Prospectus - Spring 2009

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Dean Labh Hira

Briefs

Alumni News

Departments2

2125

Faculty Perspective

Development

Dr. Charles Handy

262832

ON THE COVERIOWA’S SMALL BUSINESS

DEVELOPMENT CENTERS ARE

HELPING IOWANS GET BACK

ON THEIR FEET AFTER ONE OF

THE WORST DISASTERS IN THE

STATE’S HISTORY. PHOTO BY

LIZ MARTIN, THE GAZETTE.

Features

3Coming Back How Iowa businesses

are rebuilding.

18Diverse Ideas A unique business

plan competition.

13Ten Years Later

Russ Gerdin continues

to impact the college.

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The news about the financial crisis facing our country

feels like it gets worse almost

every hour. Nobody seems to know where the bottom is,

when it will come, or if we’ll even recognize it

when we get there. Indeed, about the only thing

we can be certain of right now is more uncertainty.

In times like these, communication is important.

So I want to share with you how the College of

Business is managing its uncertainty.

We are fortunate to be in Iowa, a state that, to

date, has not been affected nearly as badly as most.

Similarly, our college is relatively well-positioned to

deal with downturns; we are good stewards of our

state appropriations and the funds of our donors,

and we have a very lean body of faculty and staff

compared to many of our peers.

As of this writing, we have been able to with-

stand our budget cutbacks with minimal disruption

to our operations, mostly through reducing supplies

and travel expenses, and not immediately filling

vacant positions.

And despite the economy, there are positives

to report. Applications at both the undergraduate

and graduate levels are up. We expect a strong

inaugural class for our PhD program this fall.

We are optimistic that we will meet this year’s goal

for Campaign Iowa State, which has continued to

thrive. And while campus recruiting has under-

standably declined, employment rates among our

new graduates have remained remarkably strong.

But as we know, there are no guarantees in this

environment, and those situations can change

quickly. We know that the 2009-2010 fiscal year will

almost certainly bring deeper budget cuts; indeed, by

the time you read this, we will know just how deep.

In the short term, revenue from differential

tuition, described in detail on page 21, will help

soften the blow. Differential tuition is when a college

charges a rate of tuition above that of the university.

It is becoming more common among business

schools, and it will be implemented for College of

Business juniors and seniors beginning this summer.

Revenue from differential tuition is slated for

use in hiring more faculty to reduce 300-level core

class sizes, which is supported by our students

and is crucial to improving their learning environ-

ment. The worsening budget situation, however,

may prevent us from making as many hires as we

otherwise would, until the economy improves.

I am extremely grateful for our dedicated faculty

and staff, who continue to deliver an outstanding

product to our students in a difficult environment. I

am equally thankful for our alumni and friends who

continue to support us. Our students impress me

every day, and we must continue to put them first.

The days and months ahead will be challenging,

but they will also force us to innovate and explore

new ways to do business more efficiently—while

remaining committed to improving our programs

and opportunities for students.

I am confident we will emerge from these

changing times a better, smarter college. ■

Managing UncertaintyME

SS

AG

E F

RO

M T

HE

DE

AN

I am confident we will emerge from these changing times a better, smarter college.

Labh S. Hira, Dean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 32 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU

For more than 20 years after law school at the

University of Iowa, Heckmann practiced in

Dubuque. He didn’t do divorces; he didn’t do

criminal work or real estate. Instead, Jim Heckmann

was a business attorney, specializing in acquisitions,

mergers, divestitures, and such for firms large and

small, both locally in Iowa and in the power centers

of the east and west coasts.

Ask Heckmann and he’ll tell you that it wasn’t the

litigation that got his juices flowing, but instead what

he calls “preventative law”—in short, counseling

business clients and helping them to arrange their

affairs in a way to minimize the possibility that they

might find themselves in court, dealing with what

should have been a foreseeable disaster.

And so, in 2005, Jim Heckmann left his legal

practice to hang his shingle as a business consultant.

“The idea,” Heckmann says, “was to get rid of that

part of the law I didn’t really like—litigation mostly—

and keep the part I really enjoyed.”

So when Heckmann

arrived in Ames that

September 11, he had no

reason to assume anything

other than a smooth transi-

tion into directing the

SBDC’s fifteen satellite offices statewide, dedicated

to helping both new and existing small businesses

learn the ropes and avoid the predictable pitfalls

Maybe the date should have told him something. But when Jim Heckmann took the reins of Iowa’s small business development centers on September 11, 2007, he had no idea his job would be much different from his previous career.

After the flood Iowa’s Small Business Development Centers

respond to the storms of 2008—and prepare for those to come

Flood waters that topped 20 feet above flood stage inundated downtown Cedar Rapids with water in June 2008. This shot captures May’s Island and the Federal court House. Photo by Steve Gravelle, The Gazette.

Jim Heckmann


83 of 99 Iowa counties were declared disaster areas


that swamp—and eventually finish—most small

startups. And for his first eight months on the job,

that’s precisely what he did, until May 25, 2008.

‘I could see daylight ...’ A retired school superintendent, Virgil Goodrich

serves as the part-time economic development

director for Parkersburg, Iowa, a bedroom commu-

nity of about 2,000 people 30 miles northwest of

Cedar Falls/Waterloo.

The day before Memorial Day had been a fairly

typical Sunday for Goodrich and his wife—church

in the morning, nine holes of golf in the afternoon.

The storm watches coming over the television that

afternoon were typical as well for late spring in Iowa.

But May 25 would be anything but typical for

Goodrich and the people of Parkersburg.

“At ten to five the lights went out and electricity

went off,” Goodrich recalls. “It was getting worse

and worse, so we moved from our family room to

the other side of the basement, where there were

fewer windows. Then, about 7 or 8 minutes before

the tornado hit, a young woman and her two small

children came pounding on our back door, looking

for shelter.”

Goodrich didn’t hesitate and, along with his

wife, shepherded the woman and her children into

their basement to brace for the storm.

“As it was blowing

over,” Goodrich says,

“I knew we were in

trouble—I could

see daylight from

the basement.”

When Goodrich

finally emerged from

the basement he could

see that his house, his

neighbor’s, and virtually every other structure in his

neighborhood was gone. They couldn’t find the young

woman’s car, so just walked for an hour, surveying the

wrecked town. But as devastating as the wrecked

homes and businesses were, there would be worse

news: six Parkersburg residents perished in the

tornado, along with two others just down the

road in New Hartford.

“Ever since,” Goodrich reflects, “we’ve been

picking up the pieces. We started to rebuild and

clean up and move on.”

Record rainfalls, record floods However, Parkersburg was not the end but

only the beginning for Iowa—and for the SBDC

and its new director. The storm that brought an

EF5 tornado to Parkersburg and other Butler

County residents was just one part of a vast

system, the starting shot in a race to respond

to a rolling tide of natural disasters unprecedented

in Iowa history.

The Parkersburg tornado was accompanied by

4 to 6 inches of rain, causing flash flooding across

a large swath of northeast Iowa. Continuing heavy

rains would lash the state over the next month,

sending the Iowa and Cedar Rivers and their

smaller tributaries over their banks, breaching

levees and inundating cities and small towns.

SBDC: An Economic Driver for IowaSince its inception in 1981, the Iowa Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has spent 363,000 hours counseling over 62,000 clients. In 2008 alone, the Iowa SBDC spent 13,217 hours counseling 2,238 clients. These clients added or retained 1,037 jobs and raised over $76 million in capital for their businesses. They also contributed $5.41 in new federal and state taxes for every tax dollar invested in the Iowa SBDC program.• Contributed $15.5 million in new state taxes through increased

sales and employment.• Increased firm gross revenues by $206 million.• Added and retained 4,403 jobs.• Raised $130 million in new capital.• Grown 4.4 times faster than the

average Iowa business.

When Goodrich finally emerged from the basement he could see that his house, his neighbor’s, and virtually every other structure in his neighborhood was gone.

Virgil Goodrich

Tornadoes claimed 13 lives in Iowa in 2008, including nine in the Parkersburg- New Hartford EF5; five confirmed flood-related deaths were reported


On June 8, the Iowa River passed flood stage

at 22 feet (it would crest one week later at a record

31.5 feet), flooding Mason City in the north central

part of the state—a portent of what was to come for

communities downstream. By Wednesday, June 11,

water began rising from the storm sewers in Cedar

Rapids: by Friday morning, the Cedar River would

also crest at 31.5 feet—20 feet above flood stage.

It wasn’t supposed to happen. Much of Iowa

had already experienced what was then called a

“100-year flood” in 1993; now, only 15 years later,

some meteorologists were calling 2008 a “500-year

flood.” And, in the face of increasingly unstable

weather patterns attributed to global climate

change, others were saying that such designations

were increasingly meaningless.

Nancy Barta certainly wasn’t expecting it. The

co-owner of the Saddle and Leather Shop in the

Czech Village neighborhood of Cedar Rapids had

done everything she was supposed to do. On

Tuesday, June 10, she and her friends and family

had sandbagged around the store. By Wednesday

all of the stock—about $750,000 worth—had been

removed from the basement and raised at least two

feet off the main level.

“Wednesday night at 9:30, I pulled up in front

of the building with my brother-in-law,” Barta

recalls. “We went down into the basement to see if

water was backing up the floor drain—and it was.

“At 1:30 Thursday morn-

ing,” she continues, “the

burglar alarm went off and

water was waist-deep on

the main floor, and I

couldn’t get any closer than a block away. The cur-

rent was so incredibly strong.”

Barta sighs, and adds, “We weren’t supposed

to have any water.”

