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Business Week Events

Monday, March 24

Ice cream social

11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. - Lower-level atrium, College of Business Building
Free ice cream will be provided to help kick-off the Business Week activities.

Professional etiquette presentation and networking dinner

5 – 7:00 p.m. - Brown Ballroom, Bone Student Center
Interview meals are becoming an integral part of the hiring process for many employers and certainly business is routinely conducted during lunches, receptions, and formal dinners. Proper etiquette can make or break a deal. Join business etiquette expert Ray Angle for an interactive networking session exploring the "dos and don'ts of business and dinner etiquette." This presentation and dinner are free and open to all Illinois State students at the sophomore level or above.

To register visit http://illinois.erecruiting.com  or call the Career Center at 438-2200.

(PDF) Instructions on how to register!

 

Tuesday, March 25th

Mock interviews

8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., various rooms, College of Business Building
Various rooms, College (PDF) Instructions on how to register!of Business Building
Build confidence and learn how to showcase your skills by participating in a 30-minute mock interview. Each session includes feedback and coaching from corporate recruiters. Business professional attire is required.

To register visit http://illinois.erecruiting.com  or call the Career Center at 438-2200.

(PDF) Instructions on how to register!

 

Wednesday, March 26

Keynote address: “Risky Business: possibles, probables and unknowns -- Rust will discuss two very different yet serious risks to American business and, subsequently, to the nation and its future.“

Ed Rust, Chairman and CEO of State Farm
2 -3:00 p.m. - Braden Auditorium, Bone Student Center

State Farm is North America’s largest insurer of cars and homes, serving millions of customers. The company on average has added more than 4,000 policies and accounts each and every day Ed Rust has been its chairman. Today State Farm has 68,000 employees, plus thousands more independent contractor agents in the U.S. and Canada in more locations than Starbucks has stores. Leading this industry powerhouse is Ed Rust, who holds a truly unique place in the ever-changing world of business. He has been State Farm’s chairman for 20 years and its CEO for nearly 23 years, making him one of the longest-tenured top executives among Fortune 100 companies.

Ed Rust Jr., CEO of State FarmRust serves on the boards of three publicly traded companies - Caterpillar Inc., Helmerich & Payne, Inc., and the McGraw-Hill Companies. Since 2001 Rust has been co-chairman of The Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of leading U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees.  He also chairs BITS, the technology group for The Financial Services Roundtable.  Rust is past chairman of the American Enterprise Institute, the Financial Services Roundtable, the National Alliance of Business, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
               

Spearheading business community initiatives to improve the quality of education in the United States remains a passion for Rust. He co-chairs the Business Coalition for Student Achievement and serves on the boards of:

  • America’s Promise Alliance
  • The James B. Hunt, Jr., Institute for Educational Leadership
  • The National Center for Educational Accountability
  • Achieve, Inc.
  • The Foreign Policy Association
  • The Committee on Economic Development
  • and Illinois Wesleyan University

Previously, Rust was on the National (Glenn) Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, and chaired the Business-Higher Education Forum and the BRT’s Education Initiative.
A native of Bloomington, Ed Rust graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 1972 and earned both a law degree and his M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University. He began his State Farm career in the company’s Dallas regional office in 1975.

Rust’s presentation is Wednesday, March 26, at 2 p.m. in Braden Auditorium in Bone Student Center.  The event is free and open to the public. Extra credit slips will be provided at the conclusion of Mr. Rust’s remarks.

Keynote reception

3 – 3:45 p.m. - Old Main, Bone Student Center
The event is free and open to the public.

 

Thursday, March 27

Transition Seminars - New Event!

2:00 – 4:25 p.m. - (rotating sessions) Brown Ballroom, Bone Student Center

Making a smooth shift from student to professional is a big challenge. There are so many questions and unknowns. A team of College of Business alumni is returning to campus to provide insights and advice to current students through eight mini-seminars featuring topics selected by current COB students. Each seminar will be repeated four times during the afternoon event. These sessions are designed to encourage interaction between the two co-hosts and audience members. A networking break between sessions two and three will provide an opportunity for students to speak one-on-one with alumni. Extra credit slips will be given to students completing three sessions.

