better. “Most new hires I speak ture better. You can see the JOSH INGALLS with say that, for the foundifference with the attitude dations of their discipline, and the ability to navigate their schools have prepared them the political environment of the well,” Marshall adds. “But they business situation.” mention that in a lot of classes their Brian Gualillo knows where professors don’t provide them opporIngalls is coming from because tunities to present—to not only he came from just such a school. understand the problem, but to “I am Mr. Soft Skills,” Gualillo explain it to someone else. And says with a smile. “But I made it that’s where you get the extra work for myself.” ■ understanding of an issue.”
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LEARNING THE POWER OF A POLISHED P R E S E N TAT I O N While writing may lie at the center of a multi-modal universe of communications, the Gerdin Communication Center strives to polish students’ “soft skills” skills in all areas.
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f Sue Ravenscroft had her way, every prospective business student would enjoy the benefit of a rigorous education in the liberal arts before they even set foot in Gerdin Business Building. They would be exposed to a wealth of disciplines and a breadth of ideas beyond the business curriculum. They would polish their analytical skills and sharpen their critical thinking. And they would do this largely by writing as much in one year of liberal arts studies as
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they’re likely to do over their entire undergraduate careers as business majors at Iowa State. That was unlikely even in good times; in today’s straitened economy and strained budgetary environment, it’s even less of a possibility. “In an ideal world, everybody would have a liberal arts background,” Ravenscroft offers. “This is what rich people do: they send their kids to liberal arts colleges, and then they go to professional or grad schools.
“It’s because they think it’s better,” she states, then adds, “and it probably is.” The fact is that at large, publicly funded schools like Iowa State, the vast majority of students will never go beyond undergraduate studies to seek professional or graduate degrees. Instead, they major in “practical” fields like engineering, agriculture, and, yes, business disciplines that afford them a wealth of knowledge but comparatively few opportunities to hone
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SUE RAVENSCROFT, THE ROGER P. MURPHY PROFESSOR OF ACCOUNTING, WAS AN EARLY PROPONENT OF DEVELOPING THE COLLEGE’S COMMUNICATIONS OFFERINGS FOR STUDENTS.
the kinds of “soft” skills—especially communications—that can take them beyond that knowledge to a world of leadership opportunities that might otherwise be closed to them. But that’s hardly an insurmountable barrier. For while any number of ISU business majors have a natural talent for communications, others may need help. And today, help is just a mouse click away to schedule an appointment with the college’s Communication Center.
S O F T S K I L L S ‘A H A R D S E L L’ Though herself a lifelong reader and writer—she was a philosophy major as an undergraduate— Ravenscroft became more deeply involved with developing a communications program for the College of Business in 2005, after the ISU Department of English’s ISUComm program identified accounting as one of several academic programs at Iowa State whose students might benefit from a stronger exposure to communications training.
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Working with Brian Hentz, a the attention of Foundation officers grad student in rhetoric, Ravenscroft was little easier than enlisting overlanded a Miller Grant to fund Hentz’s burdened faculty members. It was work with faculty from other businot until Ravenscroft found a chamness departments to develop writing pion in former Associate Dean Kay assignments and guidelines for evaluPalan that, in 2005, the College of ation. Still, getting other faculty to Business Communication Center commit their time was a hard sell. was finally born. “That’s one of the first things faculty raise,” Ravenscroft says, “‘we don’t have time to do all that F R O M R E M E D I AT I O N grading.’ And it is time consuming. TO PROFICIENCY If you’re grading thirty-some Director Abhi Rao wasn’t there for memos, even if you tell them to the birth of the Communication keep it to one page, that’s a huge Center—he had just begun working amount of time.” on his PhD in rhetoric and profes Undaunted, Ravenscroft raised sional communication in 2005. But the possibility of funding a he got his feet wet tutoring in the Communication Center at the colwriting center at North Dakota State lege as a resource to supplement University, where he had finished a regular classroom instruction. master’s degree in literature, and had She would make her pitch for a been on a graduate assistantship with stronger communications compoISUComm when, in 2008, Kay Palan nent in the curriculum at Dean’s offered him a similar opportunity Advisory Council meetings and to with the College of Business. alumni on departmental “I was looking for a advisory boards. research project for my disRavenscroft “I kept getting on the sertation,” Rao recalls, “and would make program and talking about I was interested in writing her pitch for a how important writing center work. By then, I had stronger comwas, and that we should worked in writing centers munications have a writing center,” component in the for about four or five years. Ravenscroft recalls. “Every I heard about this curriculum at time we talked to alums, Communication Center that Dean’s Advisory they loved the idea. They Council meetings was discipline-specific. So I and to departthought students they just wanted to get a feel for mental advisory were hiring were not what it was like to work in boards. sufficiently prepared. a business center.” “And,” she adds, “some The first writing centers thought they themselves began in the 1930s and ’40s, were not well prepared.” becoming a mainstay on American But with so many other demands campuses after World War II, when on the college’s resources, getting millions of returning GIs—most of
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them first-generation colmore—is a mission the journals in any sense,” Ravenscroft We’re not here lege students—began floodcollege’s Communication observes. “We have our own little to ‘correct’ the ing newly expanded public Center shares with language, and you could come writing but to colleges and universities. ISUComm’s campus-wide along if you were trained as an make people Those early centers, Rao efforts. But the college’s focus, accountant and understand what independent acknowledges, were largely he stresses, is discipline spehappened in a company. writers. remedial in focus; students cific as well. Indeed, not only “Everybody else uses English or ABHI RAO whose writing skills simply does the center concentrate numbers in conventional ways,” weren’t considered “college on business communication, she continues, “but accountants level” often were required it strives to address the paruse them in ways for which you by instructors to visit the centers for ticular communication demands of have to learn the ‘grammar’ of one-on-one tutoring sessions until specific professions within the larger accounting. So that puts a bigger they could express themselves business world. obligation on us to understand the coherently and grammatically “We’re in the business discilanguage of accounting, and how to on paper. pline,” Rao notes, “so we work convey that to non-accountants.” That changed significantly in the with accounting students—a lot of 1980s, however, when faculty and accounting students, actually. I was C O M M U N I C AT I N G A C R O S S writing center staffs shifted from surprised when I started working A ‘ M U LT I - M O D A L’ U N I V E R S E remediation to a more developmenhere: almost 40 percent of our But it’s not just the particular needs tal focus for people at any and all clientele are accounting students.” of specific business disciplines such skill levels. “Today,” Rao observes, Coming from a humanities as accounting that distinguish the “we’re not here to ‘correct’ the background, Rao says, the “language” Communication Center in the Gerdin writing but to make people of accounting was virtually a Business Building from independent writers.” foreign tongue to him. the mission of a general When people And it’s not just writing: from Indeed, he acknowledges university “writing center.” talk about comthe development of the internet and immersing himself Business in general imposes munication in the near-universal availability of the in the basics of accounting a greater variety of demands the academic personal computer in the 1990s, to just so he could even start on communicators than disciplines, it’s the explosion of social media and to work with all of those other academic disciplines, very writing other mass-communication platforms aspiring accountants—many Rao notes: whereas 90 to intensive. But in the last decade, “writing centers” foreign-born themselves— 95 percent of students go workplace comhave rapidly evolved as resources who needed the tools to to ISUComm for help with munication is for students to polish their skills “translate” their arcane writing, he says, fully not writing in a host of media for which concepts from the jargon one-third of referrals to intensive anytoday’s business environment of accounting to standard the College of Business more; it’s very multi-modal. demands proficiency. business English. Communication Center That’s a challenge are for oral presentations ABHI RAO ACCOUNTING A Sue Ravenscroft can and other modes of FOREIGN TONGUE appreciate firsthand, communication. The development of skills across having worked both sides of “When people talk about what Rao calls a “multi-modal” the communications divide. communication in the academic communications universe—written, “When accountants do journal disciplines, it’s very writing intenspoken, electronic, visual, and entries, they’re not like reflective sive,” says Rao. “But workplace
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ABHI RAO WORKS TO UNDERSTAND VARIOUS DISCIPLINES IN BUSINESS AND THE UNIQUE COMMUNICATIONS CHALLENGES EACH DISCIPLINE PRESENTS.
