Thunderbird Magazine, Summer 1990

              TH NDERBIRD
THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT SUMMER 1990
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION REACHES NEW HEIGHTS
THUNDERBIRD
FACES
THE
FUTURE
Marching into the future
with foresight and energy,
Thunderbird's Board of
Trustees met in San
Francisco this June to
finalize plans to bring
the School into the 21st
century. A bond issue
for $10.1 million will
provide funds to expand
the library, replace the
"/\' dormitory with a two­story
structure, build a
World Business/Admin­istration
facility, and a
new International Stud­ies
Department build­ing.
These additions and
renovations are expected
to cost in the neighbor­hood
of $9.1 million with
$1 million of the bond
used to retire current
debt. The industrial
revenue bonds were
issued through the City
of Glendale. The pri­vately
issued bonds were
purchased by GELCO
Finance Corporation,
and Citicorp acted as
placement agent.
'A' DORMITORY
INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES
DEPARTMENT
Ground breaking in
the fall will put the new
International Studies
building closer to reality
and faculty will be able
to move into their new
quarters in fall 1991. The
12,507 square-foot facil­ity
will have offices to
accommodate 18 profes­sors
and the International
Studies Department
Chair. This structure will
feature an adjacent three­classroom
case study
facility with seating
capacity for approx­imately
70 in each room.
The building will be
located adjacent to the
William Voris Modern
Language Building.
EAST ELEVATION - ADMINISTRATION BUILDING & WORLD BUSINESS
"A" DORMITORY
The "1\' dormitory has
been demolished and a
17,820 square-foot,
two-story structure is
scheduled for comple­tion
by April 1991. The
new dormitory is one of
four dormitory structures
to eventually be built
around the Quad and
swimming pool area.
The new dormitory will
consist of 56 rooms
with semiprivate baths,
will feature built-in
bookcases and desks,
and will be wired for
personal computers and
hookup to a campus­wide
computer network
system. The dormitory
exterior will be compat­ible
with the newer
existing structures and
will feature slump block
construction with cement
tile roofs.
WORLD BUSINESS/
ADMINISTRATION
The last new faCility
to be constructed will
be the World Business/
Administration building
scheduled for comple­tion
in the fall of 1991.
The structure will con­tain
a 250-seat, case-study
style auditorium featur­ing
satellite retrieval and
transmission capabilities,
video services, and simul­taneous
translation of
languages. An additional
conference room that
can convert into three
breakout rooms will add
much needed meeting
space to campus. The
two-story building will
be located east of the
Snell Learning Center
and Jacuzzi Fountain.
The structure will house
the offices of the presi-dent,
vice president for
external affairs, develop­ment,
communication,
business, the vice presi­dent
for business affairs,
and the vice president
for academic affairs on
the second floor. The
first floor will accom­modate
the World Busi­ness
Department,
admissions and records,
student affairs, alumni
relations, and personnel.
LIBRARY
The 18,000 square­foot
library expansion
is being deSigned to carry
Thunderbird into the
21st century of library
technology at a cost of
approXimately $2 mil­lion.
Plans call for an
extensive state-of-the-art
data retrieval system.
CON TEN T 5
T'bird Teamwork
2
Dr. M. Edgar Barrett on
Executive Education
8
Campus News
11
WBAC Profile
14
Faculty Profile
15
Viewpoint
16
Network
18
Updates
21
Reunions T'bird Style
32
Thunderbird Magazine
Summer 1990
Quarterly magazine of the
Alumni Relations Office of
the American Graduate
School of International
Management. 15249 N.
59th Avenue, Glendale, AZ
85306 (602) 978-7135
TELEX 187123
FAX (602) 439-5432
Assistant Vice President for
Communication and Editor:
Nelda S. Crowell
Director of Publications and
Managing Editor:
Carol A. Naftzger
Communication Secretary:
joann Toole
Design: .