THE IRONY isn’t lost on Nancy Barta: 2008 was the 100th anniversary of her store, located in the Czech Village neighborhood of Cedar Rapids. So naturally it took nothing less than a 500-year flood to sink the business. Barta’s father bought the place in 1946, then turned it over to Barta and her sister in 1985, he continued to work until retiring in 2003—at age 90. “Our relationship to horses was genetic,” Barta says. “My dad knew he wanted to ride from the time he was 13, and my sister and I inherited that. He didn’t quit riding until 85. “The three of us rode together every week,” she contin-ues. “We ate together, we rode together, we played together, we worked together. It wasn’t just a business or even a liveli-hood: it was our life.” Even if her business is sunk—and that is not settled—Barta’s fierce commitment to her way of life is enough to convince you that she is far from finished. She fought to save her shop from the rising waters, and she fought just as fiercely to salvage what stock she could—clothing, saddles, harnesses, bridles and boots—and clean it up for resale at discount. Still, at 54, with hundreds of thousands in losses, no flood insurance and no heir to run the business, Barta has been forced to take stock of herself, with the assistance of SBDC disaster recovery counselor Steve Sprague. “The longer I went in this process, the more help I needed to come up with options,” Barta relates. “I could call the SBDC. I could say, ‘where do I go from here?’ They would meet me; they would help me with all kinds of research.” Barta and Sprague developed an outline of the challenges she faced. Sprague also helped her compile information about the riding industry, which helped Barta to better under-stand the her larger market. But most of all, Barta says, Sprague and the SBDC helped her to look beyond her losses and focus on the assets she had to rebuild her life, the strength and knowledge that no flood could take from her. “I had never given myself that kind of credit,” Barta reflects. “Steve was invaluable in pointing out the assets a person brings from really doing only one thing in their whole life.”

‘IT WAS OUR LIFE ...’Nancy Barta: The Saddle and Leather Shop, Cedar Rapids

The May 2008 EF5 tornado that struck Parkersburg, Iowa, damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses. © James M. Heckmann, 2008. Used with permission.

Nine Iowa rivers crested at record levels

The director gets his feet wet, hands dirty Heckmann, meanwhile, was dealing not only

with Barta’s issues but his own. He made inspec-

tion tours to Cedar Rapids and Oakville, Wapello

and hard-hit areas near

his former home in

Dubuque. He consulted

colleagues who had

earlier helped clients

after Hurricane Katrina

and the EF5 tornado

that had demolished

Greenburg, Kansas, in 2007. He was on the phone

constantly to his regional directors, getting reports

from the front lines and asking them what they

needed to service their clients.

“We talked about it at length,” Heckmann says,

“and began to realize that we were not going to

be able to handle the needs of small businesses

for the kinds of work that we do with the current

resources we have.”

The SBDC, after all, was in the “business coun-

seling” business, not disaster recovery. Heckmann

was in the business counseling business. His and

ALONG WITH her brothers Mark Alter and Bill Alter Jr., Nancy Lekin started Alter Commercial Caseworks in Burlington just three years ago. The brothers were the “talent”— both had been skilled union carpenters and supervisors—and Lekin the business brains, having worked in management with several different firms. Business was good. In fact, only the limited floor space of their shop two blocks from the Mississippi River kept them from hiring more than four employees beside themselves for their work doing custom cabinets and architectural millwork. But then came June, and the waters inexorably made their way toward Burlington. “I’m from Cedar Rapids,” Lekin says, “so I was aware of what was happening. Also, we were doing a job in Iowa City and running into water wherever we went. Our landlord didn’t think it would come as far

as us, but we could tell when we moved in that there were water lines on the wall from ’93.” The siblings also had a guardian angel: the man whose business occu-pied their space during the floods of 1993 contacted them, and informed them exactly at what flood stage the water would start coming in. He also told them not to bother with sandbag-ging: the water would rise from beneath the building, and sandbags wouldn’t make a difference. “That saved us,” Lekin says. “If we had wasted time sandbagging, we would not have gotten out in time. As it was, we got out within just hours from when the water came in.” They managed to save about $100,000 in equipment, but the building—along with the thousands they’d invested to convert the space to their needs—was lost. Still, with the help of the SBDC, they are quickly getting back on their feet.

“The SBDC has been helpful to us even before we opened,” Lekin says. “[Burlington director] Janine Clover helped with our business plan, she helped get our financials ready—she‘s helped us throughout the three years we’ve been in business.” And, Lekin adds, Clover was there when it counted. “I didn’t have to worry about anything but how to get us up and running again, because she was there looking for ways to help.”

‘WE GOT OUT WITHIN JUST HOURS ...’Nancy Lekin: Alter Commercial Caseworks, Burlington


Cedar Rapids recorded 24.09 inches of rain for 2008, more than 10 inches above normal

SBDC counselor Kelly McCarty works with a victim of the Parkersburg, Iowa tornado. Courtesy of the UNI Regional Business Center/SBDC

the centers’ job was to help small businessmen and

women with business plans, marketing, financing,

and other routine startup and operational issues, not

with shops reduced to piles of debris or inventory

swimming in five feet of water.

Still, Heckmann says, being only a fair-weather

friend to small businesses was never an option: for

many of their clients, the SBDC was the only ally

they would have over the long haul. And it wasn’t

exactly as if Heckmann or his area directors were

themselves immune from disaster.

“I was on the phone that Friday with

my directors and the SBA district director, Joe

Folsom, whose office is in the federal building

in Des Moines, two blocks from where I live,”

Heckmann recalls. “In the middle of the call,

Joe says, ‘Jim, I don’t mean to interrupt, but they

just issued a voluntary evacuation order for our

neighborhood down here.’”

Heckmann raced

home from Ames to

spend the rest of the

day sandbagging

downtown Des Moines

with hundreds of other

volunteers. Yet while

the waters circling his

home reached street

level, they didn’t top the levee at the Grand Ave.

bridge for the simple reason that, early the next

morning, the levee protecting the Birdland neigh-

borhood two miles upstream broke, flooding the

area’s modest homes and small businesses, thus

sparing downtown Des Moines.

“We were lucky because somebody else was

unlucky,” Heckmann acknowledges.

If he didn’t know it before, he surely did then:

the times required him be more than just a “busi-

ness counselor,” and the SBDC to be more than

just a fair-weather friend.

When demand exceeds resources Even if Heckmann hadn’t yet fully empathized

with the plight of the SBDC’s clients in eastern

Iowa, the rising floodwaters in Des Moines drove

the urgency of the moment home to him—literally.

Yet it was not simply a question of empathy but

resources: how, in the face of disaster, could the

SBDC fulfill a mandate to serve beyond its core

mission? A mandate that increased daily with

It was not simply a question of empathy but resources: how, in the face of disaster, could the SBDC fulfill a mandate to serve beyond its core mission?

“ We began to realize that we were not going to be able to handle the needs of small businesses with the current resources we have.”

— Jim Heckmann


Other parts of Eastern Iowa within the Cedar River watershed recorded from 15 to 20 inches of rain between May 10 and June 10

the spread of the

floodwaters, but

would only remain—

and even grow—long

after those waters

had receded?

“It became clear we were going to have a demand

on SBDC services that exceeded what we could han-

dle with the resources we had,” Heckmann remarks.

As a relative newcomer, Heckmann wasn’t

even aware at the time of the disaster assistance

programs of the Small Business Administration,

SBDC’s parent organization. So regional SBA director

Folsom took it upon himself to educate Heckmann,

who in turn would bring his regional directors up to

speed. It was obvious they would need additional

counselors: Dubuque, Waverly, Iowa City-Coralville,

Burlington, and especially Cedar Rapids were all in

need of emergency assistance.

But that meant money. Heckmann told his

directors to put together a month-by-month budget

for the next three years. After the numbers were

crunched, he determined that the Iowa SBDC would

need a minimum of $1.8 million to support small

businesses stricken by the floods and tornados,

so got on the phone to SBA in Washington.

“They told me that they had only $200,000

in unobligated funds,” Heckmann says. “And

the hurricane season hadn’t even hit yet.”

Undeterred, Heckmann and Folsom lobbied

Iowa’s Congressional delegation for support

through federal emergency relief funds, and by

August Congress had committed no less than

$10 million nationwide for small business disaster

recovery. With a $458,000 allocation of emergency

funds from the SBA until the federal monies were

actually appropriated, Heckmann and the SBDC

went to work.

Off the scaffold and into the flood Steve Sprague, who had served as director of the

Kirkwood SBDC office in Cedar Rapids for twelve

years, had barely been retired half a year when he

got the call in July.

“I had a lot of connections in the community and

had worked with a great number of businesses over

those twelve years,” Sprague observes. “And I was

familiar with the paperwork for people receiving

commercial loans and aware of the SBA loan

programs. So it was a matter of coming down off

the scaffold on the side of my house and learning

the requirements for the disaster loan programs.”

Through a happy coincidence, Sprague was able

to hit the ground running when he came off his

scaffold: in 2007, just before he retired, he and his

fellow SBDC directors had gone through disaster

recovery training with the Department of Homeland

Security, as had all Iowa SBDC directors in 2007.

“So I had a little inkling of what we were going

to be looking at,” he says. “It was just the scope

of it that was—and still is—overwhelming.”

Sprague would dive headfirst into a service

model radically different from any he had worked

in previously, one designed to meet the urgent

and particular needs of clients under tremendous

stress. Adopting a model not used since Hurricane

Katrina, he and the SBDC regional directors from

Iowa City and Cedar Rapids established a joint

“ I had a little inkling of what we were going to be looking at. It was just the scope of it that was—and still is—overwhelming.”

— Steve Sprague

A city building in Oakville, Iowa, after record flooding devastated the small community. © James M. Heckmann, 2008. Used with permission.

Steve Sprague


Iowa’s agricultural economic losses were estimated to exceed $2 billion

Business Recovery Center, with offices in both of

the stricken cities. There, small business owners

impacted by the floods found, under one roof,

representatives not only of the SBDC, but also the

SBA, IRS, FEMA, and SCORE (formerly Service

Corps of Retired Executives), as well as city,

county, and state disaster recovery officials.

The object of the clustered offices, says

Heckmann, was simply to deliver the level of service

the circumstances demanded: instead of sending

stressed-out people across town with a referral,

officials with any one of the organizations could walk

them over and introduce them to counterparts from

other agencies to ensure they got the help they

needed immediately, whether with loan applications,

counseling, cutting red tape, follow-up appointments,

or anything else they needed to speed recovery.

“We got comments from Washington,”

Heckmann notes, “that the SBA and SBDC

working together in this disaster was the best

example of resource partners they had ever seen.”

‘We held their hands’ The Cedar Rapids BRC was in Westdale

Mall on the city’s northwest side, where Sprague

and his counterparts worked six days a week

providing whatever services they could in

navigating flood victims through the various

disaster recovery programs.

“We reconstructed financial statements for some

people,” Sprague notes. “And we held their hands.

Some who had their businesses affected were rela-

tively young and

robust, but others were

in their eighties.”