Transition Seminars in Brown Ballroom are free and open to the public. Students are asked to bring a university ID.

Schedule
2:00-2:25 – Session 1
2:30-2:55 – Session 2
Networking Break
3:30- 3:55 – Session 3
4:00-4:25 – Session 4

Transition Seminar Topics

  • How valuable are internships to future employment and how can I make the most of one?
  • What steps should I take to conduct a truly successful job search? 
  • How can I excel and distinguish myself from the crowd during an interview? 
  • What are the five most important questions I should ask before accepting a job?
  • What are five essential money management tips for new graduates?
  • Creating success my first year on the job – what are the dos and don’ts?
  • What do I need to know about successfully balancing my career and my personal life?
  • Business travel – what should I know about a job that takes me on the road?

Transition Seminar Alumni Hosts

  • Shari Buckellew MBA ‘01 – Director, Children’s Discovery Museum, Normal, IL
  • Stephanie Calahan ‘85 HR/MIS – President, Calahan Solutions, Bloomington, IL
  • Jay Cardwell '81, Accounting - CFO/COO, Board Member Sibling Entertainment Group Holdings, Inc., New York, NY
  • Erica Carone ‘04 IB/Spanish – Marketing Specialist, iPCS Wireless, Elk Grove Village, IL
  • Jay Conforti ’99 FIL - Sr. Manager Payroll & Tax Operations, HSBC North America, Chicago, IL
  • Mark Coutre ’86 MKT - VP On-Site Medical Services, Interactive Health Solutions, Inc., Elk Grove Village, IL
  • Kristen Covey '96 FIL/INS - Global Foreign Currency Process Manager, Caterpillar Corporation, Peoria, IL
  • Sakun Ganason, M.B.A. ’04 - Organization Capability Consultant, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington
  • Stacey Hart ’89 MKT/IB - Senior Communications Consultant, Motorola, Buffalo Grove, IL
  • Karli Kaster ‘03 BUA - International Marketing Manager, CareerBuilder.com, Chicago, IL
  • Marc Levin ’85 BUA - Independent Insurance Sales, Service Insurance Agency, Inc., Arlington Heights, IL
  • Al Medina ’92, IB/French - Senior Trader/Logistics Manager, Bunge Europe, Manheim, Germany
  • Rhonda Milburn ’00 BUA – Realtor, Jim Maloof Realty, Peoria, IL
  • Scott Schumacher ‘85, Accounting - Finance Director Flavor Manufacturing Group, Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, GA
  • Keith Wakeman ’86 Marketing - President, Pilot Therapeutics, Winston-Salem, NC
  • Scott Williams ’05 IB/MKT - Implementation Specialist, Micros Systems, Inc., Columbia, MD


Featured Alumni Presenters

7:00 p.m. - College of Business Building

The following speakers, hosted by College of Business student organizations, will give individual presentations at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 27. These events are free and open to the public.

"Succeed by just showing up?"

James S. Cardwell '81, Accounting
CFO/COO, Board Member Sibling Entertainment Group Holdings, Inc.
New York, NY

Combining his business expertise with his love of the performing arts, Jay Cardwell has enjoyed tremendous success in the entertainment industry. His career is a seamless blend of accounting, finance, music, theatre, media and sports. For Cardwell, a “normal” day might begin with the casting or rehearsal of a Broadway show, followed by a production and marketing meeting, continue with his oversight of merger and acquisitions and Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and end ringside along with corporate sponsors watching a world championship fight.  

His producing career began with the hit musical NUNSENSE in 1985 and was soon followed by other successes.  After joining Sibling in 2001, Cardwell quickly advanced to the executive offices.  Sibling’s current shows include DEAN & ME by Jerry Lewis, WHITE NOISE and HATS! - developed with the Red Hat Society.   Most recently Cardwell guided Sibling into the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) with the formation of M-1 Global and the signing of world heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko of Russia.