Pat Kenny Graphic Design
Director of Alumni
Relations and Publisher:
Bobbie M. Boyd
Assistant Director
Alumni Relations:
Michelle Olson
Alumni Relations Staff:
janet M. Mueller
Executive Secretaryl
Office Manager
Donna Cleland
Data Base Administrator
Brenda Woolf
Data Entry Clerk
jane Kidney
Secretary
Ruth E. Thompson!
Helen Grassbaugh
Administrative Assistants
On the cover:
Meet Dr. M. Edgar
Barrett, Thunderbird's
new vice president for
executive education, and
distinguished professor
of international policy
and control. Photo by
Tim Rogers.
Thunderbird Alumni
Association 1989-90
Board of Directors
and Officers
Chairman of the Board
jack E. Donnelly '60
President
Daniel D. Witcher 'SO
Vice Presidents
john C. Cook 79
Robert G. Lees 77
McDiarmid
Messenger '72
Peggy A. Peckham 74
Thomas A. Peterson 77
Secretary
Bobbie M. Boyd
Ex Officio Members
Roy A. Herberger, jr.
Richard Snell
Board Members
George 1 DeBakey 73
Eric A. Denniston '80
Webb f Elkins '63
john A. Florida '62
Stephen f Hall '69
William H. Holtsnider '59
Donald Howell '90
Larry K. Mellinger '68
Gary L. Pacific 72
Charles M. Stockholm '56
Mariya Toohey Fogarasi 78
jeri R. Towner
Denniston 78
Clarence H. Yahn, jr. '62
Honorary Board Members
joseph M. Klein '47
Berger Erickson '86
T'81
Thunderbird's tradition takes
academe into another world:
the real world
S cenariO #1: A domestic service
group wants to expand into the
United Kingdom. Your consulting
business shows companies how to
control and reduce their large travel
and entertainment expenditures. In
the u.K., you will be offering
electronic-based and information­based
products through a franchised
credit card. For example, electronic
fund transfer (EFT) assists in
keeping outstanding cash to a
minimum by reimbursing the
traveler directly into their checking
account. You need to know what the
competition is, and how the cultural
differences will determine your
marketing efforts. One of the
problems you face is the card's low
image, which translates into a tough
sell in an already extremely compet­itive
business. Another wrinkle
appears; your American roots could
create suspicion among the locals.
Moreover, the British resent what
they consider to be hard-sell tactics
typical of American marketing and
advertising. Welcome to Citicorp
and InterAd.
Scenario #2: You would like to
explore the possibilities of develop­ing
a niche for a byproduct of your
production of a commodity chemi­cal.
The target market happens to lie
across an international border. The
byproduct, as with other com­modities,
is purchased by the end
users from distributors, not directly
from the manufacturer. You need to
know what the end-user industries
are, how the product is used, what
the benefits are, and the distribution
systems available for each industry.
The entry strategy you desire will
show you the best way to approach
each individual market segment. The
competition is stiff; however, you
are confident in your ability to
produce a quality product at a very
competitive price, in a usable form
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
2
T
& E
EXP
ENS E S
MAN AGE D
STRATE G reALLY
... Selling a consulting service group (or
Citicorp Diner's Club in the United
Kingdom was the project (or this
InterAd team. (bottom row, I-r) Cindy
Maize, Julie Krause, Satoru Hiraga,
and Cynthia Curtis. (top row, I-r)
Gregory Klassen, Christy Schabacker,
Patrick Gibbons, and Dan Nemec,
manager o( consulting services,
Citicorp.
~ (I-r) Students Dennis Murphy and
Jenni(er Fondervay serve tea to the
InterAd judges prior to the Citicorp
presentation.
ALL PHOTOS BY TIM ROGERS
SUMMER 1990
3
that few other companies provide at
this time. Welcome to Vitro S.A. and
Business-to-Business Marketing.
Just what is the link between the
above scenarios? The answer is
"projects." Thunderbird is big on
projects, where teams of bright,
talented students, under the direc­tion
of their instructors, work with
corporate clients to identify the
objective, design the project, carry
out the necessary research, interpret
the resulting data and make the final
presentation. And all at a fraction of
the cost of a "professional" research
company.
