What Is Possible?

WINTER 2012

www.uww.edu

College of Business and Economics

analysis

ingenuity

complexity

excellenc

invention

resilience

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dedication

Business graduate student Meghan Jensen explored world water connections during a summer internship in Singapore. She worked on the opening of the Aquatic Science Centre, an interdisciplinary research institute for scientists studying sustainable solutions in water management. The College of Business and Economics is taking a leadership role in water business issues as Milwaukee positions itself as a world water hub. See page 24. Photo by Henry Schwartz.

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Contents

Whitewater magazine is published once per year. Whitewater magazine is not printed with state funding.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. We promote excellence through diversity and encourage all qualified individuals to apply.

4 Launch Pad for success

Publisher

Christine Clements, Dean College of Business and Economics

Students hoping to climb to entrepreneurial success are testing their skills in Launch Pad, a creative program at UW-Whitewater.

Student Chris Brooks, who invented a portable hang board for indoor practice, climbed at Devil’s Lake State Park in October.

WINTER 2012

www.uww.edu

College of Business and Economics

262-472-1343

clementc@uww.edu

analysis

Managing Editor

ingenuity

complexity

Anita Clark

excellence

Contributing Writers

Jeff Angileri ‘06 Jennifer Sereno

invention

resilience

dedication

Art Director

Joy Yang ’98, ’06 Photographers

cover

Gregg Theune Henry Schwartz

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Innovation mission

From the dean

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Entrepreneurial spirit inspires students

24 Water business

21 Global learning

stay connected

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30 Alumni profiles

Ideas for inventors

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Christine Clements, Dean College of Business and Economics Photo by Gregg Theune

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MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Embracing a landscape of possibilities

by Christine Clements, dean College of Business and Economics

ast spring at our annual Strategic Advisory Group meeting, stakeholders including students, faculty, staff and members of the university and regional business communities met to revisit the college mission statement. It had been six years since the then-current mission statement was approved and, while it served us well and drove priorities and actions that strengthened the college, the time to reconsider who we are in an ever-changing environment had arrived. A mission statement that somewhat generically identified the strengths of a business school in a regional comprehensive university no longer did us justice.

ing outcomes. It is also evident in the large and ever-increasing number of relationships faculty and students have with businesses in the region and in the extensive and collaborative work done among the college’s business outreach centers. Student, faculty and staff involvement in the Innovation Center at Whitewater University Technology Park supports and accelerates entrepreneurship. Our new Water Business Program in collaboration with the Milwaukee Water Council and the sciences faculty from the College of Letters and Sciences on campus represents leadership, innovation and regional engagement at its best.

As we listened to our stakeholders’ perceptions and feedback, it became evident that the college had been changing, in part as a response to external conditions including a challenging faculty labor market, ongoing budget lapses and a struggling regional economy. In order to respond to these demands, the college had become increasingly entrepreneurial in attracting and utilizing resources, and in the ways faculty, staff and students engaged with the campus and regional business and economic community. In capturing the essence of these multiple viewpoints and perspectives, the College Strategic Planning Committee came to the conclusion that a spirit of collaboration, entrepreneurship and innovation has become a central value of the college, and that it was important to make that statement explicit in the mission.

We are fortunate to have so many talented and creative students, faculty and staff working together, and the numerous opportunities for interaction have fostered innovative responses and entrepreneurial leadership. While business schools may be known for being traditional and conservative and for providing a curriculum focused on processes, policies, procedures and financial controls, the dynamism and complexity of today’s environment demand innovation as well as accountability. As a college, we strive to develop our capacity to approach big issues and “wicked problems” with creativity, optimism, integrity and a collaborative spirit. Our graduates should walk out the door with skill, knowledge, integrity and confidence. They will see all the challenges and complexity of the world as a landscape of possibilities, and they will be prepared to have an impact and make a difference.

Innovation presents itself in many different ways in the life of our college. It is evident in the constant desire to evaluate and discuss our curriculum, pedagogy and learn-

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” –Winston Churchill

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FOSTERING BUSINESS SUCCESS

launch pad boosts student ideas by jeff angileri

photos by GREGG THEUNE

hris Brooks knows what it’s like to pull himself up over towering obstacles.

The UW-Whitewater senior from Cross Plains has guided intrepid rock climbers across the quartzite bluffs at Devil’s Lake State Park in Sauk County for more than five years. But the most difficult ascent he’s currently facing isn’t a cliff or mountainside. Brooks is out to scale the business world, and he’s found a unique support system to make that happen.

Brooks is part of Launch Pad, a program that gives students resources to take an idea and turn it into a real business.

“When students show initiative, it’s imperative that we foster it,” said Jeff Vanevenhoven, assistant professor of management at UW-Whitewater and Launch Pad co-director. “Economic activity happens through new businesses.”

Vanevenhoven and six other UW-Whitewater faculty members serve as mentors, using their experience and business knowhow to help students advance their ideas.

The work happens at the Innovation Center, a business incubator for entrepreneurs on the city’s east side, and the first building constructed in Whitewater University Technology Park.

UW-Whitewater reserved a suite known as the iHub, complete with technology, offices and space to allow students to develop their business ideas.

Launch Pad exemplifies the combination of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in the College of Business and Economics that makes UW-Whitewater a leader in education and eco-

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nomic growth.

Nine young entrepreneurs were accepted into the first Launch Pad program last year. Every Monday, the group meets to talk business before sharing lunch. Conversations are informal and motivational, dealing with a variety of topics, like how to take credit card payments over the phone or whether a business should be registered as a limited liability company or C corporation.

“It’s not theory anymore. It’s real business experience,” Brooks said. “It’s encountering a problem today and figuring out how to fix it by tomorrow.”

Brooks’ idea is to manufacture a portable hang board for rock climbers to practice indoors. Current products on the market require people to fasten the boards to a wall or door frame using large screws. Brooks’ prototype is removable and doesn’t damage walls. Plus, it features interchangeable grips so people can customize their workouts.

“It’s a niche product, but a really good idea,” Vanevenhoven said.

Brooks traveled to a national outdoor trade show in August to get a sense of the competition. When he launches his product later this year, he will be up against entrepreneurs with more money and name recognition.

Still, he’s determined to succeed.

“They may have the resources, but they’re not going to outwork me,” he said.

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Student entrepreneur Chris Brooks is an expert rock climber whose experience at Devil’s Lake State Park helped him design his product in the Launch Pad program.

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Participation in Launch Pad is voluntary and extracurricular.

The hours students spend working on their business ideas are their own. They receive neither course credit nor pay for participating.

It’s a shared commitment between the students and their mentors.

“These are passionate students with an indomitable spirit,” Vanevenhoven said. “They make me want to work harder.”

“These kinds of students attract one another,” said William Dougan, Irvin L. Young Professor of Entrepreneurship and Launch Pad co-director. “They’ll push and grill one another on their presentations and ideas.”

how to pitch it.”

Between the two of them, Amiri and Abdusselimov speak seven languages. Judges in the fifth annual Stateline “Fastpitch” Elevator Competition, held in Rockford, Ill. last June, were so impressed by the pair that they awarded them first prize and $1,000.

Phone calls and brainstorming sessions lasting well into the early hours of the morning are common. Justin Nothem, a senior entrepreneurship major, drove to Oklahoma to purchase a vending cart for his hot dog business, College Dogs.

Other Launch Pad students have also won prestigious competitions for their business ideas.

Student entrepreneurs behind Renwig Custom, a company that builds retro-style guitar amplifiers, won first place and $5,000 in the BizStarts Mason Wells Business Plan Contest in May as well as UW-Whitewater’s own Warhawk Business Plan Contest, which comes with a $5,000 prize. Nothem captured the People’s Choice Award and won second place in the National Elevator Pitch Contest in Dallas in October.

“To be able to operate my business on downtown streets I had to learn the permit system,” Nothem said. “I was on the phone every other day with the city clerk working things out.”