Before joining Sibling, this Normal, IL native was a Senior Tax Advisor for Arthur Andersen & Company, a theatre consultant to Dentsu, Inc., Japan’s largest advertising agency and served as the Deputy Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Hosts: Beta Alpha Psi, Student Accounting Society and the Sports Marketing Association
Capen Auditorium, Cook Hall


“Leading through change"

Sakuntala Ganason, M.B.A. ‘04
Organization Capability Consultant
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington

Sakun Ganason brings a powerful skill-set to her position as Organization Capability Consultant at Microsoft. The world's largest software company has 79,000 employees in 102 countries and global annual revenues of US $51.12 billion as of 2007. Ganason enjoys the dynamic work environment at Microsoft where she is responsible for the HR Management Excellence Initiative. Through her role Ganason coordinates programs enabling managers world-wide to share their experiences and shape best practices to increase manager capability. She is also involved in Talent and Succession Planning for the HR Leadership Team.

During her tenure at Microsoft, Ganason has partnered closely with the MSN Marketing & Finance and Windows Marketing team in talent management, aligning leadership and organizational capability to deliver business results for the launch of Microsoft’s flagship operating system Windows Vista in January 2007.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Ganason was a software engineer with PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Staffordshire University, United Kingdom, an M.B.A. from Illinois State University and an M.A. in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Hosts: M.B.A. Association, Society for Human Resource Management, Business Information Systems Club, Gamma Iota Sigma and Toastmasters
Room 357, College of Business Building


"Living, working and doing business in a global environment"

Alan J. Medina Jr.  ’92, International Business and French
Senior Trader/Logistics Manager for Bunge Deutschland GmbH and Bunge Austria GmbH
Mannheim, Germany

Alan Medina is a long way from the fields near his childhood home outside Towanda, Illinois, but his dual passions for agribusiness and language helped him achieve his dream of living and working abroad.  Medina is based in Mannheim, Germany and enjoys working for Bunge, a global company driven to enhance lives by improving the global food and agribusiness chain.

Bunge world headquarters are in White Plains, New York and the company has 25.000 employees in 32 countries. That provides plenty of international opportunities for someone with Medina’s interests and expertise.

Beginning in high school, Medina knew he wanted to work internationally, so he enrolled in German and French classes. He continued to study both languages while majoring in International Business. Medina attended a French Language and Culture program at L'Université de Grenoble, France. He gained additional international experience through an internship with the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C. that focused on Extension Service and an American/Russian Model Farm Project and included time in St. Petersburg, Russia. During the past few years Medina has taken Italian language courses in his adoptive hometown of Heidelberg, Germany.

After earning dual degrees in International Business and French from ISU, Medina began his career at Archer Daniels Midland. He began as an Export Trader for a Bunge joint venture in New York City in 1996 and relocated several times within the USA and Germany before accepting his most recent assignment in Mannheim. 

Hosts: International Business Club, Delta Sigma Pi, Beta Gamma Sigma and Organizational Leadership Club.
Room 238, Schroeder Hall

“Building a Finance or Accounting Career at a Global Company”

Scott R. Schumacher ‘85, Accounting
Finance Director
Flavor Manufacturing Group
The Coca-Cola Company
Atlanta

Coca-Cola sells more than 400 brands with consumers enjoying over 1.4 billion servings a day in over 200 countries.  That keeps Scott Schumacher pretty busy since he is responsible for supporting global supply chain operations including business process optimization; supply chain strategy development; financial analysis and reporting; and management systems development.  Schumacher leads finance teams at corporate headquarters and at global manufacturing plants. 
 
In addition to his role in Flavor Manufacturing, Schumacher is also a facilitator conducting both domestic and international finance training programs.  During his tenure at Coca-Cola, he has worked in Brazil, United Kingdom, South Africa, Japan and Germany.  Prior to joining Coca-Cola, he held finance and accounting management positions with Sara Lee Corporation, BOC Group and C.R. Bard, Inc. 
Schumacher began his professional career as an ISU Accounting Intern with Ernst & Young and continued there for five years adding value to client operations located throughout the US, Europe and Africa. 