How do you say "market
strategy" in German .. .
Portuguese . .. Italian .. .
Japanese ... ?
Project classes run the gamut from
consumer marketing to industrial
marketing, with an emphasis on
international aspects. One of the
most successfully marketed project
classes is the InterAd program
headed by Professor Sumner Wyman.
Each semester (fall and spring) four
teams averaging six students each
put into action all the intricacies
they have learned in the core
marketing classes at Thunderbird.
The clients are familiar: Citicorp,
Hershey, Kellogg, and Schwinn to
name just a few. The challenges are
real and significant, not just token
bones thrown by sympathetic alums.
In typical Tbird fashion , the
students stretch their wings and rise
to the occasion, putting in literally
thousands of man-hours to com­plete
the task before them. The final
product is an end-of-semester
presentation, open to the student
population in most cases, where the
client can see just how well their
dollars were spent through a com­plete
marketing and advertiSing plan.
Not all projects can be completed
in one semester. In Dr. Dennis
Guthery'S International Industrial
Projects Workshop, for example, the
project for Teledyne has been
divided into two phases covering fall
and spring semesters.
Twenty countries and six indus­tries
are included in the project.
Last spring the team performed a
country analYSis to identify the
market potential for Teledyne's
products, which include titanium
alloys,_ nickel-base alloys, tool steel,
high-speed steel, vacuum-melted
steel and maraging steel. Prospective
buyers were also identified. Ques­tionnaires
or interviews were
conducted in 11 languages, with five
variations in each language. Over
the summer the data has been
collected and tabulated; in the fall
the project will shift to strategy
development. By December this
project will have consumed over
7,500 man-hours, and is the largest
project undertaken so far in terms of
cost and man-hours.
To maintain and increase market
share, a company must continually
increase its understanding of an
existing market. Consider the
project completed for Procter &:
Gamble by Dr. Bert Valencia's
Consumer Marketing Workshop.
The team looked into the cultural
aspects of sales promotions directed
at the Hispanic population in the
... In Professor Dale Vor der Landwehr's
Entrepreneurship workshop, the
emphasis is on starting your own
business. (I-r) Jeff Ahlquist, Vinnie
Singh, and Professor Vor der Landwehr
with the product the students are
marketing to Italy'S tennis market
southwestern part of the United
States. Specifically, P&:G wanted to
know how Hispanics react to
coupons, rebates and sweepstakes.
Along with other research tech­niques,
the team personally conducted
a door-to-door survey in Los
Angeles and San Antonio.
As one of the fastest growing
"minority" groups in the U.S.,
Hispanics are emerging as an ever
more influential consumer popula­tion.
A successful consumer prod­ucts
company recognizes that
sensitivity to the target market's
cultural differences can increase
market share while insensitivity can
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
4
be disastrous. As the melting pot of
the world, the u.s. market can
certainly benefit from the curricu­lum
at Thunderbird.
Scenario #2 was a project carried
out this spring by one of Dr. John
Zerio's Business-to-Business projects
teams. The targeted market is the
United States; the company is Vitro,
the largest industrial group in
Mexico. Having just finished a market
feaSibility project with the Stanford
Research Institute (SRI), Vitro was
ready to expand the SRI material into
a full-blown entry strategic plan.
Rethinking the Restringing
Business
Not all project classes have to do
with marketing in a large corporate
environment. In Professor Dale Vor
der Landwehr's Entrepreneurship
class the emphasis is on thinking
through all the aspects of starting
your own business, culminating in
the presentation of the business
plan for a specific entity. To think
that these are simply dreams on
paper would be a serious error.