“We expect many of these businesses to succeed and to stay in Wisconsin,” said Robert Boostrom, a Launch Pad mentor and assistant professor of marketing. “Launch Pad is an engine for economic growth within the region.”

“We hear from so many entrepreneurs who say they wish they had this kind of experience when they went to school,” Dougan said. “Real estate agents will tell you it’s all about location, location, location. In business, it’s all about people, people, people.”

Some Launch Pad students have taken that advice to heart, focusing their business plans on helping others.

These are passionate students with indomitable spirit. They make me want to work harder.

– Jeff Vanevenhoven

Growth opportunities extend to the UW-Whitewater campus, too, promoting collaborations between Launch Pad and university departments.

“New businesses have a variety of needs,” Boostrom said. “Those needs relate to different majors, and we’re able to tap into faculty expertise and student skills to help.”

“We’re providing something of value to people, and breaking the cycle of poverty,” Kar said. “Our customers feel like they are making a difference.”

For example, public relations students are helping entrepreneurs craft advertising campaigns. Marketing students are assisting with search engine optimization and targeting consumers.

Computer science students are building websites and apps.

Other Launch Pad faculty mentors for the 2011-12 academic year are Ann Knabe, lecturer of communication; Renee Melton, associate professor of art; Seth Meisel, associate dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education; Sameer Prasad, professor of management; and Denise Ehlen, director of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Two international students – Sara Amiri of Morocco and Maxim Abdusselimov of Kazakhstan – founded a global academic network, Peer2Connect.com. The website is a place where international students can interact with other international students, find information like immigration requirements or locate specialized academic services like history or language tutoring.

“Even if their businesses don’t succeed, these students are getting incredible experience -- combining book knowledge and working in the trenches,” Boostrom said.

Students are expected to make mistakes, said Dougan. “Not every idea will work and that’s OK,” he said. “That’s the benefit of being immersed in a semi-sheltered business program.”

“Launch Pad was our accountability,” Amiri said. “We had to be ready every Monday with our work progress, and ready to problem-solve.”

“It’s pretty amazing that the university is willing to make that kind of commitment to help us succeed,” Brooks said. “Launch Pad is pushing us further than anyone thought we could go.”

“It was a real confidence-builder,” Abdusselimov said. “Not only did we learn how to develop a business idea, we learned

For more information on Launch Pad, contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at 262-472-5212.

Mehul Kar, a senior finance student from Fairfield, Iowa, and David Quintero-Rojas, a senior international studies student from Colombia, wanted their business to be socially responsible. Through their company, FridgeWaves, they rent appliances to college students and use the money they earn to provide microloans to borrowers in Third World countries.

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Brennon Garthwait, left, Evan Preston, center, and David Hartwig are the young entrepreneurs behind Renwig Custom, which builds robotically controlled tube amplifiers for electric guitar and bass.

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I N N O VAT I O N M I S S I O N

Challenging the b-school status quo

by ANITA CLARK

photos by GREGG THEUNE

are focused on the big questions of innovation in the business curriculum: What does it mean? Can innovation be taught?

What do Warhawk business graduates need to succeed?

aculty members at the University of WisconsinWhitewater are at the forefront as business schools nationwide turn their attention to innovation.

“We need to be looking at innovation as part of our curriculum,” said James Bronson, professor of management and chair of the Management Department.

As a national task force hammered out a detailed report about business schools on an innovation mission, the College of Business and Economics had already turned its attention to innovation in the curriculum.

“It is imperative that we create an environment that fosters innovation,’’ Dean Chris Clements said. “It’s no longer enough just to provide the fundamentals and to teach about controls and structure.”

At UW-Whitewater, business students, faculty members, alumni and employers are pondering the mission of the college: what it does, how it does it and how it prepares graduates for work and leadership in a 21st century world.

It’s an environment that’s become intensely global, dynamic and complex. It demands that business schools be agile in producing well-educated graduates who are innovative and entrepreneurial.

“We’re asking for creativity from ourselves,” said Lois Smith, associate dean and professor of marketing.

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Innovation is demanded by the marketplace, vital to U.S. strength in business and necessary for citizens in leadership positions, he said. In the university, it begins with critical thinking and builds on the substantive content of academic courses.

C ritical

College efforts already under way include revamping the MBA curriculum, introducing an international business major for undergraduates, expanding water business activities and nurturing enthusiastic student entrepreneurs. Teachers are surprising students with unusual assignments as they adjust traditional courses to foster innovative thinking.

Some of the smartest and most creative thinkers on campus

A faculty leader in innovation efforts, he attended national seminars last fall on critical thinking and innovation sponsored by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, the global leader in management education and highly respected accrediting agency.

thinking and innovation

Most people misunderstand innovation, equating it with invention, Bronson said.

“In reality, innovation is anything that you do better than the competition, from a business perspective,’’ he said. That includes new products, of course, but perhaps also a new process, a new way of treating employees, or a new way of marketing goods and services.

“Anything that you can figure out how to do better in your company is essentially innovation, in a business context,’’ he said. “But how we teach people to be creative, how we teach

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Lois Smith, professor of marketing and associate dean of the College of Business and Economics

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James Bronson, professor of management and chair of the Management Department

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people to be innovative, is somewhat problematic.”

It means teaching people to look at everything a company does, thinking about it critically and asking: Is this the best way? Is there a better way? Could the product be better?

Looking at any successful company that’s an industry leader reveals an innovative company, one that has figured out how to make innovation part of its culture, he said.

Who are the leaders of these companies? They could be UW-Whitewater graduates who have mastered not only the traditional business subjects but also the expanded strengths of creative thinking and innovation.

The College of Business and Economics asked business people on its advisory board to jot down on index cards what they expected from newly hired MBAs. Employers said they want new hires to be innovative and creative. They’re looking for people who bring new ideas in challenging times, who are leaders able to motivate people, who can manage projects from start to end. They’re looking for people who can sell ideas and products.

P ersuasive

leaders and communicators

Faculty members are forging a new vision of UW-Whitewater business graduates as people who can persuade, communicate well and lead others. At the same time, graduates will continue to reflect the college’s traditional strengths in the content of its core business courses.

Capstone courses, end-of-term requirements that ask students to synthesize skills and knowledge to address new situations, are likely to be strengthened as the business curriculum becomes more innovative. They exemplify the combination of teaching business content while demanding critical thinking.

In Bronson’s strategic management class, for example, MBA students analyze a struggling Italian grocery in a changing market and devise alternative business strategies. It requires students to analyze the company’s strengths and identify opportunities.

“There’s no one right answer,” Bronson said. He guides students through the process of identifying the problem, who’s affected by it, what options exist and what risks are associated with those options.

In the end, a student is able to take available facts, form logical assumptions and use that information to solve a problem. But innovative thinkers are ready to take the process a step further.

“The real question should often be: Why is there a problem in the first place?” Bronson said. “What changes need to be made so these problems don’t exist in the future?

“If you can do that, you’re innovating.”

The vision of innovation in the business curriculum includes

new courses, perhaps cross-disciplinary efforts that break down isolating silos of knowledge. Classes might be offered for different lengths of time. Existing courses might be retooled and taught in different ways.

A course in business and professional communications, for example, might begin to look more like a negotiation and persuasion course. An organizational behavior course might become a leadership or project management course.

“We’re looking at things in a more applied, how-it-works-inbusiness way,” Smith said.

The college is considering how to maintain flexibility while improving integrated learning for students that makes clear, for example, how a department’s good year in marketing affects a manufacturer’s inventory and shipping operations.

Students and leaders in the College of Business and Economics want to build on its unique strengths. For example, a respected hallmark of the MBA program is its curriculum that allows students to develop specialized skills in one of seven areas of emphasis: finance, human resource management, international business, information technology management, management, marketing, and operations and supply chain management.

N ew

thinking about the future

College leaders are pondering the message of thinkers such as Daniel Pink, author of “A Whole New Mind,” who contends right-brainers who are creative and emotionally astute will rule the future.