communication is not writing intensive anymore; it’s very multi-modal.” Faculty in professional and business schools, Rao observes, appreciate better than most that students need the tools to give polished presentations in their business and professional lives after college. Rao and his staff therefore routinely work with students to hone the presentations they will make in class or in competitions. “We help students at two levels,” Rao says. “One is stylistic— delivery, which would include the way they use their voice, the tempo—some speak too fast, some too slow. We talk about eye contact. “A lot of students come in as a group and their transitions are usually off,” he continues. “You have one person speak and there will be an awkward pause, and there will be another person, ‘Oh! It’s my turn!’ So we talk about transitions from one speaker to another, how to do cross-referencing within their presentation.”
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The other form of assistance, Rao says, involves a critique of content. Is their presentation unified? Have they “contracted” or committed to their audience? Does the presentation actually cover the “contract?” How do they conclude? And what’s the takeaway? Using training labs with podiums, screens, and projectors, students are first videotaped and then critiqued in one-hour sessions. The sessions are then loaded onto a server so students can view them on the Web at their convenience, rework their presentations, and, if needed, schedule follow-up sessions for further review.
how well a potential hire presents him- or herself. “One reason a lot of students don’t come in is because they don’t feel they need help,” Rao laments. “It goes back to that remedial perception: ‘If I go into the center, it’s because there’s something wrong with me.’ So the communication we’re trying to get out there is that we’re not ‘remedial’—when you come to the center, basically you’re having a conversation. Every communicator needs a sounding board.” When you’re dealing with 3,200 students in a state-funded institution, Ravenscroft concedes, any number of them are content simply to get through their undergraduate ’ E V E RYO N E N E E D S curriculum with the least resistance A SOUNDING BOARD’ possible. Others, however, will Whether to develop writing, challenge themselves and their presentation, or other skills, the schools to go beyond the basics to benefits of enhanced communicagraduate as a “value-added packtions training for business students age,” ready to lead within their might seem obvious. But companies from the very even though the center start of their careers. I think at the scheduled 1,300 individual “The ones who move top of the ladder, student sessions in the up are the ones who can that’s part of spring 2011 semester, Rao communicate and motivate,” what schools feels that he and his staff Ravenscroft stresses, “at care about: can—and should—do least orally. And at some having a really much more. There are point, those people have polished graduate who can more than 3,200 underto write effectively.” speak well and graduates in the College That reflects not only write well. of Business, and whatever on the students, but also S U E R AV E N S C R O F T their skill level coming in, on the institutions that any of them can only beneproduce them. “I think at fit by taking their talents to the top of the ladder,” she the next level: grade points adds, “that’s part of what schools and technical skills are all well and care about: having a really polished good, but the critical difference for graduate who can speak well and employers often comes down to write well.” ■
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IF THERE IS ANY EXTRA PRESSURE ASSOCIATED WITH COACHING THE TEAM OF WHICH HE IS THE MOST BELOVED PLAYER OF THE LAST GENERATION—AND POSSIBLY IN ITS HISTORY—FRED HOIBERG WEARS IT WELL. HOIBERG (‘95 FINANCE) ASSUMED THE
A CHAT WITH
REINS OF THE IOWA STATE MEN’S
THE MAYOR FRED HOIBERG
BASKETBALL PROGRAM IN APRIL 2010 IN FRONT OF A FULL HOUSE AT THE JACOBSON ATHLETIC BUILDING, AND HE’S BEEN GIVING CYCLONE FANS PLENTY TO BE EXCITED ABOUT EVER SINCE.
H
oiberg spent 10 years in the National Basketball Association as a player before joining the front office of the Minnesota Timberwolves for four years. When former coach Greg McDermott moved on to Creighton University after the 2009– 2010 season, Hoiberg was Cyclone athletic director Jamie Pollard’s first call. In his first season as head coach, the Cyclones finished above .500 for the first time in four seasons, despite having only two returning players from the previous season.
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went to a lot of practices, and took a lot of notes. I feel very fortunate that I was put into that position right off the bat, right after I hung up my playing shoes. P You’ve talked about how, in your
initial meeting with Jamie Pollard, you laid out your plan for the program. When did you start thinking about that and what does it entail?
in the Big 12 Conference, you have to have the athletes to do it. We got some very talented players through transfers that first summer. For one reason or another, it wasn’t the right fit for them and their previous schools. Our talent will be deeper for next year, but I am excited about our depth. Now we have to be mixing in some younger players with that older group, and we have done that. We are trying to build it the right way.
H Everything I had done up to that
Prospectus caught up with Coach Hoiberg to talk to him about his experience in coming back to Ames to coach his old team. At what point prior to your retirement from the NBA had you decided your career was going to be in basketball? PR O S P E C T U S
HO I B E R G As I got near the end of my career, I started thinking about what I was going to do after basketball. I thought I was going to play a long time, but my career was cut short due to my heart condition. The decision came quicker than I thought it was going to. I wanted to stay in basketball in some aspect. It just happened to be in the front office where I was offered a position right away, and it was a pretty good position with the Timberwolves. That was a great experience for me. I don’t think I was ready to get into coaching at that time. I learned a lot of things: went out and scouted a lot,
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point helped prepare me for when Jamie called. But when I got the call it was completely out of the blue. I was preparing for the draft with four first round picks. I had just got off the phone with a college coach doing a background check, and that is when Jamie called, explained the situation, and asked if I would be interested in talking about the job. I said absolutely. Jamie came up to my house the next day and we talked for several hours. I just laid out my vision for the program, what I thought I could bring to the table, and how I thought I could get Iowa State basketball to the top. I thought maybe I earned a second interview back on campus, but he laid a contract on my table right there. It’s a dream position for me. I have always wanted to get back to Ames, and it is a great community to grow up in. My dad is a professor at Iowa State, and my Mom is an elementary school teacher. So to get back here and to be back in front of the people who have always supported me so well, it is really a dream come true. P From a strategic standpoint, how
do you approach building a program and the team? H First thing, I wanted to bring in as
much talent as possible. To compete
P What goes on in a major college basketball program behind the scenes, the business aspect of the program, that fans don’t realize happens? H So much of it is putting these guys
on a schedule both on and off the court so they can be successful. One of the greatest accomplishments of my life was getting my degree at the College of Business at Iowa State, so I talk to the guys about how important it is to put themselves on track to get their degree. These guys responded, and they were awesome in the classroom in the last year. They set two all-time highs for GPA, and this last semester our team GPA was over 3.0. You’re not going to find many programs in the country that accomplish that feat. We had over eight guys over 3.0 and five guys over 3.5; I am very proud of our guys for that accomplishment. That shows that they take it seriously. P There have been some very highprofile compliance issues with other major college athletic programs. How do you as a coach ensure that your athletes are staying in compliance? H It is a daily thing that is part of the business. You talk to your staff and your players about doing things the
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right way and following the rules. There may be something out there that looks attractive that could bring immediate satisfaction, but you have to talk big picture: if they do it the right way, it will pay off in the long run and help set them up for the rest of their lives. P What does a modified Big 12 Conference do for Iowa State basketball? H The conference schedule will be as tough as any in the country. We play 18 league games now and that is the best competition in the country. There are no nights off now; you have to go out and be great in nonconference as you know when you start conference play it is going to be a fight every night. You have to take care of your home court, for sure. If you can do that and find a way to steal some wins on the road, it’s going to help set you up for postseason. P Reflect on your experiences in the College of Business, and talk about how academics impacted your recruitment back when you were a prospective student athlete. H I had some great schools looking at me. I took three college visits. I went to Stanford, which was very appealing, especially to my parents who are both educators. It was a pretty tough place to turn down when you have a school with that academic reputation offering you a scholarship. I then went to Arizona, another solid academic school with a great basketball program. Lute Olson was coaching at that time. And then Iowa State. I would put Iowa State up there with anyone. I am from here and grew up watching basketball, having
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a passion for Cyclone basketball as a kid, and knowing a lot of the professors here. I grew up with a lot of kids who had fathers and mothers who were professors at ISU. In the College of Business, I started in marketing and then changed my major to finance after I did an internship with a brokerage firm in Des Moines. It was a great experience for me and helped me graduate. The courses that I took at ISU—Rick Dark (chair of the accounting and finance departments) was my advisor—helped put me on track to get that degree in four years. I had a great experience. A couple of our recruits have been interested in business, so I have taken them over to the Gerdin Business Building. Sitting in that board room with Labh Hira and Mike Crum, talking about our experiences, is awesome. It’s a big time building and a great recruiting tool. P What do you think is different about coaching at ISU compared to another school you didn’t have a relationship with? H It is hard to say. My relationship with all the people in Ames and Iowa State University, my connections at Iowa State University, allowed me this opportunity. There are so many people who supported me in my time at ISU, and because of the people I wanted to be back in Ames. My kids love it here, and it just seems right. I loved everything about my first year and hopefully will be here for a long time. ■
PROSPECTUS
ONE OF THE GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF MY LIFE WAS GETTING MY DEGREE AT THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AT IOWA STATE, SO I TALK TO THE GUYS ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO PUT THEMSELVES ON TRACK TO GET THEIR DEGREE.