In focusing on

the relatively “dry”

business of damaged

inventory, capital equip-

ment, balance sheets,

and loan applications

after a natural disaster,

Sprague stresses, it’s

easy to lose sight of the gut-wrenchingly human

aspects of loss as experienced by small business

people, most of whom run family-based enterprises.

While conceding the

need for risk manage-

ment as part of any good

business plan, in this

regard Jim Heckmann

offers an important distinction. “The effort you

spend on risk management depends on your expo-

sure and your potential loss,” Heckmann points

out. “A Rockwell Collins spends a lot more time,

money, and energy on disaster planning than a

popcorn shop on Main Street. That’s because they

have more resources to throw at something like

that—and the risks are bigger.

“Personally, though,” he continues, “it can be

a much more serious loss for a small Main Street

business than a big corporation that has better

access to capital and insurance products and so

forth. So disaster planning should be a part of

what every business does.”

Falling between the cracks The particularly cruel nature of the disaster’s

effects on small business owners—as well as the

A U.S. Small Business Administration worker surveys the damage in Parkersburg. Courtesy of the UNI Regional Business Center/SBDC.

“ Disaster planning should be a part of what every business does.”

— Jim Heckmann


The Cedar Rapids city hall, Linn County jail, fire department, police communica-tions equipment, most of the public library’s collection, and 3,900 homes were all under water

22 levees were breeched as of June 20, 2008

shortcomings of government’s capacity to

respond—is no better illustrated than in the mar-

ket for residential rental property. As with many

urban flood plains, directly impacted areas in

Cedar Rapids were made up largely of small

businesses and a disproportionate stock of

residential rental units—4,000 in Cedar Rapids

alone, according to Sprague.

Yet despite providing housing for thousands of

renters hit by the flood, Sprague says, the Federal

Emergency Management Agency offered landlords

no assistance because it considered them to be

“businesses” rather than homeowners. Conversely,

the State of Iowa considered them landlords who

provided housing rather than “business owners”

who might otherwise be eligible for direct state

aid in the form of grants under the Jumpstart Iowa

Recovery Initiative, which supports only single-

family, owner-occupied dwellings.

“Those were, in many respects, the people who

were damaged the worst, and in the worst position

to recover,” Sprague says of the owners, who typi-

cally held no more than four or five rental units.

“The older ones depended on this for retirement

income, and many of the younger ones were

highly leveraged—any funds they had were tied up

in this property that now has no value.”

Whether landlords, retailers such as Nancy Barta,

or service providers such as Nancy Lekin and her

brothers (see page 6), the intense personal identifi-

cation between owner and business is only further

complicated by age and family issues. All three

of the business owners profiled in this article are

approaching traditional retirement age, and the

businesses they run are all significantly impacted

by family considerations.

A recovery process that is already time-consuming due to bureaucratic red tape is only further extended when family is factored into the equation.

Mike Hahn

A fire truck tries to navigate through downtown Cedar Rapids amidst the worst floods in the city’s history. Photo used with permission of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce.


Mike Hahn, director

of the Cedar Falls-

Waterloo SBDC office

at the University of

Northern Iowa, notes

that a recovery process

that is already time-

consuming due to the

inevitable bureaucratic red tape is only further

extended when family is factored into the equation.

And this, Hahn says, is only after the business

owner first deals with the most immediate

concerns—food, shelter, health, even survival—

of his or her family members in the immediate

aftermath of the storm.

“That took some time,” Hahn recalls,

reflecting upon his experience with survivors of

the Parkersburg tornado. “And once those essentials

were taken care of, there were decisions that slowed

the process down: needing to talk with family

members, father-son relationships, husband-wife

relationships, which direction they were going to

go as far as rebuilding the business—or if they

were even going to rebuild the business.”

After all, Hahn observes, while most of his

tornado victims were covered by insurance, few

of the businesses devastated by floods had policies

to cover their losses. In those cases, he says, the

assumption of considerable new debt that would

be difficult for any small business owner becomes

even more burdensome for those approaching retire-

ment and without a family member willing to take

over the business.

No easy answers Neither Jim Heckmann nor his regional directors

or emergency counselors have any easy answers for

people facing hard choices. Some businesses will

Significant areas of Cedar Rapids were flooded beyond the so-called “500-year flood level” of 26.5 feet

recover pretty much as

they were. Some busi-

nesses will not survive.

Still others will be forced

to adapt and change their

basic business models.

But that can be a good

thing, says Sprague. Many

small family-based busi-

nesses get stuck in a rut, he notes, and don’t keep up

with the markets and the competition. Many never

adapted to the rise of the Internet, and have watched

their customer base steadily erode as consumers

sought discounts online. And, whether flooded or not,

all are menaced by the storm clouds of a deepening

worldwide recession.

“In some respects, the businesses that survive are

going to be better because they’ve been through this

crucible of having to make very difficult choices,”

Sprague says, and points to Barta as exhibit A.

“It’s the frustration of people trying to select

an avenue for recovery,” he continues. ‘What’s my

new business going to look like?’ And, of course,

that’s been Nancy’s focus. She was confronted with,

‘Do I go back and do things the way they always

were done? Or do I sharpen myself and my skills

and go after what’s going to be most successful

and produce the greatest revenue?’”

Through the counseling process, Sprague has

helped Barta to focus not simply on what she has lost,

but more importantly upon her remaining resources—

especially those that transcend the burden of an SBA

loan that might not make sense for a woman little

more than ten years from traditional retirement age,

and without a child or other family member willing

to assume responsibility for the business.

IF DIVERSIFICATION is a bulwark against disaster for a small busi-nessperson, then Larry Luhring of Parkersburg is your man. Together with wife Martha, Luhring has been in the monument business for 25 years. In addition to a part-time flower shop they operate in the spring, they’re also franchisees of Dish Network and Iowa Wireless. So between monuments and flowers, Memorial Day 2008 should have been a banner opportunity for the Luhrings. And it was, until the sirens chased the Luhrings to the basement. “We had one of those wind- speed weather vanes sitting outside our basement window,” Luhring recalls, “and it just started twisting. Marty said, ‘my ears are starting to pop’. I said mine were, too—and that I thought we were in trouble. I told Marty to hang on, we’re going for a ride.”

The Luhrings hung on as their home and businesses disappeared into the sky. Bruised and battered, they emerged to discover the body of a neighbor; they later learned that Larry’s brother, Herman, was severely injured, and that his wife, Shirley, had perished in the storm. Months later, Parkersburg has buried its dead. Area officials such as economic development director Virgil Goodrich and SBDC director Mike Hahn continue working to restore the town’s devastated businesses. Yet Parkersburg’s greatest asset is not that most of the businesses were insured or the government

agencies, but the sheer resilience of its people: within weeks, the Luhrings had reopened their busi-ness in a location that had escaped the storm’s fury. And, with the help of the SBDC, they’ve obtained an SBA loan to help rebuild. “We were very happy with that,” Luhring says. “And we were happy with the dollar amount. We never thought we’d have to use the full amount, but we did.” Like others dealing with govern-ment agencies after a disaster, Luhring has strong opinions about the limited scope of relief programs and the inevitable red tape involved with taking advantage of them. Still, he’s grateful to have an ally on the ground locally. “One reason I’m sticking with SBDC is the low interest rate on a 30-year loan, yes,” he remarks, “but also the economy, which scares the heck out of me just now.”

‘HANG ON, WE’RE GOING FOR A RIDE ...’Larry Luhring: Luhring Monuments, Parkersburg


Official damage estimates for Iowa’s 2008 floods and tornados, including agricultural losses, range from $8 to $10 billion

Heckmann and his staff continue an aggressive program of outreach and follow-up to the immediate victims of the storms.

to inundate those small businesses that managed

to stagger to their feet after the floods of ’08, as

well as their previously unaffected counterparts.

Flexibility is paramount in such times.

Diversification is needed as well, and the vision

to see what’s coming—and to prepare for it.

“Every disaster has its own unique chronology

of need,” Heckmann says, “and we had to figure

out what our chronology of need would be. In

that sense, we were lucky this was a moving

disaster. We watched very closely what was going

on in Mason City, so by the time it got down to

Burlington, we could tell people ‘at two weeks

this is what’s going to happen, at three weeks

this is what’s going to happen.’”

That same capacity for foresight—of knowing

where the waters were and where they were headed—

enabled Heckmann and his staff to anticipate the

needs of clients months in advance, both those

impacted immediately by the storms and those to

follow, including those businesses that depended

economically on their less fortunate colleagues, but

who wouldn’t feel the pain until months later.

“And that’s exactly what happened.” Heckmann

reminds. “We knew these third-tier businesses

would start coming in to see us the last quarter

of 2008, and will probably continue through the

first half of this year.”

Whether that foresight will serve the SBDC as

well in the future only time—and events—will

tell. But just as with his

own professional life,

Heckmann knows that

the SBDC must

embrace a service

model that demands it

change as surely as emerging crises change the

lives and businesses of their core clientele.

In the meantime, he and his staff continue an

aggressive program of outreach and follow-up to

the immediate victims of the storms and to their

counterparts “downstream” of the flood, now in

time if not in geography.

And, in an age of economic uncertainty for all,

they continue to look to the horizon for the gath-

ering clouds. ■

“The Internet

experience is a huge

void in her consulting

portfolio, but there’s a

lot Nancy does know,”

Sprague stresses.

“Often, when faced

with a disaster in

terms of what they traditionally do, business own-

ers forget that not only is it customers and tech-

niques, but knowledge they’ve acquired that they

think is common but isn’t. That, in fact, may be

one of their greatest skill sets.

“I said, ‘Nancy, you have as much expertise

in your field as practically anyone around.’ So we

considered if she should take her knowledge, and

then take some of the modern capabilities of distri-

bution in the United States, to become the artisan

of choice in the Midwest for the repair of expen-

sive horse tack.

“That’s the definition of expertise,” Sprague

concludes. “That’s why all the professors who

retire become consultants.”

Anticipating the storms to come Months out from the storms of 2008, Jim

Heckmann reflects upon the past year. He knows

that Nancy Barta and other small business owners

in eastern Iowa are not the only ones impacted by

the floods, nor are they the only ones who must

adapt and change in order to survive—let alone

thrive—in a radically transforming economy.