Business students will be asked to assess themselves, looking at their own strengths and weaknesses and why they react the way they do. They’ll be helped to think about leadership experiences, understand how a team functions and learn to read situations. They’ll develop the emotional intelligence that Pink predicts will be essential to success in the fast-approaching conceptual age.

“It’s your interpersonal skills, your emotional responses and behavior, that also play a role in your ability to get things done,’’ Smith said.

One MBA student at UW-Whitewater who personifies the shift in the U.S. economy is Mike Simonson, a former Chrysler auto factory worker who took a buyout after 13 years and enrolled in business school to prepare for a new future. He doesn’t know what it will hold.

“The opportunity to do anything is wide open,’’ Simonson said. “This is probably one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, and it’s going to be the most rewarding as well.”

A 36-year-old married father of two small children, Simonson likes the team approach in many of his classes. “I think it’s vital, because you’re not going to be an independent person doing everything,” he said. “It’s not possible in today’s environment.

You need to work well within a team.”

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He worked on a cross-border team studying grape juice exports in Professor Carol Scovotti’s international marketing course and tackled daunting statistics problems with another team. He also spent many hours preparing for the annual case competition on mergers and acquisitions sponsored by the Association for Corporate Growth as UW-Whitewater sent three teams into regional contests.

associate professors of finance and business law. Students will gain firsthand knowledge of China’s business environment and financial system, comparing them to U.S. counterparts, through visits to Chinese universities, businesses and financial institutions and government agencies.

Another path to innovation in business schools is helping career-focused students appreciate and apply knowledge gained from their general education classes. The art history major who earns an MPA in international accounting, for example, needs both sets of skills for a top management job in a prestigious museum.

“It isn’t just the business courses that are going to enrich their lives and make them successful,” Smith said.

“It’s the whole package.”

E mbracing

a global vision

“Part of this vision is our need to recognize the global nature of education, too,” Smith said. “Our students are going to have to be able to work across borders.”

L earning

through digital media

One popular teacher in the College of Business and Economics, Choton Basu, is passionate about the arrival of globalization and technology and its potential in education.

Basu is an associate professor of information technology and business education in the College of Business and Economics.

He’s also director of the Global Business Resource Center, a college outreach center that specializes in providing strategies for businesses entering international markets.

Our school, far more than most, prides itself on giving our students hands-on experiences outside the classroom.

That recognition has led to the proposed new major in international business to provide undergraduates with the knowledge, strategies and skills to succeed in the global business environment.

It will require proficiency in a foreign language, experience in international travel and the core accounting, economics, business law, finance and management classes with an international focus.

– Lois Smith

“Once again, it’s looking at our environment and seeing that our students are going to have to be working in a global business setting,” Smith said. “They want the opportunity to prepare themselves for a future with a multinational company.

Or they may work in the United States for a company that has manufacturing, distribution or sales operations in other countries.”

Growing numbers of students have been choosing the existing international emphasis within the general business major, and demand is expected to increase.

“As world trade grows exponentially and barriers to world trade fall, globalization will continue its inexorable growth.

Furthermore, the business environment will also see a growth in competitors from emerging nations,” Praveen Parboteeah, professor of management, said in the proposal for the major.

Business students in international finance will visit China this spring for a course led by Linda Yu and Jianzhou Zhu,

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He envisions higher education as a world where students find their passion, build global social networks and focus on projects within a framework of technology that includes all forms of digital learning media, such as wikis, blogs and more. He calls his concept “Education 360: A Vision of a Global Project-Based Education Model.”

Basu is seeking grant funding to put his ideas into practice.

He proposes four pillars of support: learning communities; faculty, alumni and industry mentors; global networking with the latest technology; and online-based feedback to partially replace traditional grading. That feedback would be based on the principles associated with the “wisdom of crowds’’ theory, the concept that the collection of information by groups can produce a better decision than one made by an individual.

In Basu’s vision, students would receive feedback from faculty members, mentors, team members and others in a global social network, allowing “the crowd” to identify great ideas and improve mediocre ones.

He would like to see students choose their general education courses to follow their passion, not to fit their schedules.

“The bottom line is students need to be active participants in their educational experience,” Basu said. “You have to engage the students at a level that’s never been done before.”

He’s convinced this kind of innovation is essential for students to gain the new survival skills identified in, for example, “The Global Achievement Gap” by Tony Wagner.

They include initiative and entrepreneurialism, curiosity and imagination, agility and adaptability and collaboration

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across networks.

Students are coming to universities to gain innovative skills for the future and they’re capable of great creativity and competence, Basu said. “It’s really amazing what these kids come up with,” he said.

“They surprise me every year.”

Choton Basu, director of the Global Business Resource Center and associate professor of information technology and business education

B usiness

schools as a force for change

The AACSB task force on innovation concluded that business schools can be a powerful force for constructive change in society. Innovation is as much about leadership and management as it is about science and technology, the group decided.

It urged business schools to find their own unique ways of innovating, to engage their communities and to explore partnerships with other academic units on campus. Those tactics are already part of the innovation mission at UW-Whitewater.

Business students find connections between classroom learning and life experiences through robust student organizations, travel-study courses, internships and academic paths keyed to regional growth.

“Our school, far more than most, prides itself on giving our students hands-on experiences outside the classroom,” Smith said. “They have an understanding of how organizations really work.”

As the Milwaukee region positions itself as a world water hub, the College of Business and Economics created a new water business major to prepare students.

An integrated science and business major offered with the College of Letters and Sciences lets students combine a specific interest with a business foundation. The popular new entrepreneurship major is drawing energetic business students passionate about building businesses. The college is a collaborative partner with the Innovation Center at Whitewater University Technology Park.

Warhawk business graduates are popular with employers for their skills, work ethic and professional knowledge. They’ll also become stronger creative thinkers and problem-solvers as innovation in the curriculum guides their education.

That allows the College of Business and Economics to build on its unique strengths while challenging itself and its students to develop an innovative identity for the future.

“Critical thinking and innovation are always in the curriculum,’’ Bronson said. “Now the boxes are going to be ever-expanding.”

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TRANSFORMING IDEAS

Entrepreneurial leadership builds on energy and academics

by ANITA CLARK

photos by GREGG THEUNE

wo young entrepreneurs invited to the White House for a national event swept into Washington, D.C., on a wave of entrepreneurial energy from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Their whirlwind trip helped focus a national spotlight on entrepreneurial leadership in the College of Business and Economics.

That leadership is inspiring the next generation of innovative thinkers who are embracing creative change as they solve problems and build businesses.

From the entrepreneurship major to an award-winning student organization to a network of supportive alumni, UW-Whitewater is fostering a transformation in entrepreneurial leadership. It’s a state of mind supported by top-quality academics, hands-on learning and a unique endowment that helps finance youthful dreams.

“We are entrepreneurial by creating this opportunity,” said William Dougan, Irvin L. Young Professor of Entrepreneurship and professor of management. “If we follow the model of the university as an engine for the future growth and well-being of society, we need to do this.”

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Excitement is in the air as students develop business ideas and refine their plans in long conversations with their peers and their professors. They’re collaborating with friends in other majors and they’re quick to adjust their ideas when necessary.

They’re rehearsing their 90-second elevator pitch speeches.

They pepper guest lecturers with candid questions about business success and failure.

Students are designing software applications and selling wieners. They’re delivering tasty desserts to hungry Warhawks and they’re building robotically controlled amplifiers. One entrepreneur hatched his idea from frustration in his summer job at a grocery store.

They’re also tackling rigorous academic work that builds the foundation for their visions. Classes seek to prepare all business graduates – entrepreneurship majors or not – to understand the need for entrepreneurial thinking within organizations.

Academics have coined the word “intrapreneurship” to describe entrepreneurship within any organization – the innovative ideas for new products or improved processes.

The College of Business and Economics is proposing a new entrepreneurship minor to help more students add entrepreneurial skills to their main area of study.

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William Dougan, professor of entrepreneurship and management, brainstorms with students in an informal moment at the Innovation Center.

