Gies Business Spring Luncheon 2023

Dear Alumni and Friends,

On behalf of the faculty, students, and staff of Gies College of Business, I welcome you to our annual Spring Luncheon. We are pleased to have so many of you with us this year to renew your lifelong connection with fellow alumni and with our College. It is always gratifying to see the career and personal achievements you’ve all made.

As a College, we’re intentionally building upon the excellence to which so many of you have contributed. We recently celebrated the groundbreaking for Steven S. Wymer Hall. This was a great time of celebrating the many donors—especially Steven Wymer—who have contributed to this project. When completed, this facility will enhance our ability to prepare students for futures of purpose and impact.

Our programs continue to be recognized for their excellence. Our undergraduate program was ranked #12 by Poets&Quants and #13 by US News & World Report. Our undergraduate and graduate accounting programs have both been ranked in the top three by US News. And we were named the 2022 MBA Program of the Year by Poets&Quants. Your enthusiasm for our students and support for our College have been important factors in these achievements.

I encourage you to share our story with colleagues and friends. Share your pride. You are our greatest ambassadors. There are many ways you can get involved in the life of our students. I urge you to reach out to us to learn more about ways to give back to our students—either through your time, talent, or treasure.

Gies Business is a community, and you are among its most important members. Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to continuing to partner with you.

Best wishes,

Jeffrey R. Brown

Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor of Business and Dean Gies College of Business

Concluding Remarks

Printing Sponsor:

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Gies Business

GiesBusiness.illinois.edu

Alumni engagement GiesBusiness.illinois.edu/alumni

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University of Illinois uiaa.org Alumni Association

Office of Advancement

P: 217.244.6669

BusinessAlumni@illinois.edu

218 Wohlers Hall, 1206 South Sixth Street Champaign, IL 61820

Spring Luncheon 2023 Host

Tim Sinclair

Voice artist. Public address. Author.

Tim Sinclair is the public address announcer for the Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Fire, and Illinois Fighting Illini. His voice is synonymous with big-time sporting events, including three NBA All-Star Games, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, Big Ten Football Championship, and NBA2K. He previously spent nearly two decades as an award-winning radio and television personality.

Tim is also the CEO of tech-based startups RINGR and Stump Sports, as well as host of the “The Gies Download,” the podcast of Gies College of Business.

Inspired growth Investing in companies and in people

WE ARE AN INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

We invest and manage capital across strategies and asset classes, with a strong focus on growth investments in private companies Within our private equity practice, we invest in enterprises in various stages of development and across a number of industries, taking majority, minority, preferred and common equity and debt positions Our success is based on fostering deep connections with management teams who bring a wealth of experience and supporting them with Sterling’s financial, strategic, and operational expertise

PRIVATE EQUITY

We are entrepreneurs at heart and look for exciting opportunities and great partnerships

QUANTITATIVE INVESTMENTS

A platform for managers of quantitative investment stratagies.

PUBLIC EQUITY

An experienced investment management team coupled with an institutional financial services infrastructure

REAL ESTATE

Identifying unique, inefficient, and dislocated opportunities in real estate & real estaterelated assets and businesses

Scan to learn more and meet with our team

Keynote Speaker

Lara Waldrop

Associate Professor and Y. T. Lo Fellow Department of

Electrical and Computer Engineering, UIUC

Lara Waldrop is an associate professor and the Y.T. Lo Fellow of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Her research is focused on the development of new techniques for estimating key physical state parameters of the space plasma environment surrounding Earth. Her work mainly involves the remote sensing and photochemical and radiative transfer modeling of optical emissions from the uppermost atmosphere, at wavelengths ranging from the near-infrared to the far-ultraviolet, by various ground- and space-based spectroscopic, photometric, and interferometric sensors.

Before joining UIUC initially as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, Professor Waldrop received her PhD in astronomy and space physics at Boston University in 2004. She has served on the NSF CEDAR Science Steering Committee from 2006-2010, as chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Arecibo Observatory in 2013–2014, as a member of the External Advisory Committee for the NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory from 2015-2018, and is now serving as co-chair of the Ionosphere, Thermosphere, and Mesosphere panel as part of the National Academies’ Decadal Survey in Heliophysics. She is also the principal investigator of NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, which will launch in 2025.

Distinguished Alumnus Award Recipient

Steven M. Taslitz ’81 Chairman and Co-Founder, Sterling Partners

Steven M. Taslitz is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Sterling Partners. He is closely involved in the strategy and execution of Sterling’s investment platform, which invests and manages across strategies and asset classes, including startups, early stage investments, middle market PE buyouts, public equity, quantitative investment strategies, and real estate.