Two members of last spring's
Entrepreneurship class have actually
begun to do business. They have
already shipped several orders of
tennis racquet string to Italy. The two
combined their product knowledge
(one member is an avid tennis
player) and international trade skills
to take advantage of an opportunity
in the Italian tennis restringing
market. They saw a way to offer a
better price through an innovative
distribution format, and found that
their customers enjoy the increased
profitability or competitive edge that
a lower cost affords. The two plan to
~ (I-r) Students Mona Jensen and Don
Sch utte coordinate materials for their
team's presentation ta Vitro SA
... Representatives from Vitro SA look
on as Mickie Senften begins the
report on the team's strategy plan.
take the summer off from school to
add customers to their ledgers, and
have forecast a net profit of
$100,000 by the end of their fiscal
year. From idea to product shipment
took less than seven weeks.
Through the Looking Glass
That the project courses benefit
the client is beyond question.
Perhaps the pertinent question is
why do they work so well? Accord­ing
to Professor Vor der Landwehr,
Thunderbird offers the students a
rare opportunity to work closely
with the professor. "You won't find a
student/instructor relationship like
this anywhere else. I personally work
with over 60 students each semester.
At other schools the professors are
SUMMER 1990
5
so busy with their research that
they don't have the time to spend
talking with and guiding their
students on a personal basis."
'The School's teaching is inten­sive,"
says Professor Valencia . 'The
alumni also contribute to the success
of Thunderbird's project classes.
They're out there plowing ahead, and
they're very proud of their school."
The Thunderbird network does in
fact make a major contribution to
the type and quality of projects
performed during the semester. The
McIlhenny Company (Thbasco)
came to Thunderbird by way of a
suggestion by an alumnus working
in the Department of Commerce.
"We work with other schools,
especially those in our area," says
Carlos Malispan, McIlhenny'S vice
president of international sales, "but
Thunderbird's work is more exten­sive
than the others. We've been
involved with the school for three
to four years, and will be doing
another project in 1991." When
asked why McIlhenny continues to
come to Thunderbird for projects,
Malispan answered, "InterAd gives
us a fresh approach, a different
perspective. We take their sugges­tions
and extrapolate what we need.
Thunderbird's InterAd program is
the best out there."
"We gave carte blanche to these
people," says Paul Tillman '86,
director of international marketing
services for the Kellogg Company.
An InterAd team was responsible for
coming up with a program to
market Kellogg's Cornflakes in Italy.
"We're looking at everything they
proposed. They came up with some
revolutionary ideas. We have mar­keting
people in that country
already, and they (the project team)
came up with some different
suggestions on how we should
spend our advertising dollars."
Dan Nemec, manager of consult-ing
services for Citicorp, was .
referred to Thunderbird by another
alumnus. "We needed marketing
research in an area we weren't
familiar with. Actually, I wasn't
expecting the quality of work we
received. I was very impressed, and
I enjoyed the students' enthusiasm."
Nemec was present when Citicorp's
InterAd team unveiled a program to
market a travel and entertainment
expense program in the United
Kingdom.
Low project cost keeps clients
coming back, according to Dr.
Dennis Guthery. "We do good work
(I-r) Rafael Ortiz and Milan Turk
from Procter & Gamble listen to
Professor Bert Valencia's students
present results from their research
on marketing to Hispanics.
at a low cost, probably 20 percent of
commercial cost. Our clients are
getting a tremendous value, there's
no question about that. 1£ Teledyne
had hired an outside consulting
firm, the project could have cost in
the area of a quarter of a million
dollars."
Will Strong '67, vice president of
Teledyne AllvacNasco, has strong
ties to Thunderbird. An alumnus,
Strong has been directing Teledyne
projects (24 to date) to the School
for the last 10 years. A heavy hitter
in the aerospace industry, Teledyne
is moving more into the commercial
market. "We know all of the players
in the aerospace market, but we
don't know all the commercial
users. We perceive the future growth
in Europe and around the world to
be in the commercial market."
From Classroom to Office:
"A Dose of Reality"
Project courses, according to
alumni, are a benefit to the student
in terms of career placement. When
Jennifer Dishaw '89, a T'bird
working with Mead Packaging in
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
6
.... (I-r) Teledyne's Peter Reidel, AI
Coffey, and Will Strong join Dr.