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B R I EFS
College of Business Graduate Program Ranked Among ‘Least Expensive’ The accolades keep coming for the College of Business’ graduate programs. Earlier this year, the full-time MBA program was ranked third nationally in job placement rates. Meanwhile, a team of MBA students placed first for the second consecutive year in the Big 12 MBA Case Competition. Now, the program has been cited for its value. In two separate rankings released in July, U.S. News & World Report ranked the College of Business third in its list of least-expensive public graduate programs for in-state students, and fifth in its list of least-expensive public graduate programs for out-of-state students. The magazine reports that average tuition and required fees for in-state graduate students at ISU's College of Business was $8,009 in 2010–11, and $19,437 for out-of-state students. The figures used in the rankings don't include room and board, books, and other miscellaneous costs.
“We're happy to have earned this recognition from U.S. News & World Report,” said Labh Hira, the Raisbeck Endowed Dean of College of Business at Iowa State. “Even in very tough economic times, we work hard to keep the cost of our graduate programs affordable and accessible to as many students as possible.” U.S. News surveyed more than 400 schools for its 2010 survey of business programs. Schools self-reported data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas. “This really validates the incredible value of a graduate business degree from Iowa State,” said Mike Crum, associate dean of graduate programs in the College of Business. “Given our program's high rankings, reasonable costs for in- and out-of-state students, and our job placement rate among the top five in the nation, we have a strong product to offer prospective students.” Learn more about the College of Business’ graduate-level programs at www.business. iastate.edu/masters. ■
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS’ RANKINGS ON THE RISE In the 2012 U.S. News & World Report
accredited graduate programs, and 35th
280 American universities (172 public,
rankings, the Iowa State University
among public universities. The part-time
101 private, and seven for-profit) that
College of Business undergraduate
MBA program was ranked 82nd out of
offer a broad range of undergraduate
program is ranked 46th among public
314 AACSB-accredited programs, and
majors, as well as master’s and
institutions, up from a tie for 50th one
44th among public universities.
doctoral degrees.
year ago. The College of Business
is tied for 81st among programs
among the top one-fourth of all public
cally among 86 national universities
accredited by AACSB International—
national universities in U.S. News &
identified as “A-Plus Schools for B
The Association to Advance Collegiate
World Report’s 2012 rankings. Iowa
Students,” described as those schools
Schools of Business. This ranking is
State tied for 44th among 172 best
“where non-superstars have a decent
up from 88th last year.
national public universities and
shot at being accepted and thriving.”
97th overall in the “Best National
The College of Business graduate
program ranked 69th out of 433 AACSB-
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Iowa State University remained
Iowa State also is listed alphabeti-
■
Universities” category, which includes
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B R I EFS
Student Investment Group Launched The Iowa State University Investment Group is off the ground. This new student organization’s purpose, as its mission statement says, is “to improve students’ understanding of the investment process and establish an annual stream of donations to the Iowa State University College of Business through actively managing an investment portfolio.” The group welcomes students of any major— not just finance or College of Business students— to learn more about the investment world. Group members research public companies and raise money to invest in the stock market. The group is currently comprised of about 25 members separated into six sectors, which are derived from the 10 sectors of Standard & Poor’s 500: industrial manufacturing, technology, consumer discretionary and consumer staples, energy, health care, and financials. Each sector has three to five members who actively research companies and report on their sector’s performance and
SECOND YOUNG WOMEN IN BUSINESS CONFERENCE HELD On Monday, October 3, the College of Business hosted its second Young Women In Business Conference in the Gerdin Business Building and the Memorial Union of the Iowa State University campus. Attendance skyrocketed this year with nearly 240 high school girls, teachers, and parents registered, up from around 70 registrants in 2010. Attendees heard from business students, professionals in the field, and College of Business faculty. This year, separate programming was added for teachers and parents.
Mark your calendars for the 2012 Young Women In Business
Conference, scheduled for Monday, October 1, 2012. Keep an eye on www.business.iastate.edu/events/ywib for more details as the conference schedule is announced.
potential companies in which to invest. The group meets weekly to discuss its progress. The group is advised by Rick Dark, chair of the departments of accounting and finance, and Travis Sapp, Dean’s Fellow in Finance. If you’re interested in learning more, visit www.stuorg.iastate.edu/investmentgroup or email isuinvestmentgroup@gmail.com. ■
ISU TEAM WINS KRAUSE CHALLENGE For the second year in a row, a team
of College of Business undergraduates
class or club, invests the money in the
from the Security Analysis and
in finance won the Krause Challenge,
stock market and continually reinvests
Portfolio Management class (FIN 425)
an investment challenge among Iowa
from year to year. The one stipulation
participate every semester. The
State, the University of Iowa, the
is that 10 percent of the total portfolio
students are coached on how to
University of Northern Iowa, and
has to be invested in Iowa-based
value equities, manage portfolios,
Drake University.
companies. Each school competes
and analyze financial statements
for the highest returns.
before implementing their plans to
W.A. Krause, Kum & Go founder and
re-invest the Krause Challenge funds.
chairman, provided a one-time gift of
return on investment in the 2010–2011
$400,000 to be divided equally among
academic year and now has a portfolio
the four institutions.
valued at $200,618.
The challenge started in 1998 when
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Each school, through a finance
Iowa State had a 36.95 percent
PROSPECTUS
Up to 20 Iowa State students
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A LUM NI NEWS
College Honors Accomplished Alumni The College of Business honored four Iowa State alumni at the homecoming Honors and Awards Ceremony on October 21. There were three recipients of the Citation of Achievement Award, which honors distinguished alumni who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in life beyond the campus. There was also one recipient of the Russ and Ann Gerdin Award, honoring contributions to the college from non-business graduates.