With nearly 40 years of private investment experience, Steven brings a wealth of knowledge to the firm and its investments. Sterling Partners was born from the entrepreneurial spirit of Steven and his co-founders, and the firm has maintained a focus on partnership and scrappiness. His greatest professional accomplishments have been those companies that he took from mere concepts to billion dollar exits and IPOs. He led the firm as it raised billions of dollars of equity across eight institutional funds over the last nearly four decades.

Steven has been an avid supporter of the university and Gies Business students for many years, through time spent on campus as a featured lecturer and his support of student scholarships. He also continues to support numerous nonprofit organizations and charities, primarily those focused on education. He served on the Illinois Board of Higher Education and has been a significant contributor to many inner city and public nonprofit organizations. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accountancy from Gies Business in 1981.

Appreciation Award Recipient

Anthony J. Petullo ’61

After graduating from the University of Illinois and spending three years as a US Navy officer and five years with Mobil Corporation, Anthony Petullo founded Olsten Staffing Services, a successful temporary help firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Following the sale of Olsten Staffing Services in 2000, he became president of the Anthony Petullo Foundation, and is now one of Milwaukee’s most respected community leaders.

During the 1970s, he developed a keen interest in works by self-taught and outsider artists from Europe and the Americas. Since then, he has become a recognized authority on self-taught art and has written three books on the subject.

Anthony attributes his success in business, collecting art, and civic engagement to the experiences and education he received at the University of Illinois. He remains a very loyal and enthusiastic supporter of the university. At Gies, he has provided the funding for the Anthony J. Petullo Leaders in Business Scholarship, as well as the Anthony J. Petullo Professor of Business Administration. Across campus he has established the Petullo Insight Leadership Program at the Illinois Leadership Center, the Anthony J. Petullo Design Fellowship in the School of Art and Design, the Anthony J. Petullo Advertising Fellowship in the College of Media, and the Anthony J. Petullo Professor in Design.

Anthony earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing from Gies Business in 1961 and an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2003.

Excellence–in–Teaching Award Graduate Teaching

Timothy Johnson

Karl and Louise Schewe Professor of Finance

Timothy Johnson received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1999 and joined Gies Business in 2006. His research interests include asset pricing, macroeconomic dynamics, volatility, liquidity, and derivatives, and he has been published in the leading journals in the areas of economics and finance. In his courses, he leads students in examining derivative markets and models. He regularly appears on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students. This is the second time that he has received this award, having previously received it in 2012.

Excellence–in–Teaching Award Undergraduate Teaching

Aimee Barbeau

Teaching Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Aimee Barbeau earned her PhD in Government from Georgetown University in 2014 and has taught at Gies since 2016. She teaches the introductory Business 101 course required of all freshman and intercollegiate transfer students, as well as an upper division offering on business ethics. Her teaching and scholarship focus on the social impact of business, ethics in business, and effective business education. She regularly appears on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students. In 2021, she was named one of the Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors in the nation by Poets&Quants. She also received a Dean’s Impact Award in 2021 in recognition of her outstanding contributions to Gies College of Business.

Excellence–in–Teaching Award Teaching Assistant

Michael Yip

PhD Student in Accountancy

Michael Yip is currently a PhD student in the Department of Accountancy and expects to graduate in May 2023. Prior to joining the program, he spent five years at Deloitte Consulting and had obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Waterloo. During his time at Gies, Michael was a teaching assistant and instructor for various classes in accounting and data analytics. He appeared on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students for his instruction in Accounting Control Systems. Upon graduation, he will be joining the Financial Accounting Standards Board on a one-year postdoctoral fellowship and subsequently will join the University of Georgia as an assistant professor starting in the summer of 2024.

Shaping Potentials

Deloitte is dedicated to advancing the mission of education to achieve lasting results.

We are proud to support the University of Illinois Gies College of Business Alumni Association.

Gies College of Business Distinguished Alumnus Award

Established in 1984, this award recognizes graduates of Gies College of Business for outstanding career achievement. Recipients hold a degree from Gies College of Business at Illinois. The title and company listed with each honoree were accurate at the time the award was presented.