Dennis Guthery for his students'
presentation of a country analysis
to identify the market potential
for Teledyne's products.
~ (I-r) Cynthia Coffin, Jorge Andrino,
Mike Rowe, Tracy Olson, Fiona Ray,
and Deborah Holland participated in
Dr. Valencia's International Consumer
Marketing Workship where they com­pleted
a project for Procter & Gamble.
.... A successful semester culminates
with an International Industrial
Marketing Workshop presentation to
Teledyne. The team includes (I-r)
Fredrik Motzfe/dt, Didrik Jonsson,
Robin Lewis, Erin Anderson, Ellen
Dussourd, and Jim Shwartz.
Atlanta, walked in for her interview,
she saw that her participation in the
Business-to-Business workshop, which
had been mentioned in her resume,
had not gone unnoticed by the
company. "It was circled when I
went in for the interview. They
asked me about it extensively."
"During InterAd and the day after
there will be approximately 80 to 90
interviews," says Professor Sumner
Wyman. "It's the largest interview
day put on by Career Services.
When I invite the judges to come
down and participate, they know
that they are required to seriously
interview InterAd team members.
They don't have to hire anyone, but
they have to seriously interview.
Seventy-five to eighty percent of the
students are placed as a result of
interviews that take place in this
two-day time period."
To Fritz Grutzner '87, an account
executive with Campbell Mithun
Esty in Minneapolis, his InterAd
class "was undoubtedly the single
most important experience I had
leading to an advertising job. It
exposed me in graduate school to
many of the same types of problems
I would later face. CME has been
very happy with its recruiting results
at InterAd since they hired their first
employee from there. We're always
looking for more."
As the Director of Investment
and Acquisition Services with King
International Asset Group in Los
Angeles, Robert Courtney '88 uti­lizes
his skills acquired through the
Entrepreneurship and Business-to­Business
classes on a daily basis.
"Immediately after graduation I
accepted responsibility for directing
the acquisition of a Mexican
manufacturing facility for resale to
an investor group from Hong Kong
and China. That required me to
conduct a detailed business evalua­tion
of the Mexican company and to
prepare and present a comprehen­sive
business plan to the investors
on the new operation."
Thunderbird that helped her in her
career, Amy Konvolinka '88, who
works with Ford Motor Company,
said, "Doing the projects. The
courses force you to just do it,
rather than read books about it.
Also, the mix of students is
important because you become
conversant in so many areas."
As Director of Sales and Market­ing,
West Coast, for Solidon S.A. de
C.V, Kimberly Barrett '89 stresses
the opportunity she has to continue
work on the project she helped
develop while at Thunderbird. "I
think most people involved in these
projects wonder if their work will
ever really be used. In my case, it
has been a guide for me and my
company. I don't think students
realize the value of the research both
personally and for the company.
Many times my company has
referred to this project for technical
information, market data, and
competitive analysis."
As business becomes more oriented
toward the global market, the
project courses at Thunderbird will
continue to become more important
SUMMER 1990
continue to become more important
for both student and client. The
opening of the internal market in
Europe, the increased emphasis
placed on "most-favored nation"
trading partners, the opening of the
Mexican market to increased trade
and direct foreign investment, the
use of joint ventures by competing
companies to further market shares
in various countries, all these speak
with a loud voice that clearly says
the future belongs to those whose
interests and training are international.
Projects are the bridge between
the ivory towers of academia and the
steel and glass heights of the
corporation. Both benefit from a
close relationship. The students get
a chance to sharpen their skills
within the structure of a team under
the direction of a professor with
vast professional and consulting
experiences; the clients benefit from
a fresh approach, a reduced cost, and
the opportunity to hire team mem­bers.
There are no negative external­ities,
only a strengthened bond
between what is and what can be.