David Kingland (’80 Industrial Administration) is president and chief executive officer of Kingland Systems Corporation, a technology services and outsourcing firm in Clear Lake, with facilities in Ames and Lake Mills. An innovator throughout his career, he founded the firm in 1992 to help national banks enter the retail brokerage business by providing compliance and trading systems to support geographically dispersed operations. Over the last eight years, Kingland Systems has employed over 1,200 Iowa State students at its Ames operation.
C I TAT I O N O F A C H I E V E M E N T A W A R D S
R U S S A N D A N N G E R D I N AWA R D
Eric Crowell (’80 Industrial Administration) is the president and chief executive officer of Iowa Health—Des Moines. His organization is the parent for four major hospitals in central Iowa: Iowa Methodist, Iowa Lutheran, Blank Children’s Hospital, and Methodist West, which Crowell helped complete in 2009. He also led the development of the surgical robotics program at Iowa Health— Des Moines.
Cora Wortman of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is a dedicated supporter of the College of Business. Her husband, Max S. Wortman, was a highly accomplished and Distinguished Professor of Management who passed away in 2005 at age 72, hours after teaching an evening course. Cora and their children, son Kirk and daughter Sara Demyanovich, honored him by establishing the Max S. Wortman Jr. Endowed Professorship to help faculty advance Max’s ideals for generations to come. ■
Jerald Dittmer (’80 Industrial Administration) is the executive vice president of HNI Corporation and president, The HON Company, a role he has held since 2008. Headquartered in Muscatine, The HNI Corporation is the second-largest office furniture manufacturer in the world. The HON Company is North America’s leading provider of office furniture in the mid-market segment. Dittmer has held numerous roles at HNI Corporation throughout his career, including vice president with a number of HNI’s operating companies and chief financial officer.
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The ISU Alumni Association recognized College of Business alumna Abby Croll (‘02 accounting and finance) with its James A. Hopson Volunteer Award for early volunteer leadership in alumni-related activities among ISU alums ages 40 or younger. Croll was an inaugural member of the ISUAA’s Young Alumni Council and spent one year as the Council’s vice chair for programming. She frequently speaks to current and prospective ISU students and mentors ISU accounting students. She is a tax manager with Roth & Company in Des Moines.
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FA C ULTY A ND STA FF NEWS
Faculty and Staff News Marc Anderson was
newly created Ruan Chair in Supply
Karen Mallas,
promoted to associate
Chain Management on July 1, 2011.
secretary of departments of
professor with tenure to the Department of
Pol Herrmann,
Management.
associate professor in management,
accounting and finance, was inducted into the university’s 25-Year Club.
assumed the John
Jennifer Blackhurst, associate professor
and Deborah Ganoe
of supply chain
Professorship on July 1, 2011.
Sridhar Ramaswami, Director of the PhD Program and Dean’s
management, will be named the Walker
Qing Hu, chair of the
Faculty Fellow in Marketing, received
Professorship in Logistics and Supply
Department of Supply
Chain Management on January 1, 2012.
Chain and Information
the Regents Award for Faculty
Systems, assumed
Excellence at the Fall Convocation and
the Union Pacific
Awards Ceremony on September 26.
Mike Crum, associate dean of graduate
Professorship in Management and
programs and professor
Information Systems on July 1, 2011.
of supply chain management, assumed the
F A C U LT Y A N D S TA F F A W A R D S
The 2011 annual College of Business Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony was held in April. Honorees included: Karen Mallas, secretary for the
Terry Childers, Dean’s Chair in
Mark Peterson, director of graduate
Marketing, Senior Faculty
career services, Graduate Programs,
Research Award
P&S Student Impact Award
Fred Choobineh, adjunct instructor of
Richard Smith, senior lecturer of
information systems, Business Council
management, Non-Tenure Eligible
Teacher of the Year Award
Faculty Superior Service Award
Debbie Johnson, record analyst I
Brenda Thorbs-Weber, academic
for graduate programs, Merit Student
advisor/multicultural advisor, Business
Impact Award
Council Advisor of the Year Award
Department of Finance, Merit Superior Service Award Jennifer Blackhurst, associate professor of supply chain management, Junior Faculty Teaching Award
Julie Lelonek, assistant to the dean, P&S Superior Service Award
David Cantor, assistant professor of supply chain management, Junior
Frank Montabon, associate professor
Faculty Research Award
of supply chain management, Senior Faculty Teaching Award
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FA C ULTY A ND STA FF NEWS
New Faculty Hires Joey George, professor
University and previ-
and his master of
of information systems.
ously worked in the
science in industrial
George assumes the
hospital industry as a
and systems
college’s DeVries
hospital administrator.
engineering from
Endowed Chair in
His research interests
University of
Business. In his 26th year as a university
include empirical capital markets with
Wisconsin Madison in 2009.
professor, he came from Florida State
a focus on earnings management,
University. He earned his undergraduate
healthcare financial reporting, and
Manjul Gupta, management of
degree from Stanford University and his
voluntary disclosures.
information technology. He earned
PhD from the University of California at
his bachelor of engineering in
Irvine. His research interests include
Todd Thornock,
information sciences from JSS
deception in computer-mediated com-
assistant professor of
Academy of Technical Education
munication, information technology
accounting. He earned
in Bangalore, India in 2004 and has
that supports group collaboration,
his PhD in accounting
seven years of experience working
from the University of
in the information technology sector
systems analysis and design, and health information systems.
Texas at Austin. Expertise includes
for organizations such as John Deere
performance feedback, incentive
IVS, ITAGroup, Iowa Foundation for
Melvin A. Lamboy Ruiz, assistant
compensation, implicit contracts,
Medical Care, and HCL Technologies.
professor of accounting. He earned
and managerial control systems.
his PhD in accounting from Purdue DARK NAMED CHAIR OF ACCOUNTING AND F I N A N C E D E PA R T M E N T S Rick Dark, Dean’s
Peter Ralston, supply Wei Zhang, assistant
chain management. He
professor of marketing.
earned his bachelor of
He earned his PhD
science in marketing
in marketing from Carnegie Mellon
Professor in Finance,
University and subsequently worked
concentration in supply chain and oper-
has been named the
at McKinsey & Company, Amgen,
ations management from the University
chair of the depart-
Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Altus
of Alabama in 2007. Ralston comes to
ments of accounting
Pharmaceuticals in the field of market
ISU with industry experience gained
and finance in the College of Business.
analysis and research. He was also
while working as an operations man-
His term began on July 1, 2011, and runs
on the faculty at Long Island University.
ager for an office products wholesaler
through June 30, 2015. “I believe Rick
He has a BS and MS in chemistry from
in Chicago. His research interests
will be able to add substantial value to
Tsinghua University in Beijing and
include tactical logistical issues
the college as chair of accounting and
Kansas State University in Manhattan,
faced in supply chains along with
finance. His long tenure at Iowa State,
respectively. Expertise includes sales
the collaborative interface between
his administrative experience, and the
force management, pharmaceutical
supply chain partners.
respect he commands in the business
marketing, and e-commerce. Amy Siena, customer management.
community and among our alumni are
30
from Clemson University in 2003 and his MBA with a
truly an asset for this position,” said
NEW PHD STUDENTS
Earned her bachelor of science in
Labh Hira, Raisbeck Endowed Dean.
Saurabh Ambulkar, supply chain
both management and marketing from
Dark had served as the departments’
management. Earned his bachelor of
Canisius College in Buffalo in 2008 and
interim chair prior to earning the
engineering in industrial engineering
her master’s in business administration
position permanently.
from Nagpur University, India, in 2007
from the University at Buffalo in 2011.
