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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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 32 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
83 of 99 Iowa counties were declared disaster areas
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 54 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 54 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 76 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 76 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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 STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 98 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 98 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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.
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 1110 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 1110 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 1312 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 1312 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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.
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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.
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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.
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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. ■
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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.
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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.
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 1918 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 2120 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
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Differential tuition will give the College of Business additional revenue to hire more faculty and reduce class sizes.
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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.
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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
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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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 2726 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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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IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 2928 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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?’” ■
MBA Grad Makes Giving a PriorityDE
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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
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY ■ COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ■ PROSPECTUS 3130 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 ■ SPRING 2009 ■ WWW.BUSINESS.IASTATE.EDU
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
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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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