By Lane Ginsberg '91
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION:
Dr. M. Edgar Barrett will join
Thunderbird as vice president for
executive education and Distinguished
Professor of International Policy and
Control in September 1990. He will
also join the World Business Depart­ment
as a member of the faculty and
split his teaching time between
accounting control issues and man­agement
policy. Barrett holds an
MBA and PhD from Stanford
University and comes to Thunder­bird
from Southern Methodist Uni­versity
in Dallas where he was a
professor of accounting and the Cary
M. Maguire Professor of Oil and Gas
Management in the Edwin L. Cox
School of Business. He was also the
director of the Executive MBA
program. Prior to joining SMU in
1977, Barrett was on the faculty of
the Harvard Business School for
seven years. He taught courses in the
MBA program as well as in senior
level executive education programs
at both the Boston and Vevey,
Switzerland campuses. He has
served as a visiting professor at
INSEAD in France, and has been a
faculty member for a number of
years in Columbia University's
executive program in international
management.
Barrett has been involved in
consulting projects and management
education seminars with a variety of
prominent firms and organizations
including Amerada Hess, Bank of
America, IBM, Morgan Guaranty
Trust, Mobil, Monsanto, and
Nigerian National Petroleum Com­pany.
Over the years, he has taught
in 15 countries including Panama,
Venezuela, France, England, Italy,
Indonesia, Sweden, Denmark, and
Norway.
An Investment
in the Future
Thunderbird magazine recently
interviewed Dr. Barrett to find out
what the future holds for executive
training at the School.
Q. Can you share your thoughts on
executive education in general? For
example, what would motivate a
person to give up so much time
later in a career to become involved
in additional training?
A. That depends on what we mean
by executive education. There are
three or four levels of executive
education.
At one level is a degree-granting
program such as the Executive MIM
(EMIM), which we will be doing at
Thunderbird. An average student
would be one who, for a variety of
reasons, did not get a master's
degree in management within a few
years of receiving a bachelor's degree.
This person, however, has done very
well in business for the past 10 years.
In the Executive MBA program at SMU,
the average age was 38. There were
few people younger than 30, and the
age went as high in some cases as
50 to 55. These business people either
want to go back and pick up the
formal training they feel they lack or
now are in a position of responsibil­ity
where they can immediately
use what they would get out of a
graduate degree in management.
They may be uneasy with the idea of
going back into a standard graduate­level
program. They don't want to
take two years out of a career. They
are a special group of people who
are able to apply the knowledge
gained immediately.
An EM 1M program involves more
examples of practical applications of
business tools and techniques than
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
8
would a full-time program. Faculty
members teaching in such a program
are more familiar with the business
community. This student is more
street-smart, much more savvy about
what goes on, and what is current in
the business world. In many ways, it
is a more demanding teaching expe­rience,
and much more fun as well.
A second level of executive training
is executive programs averaging four
to six weeks in length. Here the
students are people who are fairly
well advanced in their career. They
are about to be promoted again to a
level of senior management with
broad general management responsi­bility.
Typically, they come up
through a functional-level position
- engineering, accounting, finance
- and now they're about to be
promoted out of that area. Maybe
they've never been responsible for
understanding other areas such as
finance and accounting, but now
they're going to be. Suddenly, they
want to understand the broader bus­iness
arena and are looking for an
overview of current thinking in each
of these areas. They may also need to
better understand such things as
cross-cultural issues.
Still another level of executive
programs consists of one- or two­week
programs that are industry
speCific. These are done in areas
such as agribusiness, telecommuni­cations,
insurance, international
banking, or oil and gas, focusing on
a Single industry. These executives
want to focus their learning on the
industry the:y are involved in.
Programs like these have grown very
rapidly. You can get some compara­tive
advantage in the marketplace
because the school and its faculty
can become knowledgeable about a
specific industry. You can take
marketing concepts or countertrade
concepts or multinational finance
concepts and move them into an
industry. You can combine knowl­edge
of these concepts with industry­specific
knowledge in a way that's
very helpful.
I think Thunderbird could launch
a few programs like this over the
next few years. We will have to
choose our markets very carefully
and do the programs well because
we will be competing head on with
major management schools.