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“For the nonmajors, it’s critically important to understand the mindset, the process,’’ said Jeff Vanevenhoven, assistant professor of management and coordinator of the entrepreneurship program. “It’s the creative mindset that today’s problems require, whether it’s your own new business or whether you’re working for somebody else.”

I’m really happy that we have an entrepreneurship major.

It’s totally changing a lot of students’ mindsets.

It’s also important for business leaders to understand how to guide teams of entrepreneurial people. “You might not be able to do it as an individual, but you ought to be able to foster it for the people who work in your group,” Vanevenhoven said.

– Andrew Hoeft

C hosen

as national role models

For student entrepreneur Andrew Hoeft, a junior from Onalaska, working in a grocery store checking expiration dates on products inspired him to think “there’s probably a better way to do it.”

He created Date Check Pro, software that helps stores manage product expiration dates. He won venture funding through 94labs, a new organization in Milwaukee and Madison that provides money and mentors for young information technology companies.

Hoeft and Dan Fink, a freshman business major from Ashwaubenon, flew to Washington, D.C., in late November with Dougan for a White House event for entrepreneurs. The event was sponsored by the Young Entrepreneur Council, Inc. Magazine, MTV and the Small Business Administration.

Fink’s business is MacBros, which repairs and refurbishes Mac computers and uses the profits to develop mobile applications for small businesses and education.

Hoeft and Fink were thrilled with the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs and gratified that their experiences at UWWhitewater are supporting their entrepreneurial ambitions.

“I’m really happy that we have an entrepreneurship major.

It’s totally changing a lot of students’ mindsets,” Hoeft said.

They were chosen for the trip by the national Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization because the UW-Whitewater chapter is well-known for sweeping national awards each year.

In 2011, for example, UW-Whitewater students won first prizes for best business plan and best in-person networking event and second place for best fundraising idea. Audience members gave the people’s choice award to UW-Whitewater entrepreneur Justin Nothem, who also won second place in the elevator pitch competition for College Dogs, his idea of peddling wieners to hungry collegians through campus franchises.

D elivering

desserts to hungry

W arhawks

CEO welcomes non-business majors. One of them is Ali Murphy, an advertising major in the College of Arts and

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Communication, who shares the business enthusiasm of her twin sister, Abbie Murphy, an entrepreneurship major and this year’s campus CEO president.

“Being the non-business major, I feel like I’ve learned a lot from these guys,’’ Ali Murphy said. She finds herself thinking of entrepreneurial questions in her communication classes and thinks her minor in public relations and graphic design will help her in entrepreneurial pursuits.

With another student, Robyn Finster, a senior entrepreneurship major from West Bend, the Murphys created Dessert Cup Delivery, which sells tantalizing treats in ecofriendly cups to campus subscribers. Favorites include the dirt cup, with chocolate pudding and crumbled Oreos. When a customer asked for a healthier option, they created a fruit and yogurt parfait. They whipped up fancier desserts, chocolate mousse and pumpkin trifle, when they catered events at the Innovation Center.

So far, it’s been a small and successful venture as they learned about licensing requirements, food safety laws and campus regulations. They make the desserts in a commercial kitchen in Janesville and plan to move to a Whitewater restaurant as soon as it’s renovated by a recent UW-Whitewater graduate.

Finster, who transferred from another university to enroll in UW-Whitewater’s entrepreneurship program, plans to open her own ice cream shop someday. The dessert business “is a good way to learn things hands-on,’’ she said.

Abbie Murphy finds herself rushing back from her business classes to apply concepts to Dessert Cup Delivery. “I went home and made a profit and loss statement for our business” after a class speaker took students through a statement dollar by dollar, she said. In other classes, she and Finster are studying entrepreneurial marketing and business plans.

“You can work on your business in your classes and you’re going to learn so much more and you’re going to retain it,’’ Abbie Murphy said.

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Student entrepreneur Andrew Hoeft has won venture funding for software that helps stores manage product expiration.

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“The idea of thinking more innovatively is coming more naturally,” Finster said. “Now I see a problem and ask how I find a solution. How do I turn it into a business?”

C reative

program at the Innovation Center. Students benefit from campus-wide support for their entrepreneurial dreams. One award-winning student entrepreneur, for example, is a physics major who turns to Paul Rybski, associate professor of physics, for technical help.

thinking plus academic rigor

The proposed entrepreneurship minor is intended to help capture the entrepreneurial spirit of students in all of UWWhitewater’s colleges.

That transition in thinking, bolstered by solid academic preparation and nurtured by professors who care, is creating a core of zealous young entrepreneurs who are having a wonderful time.

“We try really hard to match the unbridled energy of the students and direct it through rigorous academic study,” Vanevenhoven said. “If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s critical to understand the finances of your organization inside and out.”

In class, students learn finance, accounting, marketing and taxation. They talk about the legal form of organizations and product pricing and logistics, and they tie concepts together in a capstone class. “When they’re done, if they’re serious about their idea, they should have a business plan they can take to get funding,” Vanevenhoven said.

Classes are enlivened by visiting entrepreneurs, conversations about how today’s news affects Wisconsin businesses and exercises like writing a “bug list.” That’s a list of things that bug you, which may be problems in need of entrepreneurial solutions. What’s the idea? Who’s the target market? Students kick around ideas and “you see the lightbulb go on. That’s where innovation happens,” Vanevenhoven said.

“You try to keep them on their toes a little bit,’’ he said.

Thus, after four straight lectures, his entrepreneurship students found themselves building paper airplanes and flying them in the hallways. What did they learn? To take something that’s not new and look at in a new way.

Outside class, students are connected to campus resources like the business outreach centers and the Launch Pad

The idea of thinking more innovatively is coming more naturally. Now I see a problem and ask how I find a solution. How do I turn it into a business?

– Robyn Finster

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UW-Whitewater offers financial help to young entrepreneurs through the Debra S. Malewicki Endowment for Entrepreneurship, created by the family of a visionary professor who died in 2010. She was instrumental in creating the entrepreneurship major and passionate about helping students.

It’s like a venture fund that provides $1,000 grants to student entrepreneurs with good ideas and solid business plans.

“Deb Malewicki, in her wisdom, saw that a lot of young people did not continue with really good ideas because they didn’t have the resources,” Dougan said. “It was her vision to provide those resources. I don’t know that a course that pays venture funds occurs anywhere else in the world.”

Students are connected to Vanevenhoven and Dougan in ways that reach far beyond the classroom. They’re teachers and coaches, resources and reality checkers.

If Dougan is the inspirational coach, Vanevenhoven is the bubble-popper who brings a student back to earth. “We all play different roles and I am absolutely the pragmatist,’’ he said. He doesn’t hesitate to tell a student that an idea is a bad one – though sometimes a student tweaks the idea and proves him wrong.

What if a fervent student entrepreneur wants to abandon school to pursue the promise of a new business? He’s likely to find himself pulled into Vanevenhoven’s office for a serious talk about being shortsighted.

“No matter what happens with their business, a bachelor’s degree from UW-Whitewater is still in their best interest.

Period,” he said.

T elling

an entrepreneurial story

Dougan’s coaching involves teaching young entrepreneurs how to tell their stories. As architects work in glass and steel, entrepreneurs work by collecting and constructing human relationships, he tells them. He points to the work of the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, a scholar of kinship and myth who believed that cultures create their stories from shared experiences and pass along the stories that show how to solve problems.

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Energetic student entrepreneurs Robyn Finster, front, and sisters Ali Murphy, left, and Abbie Murphy deliver sweet desserts to subscribers through their growing campus business.

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Faculty mentors from different disciplines advise young entrepreneurs in the Launch Pad program. Jeff Vanevenhoven, assistant professor of management, consults with Ann Knabe, a public relations instructor, in the Innovation Center at Whitewater University Technology Park.

Entrepreneurs need the improvisational skills to create a story about the future and draw in participants – potential customers, investors and employees.

“It’s a genre of storytelling that has two sets of criteria: words and numbers,” Dougan said. “It’s the rigor in the numbers that lets someone see whether the story is plausible.”