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DEVELO PM ENT
After the Campaign Campaign Iowa State: With Pride and Purpose was launched in July 2003 and went public in October 2007. The $800 million goal was audacious, especially with questions arising around the stability and growth of the economy. Iowa State persevered and not only reached its goal, but surpassed it by raising more than $867 million. The impact of this eight year comprehensive campaign has been felt throughout the university and the College of Business. We’ve seen firsthand the great strides the college has made during this time. As we closed the campaign this past June 30, it was an opportunity to reflect on our progress. In the 2010–2011 academic year, the College of Business awarded 272 scholarships totaling more than $470,000. This is nearly double the number and amount awarded eight years ago. Another great achievement, and one of our top priorities, is our increase in the number of named faculty positions. Eight years ago, we had 11 named positions in our college. After the campaign, we now boast 27, with pledges and commitments for 14 more. Our success during Campaign Iowa State was made possible thanks to the philanthropic giving of our alumni and friends. We are extremely grateful for your support and the impact you have made on our college now and for years to come. To continue our growth and success, the priorities we identified in the campaign—student support, faculty development, and programmatic support—remain at the forefront. Student debt is at its highest level in history, making need-based scholarships more critical than ever to keep our students focused on their coursework and engagement on campus.
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Recruiting and retaining top-notch faculty is integral to the college’s success. Having more named faculty positions gives the college an advantage in keeping and recruiting in a very competitive industry. We must continue to develop and enhance programs that benefit our students, like the college’s Communication Center. These programs develop students’ skills and increase their marketability to potential employers. Your gift to help support these priorities ensures that the college can award more scholarships to deserving students, build a world-renowned faculty, and create programs that offer more learning opportunities for our students. With the end of the year approaching, it is a good time to think about your giving and the various vehicles through which to give. The IRA Charitable Rollover has been reinstated through 2011. This provision allows individuals aged 70½ and older to donate up to $100,000 from their IRAs to charities without having to count the distribution as taxable income. Generally, charitable deductions are limited to 50 percent of a donor’s adjusted gross income. By donating from your IRA, you can contribute beyond this limit without added consequences. You can help the College of Business and eliminate taxes on your Required Minimum Distribution. These gifts must be postmarked to the ISU Foundation no later than December 31, 2011. As always, we recommend that you consult your professional tax advisor. The next few pages list all of our donors from the previous fiscal year. We hope to add your name to this list in next fall’s Prospectus. Thank you. ■
Our success during Campaign Iowa State was made possible thanks to the philanthropic giving of our alumni and friends.
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DEVELO PM ENT
Annual Support for the College of Business The College of Business would like to thank our treasured alumni, friends, and corporate and foundation partners for their cash contributions
Craig and Virginia Petermeier Suku and Mary Radia Steve and Rose Ann Schuler Smith Family Foundation Bill Thompson Jill Wagner
during the academic year beginning July 1, 2010, and ending June 30, 2011. Their contributions demonstrate a commitment to ensuring that our students and faculty have the resources to grow in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Many additional donors have supported the College of Business during 2010–2011 and requested confidentiality for their gifts. Those gifts are not listed here. If you prefer your name not be published, please contact the ISU Foundation Alumni Records department at (515) 294-4656 or arecords@foundation.iastate.edu. For more information on how you or your company can support the College of Business, contact Melissa Phillips, senior director of development, at (866) 419-6768 or melissap@iastate.edu.
$5,000–$9,999 Mark and Julie Blake Rick and Veronica Dark Nancy Dittmer Dave and Kathleen Ecklund Curt Espeland Dan and Joanie Houston Madolyn Johnson Scott Johnson and Julia Lawler-Johnson Mike McBreen and Mickey Soukup Roger Murphy Paula Norby and Brian Enke Sue and Al Ravenscroft Tom and Ann Rice Neil Schraeder and Ruth Ward-Schraeder Javier Seymore Richard and Laurie Staky Scott Taylor Karen Terpstra Don and Trish Wolfe Mary Yuska
SUPPORT FROM ALUMNI AND FRIENDS $1 MILLION AND ABOVE Deborah and Jerry Ivy $500,000–$999,999 John and Mary Pappajohn $250,000–$499,999 Russell and Ann Gerdin Elizabeth Ruan $100,000–$249,999 Don and Marcia Bisenius John Cesinger Robert Cox $50,000–$99,999 Jim and Ann Frein Craig and Cheryl Hart John and Connie Stafford Dave and Marilyn Wolfe Cora Wortman
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$25,000–$49,999 Dave and Margaret Drury John and Debbie Ganoe Bill and Liz Goodwin Cara and Kurt Heiden Dave and Deb Kingland Al and Sue Landon Gary and Margaret Pint Randy and Julie Richardson Steve and Becky Smith Bob and Jane Sturgeon Bill Varner $10,000–$24,999 Keith and Sheri Bandle Ron and Engra Banse Greg and Terri Churchill Jerry and Cindy Dittmer Ralph and Jean Eucher Mark and Pam Fisher John and Rebecca Hsu Bill Kalm and Raedene Keeton-Kalm Frank and Marcia Parrish
$2,500–$4,999 Jim and Debra Auen Dodie Boat Mike Bootsma Tammy and Jeff Brady Jamie Constantine Arnold and Christine Anne Cowan Mike and Sue Crum Greg and Brenda Cushing Steve and Phyllis Dapper Jack and Wendy Duston Alexandra Goddard Dave and Nancy Halfpap Chuck and Mary Handy Lorene Hoover Al and Kathy Kockler Mark and Laurie Miller James and Virginia Owens Chris and Sondra Paskach
Bob Probasco and Peggy Gitt Dave and Ellen Raisbeck Joanne and Lane Reeves Dale and Kelly Renner Cameron and Cassie Schmitt Mark Stoering and Deanna Elliott-Stoering Dan and Jill Stevenson Kim Wright $1,000–$2,499 Darold Anderson Kelley and Joan Bergstrom Steve and Debbie Bergstrom Gail and Janeen Boliver Michael and Mary Ann Carlson John and Barbara Dalhoff Richard Deblieck Howard and Dee Dicke David and Jane Dirks Mike and Michelle Fliehe Beth Ford and Jill Schurtz Kent and Joy Green Brian and Paige Hamilton John and Joanna Hamilton Richard Hanna Craig Hansen and Judy Ralston-Hansen Dermot and Caroline Hayes Jeffrey and Cynthia Heemstra Steve and Leona Holaday Thomas and Ellen Howe Lisa Kerndt Tim and Jolene Kneeland Teresa and Chris Lapinskie Robert and Karla Larsen Gene and Janet Larson Joel and Karen Longtin Craig and Beth Marrs Bob and Judy McLaughlin John Mertes Randal and Kerry Miller Michael and Beverly Moeller Tom Mueller and Sherry Sunderman Dave and Robyn Reuter Allan and Diane Roderick Steve and Renee Schaaf George and Nancy Schnepf Larry and Sheryl Scott Gary and Susan Streit John and Jennifer Streit