The last level of executive training
is short courses lasting anywhere
from one to five days. People come in
with specific needs. They want to
pick up specific skills. They don't
have a lot of time to do it, and they
can't take off three or four weeks at
one time, so they focus very sharply
on one subject. The Thunderbird
Management Center does a fair
amount of these already, some involv­ing
specific management topics and
some involving such things as cross­cultural
training or awareness. I see
no reason why we can't do more in
this area. We have a comparative
advantage, particularly in some unique
areas that are multinational-focused.
Q. For the longer programs you
mentioned, the company has to be
very committed to the program if
they're spending the dollars and
time to send executives for more
training. How do you market that?
A. Over time, the single biggest
source of new participants is going to
be satisfied past participants. If
you're breaking into a market, which
is what we're going to find ourselves
doing in a fair number of cases, it
involves corporate calling, perhaps
some open-houses, to provide exam­ples
of what the faculty have done in
the past. Marketing such programs is
not an easy process. Because you're
charging significant fees, companies
SUMMER 1990
9
will think rwice. It is, however, an
investment in human resources. If
we offer quality programs, have a
significant effect on our participants'
career development, know what
we're talking about, and offer
concepts that are useful back on the
job, the client firms are going to send
more people. We will rise or fall on
our ability to do those things.
Q. Going back to the EMIM, how
will you integrate language into the
program?
A. We need to capture our strength
in languages as a part of the EM 1M
program. Whether we do it by a fair
amount of immersion up front,
followed by periodic reinforcement,
or whether we do it by some
prerequisite courses is not perfectly
clear yet. A committee of professors,
John Frankenstein, Dennis Guthery
and Lilith Schutte, has been working
on an EM 1M program design and
have come up with some good ideas.
Q. The EMIM is going to fall under
the responsibility of the Thunder­bird
Executive Training Center. Can
you describe what the TETC will
look like?
A. The Thunderbird Executive
Training Center is going to be an
umbrella organization. It will encom­pass
the Thunderbird Management
Center, the EMIM degree program,
and a series of other executive
programs - some of which we hope
to initiate within the next year or so.
We will have the new degree
granting program, the EMIM. The
TMC will continue with the language
programs, continue to offer
in-company programs and continue
to offer short programs. We will have
another area that will probably
involve both existing management
center personnel and some new
personnel that will do longer execu­tive
programs - things we're not
doing much of right now such as
broad-based, two- to four-week
general management programs. The
first such program may be industry
specific or it may be a broad,
multi-industry, general manage-ment
program. It could be two weeks
on multinational business finance for
example. If you look at schools like
INSEAD, Columbia, or Harvard, all
of them have one or two general
management programs that may run
for six or eight weeks. Then they
have programs that run a shorter
time - one or two week courses on
corporate finance, management con­trol
issues, using informa tion systems
as strategic weapons, or on market­ing
problems in a multinational
setting. They're a little more narrowly
focused, but they cover that narrow
area in some depth over a one to two
week period. They tend to attract
people who either are specialists or
who don't know the area, but need
to be brought up to speed because of
some promotion or some change in
their responsibilities.
These are the kinds of programs
we would launch one at a time over
a period of years, allowing faculty to
get involved with a level of execu­tives
that are very much absorbed in
day-to-day decisions. It will allow us
to use our course material in a way
that gets it tested quickly. It will also
allow us to develop material to
move back into the MIM program.
If it works well, it should further
enhance the MIM degree program
here on campus.
Q. From the smndpoint of the
faculty resources needed to teach
the EMIM and the shorter pro­grams,
won't you need a lot more
faculty members to draw from to
accomplish all of this?
A. Yes and no. Clearly, the more
activity you have, the more faculty
you use, and the more demand you
place on them. From a purely
logistical point of view, the demands
on the faculty will cause us to need
more faculty. On the other hand, we
already have a number of talented
faculty on campus. We have a
number of people who are used to
working with executives. We would
like to make use of them as much as
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
10
we can without doing any damage to
what they're already doing. It may be
that we'll be able to attract additional
faculty to Thunderbird by getting
them involved in some of our
executive education programs.