He shares a concept called effectuation, developed by researchers examining thinking patterns of successful entrepreneurs. It offers a method for tackling problems while building a business: Start with who you are, what you know and who you know.

“You have to be a doer, but you also have to be a storyteller,” Dougan said. “You have to be in the center. It’s not like a novel. It’s serial fiction. Every time something happens to you, every time you retell it, you solicit participation. You have to revise.”

He tells his young entrepreneurs they need all the liberal arts knowledge the university can offer: theater, ethics, history, science, English, philosophy.

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“Consider that a venture capitalist would look at a business plan and read the first two pages. If it’s written poorly, they’ll pitch it,” Dougan said. “If you’re standing in front of someone seeking capital investment funding, you’d better understand how to deliver a performance. If you’re handling very large amounts of money, you’d better be able to think in terms of what’s ethical.”

UW-Whitewater’s entrepreneurial mission is drawing public recognition. The Forbes website quoted Warhawk student Mehul Kar about one of his business plans in a story about venture funding for a new generation of entrepreneurs.

The Milwaukee Business Journal and state newspapers and television stations reported on the trip to the White House, and the Janesville Gazette ran a front-page story about Dougan and entrepreneurship efforts likely to benefit Walworth County and the region.

Dougan wants his students to claim the spotlight.

“This is really due to the extraordinary character of these young people,’’ he said. “It’s their energies and their creativity and their vision that moves this venture forward.”

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VIRTUAL TEAM TEACHING

Learning across space and time

by ANITA CLARK

magine a corporate business assignment to convene a team with new partners on another continent and produce a complex report, with a tight deadline and no budget for travel.

It’s no problem for MBA students who complete a unique international marketing class in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Their assignment is identical to real-world responsibilities they’ll face in an increasingly global business world, said Carol Scovotti, associate professor of marketing at UWWhitewater.

She and a colleague in Germany, Wolfgang Veit, have created the unusual class that requires graduate students to collaborate across continents and cultures, working in teams to write detailed international trade reports.

“This is the 21st century curriculum,’’ Scovotti said.

Using videoconferencing, virtual workspace, telephone and email to work together, students assign roles and tasks, monitor their progress, exchange report drafts and produce a final document to be graded by their professors at UW-Whitewater and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

These MBA students are mastering the technology tools of today’s business world while learning about the human complexities of working in successful teams with people of diverse backgrounds.

“Business has become global,” Scovotti said. “If we are to prepare our students for the challenges of the 21st century work world, then we’ve got to do it differently.”

This is Scovotti’s sixth year teaching the cross-border student collaboration course, which has evolved and improved each semester with advances in technology and feedback from students.

A cademic

photo by GREGG THEUNE

interest in innovative idea

She described the project in an academic paper published in the journal Marketing Education Review last spring, a reflection of UW-Whitewater’s leading role as universities worldwide try to meet the challenges of globalization.

“There is a surprising dearth of curricular attention related to developing cross-border student collaboration opportunities using high-tech formats,’’ Scovotti said in the paper, which was written with Lisa Spiller, a professor at Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Va. All of Scovotti’s MBA students in the fall international marketing course were enrolled online. They are required to have access to a webcam and Skype, and Scovotti meets each person individually online for half-hour video sessions early in the semester.

“I like putting faces to names,” Scovotti said. “I think that one-on-one time that we spend together is important, because they’re not just a cog. They’re people. When you see somebody face to face, you realize that they are individuals.”

That’s precisely the lesson grad students absorb as they meet their team members online. No two people will be in the same physical location, but they’ll have to work together as a team.

Early in the semester, students cover the traditional classwork for international marketing, learning about economic factors important to international trade, cultural differences, political and regulatory environments, ways of entering foreign markets, and concepts of product adaptation versus standardization.

They write papers, analyze cases and participate in online discussions.

Then comes the cross-border team assignment.

About 38 of Scovotti’s MBA students and about 30 international business graduate students enrolled in Germany

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Carol Scovotti, associate professor of marketing

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are assigned to teams that will prepare market reports on behalf of the United Nations International Trade Centre in Geneva.

Each report analyzes potential market opportunities for a product by exploring secondary sources of information, such as published reports and statistics, and interviewing primary sources, people with knowledge in the area.

Class members include working professionals and students from all over the world. Class is conducted in English.

This year’s teams were assigned to research markets for bicycles, walnuts, grape juice, tomato juice and vanilla. The juice people pondered organic and traditional products.

T echnology

makes it possible

Scovotti’s success is bolstered by the commitment of UW-Whitewater and the College of Business and Economics to providing cutting-edge technology that supports communication and document-sharing. She has used the Cisco TelePresence system in the past and this year is using WebEx and Google Docs for the class. Occasional technical glitches arise, as they do in the work world, and students learn by adapting.

Scovotti and Veit began planning the class in the fall of 2005, introduced it the following spring and have been improving it ever since.

“There was much more to the project than we had realized,’’ Scovotti said. “Getting something done is all about relationships. Trying to get something done internationally, you have even more complexities.”

Student teams write reports called market briefs, intended for potential suppliers of a product from a developing country who are considering entering the market in Germany or the United States. “This would be information that somebody in a Third World company would use to say, for example, is it worth growing organic coffee if I can sell it in the U.S. or Germany?”

Scovotti said.

When team members met online for the first time in the fall, she led the introductions from Timothy J. Hyland Hall.

Students had received their assignments, and some had begun making informal contacts on their own.

“Team Walnut is going great,” Scovotti said of one group, which had already created a calendar for deadlines and compiled a team roster with email addresses and Skype identifications.

“You can give advice all day long, but only when they start working through the process of getting to know each other do they realize it’s tough, and it takes a tremendous amount of energy,” she said.

Students are told to consider themselves members of a virtual multinational corporation working on Project EOS, which stands for Export Opportunity Survey. It also represents Eos, the Greek goddess of dawn, because “we’re breaking through the

darkness of international studies,” Scovotti said.

Scovotti served as president of an international telecommunications carrier before earning a Ph.D. and moving to academia, where her research focuses on virtual teamwork and team cohesion. Both skill sets enhance her leadership of the international marketing course.

L earning

the magic of teamwork

Students are learning how to collect and explain market data, and they’re honing their technology skills, but it’s the human factors that they also need to master for future professional success.

“They’re learning about teams. That’s the magic behind this,’’ Scovotti said. “We’re preparing students to be able to work effectively in distributed teams,’’ which means teams with members in far-flung locations.

Business graduates will find the knowledge valuable in all types of jobs, not just with large multinational corporations.

Even those companies are using videoconferencing and other technology to save money and time on travel.

Alumni have told Scovotti the experience has been useful in dealing with colleagues from diverse backgrounds.

“You get to work with people who grew up in different places, with different values, who speak different languages,” she said. “You have to produce something. It’s a team.”

Scovotti will be teaching at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences in Germany for the next academic year, possibly as a Fulbright scholar. She’ll handle the international marketing class from the European end as Associate Professor Maxwell Hsu teaches it at UW-Whitewater.

She also hopes to find faculty members in Germany who are interested in creating similar collaborative assignments with UW-Whitewater in other subjects, perhaps in economics, management, strategy and entrepreneurship.

In her Fulbright application, Scovotti notes that “academia has done little to prepare students for the complexities associated with teamwork that spans spatial, temporal and cultural boundaries found in today’s work world.’’

At UW-Whitewater, however, MBA students are graduating with experience in virtual teamwork across space and time in ways that prepare them for leadership in the global economy.

“This provides students with a level of exposure and a level of experience you can’t get in a typical classroom,” Scovotti said. “It’s the difference between book learning and experiential learning.”

“This has so many more complexities than putting together a traditional class, even an online class,” Scovotti said. “But our mission is to prepare our students for the work world they’re going to face. This is really for them.”

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W O R L D W AT E R H U B

UW-Whitewater makes global connections in the business of water

by ANITA CLARK

usiness students and faculty members are immersing themselves in water activities as the College of Business and Economics expands its focus on the business of water.