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Ken and Jan Thome Jeff and Mary Jo VerHeul Jonathan and Gail Ware Stanley and Jean Warren Greg and Amy Whittemore Scott and Judith Wilgenbusch George and SueAnn Williamson Brian and Carol Worth Eric and Barbara Zarnikow $500–$999 William and Susan Adams Eric and Paula Almquist Lynn and Diane Anderson Rick and Sonia Arnold Keith and Larabeth Bader Belinda Bathie Dave and Susan Bolte Anthony and Nancy Bowe Keith and Amy Bruening Daniel Buffington Richard and Jennie Carlson Elizabeth and Jeffrey Cosner Ajay and Priya Desai Lisa and Antonio Dias Nancy Dop Daniel and Linda Eklund Lonnie and JoEllen Elliott Joel and Kristie Elmquist James and Linda Graham George and Pauline Grovert Kevin and Elizabeth Grozis Don Haugo and Patricia Walsh Jennifer and Carl Hensley Katy and Quinn Hildman Douglas Irwin Dean Jones and Larissa Holtmyer Jones Dwayne and Daphne Jose David and Brenda Keith Patrick and Lisa Kirchner Kevin and Denise Kreb Constance and Arthur Krelle Dan and Sharon Krieger Hubert and Judith Lattan Jon and Sharyl Leinen John and Lisa Leonard William Locke Mary and Richard Masching Jim and Julie McCulloh Ken and Kimberly McCully Doug McKechnie Barbara Miller Beth and Michael Mohar Stephanie Muzney Mosby Christine Muldoon Thomas and Lane Mumford Balan Nair and Joe Joe Chacko-Nair IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
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Lisa Neese Eric and Pamela Olson Travis and Angela Olson Karen Otto Clark and Nancy Parks Gary and Trudy Peterson Doug and Tina Ragaller Brenda Richmann Ray and Ray Scheve Ralph and Carol Scott Sally and Jason Selby Michael Shepherd Julie and Jim Snyder Jeffrey and Karen Steggerda Eugene and Kristin Valentine Jim Victor Tom Wilson Grace and Allen Wood Douglas and Susan Zubradt $250–$499 Becky and Andy Anderson Howard and Ann Anderson Scott and Kathryn Anderson Libby Balsiger Walter and Heidi Baskin Raymond and Joan Beebe Win and Gail Boyd Quent and Inez Boyken Douglas and Joan Carlson Thomas and Jill Catus Jay Chapman and Karen Heldt-Chapman Charles Clayton Joseph and Jane Cote Michael DeLio and Jill Witowski DeLio Bryan and Kathy Donaldson Sean and Kellyn Donnelly Marsha Dorhout Thomas and Barbara Dougherty Christopher and Deanna Drake John and Susan Duffy Danielle Dyer Kenneth and Laurie Eastman Julie Eich David and Laura Erickson Douglas Ferns Rodney and Lea Ann Fields Maria Garrison Angela and Michael Glasgow Louis and Lois Glover Gary and Sharon Godbersen Michael and Debra Goreham Jeffery and Tracy Hadden John and Nancy Halleland Patrick and Debra Hammes Dave and Kay Harpole ■
PROSPECTUS
Paul and Glenda Hawkins Andy and Kari Hensen Scott and Jane Hermans Kevin and Christine Hickman Chad and Shauna Hirsch Susan Hodge and Mike Stocker F. Martin Hollister Ryan Howard Thomas and Kristen Irwin William and Judith Jackson Jeffrey Jacobson Cyndie and Frank Jeffrey Brian and Lynette Jennings R. Edwin and Kathaline Jennings Carol Jensen Mark and Sheryl Jones Gregory and Sharon Kaczmarek Charles and Pamela Kelch Visa Khouangsathiene Jim and Shelly Kruse Michael and Michele Kuhl Louis Lam and Daisy Tang Jeffery and Sheila Lara Valdean and Lois Lembke Walter Maehr Lawrence and Paulette Massa Todd May Anthony McNerney Tracey and Troy Mostaert Mark and Catherine Nelson Michael and Carolyn Nickey Lyn and Robert Norman Tom and Janet Nugent Robert and Joye Nurre Laura Parker Larry and Amber Pelzer Jim and Mary Jo Plantan Carolyn Portner and Todd Hooker Mark and Sharon Rasmussen Luann and Bruce Rickert Davin Roberts Douglas and Soon Rogers Tim and Jan Romenesko Rick and Danile Sanger Kent and Megan Schmidgall Marcy and Darren Schneider James and Julie Schnoebelen Bruce and Dana Snethen Mark Sorenson and Richard Davidson Scott Soth Ronald and Jennifer Spielman Samuel and Margaret Strotman Matthew and Andree Swanson Kyle and Darcy Swon Al and Myrna Tubbs Steven and Christine Tubbs William and Linda Tubbs
Robert and Mary Ellen Vander Linden Martin and Leisha Wadle Melinda and William Watt Daniel and Carol Werner Steven and Vicki Wilson Bradley Wilson Travis and Rebecca Wilson Douglas and Karen Wilwerding Jim and Sarah Woerdeman Brent and Cindy Wohlenhaus Jeffrey Wolters and Ann Schoeb-Wolters David and Denna Zimmerman $100–$249 David and Dayna Adams Michael and Susanne Agnew Dennis Ahlers Cheryl and Neal Ahrenstorff Matt and Jan Alexander Terrance and Teresa Anderson Timothy and Tracy Antos Robert and Claudia Applegate Christopher Arend Paul and Kristine Arens Jonathan Augustus David Babler and Jean St. Pierre Robert Balsiger Theresa Beaumont and Richard Harms Ross Beck Russell and Paula Beecher Gregory and Deborah Beers Carl and Norma Beil Darin Bennigsdorf Joan Bentz Chad and Cathy Bernholtz Robert and Allsion Betzer Keith Bevan Peggy and Craig Bieber Gregory and Karen Blockhus Steven and Valerie Blough Bryan and Brenda Blum Aaron and Karen Borcherding Diane Borcherding Robert and Ann Bowman William and Dorene Boyd Stephen and Lori Boyer Allan and Joy Boyken James and Mary Bradford Pamela and Kenneth Brandenburg Elizabeth and Mark Brauer Dennis Brehm James Breitenkamp Barbara Brooks Leah and Jeff Brouillette James and Joan Brown Susan and Ryan Brown 33
DEVELO PM ENT
Annual Support for the College of Business/continued Steven and Theresa Bruder Richard and Joan Brus Timothy and Messina Bryan Terry and Raynette Buckman Thomas and Peg Buman Nathan Burk Alfred and Jean Caine Brian Call Brian and Susan Carstens Susan and Joseph Cartagena Keith Carter Ronald and Diana Carzoli Dawn Chandler Duane and Patricia Cink Sherri Coffelt Christian Colburn Julie and Wendell Collins Craig and Cynthia Converse Mark and Judi Cooper Stephen and Judith Couture Saralyn and Bryan Crock James and Cynthia Crusinberry Randy and Sandy Davidson Duane and Laura Dawson David and Amy De Jong Annick Dellmann-Schafer and Steven Schafer Paul and Kitty Delperdang Richard Devereaux Chad and Andrea Diaz Joseph and Kelly Dillavou Michael and Carol Dimitroff Stephen and Laura Doerfler Matthew Doran Jennifer Dreiling and Casey Darling Tamara Dresbach Craig and Kelly Drotzmann Joseph and Angela DuBois Richard and Maria Dutmer Timothy and Marjorie Dye Jeffrey and Jane Eagan John and Norma Edloff Michael and Lori Egan Eugene Egeland Douglas and Sharon Ellington Lisa and Jim Engstrom David and Mary Evans David and Rhonda Faidley Barbara Fleig David and Linda Fletcher 34
Dennis and Kristen Flieder Michele and Todd Flynn Charles and Kathleen Foster Sylinda Foster Nancy Frevert and David Solohub Gary Fridley Jenny and Tom Gallagher Jeremy Galvin and Jennifer Plagman-Galvin Lisa and Chad Gammon Michael and Mollie Gannon Ward and Pamela Gappa Michael and Eden Gens Elizabeth Gildea Brian and Jill Gilmore David and Nancy Gion Rhonda Golden Crystal and Marvin Gordon Kevin and Myra Gotto Jeffrey and Teresa Grammatke Larry and Mary Grant Sheila and Gary Gray Timothy and Angela Greteman Jay and Joanna Grubb Kathy Gschneidner Winifred Guthrie Randal and Mary Haase Brian and Kim Hagedorn Stuart and Rachelle Haker Norman and Barbara Halvorson Jason Hamrick Harlan and Marilyn Hanson Vaughan Haraldson Ryan and Linda Harnack Steven and Maryanna Hatting Jeff Hawkins Rebecca Hawkins Richard and Karyl Hayes Daron and Dawn Heckmann Mary Heflin-Snower and David Snower Tamara and Anthony Hegel Erik and Nicole Heggen James Heitzman Terry and Gwen Henricksen Janna Henze Scott and Kim Herren Stephanie Hilbert Thomas and Yvonne Hinrichsen Ann and Kirk Hoffman John Hofmeyer