The snowfall over northeastern Iowa was, once

again, well above average this winter. The ground

is saturated, and heavy spring rains could once

again send Iowa’s rivers over their banks into the

cities and towns. Even if this doesn’t happen, the

rising global tide of bad economic news threatens


In Cedar Rapids, water covered 1,300 city blocks, or 9.2 square miles

The Cedar River crested at over 32 feet on Friday, June 13, exceeding the record from the historic flood of 1929

The Gerdins are best known to those at Iowa

State for their $10 million gift which made possible

the construction of the magnificent, five-year-old

Gerdin Business Building. It would not be hyper-

bole to suggest that their gift changed the course

of history for business education at Iowa State.

In business, Gerdin will tell you, his instincts

have led him into the occasional mistake. But in

philanthropy, he’s proud to say his instincts have

been spot-on every time.

When Gerdin was visiting the College of

Business in April 2008 for a meeting of the

Dean’s Advisory Council, his instincts kicked in

again. The council heard presentations that day

about the college’s new PhD program, which

launches this fall, and the Gerdin Citizenship

Program, now in its second year of engaging

freshmen and sophomore business students

in activities that build key professional skills.

When the presentations concluded, Gerdin

made an announcement that caught everyone—

himself included—by surprise: he and Ann would

contribute $1 million to the PhD program and

$100,000 to the Gerdin Citizenship Program. They

would also give $100,000 to Cyclone athletics.

‘WHEN IT FEELS RIGHT,

While the decision may have been spur of

the moment, Gerdin says the foundation for

that decision comes from a belief in the mission

of the College of Business and an underlying

trust in the leadership at Iowa State. It is an

investment, he says, in educational opportunities

for Iowans.

Russ Gerdin trusts his instincts. If you had Russ Gerdin’s instincts,

you’d trust them too.

After all, they helped him build his company from a tiny operation

into an industry leader. And they have guided him and his wife Ann

as they have sought out philanthropic opportunities in recent years.

I GIVE’An Interview with Russ Gerdin


Today, Russ Gerdin continues to serve as

chairman and CEO of Heartland Express, the

trucking firm he built from the ground up into

one of the nation’s largest. He turned over some

of the day-to-day operations to his son Michael

after he was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2006.

His experience in treatment led the Gerdins to

pledge $4 million to create the Russell and Ann

Gerdin American Cancer Society Hope Lodge in

Iowa City, where families can stay without cost

while loved ones receive cancer treatments. The

Gerdins have also been generous supporters of the

University of Iowa and Hurricane Katrina relief,

among other causes.

Prospectus sat down with Russ Gerdin at

Heartland Express’ corporate headquarters in

North Liberty, Iowa, for a candid conversation

about his business, his thoughts on Iowa State

University, and his perspective on philanthropy.

Ten years ago, you announced

the largest gift in the history of the College of

Business. How did you arrive at that decision?

Ben Allen [former College of

Business dean, Iowa State provost, and now pres-

ident at the University of Northern Iowa] and I

are friends. He is on our board, and was at that

time too. Maybe three years prior to that, I went

to one of his presentations to the Cedar Rapids

shipping public. I didn’t even know him at the

time, but when the meeting got over I went up

to him and introduced myself—here is the off

the cuff thing again—and said, “I would like you

to consider joining our board.” He said he would

be honored. And that is how we started our rela-

tionship. And from there on, I noticed what he

was doing at the college, and it turned out he

was everything I thought he was and plus some.

Ann and I had said way back that if we accu-

mulate money, Ann is a teacher so we want to

give 50 percent to education, and I want to give

50 percent to wildlife causes. Then this opportu-

nity at Iowa State came up, so our giving has

now moved toward education and health instead

of wildlife. And Ben Allen is a big reason why.

We started in Shenandoah and lived there

for almost 10 years, and now here in Iowa City

for over 30 years. We feel that what we’ve been

able to accumulate has been because of all the

efforts of the good people of Iowa. And Iowa

State is such an Iowa university, with so many

small town Iowa kids. The idea of education,

and the kids from Iowa, made us feel that

this was the best place to give back what we

had gained.

Is it a little bit surreal to see your name

on a building like that? Or to drive down

University Boulevard in Ames and see your

and Ann’s faces up on a banner?Russ Gerdin built Heartland Express from a small operation with a handful of trucks to a $600 million per year industry leader.


We feel that what we’ve been able to accumulate has been because of all the efforts of the good people of Iowa. This was the best place to give back what we had gained.

No one has ever asked me that, and I don’t

think about it. I very often ask, “How did I get in

this position?” because the word surreal really is

true in that case. But as far as seeing our names

on the building, I don’t even think about that.

You and Ann were initially reluctant to put

your names on the building.

Yes.

Why was that?

Ann and I are the shepherds of this money.

But we didn’t make this money – all these people

did [gestures toward other employees]. So why

do Russ and Ann get all the credit? Because your

name is on something, it looks like that means

you did all the work, and that is the furthest

thing from the truth. So we struggled with that.

That was also your first major gift.

Yes.

How has that shaped your and Ann’s thinking

on philanthropy? Did it serve as a platform for you

to get into some of your other philanthropic gifts?

Yes, absolutely. That was the stepping stone

and learning experience. I think that because of

the students and how grateful they are, we got a

real good feeling because we had not done it

before. And it wasn’t just the students—we have

had numerous parents call and say thank you for

the facility. And the staff has been out of this

world. We got in a real good comfort zone. We

did it for the Iowa people, and the Iowa people

responded. And the big thing is knowing that long

after we are gone, the building will still be serving a

purpose for many, many years. That’s very pleasing

to know that they appreciate it. It really is.

I was at a philanthropy luncheon recently.

I got up to speak, and said, “You don’t have any

money, and I don’t have any money.” I got some

really blank stares. I said, “When it comes down

to money, no one really has any. All we are doing

is using it. We come in here with nothing and

leave with nothing. The money that I’m given is

not mine. If we have been fortunate, it’s because

someone bigger than me has made that decision.

I’m just the caretaker.” They asked us how we

decided where we are going to give, and I said,

“I don’t know. When it feels right, I give.”

At the Dean’s Advisory Council meeting last

spring, you decided on the spot to give another

$1.1 million to the College of Business—$1 million

for the PhD program and $100,000 for the Gerdin

Citizenship Program. What sparked you to make

that decision?

I don’t know ... and I do that in all phases,

not just in that meeting. Sometimes I just make

a decision right there, spur of the moment. I’m

not sure what that is, and I can’t explain it. I

don’t know what happens to me, I just get the

This plaque, which is displayed in the Gerdin Businesss Building, also hangs in Russ Gerdin’s office.


We have had numerous parents call and say thank you for the facility. And the staff has been out of this world. We got in a real good comfort zone.

feeling, “Yep, right now is the time to do it.” If

I think about it for a long time, it probably won’t

happen. I have to really feel it, and then I do it. I

don’t have an answer to it.

But it has to come from an underlying trust

in the cause or person you put your money into.

It’s like buying the trucks. We may buy a

thousand, two thousand, or three thousand of

them at a time. The dealer is sitting here, and I

know what I think is a good deal. And if they

can meet that, we do it! But every once in

awhile, the people at Heartland Express will say,

“You didn’t say anything or tell us you were

going to do that.” And I say, “Well I didn’t know

I was going to do it until five minutes ago!”

I didn’t go into that meeting thinking about

making that donation. It wasn’t on my mind. But

when it feels right, I’m pretty impulsive. When I

was driving home that day I asked myself,

“What the hell did you just do [laughs]?”

Probably the biggest thing is that I trusted

Ben Allen and my instincts about him were

right. And now we are lucky because Labh

[Hira, current College of Business dean] has

done such a good job to follow him up. As I

sat in that meeting, I thought about the building

and how Labh and his staff have done such a

great job, and the students have been so apprecia-

tive, that why shouldn’t I back this PhD program

that the college needs? It was just kind of a

common sense thing.

Certainly, your instinct has served you well up

to this point.

So far we have been right and it has worked

in the things we have given to. I haven’t got an

investment someplace that I haven’t been proud of.

What is your perspective on the growth and

progress you have seen in the College of Business?

I think that the thing that impresses me the

most is the students and how much they really

care. The whole culture has always been very

good and that just impresses me.

Then I look at the differences between

[former university president] Martin Jischke

and President Geoffroy, and it seems like they are

two totally different people, but they are both

getting great results in different ways. And the

College of Business is no doubt stronger than it

was when I met both of them. So that tells me

that the core of Iowa State has to be real solid.

It impresses me how strong each of the colleges

are. They are separate but in total they add up

to a very solid institution. It is guided in a very

solid fashion and the consistency and strength

is what impresses me.

Talk about some of your other

philanthropic causes.

Well, we built this new cancer Hope Lodge

this year and they just opened it. We gave

$4 million to that and we are giving $2 million to

Minnesota State University Moorhead for their new

wellness center. We gave $1 million to Katrina and

lots of other smaller donations to different organi-

Russ and Ann Gerdin at the 2004 dedication of the Gerdin Business Building.


zations. You can’t support everyone and everything;

my philosophy is you have to do enough to make a

difference rather than just being part of a donation.

When you have a big one, you know you had a

meaningful place in that whole project.

I feel this Hope Lodge gift is a very important

one because I have cancer and I know what

those people are going through. I know all the

operations I have had. And so when I go to the

hospital now I can’t get in that cancer unit with-

out the nurses coming and sayings thanks for

those people who are coming and living at the

Hope Lodge. It is really a satisfaction realizing

those people who drive here from Fort Dodge

and live in a hotel. You know you are helping a

lot of people.

You founded Heartland Express and built it

from the ground up. It has been nearly three

years now since you relinquished your duties as

president, correct?

Yes, that is correct.

In part because of your cancer?

One hundred percent because of my cancer.

What has it been like in your role to see your

son Michael take over as president?

Mike was 38 and my plan was to make him

president when he was 40. So it probably worked

out well this way, since we have a great father-

son relationship and I have been around as he

has taken over the reins. It is just really special.

I think mainly because it is your son, you

have so much pride and you really enjoy it. We

are moving forward just like we always were so I

get a lot of great feelings. He has been here since

he was five years old. He has been through the

big decisions and has the knowledge.

Obviously, you are still very heavily involved

in the company, but how would you describe

your role now?

I am exactly what they don’t teach in col-

lege. I believe I am way too involved compared

to what they say a CEO is supposed to be. I get

right in the middle of lots of things.

Have your health issues changed your

perspective on your personal time?