1984 Kenneth W. Perry ’53, Professor of Accountancy, Illinois

1985 Jerome S. Gore ’41, Chairman Emeritus, Hartmarx Corporation

1986 Arthur R. Wyatt ’49, ’50, ’53, Principal, Arthur Andersen

1987 Gerald E. Schultz ’63, President & COO, Bell & Howell

1988 Neil G. Bluhm ’59, President, JMB Realty Corporation

1988 Judd D. Malkin ’59, Chairman, JMB Realty Corporation

1989 Charles A. Bowsher ’53, U.S. Comptroller General

1990 Richard H. Frank ’65, President, The Walt Disney Studios

1991 Samuel K. Skinner ’60, Secretary, Department of Transportation

1993 Richard L. Wellek ’60, President & CEO, Varlen Corporation

1994 William G. Karnes ’33, Chairman of the Board, Beatrice, Retired

1995 Sybil C. Mobley ’64, Dean of School of Business, Florida A&M

1996 Lester H. McKeever, Jr. ’55, Managing Partner, Washington, Pittman and McKeever

1997 John Brogan ’36, Chairman, Ryan Insurance Group, Retired

1998 Stanley C. Golder ’51, General Partner, Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner, Inc., Retired

1999 Leonard C. Hoeft ’47, Chairman of the Board, Wm. H. Ziegler Co., Inc., Retired

2000 Thomas A. Murphy ’38, Chairman of the Board & CEO, General Motors Corporation, Retired

2001 Michael Krasny ’75, Founder & Chairman, CDW Computer Centers

2002 Conrad Hewitt ’58, Superintendent of Banks, State of California, Former

2003 Brigadier General Wilma L. Vaught ’52, USAF, Retired

2004 Avy H. Stein ’77, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Willis & Stein Partners

2005 Albert Wohlers ’39, Founder, Albert H. Wohlers & Co., Retired

2006 Michael Tokarz ’73, Chairman, MVC Capital

2007 John D. Zeglis ’69, Chairman & CEO, AT&T Wireless Service, Retired

2008 Douglas C. Mills ’62, Chairman of the Board, First Busey Corporation

2009 Melvin L. Katten ’58, Founding Partner & Senior Counsel, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

2010 Jill Smart ’81, Chief Human Resources Officer, Accenture

Distinguished Alumnus Award Continued

2011 Thomas D. Vogelsinger ’73, ’74, Partner, Ernst & Young, Retired

2012 Howard S. Engle ’72, Partner, Deloitte

2013 Larry Field ’61, CEO, Field Holdings, Inc.

2014 Stephen Van Arsdell ’72, ’73, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte, Retired

2015 John Ruth ’59, President and Founder, Century Group 100

2016 Chris Perry ’77, ’82 Partner, CIVC Partners

2017 Karen Golz ’76, Global Vice Chair, Ernst & Young Global Limited

2018 Stephanie Cohen ’99, Chief Strategy Officer, Goldman Sachs

2019 Kelly Loeffler ’92, Chief Executive Officer, Bakkt

2020 Alan D. Feldman ’74, ’76, Chairman, President & CEO, Midas, Inc., Retired

2021 James R. Elsesser, ’66, ’67, CEO, Interstate Bakeries, and CFO, Ralston Purina, Retired

2022 Virginia Wilson, ’76, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, TIAA, Retired

Gies College of Business Appreciation Award

Established in 1979, this award is presented to friends of the College and its alumni association, recognizing outstanding service to the organization. Recipients need not be graduates of the College to earn this recognition but are always Illini at heart.