Ted and Eleanor Hollander Michael and Deborah Horn Douglas and Angela Houlahan Richard and Denise Hucka Paul and Nancy Jacobsen Gary and Debra Johnson Jeffrey and Mari Johnson Judith and Neil Johnson Ted and Misty Johnson Thomas and Jodi Johnson David and Meghan Jones Joni and Brian Jones Lorna Jones Ryan and Pamela Jones Vernon and Julie Junker Steven and Barbara Jutting Barb and Steven Kaltenheuser Cody Kammeyer Korey Kazimour Kelly Kenney Karen Kesl Roger and Donna Kezar Dan and Sandy Kneller Robert and Peggy Koch Jean and James Koenck Charles and Maria Kotlarz Douglas and Cynthia Krage Michael and Suzette Kragenbrink Michael and Angela Krieger Mark and Dana Kuchel Nancy and Casey Kuhlmann Michael and Kimberly Kuhn Dylan Kytola Scott and Theresa Lage Jeffrey and Janet Lange William and Mary Lanphere Robert and Evonne Lavender James Lees Jon and Shirley Leinen Scott and Ann Leonard Jennifer and Lance Leslie Theresa and James Liewer David and Rebecca Lindberg Emerson and Kirsten Linney Brad Lorenger Paul and Mary Ann Lundy Emily and Shawn Lustgraaf Tom and Nancy Macklin F. Dennis and Jeannie Malatesta Rebecca Manella
Sandra Marcus Lindgren and David Lindgren Jean and James Martin John and Betty Martinez Michael and Judy Maubach Scott and Sally McAtee Terry and Stacy McAfee John and Audrey McConnell Michael and Marjorie McCoy Sean and Julie McMurray Brent and Monica McVay Candice and John Mees Edward and Mary Meissner Mike and Roxanne Mendlik Lisa and Jeffery Merry Brian and Diane Messer Theodore Meyers Amy and Jeffrey Miller Cary and Crystal Miller David Miller Richard and Carolyn Miller Sam Miller James and Connie Mueller John and Shawnna Murphy Ashley Murphy-Schneider and Joshua Schneider Angela and Marc Nabbefeldt Gary and Rosemarie Nation Brian and Rita Nelson Robert and Sheila Nelson Marc and Sherry Nichols Matthew Nimmer Dan and Cynthia Nisley Jill Nucaro Alyssa Ober Mark and Susan Oehlerking David and Julie Olson Timothy and Darcy Olson Mark Olthoff and Melissa Kincheloe Deb and Jeff Oltmann Jane Onken Darci and James Opperman Justin and Laura Parks Gary and Tracy Peterson Pamela Petersen and Eric Peterson Robert and Susan Peterson Karen Pfab Laurence and Leanne Pike Steven and Emilie Pinkston Gerald and Socorro Pins
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Brian and Patti Plath Joanna and Randall Prebeck Scott Pulkrabek D. Kraig and Laura Pyer Julie and Kevin Quass Albert and Janet Quattrocchi Janet Quick Shah Rashid and Mehbuba Ehsan Elisabeth and Robert Reynoldson Douglas and Lori Ricke R. and Denise Riddle Heather and Patrick Riley Kevin and Stephanie Riley Matthew and Laura Roberts Richard and Sally Robson Lori and Doug Rockers Jeffrey and Patricia Roskam Scott and Jean Rude Jason and Denise Ruiz William Rusk and Dotti Johnson Naomi Sage John and Carolyn Saladino Kelly Savage Joseph and Carol Saviano Karen Schipfmann and Jay Nielson Gwendolyn Schlesinger Lawrence and Mary Schmitz Tye and Tracy Schriever Warren and Jennifer Schultz
Ann Schwabe and Bradley Thrasher Travis Schwenneker and Heather Henig-Schwenneker Marcus Sellers Julie Shea Warren and Susan Simons Robert and Shawn Simonsen Timothy Sinnwell Clint and Deborah Smalley Daniel and Rose Marie Smith Tenney and Carol Smith Nicholas and Marissa Smock Nykki Snyder-Wendelin and Owen Wendelin Tongtong Song and Liangping Yu Clinton and Margaret Spangler Reed and Marlys Ann Spiegel Thomas Stahl Richard Starr and Joanne Alt Jean and Doug Steffenson William and Marcia Steil Curtis and Kristine Steinmetz Michael and Jamie Stenger Gregory Stoever Jay Story Brian and Marcy Streich Kathleen and Richard Stuck Todd and Betsy Studer Troy Swanson
Randy and Margie Swoyer Lee and Linda Tank Richard and Marsha Taylor Laura TeKippe Scott and Heidi Templeton Adrienne and Joel Tetreault Brian and Julie Thomas Michael and Sandra Thome Virginia Thompson Samara Thoreson John and Brenda Thorn Kimberly and Neal Thuente Kevin Toft Jeffrey and Mary Tolke Diane and Jim Tomassi Scott and Michelle Triggs Robert and Lisa Trimble Danielle and Jason Trumbauer Thomas and Phyllis Tucker Tom and Becky Tuttle Heather and Travis Tweed James and Joanne Van Dyke Tara Van Houweling Linda and Larry Vandenberg Cindy Vander Meulen Aaron Vanderpluym James and Nancy Voelschow Drew and Jean Vogel Stacey and Jason Vonnahme
Ronald and Holly Vos Jason and Jill Vote David and Lisa Waggoner Gerald and Susan Walker Britton Wall Daniel and Janice Walter Bryan and Melissa Walworth Connie Weems-Scott and Gordon Scott Bruce and Lynn Werth Leslie and Judith Westphal Lance and Carrie Whitacre Jerry and Donna White Richard and Maureen Wiethorn Jim and Joann Wilcox Thomas and Michele Wilkerson Ashley Willenbring and Andrew Dirksen Darren Wilson and Cheryl McNeill Michael and Cassie Wilson Katharina Wilz Andrew Winkels and Whitney Bauer Winkels Larry and Christy Wirth Charles and Patricia Wise Molly and Robert Withers Vincent Zoetmulder Michelle and Dennis Zuzek
Aon Corporation Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation CDS Global, Inc. Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. Pepsico Foundation Inc. Prudential Foundation Walt Disney Company Foundation Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield
$100–$249 Abbott Laboratories Fund ADP Foundation Alliant Energy Corporate Services, Inc. AT & T Foundation Bemis Company Foundation Bridgestone Americas Trust Fund Cerner Corp. Eli Lilly & Company For the Future LLC IBM Corp-CT Iowa Farm Bureau Federation Lockheed Martin Foundation NRG Energy Raytheon Company State Bank Financial Winona National Bank
S U P P O R T F R O M C O R P O R AT I O N S A N D F O U N D AT I O N S $50,000–$100,000 Transamerica Life Insurance Co. $25,000–$49,999 Aegon Transamerica Foundation Boeing Co. Deere & Co. Jacobson Companies Principal Financial Group Foundation Inc. Union Pacific Corporation $10,000–$24,999 Coleman Foundation General Mills Foundation Greater Iowa Credit Union Rockwell Collins Wells Fargo $5,000–$9,999 Bank of America Foundation Deloitte Foundation
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
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$2,500–$4,999 Caterpillar Foundation Federated Insurance Company KPMG Foundation Northwestern Mutual Foundation Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl—Des Moines $1,000–$2,499 Aviva Charitable Foundation Cargill Essman Associates, Inc. ExxonMobil Foundation First National Bank—Ames General Electric Fund Intl Flavors and Fragrances Inc. State Farm Companies Foundation Union Pacific Fund for Effective Government Xcel Energy $500–$999 3M Foundation A & B Foundation
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