As Milwaukee positions itself as a world water hub, UWWhitewater is providing innovative and creative contributions to the growing regional cluster of freshwater businesses. From the new water business minor to the combined science-business degree with a water emphasis, the university is educating the future water workforce.

Students are busy with internships in water programs here and abroad. An Institute for Water Business is being proposed for campus, and partnerships are thriving between the university and community members.

A focus on water and energy issues helped UW-Whitewater win nearly $1 million in a federal economic development grant with four other Wisconsin schools. Students and faculty members are taking leadership roles as the Eighth Annual Green Energy Summit arrives in March in Milwaukee.

Enthusastic students led the way in creating the first student Water Council, an organization that has inspired chapters on four other state campuses.

“We’re doing this because it matters,’’ said Meghan Jensen, a graduate student in marketing and management and founder

photo by GREGG THEUNE

of the student Water Council. “It’s students saying, ‘Hey, this is an issue that’s important.’ We’re making a huge step in the water business.”

Andrew Smits ’10, UW-Whitewater’s first water graduate in the business-science major, landed his dream job with Ecolab, a global company with headquarters in St. Paul, Minn.

He’s an account manager for a region of northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, visiting large dairy plants and other users of his company’s water treatment products. He loves his job and thinks UW-Whitewater prepared him well.

“I never thought I would do a chemical titration ever again after my chemistry classes,” Smits said. “Now I carry a chemical set and do all sorts of titrations.”

Recent business water news includes: Economic development. A grant of $970,000 to foster innovation and create jobs was awarded to a collaborative effort that includes UW-Whitewater. The five-year grant came from the U.S. Economic Development Administration under its University Center Program.

“They recognize that universities are places of thought leadership,’’ said Linda Reid, associate professor of law and water business program coordinator at UW-Whitewater. “We focus on capacity-building within the region.”

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The University Center Program promotes regional economic development by using universities to help local governments and nonprofit organizations. Grant funding will support assistance efforts targeted to research commercialization, workforce development and entrepreneurship.

Water and energy are expected to be a priority for the Wisconsin project, which also includes the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Marquette University, UW-Parkside and UW-Milwaukee.

The first Wisconsin project will be creating a comprehensive source of information for “one-stop shopping” about assistance available to people with new business or product ideas, Reid said.

When it awarded the grant, the Economic Development Administration said universities are able to leverage assets that help move ideas from the lab to the consumer market and support strategies that allow businesses to expand.

Institute of Water Business. A proposal is being developed to create a campus program that would embrace water business efforts, facilitate outreach and community activities and provide advising and career counseling for water business students. It could offer continuing education opportunities on such issues as environmental accounting and water law and policy, promote awareness of water issues and work with other successful centers on campus, including the Global Business Resource Center and the Fiscal and Economic Research Center.

It also could foster collaboration with entrepreneurial activities at the Innovation Center at Whitewater University Technology Park.

International interns. Three MBA students spent last summer in Singapore working as interns with the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance at the National University of Singapore. One of them, Jensen, helped create the urban sustainability display for Singapore International Water Week and participated in the opening of the Aquatic Science Centre, meeting with researchers to plan posters, websites and Facebook materials.

“It made me realize that Milwaukee is definitely on its way to becoming a world water hub,” Jensen said. “That experience helped prepare me to see a broader sense of the water industry and compare it to what we’re doing in Milwaukee. UW-Whitewater definitely fits in.”

She’s also a global communications intern at Badger Meter, the Milwaukee company headed by UW-Whitewater business alumnus Richard Meeusen, whose vision helped inspire the university to create its water business programs.

Educational excellence. When a Milwaukee nonprofit group was looking for meaningful examples of hands-on student learning, it turned to UW-Whitewater and its water programs. Representatives of the Great Lakes Constructivist Consortium, which advocates learner-centered education, made a video that included students collecting water samples from Whitewater Creek and cleaning up Lake Michigan beaches.

The group’s fall showcase event was called “Water: Dive into the Possibilities” and included two water business students from UW-Whitewater.

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UW-Whitewater Water Council. Founded just last year, the student organization is thriving. UW-Whitewater students toured Sweet Water Organics, an urban vegetable and fish farm in Milwaukee, and visited the School of Freshwater Sciences at UW-Milwaukee. They also volunteered as Milwaukee hosted the fifth annual Water Summit, which draws hundreds of people focused on the energy, economic and environmental issues of water.

Lisa Sasso, a senior from Nashotah and this year’s president, said the council helps connect students to internships, water professionals and real-world experiences. She interned last summer with the Milwaukee Water Council and plans to attend graduate school after receiving her business degree this spring in the business-science water program.

Rock River Basin. UW-Whitewater is working with UWExtension and municipalities within the 10 counties of the Rock River Basin to be chosen for the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge.

The competitive grant program provides $50 million in IBM expertise to help communities explore challenges that affect the lives of citizens.

World water issues. This summer’s travel study trip to Ireland filled up quickly with UW-Whitewater students eager to explore issues of sustainability and water. They’ll attend a lecture

by Owen McIntyre, an expert on international water law at University College in Cork, and visit the IBM Water Management Centre of Excellence in Dublin.

Community survey. New automated water meters in the city of Whitewater provide timely data on water consumption with updates every six hours. This allows quick detection of leaks and helps residents better understand how much water they’re using.

Researchers from UW-Whitewater will be surveying city residents this spring about their water usage and their attitudes and beliefs regarding water. It’s the first stage of a multi-year study of residential water use. Businesses will be surveyed this summer.

Finding out “what really motivates water conservation’’ is the goal of the research, Reid said. She is conducting the study with Eric Compas, assistant professor of geography and geology in the College of Letters and Sciences and director of the Geographic Information Systems Center.

Their work was developed with a College of Business and Economics grant intended to encourage cross-college collaboration. They’re also collaborating with the city of Whitewater, Marquette University and H2Oscore.com, a Milwaukee project that addresses water awareness by using data and Web and social media applications.

Campus sustainability. UW-Whitewater is installing water bottle filling stations to encourage use of reusable containers and offer access to filtered drinking water. Stations have opened in the Williams Center, the James R. Connor University Center, Hyer Hall and several residence halls.

Dual-flush toilets that conserve water have been installed in Timothy J. Hyland Hall, home of the College of Business and Economics.

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W I S C O N S I N I N N O VAT I O N S E R V I C E C E N T E R

From ideas to opportunities

by ANITA CLARK

hen an inventor has a brainstorm, the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center is ready to help.

“We get the tinkerers working in their basements or garages.

We get engineers with extensive experience and capabilities who may have access to laboratories. We get the scientists.

We get applications from federal labs,” said Ronald “Bud” Gayhart, director of the center.

All inventors are welcome at the center, which will help them explore patent issues, evaluate the marketplace and craft an innovative idea into an entrepreneurial success.

The Wisconsin Innovation Service Center is one of the business outreach centers of the College of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, which prides itself on being a resource for economic development.

WISC fosters innovation and entrepreneurial leadership by helping inventors bridge the gap between a bright idea and marketplace realities. Students play key roles as the center serves clients worldwide; one report recently went to a client in Austria, who heard about WISC through word of mouth.

“We do a lot of work in new product assessment, targeted to the inventor,” Gayhart said. “We encourage the inventor to

photo by GREGG THEUNE

come to us early with the idea.”

WISC offers two key assessments. First, it will research patents, making sure an idea is unique and patentable. That not only avoids patent infringement problems, but also helps the inventor understand the value of his product.

Second, WISC will gather impartial market information.

What competitors are out there? What’s the pricing structure?

Is the market growing, flat or declining? How many consumers will care?

“Understanding what the market opportunity looks like is extremely important,” Gayhart said.

The center maintains a database of about 1,200 consultants who are experts in a vast array of industries, a selection so extensive that WISC has never had an assessment request it couldn’t fill, Gayhart said.

Industry experts often recommend design modifications to improve the use or cost of a product or help it move more quickly to the market.