Ann asked me once what I would do if they

told me I only had 60 days left. I said, “I hope

I’m at the office those last 59 days and that last

day I’m gone.” I get more out of being here and

the challenge of the job than I would ever get

from playing golf or hunting, as much as I love

to do that.

If you had the chance, what would the Russ

Gerdin of 2008, go back and tell the Russ Gerdin

of 40 years ago?

This sounds awful, and it’s not bragging, but

I don’t think that there has been a day where I

could believe we are where we are. I’m always

amazed at where we are compared to where we

started and my original goal. When I started, I

said, “If I can get 50 trucks, that would really be

something.” And now it is over 3,000. It is just

doing the right thing as often as you can each

day, and it keeps building. It proves in our world

that if you service your customer, you will grow.

And that’s what happened here. ■


I think that the thing that impresses me the most is the students and how much they really care. The whole culture has always been very good and that just impresses me.


Diversity is especially important in today’s

ever-shrinking world, where your subordinates

may span multiple countries, or your best

customer might be ten time zones away.

As a major university in a largely white state,

diversity takes on even more importance for

Iowa State. And the College of Business has been

active in seeking new ways to raise awareness of

the importance of diversity. The college has an

active Diversity Advisory Committee among its

faculty and staff and the Multicultural Business

Network offers networking and resources for

minority business students.

In fall 2008, the College of Business presented

its students with an innovative educational oppor-

tunity, called ichooseDiversity. The premise was

simple: form teams of three students apiece, and

submit a proposal for an initiative that will foster

diversity in the College of Business, at Iowa State

University, or in the Ames community.

Each team was asked to consider its overall goal,

the budget to fund its proposal, marketing tactics,

time and resources required for implementation,

sustainability, and how to assess the outcome.

The competition was the brainchild of College

of Business alumnus Ha-Keem Abdel-Khaliq

(’96 Management, ’98 MBA), who works as a

sourcing specialist in Cargill’s recruiting department.

The idea, he says, was borne out of Cargill’s own

diversity initiatives but is directed specifically

toward college students.

“My hope with this idea was that it would not

just generate ideas among college students on how

COLLEGE HOSTS UNIQUE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

Successful organizations have long understood that fostering diversity within their ranks is a critical component to their success. It is a matter not only of recruiting minority employees—as important as that is—but also learning to recognize individual differences and leverage the strengths of each distinct person.

Growing Diversity

Sharon Slaikeu, Curtis Nielsen, and Olivia Lattin make their winning presentation at the ichooseDiversity competition in November 2008.


to improve diversity in their communities,”

Abdel-Khaliq said, “but also that it would give

Cargill a chance to connect with campuses.”

Abdel-Khaliq brought Cargill on as a sponsor,

and Cargill funded $1,000 stipends for all three

members of the winning team. The College of

Business Diversity Advisory Committee coordi-

nated the competition.

But the competition didn’t end there: Cargill

also agreed to fund up to $2,500 for the winning

team to implement its proposal in the community.

So in addition to the satisfaction of knowing they

wrote a winning business plan, students on the

winning team would also gain the valuable

experience of executing it.

In all, ten student teams submitted written

proposals, which were evaluated by a team of

judges from Cargill, Iowa State, and the City of

Ames. Four finalists were selected from all entrants

and asked to prepare 30-minute oral presentations

outlining their proposals and taking questions

COLLEGE HOSTS UNIQUE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

WinnerOlivia Lattin graduated December 2008, management Curtis Nielsen senior, management and marketing Sharon Slaikeu graduated December 2008, management

Hold a festival in Ames showcasing the unique cultural backgrounds of those in the community. The festival would include representatives from all Ames organizations, including Ames High, ISU and local vendors.

Peter Arentson senior, marketingJessica Huckstadt senior, marketingStephanie Wawers senior, management

Create a Diversity Connection Program to improve diversity education among students and teach them how to manage diversity in social and business settings.

Award for Best Presenter: Timothy Miew Shen Su

D’Juan Cobbs senior, accountingThomas Harmsen junior, marketingZhiyi “Jack” Xu senior, management

Develop a Multicultural Business Advisory Council for Young Business Professionals to plan and fund events, projects, and organizations that will increase the retention and advancement of multicultural students.

Fabrice Ouedraogo sophomore, financeTimothy Miew Shen Su junior, financeIsmael Kouotou NJoya senior, finance and economics

Create a relationship between Iowa State diversity associations and the most diverse counties in Iowa. The program could be used for local diversity recruiting and improve community involvement between Iowa State and those areas.

Award for Best in Question and Answer: D’Juan Cobbs

from the panel of judges at the final competition

on November 10, 2008.

The proposals ranged from the focused and

very tactical to large, inclusive events. One finalist

group wanted to create a council that sponsors

initiatives to increase, retain,

and promote minority student

populations. Another wanted

to create an education program

for students to teach them

how to handle diversity in

different settings. Perhaps the

most distinct proposal came

from a group that wanted to target Iowa high

schools with high minority concentrations, then

reaching out to those prospective students using

Iowa State students of similar backgrounds.

The winning proposal came from Olivia Lattin,

(graduated December 2008, management), Curtis

Nielsen (senior, management and marketing), and

Sharon Slaikeu (graduated December 2008,

In addition to the satisfaction of knowing they wrote a winning business plan, students on the winning team would also execute it.

ichooseDiversity FinalistsThe four finalist groups and their proposals.

“ I think the competition is a great way for students to show that they are willing

to go above and beyond.”

— Olivia Lattin


management). They proposed

the Cyclone Cultural Festival,

a daylong event which would

showcase the unique cultural

backgrounds of those in the

community. The festival

would feature ethnic

restaurants and vendors, diversity-related clubs

and organizations, and speakers about numerous

cultural topics. The group targeted September

2009 as the date for the festival.

They modeled their proposal after the U.S.

Cellular World Food Festival, an annual event in the

East Village area of Des Moines in conjunction with

the World Food Prize awards. That event features

local vendors who serve international cuisine. The

event was free and also featured entertainment.

To pull off a large festival on a $2,500 budget

would require meticulous planning, and plan they

did. Every last detail—up to and including equip-

ment rentals, security, and cleanup costs—was cov-

ered. The group even contacted the Iowa State

police and risk management departments for their

assessments and prepared a formal event notifica-

tion form. They also planned to supplement their

$2,500 budget by pursuing sponsorships and host-

ing raffles and other fundraisers.

Lattin said that early community interest in

participating in their winning event has been

encouraging. “We have several community interest

and diversity groups coming forward and showing

enthusiasm for the festival,” she said. “Which we

really appreciate in light of the scale the whole

event is taking on.”

Mark Peterson, the college’s director of graduate

career services and a member of its Diversity

Advisory Committee, was enthusiastic about the

outcome of this first-of-its-kind competition. “It

was really interesting to see such widely diverse

interpretations of the theme and ideas generated,

and that is just what we wanted,” he said. “The

judges had a very interesting and challenging task

to decide which proposal would have the most

impact on the ISU and Ames communities and

be most realistic to implement.”

Abdel-Khaliq agreed. “All of the ideas were

top-notch. The results were so positive and in

many ways exceeded original expectations.”

Peterson says he is excited about what

the future might hold for this competition.

“There is solid potential for this competition

to continue

and to grow

remarkably,”

he said. “As a

first-time event,

we were pleas-

antly surprised

with the total

number of student proposal submissions, as well

as with how much effort the finalists clearly put

into their presentations. The caliber of work done

for this was superb.

“And as a result, there has been strong interest

from across the university, both on the part of

students and departments, about the future of

this event.”

This year’s student participants felt that

ichooseDiversity provided a valuable experience.

“I think the competition is a great way for students

to show that they are willing to go above and

beyond for something they believe in,” said Lattin.

Nielsen agreed, and pointed to another,

unexpected benefit of the competition. “It is even

helping me in my job search,” he said. “I feel it

would greatly benefit everyone who is involved.” ■

“ All of the ideas were top-notch. The results were so positive and in many ways exceeded original expectations.”

— Ha-Keem Abdel-Khaliq

Ha-Keem Adbel-Khaliq of Cargill presents Timothy Miew Shen Su with the best presenter award following the ichooseDiversity competition.

In December 2008, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa,

approved a proposal for

the College of Business to implement differential tuition for junior and senior business majors. Differential tuition means that a college charges a rate of tuition above that which the university charges. It is also sometimes referred to as ‘supplemental’ tuition. This additional tuition will be phased in beginning in summer 2009. When differential tuition is fully implemented in the 2011-2012 academic year, junior and senior business majors will pay an additional $750 per semester, a rate that will increase each year at the same percentage amount as the base university tuition. As it is phased in, those students will pay $250 per semester in 2009-2010, and $500 per semester in 2010-2011. Those rates will be prorated for part-time students. Differential tuition is fairly common among business programs. Many business schools in the Big 12 already have it in place, as does the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. The University of Northern Iowa College of Business Administration is implementing a proposal iden-tical to that of the Iowa State College of Business. Differential tuition is necessary because the College of Business has the largest average class size of any college at Iowa State and teaches the most student credit hours per full-time equivalent faculty; both measures are nearly double the university average. Additionally, the college’s student-faculty ratio is higher than any undergraduate business schools in Iowa State’s Peer 11 universities, which is made up of Iowa State and other similar universities nationwide, such as Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. These factors have combined to hurt the college’s student satisfaction rating, as reported

by Business Week magazine. Key factors in student satisfaction ratings are class sizes and access to faculty. Differential tuition will give the College of Business additional revenue to hire more faculty and reduce class sizes, which will improve students’ ability to master their course subject matter and develop the necessary communication and analytical skills to maximize their professional abilities. Based on 2007-2008 enrollment, differential tuition would generate an additional $2.5 million in revenue per year when fully implemented in 2011-2012. Of that revenue, $1.8 million would fund 11 new faculty positions. The college intends to reduce class sizes in 300-level core courses from their current average size of 200 to 300 students down to 60 to 70 students. Additionally, the college would be able to offer more course sections and new courses, meaning fewer students would be turned away from 300- and 400-level courses. Funding from differential tuition would also go toward the college’s Communication Center and Gerdin Citizenship Program, both of which were profiled in the fall 2008 Prospectus. Both programs are relatively new but have been highly popular with students and prospective employers. Finally, 15 percent of differential tuition revenues will go directly toward College of Business student scholarships. The college actively sought student input on its differential tuition proposal. Although students are always sensitive to tuition or fee increases, they were receptive to the uses of the additional funds. Business Council, the college’s lead student organization, voted 33-2 in support of the proposal. For more details on differential tuition, visit www.business.iastate.edu/undergraduate/tuition. ■

Board of Regents Approves Tuition Plan BR

IEF

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Differential tuition will give the College of Business additional revenue to hire more faculty and reduce class sizes.