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$250–$499 Arch Re Facultative Underwriters Inc. Chalden Co. Chevron Corporation Iowa Biz Net Meredith Corp Foundation RBC Foundation SC Johnson Fund Inc. Verizon Woodmen of the World/Omaha Woodmen Life
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DR . C HA R LES HA NDY
From the Desk of Founding Dean Charles Handy Iowa State University just completed its search to replace President Gregory Geoffroy. Our own Raisbeck Endowed Dean Labh Hira co-chaired the search. This is an honor for both Dean Hira and the College of Business. It speaks to the level of respect the business program and its leader have achieved on campus. As I write the above, my thoughts go back to the various presidents I served under at Iowa State. Dr. James H. Hilton, an animal husbandry professor, was the top person when I joined the faculty of the Department of Industrial Administration in 1958. From then until his retirement in 1965, we had little occasion to rub shoulders. However, in another way, our institution’s tenth president’s surname is familiar to the general public. Many athletic and academic events take place in Hilton Coliseum. My association with the president’s office came of age during the administration of Dr. W. Robert Parks. His academic area was political science. Parks was the university’s longest serving president, from 1965 to 1986, and was obviously involved with activities surrounding the business program’s movement from department to school to college. As the program’s administrator during those eventful years, I had considerable contact with the president’s office. At the same time, in those days Vice President for Academic Affairs George C. Christensen’s guidance probably had a greater influence on my day-to-day activities. He was my contact for the evaluation of actions that were eventually approved by President Parks. The year 1986 brought the presidential inauguration of Dr. Gordon P. Eaton. That year, on September 18 and 19, the fall meeting of Iowa’s Board of Regents was held on the ISU campus.
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From the standpoint of our two-year-old college, it was a memorable, if not outright tense, meeting. As readers of my fall 2003 Prospectus column may recall, Dr. Eaton’s presentation on the first day of the Regents’ meeting created some doubt about the future of our college. Our burst in enrollment was “bleeding the university dry,” as he said at the time. Fortunately, Dr. Eaton clarified his remarks after a day of reflection in which our faculty expressed great concern about his intentions. The very next day, Dr. Eaton’s report to the Board of Regents brought us much relief. He said, “To quote Mark Twain, I’d like to say reports of (the business college’s) death are greatly exaggerated. Our aim is a great increase in quality and to get accredited as soon as possible.” During the four years he was president of Iowa State, Dr. Eaton kept his word. His assistance was a factor in achieving eventual accreditation. As I consider backgrounds of the various individuals who have served as Iowa State presidents, there is one discipline missing. Considering the initial purpose of our institution, this does not come as a surprise. But circumstances change over time. Frankly, it would be nice to have a business academic occupying the president’s chair in Beardshear Hall. I can dream, can’t I? ■
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COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
Administration Labh S. Hira
Ronald J. Ackerman
Melissa A. Phillips
Raisbeck Endowed Dean
Director, Graduate Admissions
Senior Director of Development
Michael R. Crum
Steven T. Carter
Sridhar Ramaswami
Associate Dean, Graduate Programs
Director, Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship
Director, PhD Program
Danny J. Johnson
Ann J. Coppernoll
Jennifer D. Reitano
Interim Associate Dean, Undergraduate Programs
Director, Undergraduate Programs
Director, MBA Recruitment and Marketing
Thomas I. Chacko
Mary F. Evanson
Daniel J. Ryan
Chair, Department of Management Chair, Department of Marketing
Director of Development
Director, Marketing and Alumni Relations
Frederick H. Dark
James M. Heckmann
Kathryn K. Wieland
Director, Small Business Development Center
Director, Business Career Services
Chair, Department of Accounting Chair, Department of Finance
Qing Hu Chair, Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems
Soma Mitra Academic Fiscal Officer
Mark S. Peterson Director, Graduate Career Services
Dean’s Advisory Council David J. Kingland ’80, Chair
Curt E. Espeland ’86
David W. Raisbeck ’71
President and CEO Kingland Systems
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Eastman Chemical Company
Vice Chairman, Retired Cargill, Inc.
Ronald D. Banse ’75
Mark C. Fisher ’76
Ann Madden Rice ’79
Assistant General Auditor Union Pacific Corporation
President and CEO United Community Bank
CEO University of California, Davis Medical Center
Kelley A. Bergstrom ’65
Beth E. Ford ’86
Randal J. Richardson ’79
President Bergstrom Investment Management, LLC
Executive Vice President, Head of Supply Chain International Flavors and Fragrances Inc.
President Vi Living
Gregory S. Churchill ’80
Peter H. Gilman ’86
Steven T. Schuler ’73
Executive Vice President, International and Service Solutions Rockwell Collins
President and CEO Carbry Capital, Inc.
Executive Vice President and CFO Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines
Brenda J. Cushing ’86
Craig E. Hansen ’80
John H. Stafford ’76
Executive Vice President and CFO Aviva USA
Senior Vice President, Surety Practice Leader Holmes Murphy
Vice President, Financial Shared Services, Retired General Mills, Inc.
G. Steven Dapper ’69
Cara K. Heiden ’78
Mark E. Stoering ’84
Founder and Chairman hawkeye | GROUP
Co-President, Retired Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
John D. DeVries ’59
Daniel J. Houston ’84
Vice President, Portfolio Strategy and Business Development Xcel Energy
CEO, Retired Colorfx
President—Retirement, Insurance, and Financial Services Principal Financial Group
Jerald K. Dittmer ’80
Richard N. Jurgens ’71
President and Executive Vice President The HON Company and HNI Corporation
Chairman, CEO, President Hy-Vee, Inc.
Nancy K. Dittmer ’84
Michael F. McBreen ’88
Managing Director RSM McGladrey, Inc.
Senior Vice President Collective Brands, Inc.
David J. Drury ’66
Craig A. Petermeier ’78
Chairman and CEO, Retired Principal Financial Group
President and CEO, Retired Jacobson Companies
Jane E. Sturgeon ’85 CEO Barr-Nunn Transportation, Inc.
Mark A. Walker ’79 Senior Vice President C. H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc.
2200 Gerdin Business Building Ames, IA 50011-1350
On October 12, Raisbeck Endowed Dean Labh Hira announced his retirement as dean after June 30, 2012. On October 14, Russ Gerdin, who with his wife Ann made the lead gift for the Gerdin Business Building, passed away after a long battle with liver cancer.
At the time of these announcements, this issue of Prospectus was well into production. Our spring 2012 issue will focus on the legacy that both men have left on the College of Business. In the meantime, please visit www.business.iastate.edu/labhhira and www.business.iastate.edu/russgerdin to read more.