Another assurance for inventors: “All of our work is bound by confidentiality agreements,” Gayhart said. “All employees sign them, including students. Confidentiality is stressed at all times within the office.”

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Ronald “Bud” Gayhart, Director Wisconsin Innovation Service Center UW-Whitewater

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Sometimes WISC delivers bad news, but it’s important for an inventor to hear it early. “It may help you understand this is not where you want to be going,” Gayhart said.

We do a lot of work in new product assessment, targeted to the inventor. We encourage the inventor to come to us early with the idea.

– Bud Gayhart

WISC also offers diversification assessments, a service born in 2007 when an economic development agency in Michigan sought help for suppliers in the Detroit area devastated by the decline of the auto industry.

In those companies and others, WISC often finds business people focused on serving one or two big customers and not seeking other markets. If the big customer suddenly disappears, the crisis could destroy the business.

“Typically what we find is many of these businesses are extremely good at reacting, but they are not proactive when it comes to seeking new sales opportunities,’’ Gayhart said.

WISC analyzes the company, its capabilities, current markets, products, quality standards, materials and everything else it can find to understand its business from a market perspective.

Then the center looks at 15 industry clusters, contacts major manufacturers and looks for niche sectors and emerging hot spots, “what’s starting to bubble right now,” Gayhart said.

Even declining sectors offer opportunities.

WISC provides each business with a list of potential new customers, complete with contact information. It’s up to the business to take action – and they do.

All 94 Michigan companies that were assessed have landed contracts in new industry sectors, Gayhart said, and about 60 percent won multiple new contracts.

WISC is doing the same thing closer to home under the $5.9 million federal State of Ingenuity grant for economic development in four counties in Wisconsin and two in Illinois. More than 10 studies have been delivered in Rock County, and about 10 more are under way in other counties, with a goal of 33 studies in three years.

“This is basically providing them with strategic planning,’’ Gayhart said.

WISC is looking forward to its yearly gathering of inventors and entrepreneurs at the 12th annual Ideas to Profits Conference in Green Bay April 19 and 20. (See www.ideas2profits.org for details.) Topics include business innovation, invention development and funding solutions, and a trade show has been added this year.

“It’s one of those connecting points, one of those lightning rods, that allows two groups to get together and kind of crosspollinate,” Gayhart said. “That’s invaluable.”

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c l a ss not es

Peter Ells ’87

p r o f il e s

taking the lead in global software licensing

Peter Ells demonstrated his competitive spirit by playing club hockey while he developed his business skills with a marketing degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

That combination of talents has helped him rise to a key leadership position at SoftwareONE, a rapidly growing global company that specializes in software licensing and software asset management. Ells is the company’s director of strategic alliances for the United States.

SoftwareONE has been recognized as a top licensing solutions provider. Revenue has grown from $14 million in 2003, when Ells joined the company, to an estimated $1.4 billion in 2011. Employment has grown to about 150 people in SoftwareONE’s U.S. headquarters in New Berlin and about 650 in 45 countries worldwide.

Ells is responsible for relationships with major software publishers, working with such companies as Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec and VMware. He also oversees the marketing team and helped create the company’s award-winning VARassist partner program with IT service providers.

He considers himself fortunate to have landed in the IT industry. His work is intense and challenging.

“The business we’re in, information technology, changes very quickly.

So, to stay successful, you have to have the entrepreneurial spirit to adapt, change your methodology and work with the various publishers to maintain your success,” Ells said. “You can’t stay stagnant. You have to keep on top of everything.”

His first job after college was selling telephone systems. Then he moved on to computer sales at a time when the IT industry needed good communicators with sales skills who could solve business problems.

In his first assignment at SoftwareONE, Ells established Microsoft authorization as a Large Account Reseller, a significant achievement for his company. SoftwareONE is now Microsoft’s fifth largest Large Account Reseller worldwide in terms of revenue.

Ells

Graduates of UW-Whitewater are well-represented at SoftwareONE, with about 20 Warhawk employees in New Berlin. That reflects the quality of the College of Business and Economics, particularly in accounting and management computer systems, and graduates with “well-rounded Midwestern values’’ who are good at sales, Ells said.

His own competitive spirit flourishes in his work, on the golf course and as he plays recreational hockey for O’Donoghue’s, an Irish pub in Elm Grove.

His company looks for employees with a marketing, accounting and IT background who understand finance, can communicate with customers and “have that competitive spirit to want to win, as an athlete does,” Ells said.

Ells met his wife, then Jodi DuChateau, in Carlson Hall when both were UW-Whitewater juniors. They have three children, Josh, a Warhawk freshman; Ryan, a high school sophomore; and Kelly, a seventh grader.

– Anita Clark

class notes

1972

a national organization that provides members with education and collaborative support.

physical plant in charge of facilities planning and construction at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga.

Mark Danielski has been named manager of the

Ron Ulvog has been named associate director of

1980

Carl Heigl has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for graduates of distinction at Horlick High School in Racine.

1982

Peter Hans of Sussex has been elected president of

the State and Local Government Benefits Association,

Appleton office of the Batley CPA firm.

Liz Weber, a leadership consultant based in

Greencastle, Pa., has released her fourth book, “Something Needs to Change Around Here: The Five Stages to Leveraging Your Leadership.”

Diane Welsh of McFarland joined the law firm of von

1983

Briesen & Roper as a shareholder.

Mark Behrens has been named president of Racine-

based Johnson Insurance Services.

1985

Rajendra Ghogale recently joined Takasago

1984

David Suleski has been named chief financial officer

for Rare Element Resources, a mineral resource company in Lakewood, Colo.

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International Corp. as its managing director for India and South Asia. He also serves on the board of directors of the Spices Board of India.

building a business on stem cell science

Beth Donley ’93

Ask Beth Donley to recall her fondest memories of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and time spent at the University Center quickly comes to mind.

Donley, CEO of Madison technology company Stemina Biomarker Discovery, remembers the welcoming environment that greeted her and husband Brian after evening classes. Donley earned an MBA in finance from UW-Whitewater while her husband earned a master’s degree in accounting.

“We really enjoyed going to UW-Whitewater for our graduate school and the evening classes made it possible to continue working,” said Donley, who was a lender at U.S. Bank. “We’d stop at the student center after class before going home. We didn’t have kids yet, so life was simple.”

Since then, Donley’s life has been anything but simple as she has taken on a series of daunting professional challenges made possible by rigorous academic preparation. In addition to her MBA, Donley holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a master of science from UW-Madison.

She served as general counsel for the Wisconsin Donley Alumni Research Foundation and managing director of WiSys Technology Foundation, which handles patents and licensing for UW-Whitewater.

From this vantage point, she identified a promising technology created at UW-Madison by Gabriela Cezar that uses stem cells and a science called metabolomics to discover biomarkers for chemical safety screening and diagnostic products.

Donley and Cezar founded Stemina in 2007. It has taken four years and several million dollars to ready the technology for the marketplace, and, along the way, Donley has gained more than a few valuable insights.

“If you’re the kind of person who needs to have everything buttoned up, you’re not meant to start a company,” she said. “But, if you like to get into the pool and start to swim and figure out what works from there,

you have some potential for entrepreneurship.”

So far, the company has navigated the early challenges by raising $4.6 million from investors. With 13 employees and a growing number of commercial contracts, Stemina recently posted its first quarterly profit and Donley expects more good news ahead.

“Our first product is a test that uses human embryonic stem cells to screen drug candidates and chemicals to determine their potential to cause birth defects if a woman is exposed during pregnancy,” Donley said. “ With an international focus on more predictive testing, we know there is a lot more opportunity out there.”

– Jennifer Sereno

class notes

1986

1988

1991

developed the Atti2ude Custom Spirit Wear necklace.

athletics director for marketing and public relations at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

president at Kahler Slater, the architecture and design firm. She has also been named to the advisory board for the College of Business and Economics at UWWhitewater.