Iowa State University was honored with the

Top Model Undergraduate

Entrepreneurship Program Award at the United States Association for Small

Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Annual

Conference in Anaheim, California, in January.

Howard Van Auken, the Bob and Kay Smith

Fellow in Entrepreneurship and professor of

management, was also named a Justin G.

Longenecker Fellow at the conference. The

award is the highest recognition that the organi-

zation gives to individuals who have made an

outstanding contribution to the development,

furtherance and benefit of small and medium

businesses. Only 50 other individuals, including

the late Max S. Wortman, distinguished professor

of management in the College of Business, share

this honor.

Iowa State, Wichita State University and the

University of Houston were chosen from among

37 entries for the award to make final presenta-

tions at the conference. Judi Eyles, associate

director of the ISU Pappajohn Center for

Entrepreneurship, and Kay Palan, associate

dean for undergraduate programs in the

College of Business, delivered Iowa State’s

winning presentation.

“Very few entrepreneurship programs have

been recognized as a ‘national model’ program.

So, we’re in an elite group,” Palan said. “It also

affirms that the approach we’ve taken to entre-

preneurship education works—it has significant

impact on students and the university, it’s sus-

tainable, and it’s a program that can be duplicated

by other universities. We have very purposely set

up an interdisciplinary program with strong aca-

demic and non-academic components that allows

us to reach a large number of students—we

think of it as a program with multiple gateways

through which students can gain awareness

about entrepreneurship. The key to our program

is that we have administrators and faculty working

together across campus with the Pappajohn staff

to keep making our program better.”

Eyles says the winning presentation focused on

how Iowa State offers comprehensive entrepreneur-

ship opportunities for its undergraduate students

through its academic offerings—including a campus-

wide entrepreneurship initiative— experiential

learning opportunities and mentoring for those

who wish to start an entrepreneurial venture.

“We have worked very hard for a very long

time to establish a true interdisciplinary entrepre-

neurship program at Iowa State,” Eyles said. “It’s

a great feeling to be recognized by our peers as

having developed a model entrepreneurship

program that others can learn from and hopefully

replicate on their own campuses.”

Entrepreneurship Program Earns Two Major AwardsB

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“ This award affirms that the approach we’ve taken to entrepreneurship education works.

— KAY PALAN

”

KAY PALAN AND JUDI EYLES MADE THE WINNING PRESENTATION.


Van Auken’s USASBE honor recognizes his

achievements in small business and entrepre-

neurship through his teaching, writing, research,

training and public service. Since 1986, 51

distinguished educators, researchers, government

officials, small business advocates and trade

association leaders have been selected as

USASBE Fellows.

“We’re also proud of Howard’s induction

into the USASBE Fellows group,” Eyles said.

“Howard has been extremely active in USASBE

for a long time, most recently serving as the

organization’s president.”

In addition to the two Iowa State awards,

successful Des Moines entrepreneur John

Pappajohn—the founder of the network of

Pappajohn entrepreneurial centers at Iowa

State, the University of Iowa, the University of

Northern Iowa, Drake University and North Iowa

Area Community College respectively—was the

recipient of USASBE’s John E. Hughes Award for

Entrepreneurial Advocacy. The award is presented

to an individual or organization that has consis-

tently contributed encouragement, support, time,

talent, development, and/or financial contribution

to further the cause of entrepreneurship.

“It was awesome to be able to introduce so

many other schools to John and Mary Pappajohn

at this event and to have the opportunity to rec-

ognize the Pappajohns for their wonderful gifts

and support for entrepreneurship in Iowa in

front of a national audience,” Eyles said.

The ISU Pappajohn Center for

Entrepreneurship—which provides academic

support for the university’s interdisciplinary

entrepreneurship minor—connects faculty,

researchers, and students to the entrepreneurial

world, while also providing Iowa’s business and

entrepreneurial community access to resources

and information within the university. It provides

assistance to entrepreneurs—both students

and those from off-campus—in their efforts to

launch new ventures. Visit www.isupjcenter.org

to learn more. ■

The 2009 edition of Business Week 2009 is slated for September 16 through 22, and College of Business alumni and friends are invited to take part. Business Week provides College of Business students with an opportunity to network with business professionals, encourages learning beyond the class-room and textbooks, and provides a chance for faculty and students to get to know each other on an informal basis. Organizers aim for a balance of profes-sional development and fun activities. The Business Week planning committee seeks speakers, sponsors,

and companies to get involved in the event. Co-chair Ciara Hand anticipates the balance of this year’s Business Week leaning toward business activities over fun, citing concern about the economy and job market. Hand says that of particular interest to organizers this year are speakers who can provide perspective on the changing business world and address economic concerns. Events slated for Business Week include: an all-college barbeque lunch; an etiquette dinner where students can learn the finer points of dining; a networking dinner for companies to

interact with students; a pizza lunch; a golf tournament; and other activities such as ice skating, Frisbee golf, and softball. The week is also packed with career and professional development speakers and opportunities for students. Visit www.business.iastate.edu/undergraduate/businessweek for the full schedule of events and sponsorship information, or contact Ann Coppernoll, director of undergraduate programs, at [email protected].

G E T I N V O LV E D I N B U S I N E S S W E E K 2 0 0 9


Nathan Zahrt and Pete Arentson, seniors in the College

of Business, qualified for the

semifinals of the 2008 Eller Ethics Case Competition, a prestigious national

contest held October 23-25 at the University

of Arizona.

The competition fielded 22 teams from many

of the top-ranked undergraduate business schools

in North America. It is designed to “expose stu-

dents to a thought-provoking business ethics case

that they could face in their professional careers.”

Participating teams are asked to analyze an eth-

ics case, present their recommendations, and

respond to questions from a panel of judges. The

2008 case asked teams to advise the governor of

Arizona whether she should support re-opening a

dormant copper mine, taking into consideration

the impact on the environment and community.

Zahrt and Arentson bested teams from Penn State

University, the

University of

Minnesota, and

Georgetown

University to make

the semifinals.

Zahrt graduated

from the College

of Business in

December 2008 with degrees in finance and

marketing. He is currently pursuing his MBA/JD

in sports business at Marquette University in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Arentson is a senior in

marketing. Marjory Christensen, a senior in

marketing, provided research assistance and prep-

aration for Zahrt and Arentson’s presentation.

The College of Business sent a team to the

competition for the second time in 2008, and

for the second time the team qualified for the

semifinals. A team from Concordia University

in Quebec was the competition winner. ■

Business Seniors Make Semifinals of Ethics CompetitionB

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M O S M A N E A R N S P R E S T I G I O U S W A L L A C E E . B A R O N A W A R D

Shellie Mosman, a senior accounting major from Carroll, Iowa, has been selected as a recipient of the ISU Alumni Association’s Wallace E. Baron All-University Senior Award. The award recognizes outstanding seniors who display high character, out-standing achievement in academics and university or community activities, and promise for continuing these exemplary qualities as alumni. Only five seniors were selected to receive the award in 2009. Awardees receive recognition at two ceremonies on campus and also receive a complimentary Official Iowa

State University Ring courtesy of the Alumni Association. Mosman has a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and plays on the Iowa

State women’s basketball team. She is a recipient of the Cyclone High Scholar Athlete Award. She is currently the co-vice president of the Student Athlete Advisory Council, a member of the Athletics Advisory Council, and is a volunteer for alumni activities in the athletics department.

Mosman has also volunteered exten-sively in nursing homes and elementary schools in Iowa, and is the volunteer director of VERB for kids, a program to encourage youth to stay active. She has also personally raised more than $5,000 for the Multiple Sclerosis Walk, and she raises funds each year and volunteers her time to create Thanksgiving baskets for the needy. For her dedication, Mosman was named to the Big 12 Good Works Team, a group of the Big 12 Conference’s most service-oriented student-athletes, in winter 2008.

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Al Brown (‘73 Industrial Administration) retired in October 2007, after 35 years with the United States Postal Service. His final position was in the executive position of Manager, Distribution Networks for the Greats Lakes Area, headquartered in Chicago. After retir-ing, he and his wife Cyndee moved to Seminole, Florida where they have a home on the intercoastal waterway where they enjoy sailing, biking and traveling. They have two adult children who reside in the Chicago-land area with their families. They also have two grandchildren, Payton and Emma.

Betsy Draper (‘82 Management) joined the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as its enterprise architecture program and capital planning specialist in its Information Systems and Technology Management (ISTM) Unit. She also holds an MBA from North Dakota State University and an Ed.D. from the University of South Dakota. She has more than 25 years of information and instructional technology, planning, and institutional research leadership experience in higher education.

John O’Donnell (‘88 Finance) joined Marquette Financial Companies, a privately held financial service company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as its chief credit officer. O’Donnell will over-see the credit management team, and his duties will include credit approvals across all of Marquette’s business lines.

Eric Bartel (‘93 Transportation and

Logistics) married Lisa Niedermann January 2, 2009, in Owatonna, Minnesota. They reside in Toledo, Iowa.

Susan Sand Brown (‘97 Transportation

and Logistics) and husband Ryan moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, in 2004. They have three daughters, Katie, six; Abbi, three; and Sara, one.

Clinton Ackerberg (‘04 Finance) sat for the Series 7, Series 66, and life/acci-dent and health exams. He started his career with American Express, for-merly IDS and currently Ameriprise Financial. After a few years of learning about the industry he left and started his own business as an independent wealth manager. He now has clients all over the country and sends out a weekly wealth report to clients, poten-tial clients, friends and family.

Kristin Cummings Russell

(‘04 Accounting) is currently employed with Farmers Cooperative Company in Ames as a Financial Analyst. She was married in April 2007 and is expecting her first baby (boy) on June 30.

Zoya Arora (‘05 Finance) traveled Spain the summer before starting law school at the University of Iowa in fall 2006. In her third and final year of law school, she has served as a research assistant, vice president of the Asian American Law Students Association, student writer for the Iowa Law Review, and chair of diversity for the

Iowa Student Bar Association. The summer of 2008, Arora was a summer associate at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, one of the top 50 most prestigious firms in the nation. Arora worked in the Chicago office, and after graduating this May will return as a first-year associate in the firm’s commercial liti-gation practice group.