He is a Certified Public Accountant.  In addition to being passionate about developing finance associates skills, Schumacher actively supports the Boy Scouts of America and the Atlanta Union Mission for homeless
. 
Hosts: Financial Management Association, Business Administration Association and Sigma Iota EpsilonRoom 139, College of Business Building

“Entrepreneurship: Creating New Businesses in Large and Small Companies”

Keith A. Wakeman ’86 Marketing
President, Pilot Therapeutics
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

With over 20 years experience in the food and nutrition industry, Keith Wakeman has developed and launched new businesses generating nearly $1 billion in annual sales.  He was head of Innovation for Kellogg Snacks and led new ventures for both Kellogg and Keebler.  Wakeman also directed brand teams and held trade marketing and sales roles at Nabisco, Leaf and Procter & Gamble.

In November, Wakeman embarked on an exciting new venture, becoming President of Pilot Therapeutics, a nutritional therapeutics innovation company dedicated to the prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.  The company uniquely combines leading scientific discovery and validation approaches with proven market-led innovation techniques to create new, nutrition-based medical foods for humans and animals.

Before joining Pilot, Keith was President of Cherry Street Innovation LLC, a firm he founded to partner with consumer-focused organizations to create new businesses.  Through his leadership, CSI identified opportunities and developed business plans for new ventures projected to generate nearly $2 billion annual revenue.

Wakeman serves on boards of several entrepreneurial companies including a start-up organic beef business and big Boing, a product innovation and brand launch company based in San Francisco.

Hosts: American Marketing Association, Pi Sigma Epsilon and the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization
Room 366, College of Business Building


Sponsors

2008 Business Week Sponsors

State Farm
Archer Daniels Midland Company
COUNTRY Insurance and Financial Services
OSF Saint Francis Medical Center
Afni, Inc.
Allstate
Caterpillar Inc.
Clifton Gunderson L.L.C.
David Vaughan Investments, Inc.
Farnsworth Group
GROWMARK
John Deere
McDonald’s Corporation
National City Bank
Nicor Gas
Sikich L.L.P.
U.S. Bank
Widmer Interiors


Get Involved!

Planning for 2009

Do you enjoy making things happen? Are you looking for relevant work experiences and a chance to develop leadership skills? Join the Business Week 2009 Team! Information about the available opportunities will be distributed at each Business Week event or can be picked up in the Dean’s Office, located on the 4th floor of the College of Business Building. 

Timeline
Tuesday April 1st 8 – 8:45 a.m.
Room 412
Informational breakfast meeting with Business Week 2008 officers

Tuesday, April 8th
Business Week 2009 Steering Committee job applications due in the Dean’s Office

Tuesday, April 15th
Business Week 2009 Steering Committee positions announced

Steering Committee Positions
President – Is employed in the Dean’s office 10 hours each week during fall and spring semesters. Responsibilities include coordinating all aspects the work of the Steering Committee in conjunction with the dean’s staff, as Business Week activities are planned and executed. The president also serves as the official host at all Business Week events with support from other steering committee members.

Vice President/IMC Coordinator – Supports the work of the president and collaborates with the Dean’s staff to coordinate all integrated marketing and communications related to Business Week.

Secretary – Manages all recording-keeping, organizational, and communication duties to insure smooth operations during the planning and execution of Business Week.

Campus IMC Coordinator – Actively promotes Business Week events throughout the University by communicating with registered student organizations and faculty members in other colleges across the campus.

COB IMC Coordinator - Insures effective promotion of Business Week events to faculty, staff, and students within College of Business.

Catering Coordinator– Plans and oversees all food-related needs for various Business Week events in collaboration with the president, the dean’s staff and caters.

Participation Coordinators – Assist the president and the Business Week Steering Committee by welcoming guests to various events, assisting the catering coordinator as needed, and actively building interest among students in serving on the Business Week Committee the following year.

Career Center Coordinators – Collaborates with Career Center personnel to plan, promote and host mock interviews and the Etiquette and Networking Dinner.

Alumni Day Coordinator – Works in conjunction with the dean’s staff to plan, promote and oversee the afternoon Transition Seminars and evening alumni presentations.