1979 William F. Murray ’34

1979 Lawrence W. Nortrup ’49

1980 G. Preston Kendall ’31

1981 Russell V. Puzey ’33

1982 Lawrence W. Nortrup ’49

1983 Donald C. Miller ’42, ’43, ’48 PhD

1984 Lawrence W. Gougler ’41

1985 Vernon K. Zimmerman ’49, ’50, ’54 PhD

1986 T. Emerson Cammack

1987 Henry D. Strunk ’58

1988 Thomas D. Leddy ’63

1989 J. William Paquette

1990 William D. Engelbrecht ’66, ’72

1991 John D. Hogan

1992 David G. Siebert ’89 MBA

1993 John H. Judd ’71, ’84 MBA

1994 David J. Downey ’63, ’66 JD

1995 Albert H. Wohlers ’39

1996 Arthur R. Wyatt ’49, ’50, ’53 PhD

1997 Wilma J. Smelcer ’73 MBA

1998 Willard Bunn III

1999 Larry L. Austermiller ’63, ’65 MS

2000 Howard Thomas

2001 Frederick L. Neumann

2002 James Elsesser, Jr. ’66, ’67 MS

2003 Howard S. Engle ’72

2004 Jeffrey H. Margolis ’84

2005 Mary Kay Haben ’77, ’79 MBA

2006 Norma J. Lauder ’71

2007 James C. Cook ’71

2008 Avijit Ghosh

2009 Neel T. Kashkari ’95, ’98 MS

2010 Jerry Colangelo ’62

2011 Jon Corzine ’69

2012 Timothy J. Reierson ’81

2013 Charles Finn ’55

2014 Stephen V. King ’84

2015 Larry DeBrock

2016 Tony DiTommaso ’74, ’76 MS

2017 Steve Miller ’87

2018 Steven E. Shebik ’78

2019 Susan Lambert Fish ’79, ’80 MAS

2020 Edie Stotler, ’68 LAS

2021 Cary D. McMillan, ’80

2022 Cedric D. Thurman, ’87

Alumni Association 2022–23 Board of Directors

Randy Abeles ’77

Hassen Al-Shawaf ’05, ’06

Dana Armagno ’89

Mark Bernstein ’85

Tess Boland ’98

John Cochrane ’82

Steven Cohen ’82

David Engle ’97, ’99

Karen Fletcher ’88

Dan Frandsen ’99

David Gilmartin ’84

Jake Goldstein ’99

James Goss ’72

Andrew Grieve ’96

Tony Griglione ’09, ’10

Daniel Kardatzke ’96

Denise Kenny ’86

Sara Klein ’96

Rom Kosla ’18

Joanne Ladden ’03

Alan Lev ’82

Cecil Lucy ’82

Adam Lutostanski ’02

Denise Maple ’90

Kevin McDonnell ’80

Paul O’Connor ’81

Jackie Price Osafo ’18

Victor Palomino ’03

Joan Rockey ’93

Ed Rogowski ’86

Saul Rudo ’80

Julie Scott ’85

Ally Sehy ’05

Jeff Solak ’16

Warren Stippich ’90

Dean Stork ’83

Jandy Tomy ’95

Susan Tjarksen ’82

Everett Westmeyer ’79

Gabreielle Young ’19

Ex-officio

Jeffrey R. Brown Dean

Rebecca Pagels

Associate Dean for Advancement

Christine Beyers Senior Associate Director of Alumni Engagement

Kate Yeazel Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement

Spring Luncheon Co-Chairs

Karen Fletcher ’88

Ed Rogowski ’86

Susan Tjarksen ’82

GBAA Program Co-Chairs

Denise Kenny ’86

Jeff Solak ’16

Alumni Association Presidents

1957–60 Walter Leck ’34

1960–61 Francis Bachman ’38

1961–62 George Catlett ’39

1962–63 Robert Humphrey ’40

1963–64 James Felt ’42

1964–68 Rexford Bruno ’40

1968–69 George Nelson ’41

1969–70 Kenneth Means ’40

1970–71 George Handtman, Jr. ’42

1971–72 Robert Hayes ’54

1972–73 Russell Puzey ’33

1973–74 Lawrence Nortrup ’49

1974–75 Joseph Antonello, Jr. ’43

1975–76 William Anderson ’49

1976–77 Selwin Price ’53

1977–78 John Lannon ’61

1978–79 William Ieuter ’60

1979–80 Wilma Smelcer ’73

1980–81 Henry Strunk ’58

1981–82 Carl Faust ’61

1982–83 Thomas Leddy ’63

1983–84 Gresham Brebach ’63

1984–85 John Ruth ’59

1985–86 James Cook ’71

1986–87 Richard Akin ’69

1987–89 Terry Hendrickson ’72

1989–91 Ron Hamelberg ’58

1991–93 Lester McKeever, Jr. ’55

1993–95 John Roszinsky ’60

1995–98 Howard Engle ’72

1999–00 John Lassiter, Jr. ’59

2000–01 Patrick Rea ’63, ’64

2001–03 Bruce Boruszak ’79

2003–05 David Gilmartin ’84

2005–07 Everett Westmeyer ’79

2007–09 Paul O’Connor ’81

2009–11 James Goss ’72

2011–13 Denise Maple ’90

2013–15 Steven Cohen ’82

2015–17 Julie Scott ’85

2017–19 Dana Armagno ’89

2019–21 Joan Rockey ’93

2021– Warren Stippich ’90

Thank You!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the following companies and organizations for helping to make the 2023 Spring Luncheon possible:

Orange & Blue Sponsor

Sterling Partners

Silver Sponsors

Deloitte

KPMG LLP

CTS Impact

Printing Sponsor

PNC

Event Reception

Sponsor

Grant Thornton LLP

Gies Branded

Item Sponsor

William Blair

Audio Visual Sponsors

Crowe LLP

Rockey Structures LLC

Polsinelli

Table of 10

Ahold Delhaize USA

Akerman LLP

American Commercial Bank & Trust

Associated Bank

Bain & Company

Belgravia Group, Ltd

BMO Harris Bank, N.A.

BRUNSWICK

Busey Bank

CA Ventures

Cars.com

Cedric D. Thurman & Michelle Speller-Thurman

CIBC

Cushman & Wakefield

Ellie Mental Health— Downers Grove/Oak Brook

Grant Thornton LLP

GCM Grosvenor

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Lincoln International Mesirow

Illini Center Chicago

Prairie Capital

PwC

Ed and Sue Rogowski Family

RSM US LLP

UBS Wealth Management

University of Illinois Athletics

University of Illinois Foundation