Jess Bucklin Bormann (‘05 Marketing)

has been working with JT Mega in Minneapolis since 2006. She is an assistant account executive and works on marketing and advertising for Hormel Deli, Di Lusso Deli Company, Hormel Party Trays, Fresh Pantry and various Hormel brands. She has been married to Keith Bormann (’05 Materials Engineering) since 2005 and they have identical twin boys, Dylan Tyler and Carter Benjamin, that were born on October 22, 2008.

Matthew Bradner (‘08 Finance &

Management), Founder and Manager of Iowa Home Consulting, is a lifelong member of the Ames community. Iowa Home Consulting works with real estate agents and homeowners to make homes more attractive for sale

to prospective buyers. ■

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CLASS NOTES

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ATTEND ALUMNI DAYS 2009May 14-16, 2009

This annual event honors individuals who graduated from Iowa State 50 or more years ago. Alumni Days includes the opportu-nity to reconnect with old classmates, take tours, and attend special events. Don’t miss the Alumni Days Gold Medal Banquet, in celebration of the special anniversary. Visit www.isualum.org for more information and registration.

turns to reducing costs,

especially labor costs. After

all, one could argue, isn’t

“good management” profit-

focused, specifically by

paying attention to the

profit and loss statements?

If so, it stands to reason

that good management

should automatically

strive to cut costs.

On the other hand, the rare manager would

suggest that people are not mere cost numbers to

be slashed. Rather, they are assets to be nurtured

and developed. An asset-focused management

is likely to think long and hard on protecting,

preserving and even growing valued assets—

especially human assets. In this instance, good

management should approach economic down-

turns strategically in the use and need for

human talent.

This asset perspective always trumps the

cost/profit perspective over the long-term.

Unfortunately, very few firms emphasize the

asset focus in their downsizing efforts, hence

their efforts generate few long-term benefits.

Protecting the bottom line through cutting

employee costs is not a sustainable strategy and

is no substitute for profits from growth. It makes

the firm unprepared for recovery phase in the

normal economic cycle.

How then do we approach a reduction in our

workforce? Before I give two cases, let me start

with a few presumptions.

• People are not merely head counts to be added

and deleted, numbers on a ledger to be adjusted

to meet bottom-line expectations. Rather, people

reflect talents and knowledge and skills and abil-

ities that allow an organization to grow and

expand, even in difficult times.

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Economic downturns, like the one we are experiencing now,

are part of the normal economic

cycle—although certainly it could be argued that this downturn has been

(and may continue to be) unusually harsh.

But regardless of the severity of the downturn,

the sad truth is that many hardworking and

competent employees, regardless of their work

performance, typically face the brunt of firms’

downsizing efforts.

Although no one likes layoffs—not employers,

not employees, not employees’ families, and not

communities—layoffs have indeed become one

of the answers, if not the primary answer, to the

problems that beset us.

But is it the best answer?

The most visible aspect of the current period is

the high unemployment situation. A recent Merrill

Lynch analysis suggested that the actual unem-

ployment rate was closer to 14 percent, a number

which included those people who have given up

looking for jobs as well as those forced to work

part-time when they would rather work full-time.

This statistic is significantly higher than the 7.6

percent reported by the U.S. Department of Labor

and is the result of management actions to stem

financial losses through massive reduction of

employment in their organizations.

Long-term data, however, suggest that these

efforts are usually counterproductive.

Like any management decision, layoff efforts

have to be approached thoughtfully and strategi-

cally, an approach which is usually lacking in most

workforce reductions. First of all, most firms seem

to be caught unaware of impending slow-down in

their markets. Secondly, when they do finally begin

to pay attention to a declining economy, the focus

Are Layoffs the Answer?

The rare manager would suggest that people are assets to be nurtured and developed.

TOM CHACKO

• People provide the creativity and the initiative

and the commitment to move forward. In turbu-

lent times, these become even more critical.

• People bring the wherewithal to capitalize on

opportunities when the inevitable recovery

occurs. If you desire to gain competitive advan-

tage when things get better, you need to be pre-

pared now for the speed, flexibility, and effec-

tiveness you will need later.

As we all know, laying employees off is a routine

practice for auto manufacturers—with a few excep-

tions. Toyota stands out in this regard. And it too is

considering laying off its employees, a practice that

it has yet to use in its long and proud history.

Last fall, when the Big Three were reducing

their workforce, Toyota quietly shut down manu-

facturing in their Princeton, Indiana, and San

Antonio, Texas, plants. But unlike the Big Three,

Toyota laid off none of its 4,500 workers in these

factories. While Toyota was losing revenues

because of the production cuts of the big-ticket


pickups and SUVs, it was also willing to take

further financial losses by keeping its workers

on the payroll.

Toyota’s workers spent their time taking classes

on safety, workplace diversity and ethics, and

training exercises to improve their assembly skill

levels. Latondra Newton, a general manager with

Toyota, was quoted in Workforce Management as

saying, “This was the first chance we’ve really had

to live our values ... we’re not just keeping people

on the payroll because we’re nice. At the end of all

this, our hope is that we’ll end up with a more

skilled North American workforce.” This is the

asset management model in action.

Six months after this no-layoff decision,

economic conditions have worsened and Toyota,

facing huge losses, has yet to initiate the massive

layoffs we’ve seen at Chrysler, Ford, GM, and

Nissan. Instead, Toyota is eliminating bonuses

for it executive and salaried employees, cutting

executive pay, reducing the work week, reducing

and eliminating bonuses and scheduled wage

increase to hourly employees.

Even with these reductions in payroll costs,

Toyota is now offering for the first time buyouts to

its workers. All of the 25,000 or so of its workers

in North America are offered 10 weeks of pay, two

weeks of additional pay for every year of service,

plus $20,000 in cash. Also, the buyout program

remains voluntary and Toyota has currently no

target numbers in mind.

In contrast, GM is giving its workers $20,000

in cash plus a $25,000 voucher toward the pur-

chase of a car—a GM, of course, reported the

Wall Street Journal in February.

When the economy revives, and demand for

cars increases, my bet is with Toyota to drive

away with better revenues and profits than GM.

Tom Chacko is the chair of the Departments of

Management and Marketing. ■

Charitable gift annuities are an increasingly popular way donors are supporting their favorite charities while receiving personal income.

Personal philanthropy is such a

rewarding experience once you

find the causes that are dear to

your heart. Numerous gifting vehicles exist which make it easy for you to

provide financial support to your favorite charity,

organization or institution.

In the last Prospectus, I provided information

about ways that you can organize your estate

plans, which may include leaving a charitable

bequest in support of Iowa State

University and the College of Business.

In the second of this four-part series, I

am going to share an increasingly popular

way donors are supporting their favorite

charities while receiving personal income

supporting their own or a loved one’s

living expenses.

The charitable gift annuity is an easy

way to support a charity. The donor transfers cash

or securities to the charity in exchange for the

charity’s written promise to pay a specified dollar

amount for life to the donor and another benefi-

ciary if desired. This income amount varies based

on the donor’s age or the age of the income benefi-

ciary, if different from the donor.

The donor also has the option to defer the

annuity payments for a period of years. For example,

a 50-year-old donor may wish to defer annuity

payments until she is 60 years of age. A deferred

start date increases the income amount paid to

the donor and can be used as a source of income

during retirement years.

The minimum amount needed to establish

a charitable gift annuity with the Iowa State

University Foundation is $10,000. In addition to

the income that one receives through a charitable

gift annuity, the donor also receives charitable

income tax deductions, as well. Some of our donors

find the charitable gift annuity to be useful in

augmenting income for the care of an aging parent,

particularly if the annuity is established on the

parent’s life. Other donors utilize the income

payments to support a grandchild’s college

education, or to enhance their retirement savings.

For information on charitable gift annuities or

other life income arrangements, I recommend a

brochure titled, “Making a Difference, Creative

Ways to Leave Your Own Legacy.” This is available

through the Iowa State University Foundation

at no charge by calling 800 621-8515

or by returning the reply card on the

inside back cover of this magazine.

In 1998, Robert Stafford, longtime

Ames native and successful businessman,

established a charitable gift annuity for

the College of Business funded through

appreciated stock. Stafford supports the

college because of his involvement and

interest in the college from when he was chairman

of Ames National Corporation.

“We have been very pleased with the perfor-

mance of this charitable gift annuity,” Stafford

said. “The payout that it provides allows us to

enjoy many things in retirement. And we know

that one day this will make a lasting impression

on the College of Business.”

I hope that you will take advantage of this

opportunity through the Iowa State University

Foundation. It would be a wonderful way for you

to support the college during Campaign Iowa State:

With Pride and Purpose. ■

Jeremy Galvin is the senior director of development for

the College of Business. He can be reached toll free at

866 419-6768 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Charitable Annuities Provide Gifts with Peace of MindD

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Supply chain logistics is all about planning and executing

against a plan. Mark Walker

(’79 Industrial Administration)knows how difficult that process can be in the

current market.

“With today’s global supply chains, dozens

of people touch your product. Someone needs

to keep track of each one to make sure it gets

to its destination on time,” he says. “It’s about

effectively routing freight to optimize cost,

inventory control and security around the

product itself.”

Mark’s entire career has revolved around sup-

ply chain management and movement of freight

within the transportation industry. To make sure

these concepts are carried on at Iowa State, he

and his wife Terri recently committed $500,000

to establish the Walker Professorship in Logistics

Operations and Supply Chain Management

within the College of Business.

“Mark and Terri have made a substantial

investment in the College of Business,” says

Raisbeck Endowed Dean Labh Hira. “As a graduate

of our program, we are very proud of all that

Mark has achieved in such a short period of time.

Both Mark and Terri are excellent role models for

our younger generation of donors to the college.”

“For both Terri and me, it came down to

giving back to the college,” Mark says, “and to

the profession that gave us all the opportunities

that we have today.”

Mark graduated from Ames High School in

1975. After his Iowa State degree, he also

received his MBA in finance from Minnesota’s

University of St. Thomas.

Today, he is senior vice president of transpor-

tation for C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc., based

in Minneapolis. He attributes his

years at Iowa State with providing

the basis for his success.