Tim Clark of Woodbury, Minn., and two partners have

The Rev. Andrew Cribben was appointed pastor of St. Willebrord Catholic Parish in Green Bay. Dan Defnet has been named chief credit officer of

Racine-based Johnson Financial Group and Johnson Bank.

Craig Pintens has been named senior associate

1989

Annette Holmstadt Adams was promoted to vice president of benefits for Kohl’s Department Stores.

1990

1987

Michael Desorcy has joined Associated Banc-Corp

as senior vice president, director of residential lending compliance.

John Wong was recognized by the Beloit Daily News

for his volunteer work with Kids Against Hunger and Lunch and Learn at Beloit Memorial High School.

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Kelly Schardt Gaglione has been promoted to vice

Debra Garde was promoted to assistant vice

president, credit department manager, at First National Bank and Trust Co. in Beloit.

1992

Matthew Meyer has been hired as vice president, business resumption manager, of Associated BancCorp.

c l a ss not es

p r o f il e s

Mark Wilson ’03, ’06

building a company to solve a problem

When Mark Wilson saw a recurring business problem with managing accounts receivable, he decided to solve it himself.

“Entrepreneurial instincts kicked in,” he said. “If you can’t find what you want out there, why not build it yourself?”

Wilson is the founder and CEO of TermSync, a new business based in Dane County that provides an online platform to help clients get paid faster and improve their cash flow. With investments of more than $600,000 and a growing sales and marketing team, he’s using his top accounting skills, business savvy and advice from supportive mentors to build the company.

“If we can help solve the how-can-I-get-paid-faster problem, we’re going to get a lot of attention. And that’s a good thing,’’ Wilson said.

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, but wanted to expand his business focus. While working as a CPA at Grant Thornton, he earned his MBA from UW-Whitewater and moved on to financial management jobs for technology clients at the Madison startup Jellyfish.com, which was bought by Microsoft, and at Sonic Foundry, a pioneer in media software.

At Sonic Foundry, in addition to accounting responsibilities, “basically questioning everything was part of my role” as the company regained profitability after a period of losses, Wilson said. “We saw the need for a better way to manage accounts receivable.’’

Wilson launched TermSync in August 2009 with careful attention to security, details and feedback. The company is now managing more than 2,000 relationships between its clients and their customers.

It’s not a collection agency and it doesn’t overhaul a company’s practices. Clients like getting paid faster; their customers can still dispute or delay a payment by giving a reason, Wilson said.

“We’re using technology to improve the process between vendors and their clients of getting paid. We help companies get paid faster and the way we do that is by helping them make their payment terms actually mean something,” Wilson said.

Wilson

“It’s a simple concept but it takes technology to make it effective and to make it work for both sides.”

Wilson’s director of operations at TermSync is his brother, Matt Wilson, also a UW-Whitewater business graduate. His sister and brother-in-law, Amy and Tyler Kattre, are also Warhawk alumni,

making it “definitely a UW-Whitewater family.”

His business is his passion, but Wilson finds time to play volleyball and basketball, cheer for the Brewers and Badgers and be “the fun uncle” for his three nieces.

– Anita Clark

class notes

1993

Jason Bennett has been hired as senior vice

president, director of integrated financial projects, of Associated Banc-Corp.

Jan Imhoff, a business teacher and adviser for the

Future Business Leaders of America at Portage High School, has been honored with the K-12 Outstanding Educator Award from the Wisconsin Business Education Association.

1994

Mark Fenton has been named program director of the

Daniel Rinehart is remodeling an historic tobacco warehouse into a 16-unit apartment building as part of a downtown Edgerton redevelopment project.

1999

Scott Seamans has been hired as vice president,

portfolio risk manager, of Associated Banc-Corp.

2001

Dan Sweeney was named community development

officer for Wisconsin and upper Michigan for Wells Fargo. He also serves as a Glendale alderman.

business administration program at UW-Stout.

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2002

Mathew Benson, a software engineer for Odyssey

Space Research, has developed SpaceLab for iOS, an application for use on an iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to go through the steps an astronaut would use to establish his position.

2004

Becky Bradl, an accountant at Hawkins, Ash, Baptie & Co. in Manitowoc, earned her Certified Public Accountant license.

Ben Hobbins, executive director of the Wisconsin Youth Entrepreneurs Network, received a national Jefferson Award for community service.

Aaron Everson ’09

entrepreneur creates successful technology companies

Aaron Everson’s corner office at Shoutlet Inc. reflects his high energy and entrepreneurial approach to business and life.

He stands at a custom-made desk with a whiteboard surface. Three other whiteboards are nearby, one displaying a complex scrawled diagram. He tosses a marker in one hand and keeps his workout gear handy for a quick run.

Everson is chief operating officer and president of Shoutlet, which licenses software to help companies create, manage and measure their social media communications on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other websites.

It’s a fast-growing success story that has attracted investments of $9.2 million and grown from seven to 70 employees in just two years. Clients include American Family Insurance and such global brands as Burger King, Cisco, Four Seasons and Sears. Shoutlet’s offices on Madison’s far west side feature a shuffleboard court and vintage arcade games for employees who need a break.

Shoutlet is Everson’s latest passion in an entrepreneurial business career that began with selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door for 100 percent commission. That job, he said, “really helped build this foundation in my career, for my drive, creativity and unwillingness to fail.”

After excelling in other sales jobs, Everson worked for a startup technology company and a real estate investment business. Then, in 2006, he and two partners founded the stunningly successful startup Jellyfish.com, which was a socially interactive online shopping site. They sold it to Microsoft for $50 million and Everson decided to complete the business degree he had begun at the University of WisconsinWhitewater.

He’s just getting started with new companies.

“That was just a steppingstone,” he said. “I can’t wait to see what my next one does.”

He encourages young people to follow their entrepreneurial dreams and hopes UW-Whitewater’s entrepreneurship major gives students the confidence to “go do something amazing” with a solid business foundation.

“You have to foster the creative side and the entrepreneurial spirit, but you also have to give them some core knowledge,” he said. “The ideas are the easy part. Implementing them is the hard part.”

Everson loves how technology gives him flexibility to work outside the office and share family time with his wife, Dawn, and children, Brinley, 6; Casen, 4; and Gannon, 2. He runs, lifts weights and skips TV and video

Everson

games in favor of reading business books and technology and social media blogs on his Kindle, iPad and computer.

Everson can’t predict the next chapter of his entrepreneurial life, but he can hardly wait to see how it unfolds.

“In my heart, I’m a startup guy,’’ he said.

– Anita Clark

class notes Adam Perkins of Madison has opened his own business, Get Known SEO, which focuses on helping small businesses place higher in online searches.

2005

Adam Kneeland of Reminisce Studio in Milwaukee

had a photo selected by Kodak for display in Times Square in New York City.

2009

Walter Dietschweiler of Chamberlain & Henningfield,

CPAs, in Lake Geneva, earned his Certified Public Accountant license.

2010

Kyle Ausloos accepted an audit associate position

with Hawkins, Ash, Baptie & Co. in Manitowoc.

2006

Justin Laguna is store manager of Goyer Ace

Michelle Doyle is a residential real estate agent with Ogden & Co. in the Milwaukee area.

Hardware in Fort Atkinson.

Leann Eimermann has been named head women’s

bowling coach at UW-Whitewater.

www.uww.ed u

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Alton Multhauf was hired as a credit analyst at First Business Financial Services in Madison.

Share your success stories with the alumni community.

Use the handy milestones form at www.uww.edu/alumni/success.html

Attention Parents

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If the address label lists a son or daughter who no longer lives there, please send the correct address to the UW-Whitewater Alumni office (listed at the left) or go online at: http://www.uww.edu/alumni and under the Keep in Touch section, click on Update Your Information.

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What can a large business college do for you? It can give you more alumni for networking. It can give you more courses in the topics you want to emphasize. It can give you full-time faculty who have specific expertise. So when you’re choosing your business school, look for one that offers more. Your search won’t take long.

Start it at www.uww.edu/cobe.

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