“It was the foundation for my

career,” he says. “When I entered

college, I knew I wanted to join

a business, but not what field it

would be in. I did complete the

CPA exam and used my

accounting background. Your

early success is about what you’ve

gained overall in college—your

ability to learn and problem-solve.”

At the time he graduated, the job market was

tough. “I got lucky when Robinson afforded me the

opportunity to move into the transportation field,”

he says. “We had 250 employees when I started in

1980. Today we have 7,500.”

Occasionally, Mark returns to Iowa State to par-

ticipate in business seminars and as a speaker. One

of Mark and Terri’s daughters, Cary, is a 2006 mar-

keting graduate from the ISU College of Business.

Daughter Sarah attends college in Minneapolis.

“I’ve noticed that Iowa graduates tend to leave

the state for other opportunities,” he says. “I was

one of those people who didn’t have career

choices there.”

Although Mark does not have all the answers to

this exodus, he believes contributing to education

is critical. “We need to help bring solutions to the

table and create new business opportunities.

“Iowa State’s supply chain program is by far

one of the best in the country and probably the

world,” he says, “but the world doesn’t know it.

We’d like to help give it a boost. We’d like to try

to attract more faculty members who will help

continue to make it grow,” Mark says. “Terri

and I would like to create an example that

others could follow.” ■

Reprinted from the ISU Foundation.

A Vital Link in the Chain

“ Iowa State’s supply chain program is by far one of the best in the country and probably the world.”

— MARK WALKER

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Steve SchraderBachar (’02 MBA) was one of the first students

in Iowa State’s part-time MBA

program in Des Moines. “I was one of the guinea pigs,” he joked.

But he is serious when he credits the experience

for helping him approach his business differently in

a tough economic environment.

Ron Ackerman, director of graduate admissions,

and Mark Peterson, director of graduate career

services, convinced him that the Iowa State part-

time MBA, with all of his classes in Des Moines,

would be a manageable task, given that he was

already building a successful career.

They were right, said SchraderBachar, now

a mortgage consultant with Wells Fargo Home

Mortgage in Ankeny, Iowa. And it has benefited

his career since.

With that in mind, SchraderBachar recently

made a $5,000 unrestricted gift to the College of

Business, making an initial $5,000 gift to Cyclone

athletics and using Wells Fargo’s corporate

matching gift to fund his gift to the college.

“It was a challenging program,” he said of his

MBA experience. “It allowed me to think about

opportunities outside the box, and new ideas. It

made me realize how marketing can be effective

for a business owner.”

SchraderBachar has been in

the mortgage industry for years,

an industry particularly affected

by today’s tough economic

climate, and he moved to

Wells Fargo within the past year.

“It’s challenging, but we’re still

getting things done,” he says.

“Marketing allows me to try to be different than

some of my competitors.”

SchraderBachar, who earned his bachelor’s

degree from Illinois State University in Normal,

Illinois, feels strongly about giving back to the

institutions that impacted his career. “Think

about the experiences that you had at Iowa State

and the professors that were in your program,”

he said. “I felt like I had a wonderful experience

at Iowa State, and this is a way to repay people

for helping me in my business.

“It’s also about trying to help future genera-

tions have the same opportunities,” he said.

For SchraderBachar, giving is not just an act,

but a way of thinking. “If an alum had a great

experience at the university,” he said, “being able

to financially support the university is a great

way of saying thanks.”

“I just look at it and say, ‘If something happened

to you, how would you want someone to remember

what you’ve done? What kind of life would you

have lived?’” ■

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“ Being able to financially support the university is a great way of saying thanks.”

— STEVE SCHRADERBACHAR

CAMPAIGN IOWA STATE UPDATE

Campaign Iowa State Goal $800 million Raised to date $665 million

College of Business Campaign Goal $42 million Raised to date $38 million

College of Business Production Goal for 2008-2009 $7 million

College of Business Fundraising Production for 2008-2009 $5.6 million

Campaign End Date: December 31, 2010

For more information, contact Jeremy Galvin, Senior Director of Development at (866) 419-6768 or [email protected]

Craig A. Petermeier ’78, ChairPresident, CEOJacobson Companies

Ronald D. Banse ‘75Assistant General AuditorUnion Pacific Corporation

Kelley A. Bergstrom ‘65PresidentBergstrom Investment Management, LLC

Steve W. Bergstrom ‘79ChairmanArclight Energy Marketing

G. Steven Dapper ‘69Founder and Chairmanhawkeye | GROUP

John D. DeVries ‘59CEO, RetiredColorfx

Jerald K. Dittmer ‘80President and Executive Vice PresidentThe HON Company and HNI Corporation

David J. Drury ‘66Chairman and CEO, RetiredThe Principal Financial Group

David K. Ecklund ‘72Director, Global Supply Chain Management Executive MBA ProgramUniversity of Tennessee, Knoxville

Denise I. Essman ‘73President and CEOEssman/Associates and Essman/Research

Mark Fisher ‘76President and CEOUnited Community Bank

Beth E. Ford ‘86Executive Vice President, Head of Supply ChainInternational Flavors and Fragrances, Inc.

James F. Frein ‘67President, RetiredHutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co

Russell GerdinChairman and CEOHeartland Express, Inc.

Peter Gilman ‘86President and Chief Executive OfficerAEGON Extraordinary Markets

Isaiah Harris, Jr. ‘74ConsultantPalm Coast, FL

Cara K. Heiden ‘78Division President, National Consumer and Institutional LendingWells Fargo Home Mortgage

Daniel J. Houston ‘84President, Retirement & Investor ServicesPrincipal Financial Group

Richard N. Jurgens ‘71Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, PresidentHy-Vee, Inc.

Daniel L. Krieger ‘59ChairmanAmes National Corporation

Cheryl G. Krongard ‘77Partner, RetiredApollo Management LP

Robert E. McLaughlin ‘60Senior PartnerSteptoe and Johnson LLP

Timothy J. O’Donovan ‘68Chairman of the Board Wolverine World Wide Inc.

David W. Raisbeck ‘71Vice Chairman, RetiredCargill, Inc.

Ann Madden RiceChief Executive OfficerUniversity of California, Davis Medical Center

Frank Ross ‘84Vice President—North America OperationsPioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

Steven T. Schuler ‘73Executive Vice President and Chief Financial OfficerFederal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines

Walter W. Smith ‘69CEOITWC Polyurethane

John H. Stafford ‘76Vice President, Financial Shared ServicesGeneral Mills, Inc.

Jane Sturgeon ‘85Chief Executive OfficerBarr-Nunn Transportation, Inc.

Jill A. Wagner ‘76Regional Vice PresidentFrontier Communications Solutions

AdministrationLabh S. HiraDean

Michael R. CrumAssociate Dean, Graduate Programs

Kay M. PalanAssociate Dean, Undergraduate Programs

Marvin L. BouillonChair, Department of AccountingChair, Department of Finance

Thomas I. ChackoChair, Department of ManagementChair, Department of Marketing

Richard F. PoistChair, Department of Logistics, Operations, and Management Information Systems

Ronald J. AckermanDirector, Graduate Admissions

Steven T. CarterDirector, Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship

Ann J. Coppernoll Director, Undergraduate Programs

Mary F. EvansonDirector of Development

Jeremy D. GalvinDirector of Development

Soma MitraAcademic Fiscal Officer

James M. HeckmannDirector, Small Business Development Centers

Mark S. PetersonDirector, Graduate Career Services

Jennifer D. ReitanoDirector, MBA Recruitment and Marketing

Daniel J. RyanDirector, Marketing and Alumni Relations

Kathryn K. WielandDirector, Business Career Services

Dean’s Advisory Council

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS


Bush.” Yes, Ann hired Molly.

(Dewey’s statement takes on

more significance when one

realizes that ex-President W’s

approval ratings were much

higher in those days.)

Molly justified my recom-

mendation and Ann’s hiring;

she proved to be a very busy

and successful undergraduate. While majoring

in marketing, she also took on these student

activities: three years of employment in the CB

Undergraduate Office, one year of employment

in the Frederiksen Court Office, participated in a

Business Learning Community where she became

a mentor, served on the Business Week Steering

Committee and the VEISHEA Central Committee,

worked as a student assistant for the wrestling

team, and was selected to give the address at her

college graduation in December 2007.

Following graduation, Molly stayed on at Iowa

State. She now serves as the first director of opera-

tions for Cyclone wrestling. This relationship led

to an interesting set of events last fall. While low-

keying the activity, Coach Cael Sanderson took

his wrestling squad on an unusual team retreat—

a full day in Cedar Rapids helping clean up

debris left by the 2008 flood. To get an early start,

the team camped overnight on an acreage near

Independence. As you might suspect, the acreage is

owned by Molly’s parents, Tim and Cathy Donnelly.

I will close with two sentences from Molly’s

speech: “For me, Iowa State is the place where I

became something of my own creation and some-

thing I am proud of. It is the place where I met

some of the best people in the world and some

of the people with whom I know I’ll be friends

for the rest of my life.”

My thoughts exactly. ■

From the Desk of Founding Dean Charles HandyDR

. C

HA

RL

ES

HA

ND

Y

Coach Cael Sanderson took his wrestling squad to Cedar Rapids for a full day helping clean up debris left by the 2008 flood.

My story begins in 1940, at the start of my senior year in

high school. My family had just

completed its third move in four years—moves necessitated by my father’s

work. The situation was somewhat traumatic for

a small town boy from Missouri. However, by

move number three, to Independence, Iowa, I

was beginning to adjust.

Leo “Dewey” Donnelly was a new friend at

Independence High School. It is a friendship that

continues to this day. Through the years Dewey

and his wife Therese have parented nine children.

All have completed undergraduate work and some

have earned master’s degrees. Their grandchildren

have continued the family tradition.

In the fall of 2003, Dewey told me that

his granddaughter Molly, valedictorian of her

high school class, was entering the College of

Business. In addition, she would be interviewing

for a position in the Union Pacific Undergraduate

Programs Office. At the time I was not well

acquainted with Molly, but knew the family was

solid. I volunteered to call Dr. Ann Coppernoll,

director of undergraduate programs, and put in

a good word.

A few days later, Leo called with the following

statement: “Handy, you’ve got more pull than

IOWA STATE WRESTLING TEAM

MOLLY DONNELLY

32 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU

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Prospectus - Spring 2009

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