Q. What about physical facilities
for these programs?
A. Ultimately, I'd like to see an
executive education center on or
near the Glendale campus. There are,
however, other options. We've had
talks with people in San Diego and
elsewhere about locating an execu­tive
education operation somewhere
other than Glendale, but there's a lot
to be said for locating it on campus.
Initially, some of the programs,
maybe the bulk of them, will have to
go off campus. As the new construc­tion
moves ahead, however, with the
additional classrooms and with
Founders Hall being freed up
because of the new World Business/
Administration facility, the TETC will
have more options. There's discus­sion
now about putting all of these
executive education-related activities
into Founders Hall. Subject to what we
learn from the architects, that could
be an excellent location. We could,
conceivably, put in classrooms and
adjacent dorms to be used for execu­tive
education, with the whole faCility
located right here. If everything
worked extraordinarily well, we are
looking at 24 to 36 months before
all those pieces might fit together.
Q. It appears that you have a real
challenge ahead of you.
A. Perhaps. On the other hand, I
come here with the hope that I can
help the School to accomplish great
things. I had an endowed chair at
SMU and was a tenured faculty
member. It was a very comfortable
position with a very good university.
There's no point in leaving a
situation like that to join another
school unless you believe that there
is a great deal of untapped potential.
I agree with Roy Herberger that the
potential here is enormous. How
much of it we'll be able to realize,
over what period of time, only time
will tell. Thunderbird has, however, a
unique position. It really does fit with
what's going on in the world today.
CN.
CAMPUS NEWS
President Roy A. Herberger, jr. places
the hood on Gordon Healey, the first
graduate of the McDonnell Douglas
program.
A TICKET TO
THE FUTURE
Fifteen years after receiving his
undergraduate degree, Gordon Healey
became a student again to participate
in an executive training program at
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co.
in Mesa, Arizona. The program
started in the spring of 1988, on site
at the company's headquarters. It
allows McDonnell Douglas employ­ees
the opportunity to earn credits
toward the MIM degree.
"Getting back into accounting and
statistics courses was difficult," says
Healey, manager of international
offsets and trade development for the
company, "but it sharpened my
mathematical skills. 1 consider a
master's degree to be a ticket to the
fu ture, so 1 doubled up on classes to
graduate sooner. The effort in taking
two classes really isn't twice the
energy in taking one class."
Healey, who is involved in the
company's marketing processes and
assists in international sales and sales
financing, graduated during com­mencement
ceremonies in May. He is
the first of 35 employees currently
involved in the program to earn his
degree. "On the job, 1 make daily
applications of what I've learned.
The international marketing and
international studies courses have
been particularly helpful because I'm
continually dealing with people from
other cultures, and it's important for
me to know where they're coming
from," he says.
According to Susan Marshall,
assistant director of the Thunderbird
Management Center, McDonnell
Douglas places a heavy emphasis on
education. Employees have the
advantage of not having to commute
to school and are also 100 percent
reimbursed for tuition, books
and materials.
"1 chose Thunderbird's program
because my business is international
and 1 was aware of Thunderbird's
reputation for being one of the best
international programs in the coun­try,"
says Healey.
Three languages are taught at the
company: Japanese, German and
Spanish. German is the most popular
language currently. Marshall attri­butes
this to the company's intense
involvement in Europe.
"Normally we offer non-credit
executive training," says Marshall.
However, the interest was there for
the MIM degree at McDonnell
Douglas, so we started the program.
Now we're starting over with some of
the courses that we started with in
the very beginning of the program,
so we have students in all different
stages of the program.
'l\s our visibility in the Phoenix
area expands, we are getting more
calls from local companies on
training for their international peo­ple,"
states Marshall. "We have already
done training for many companies,
including AT&: T, Price Waterhouse,
Arthur Andersen &: Co., and IBM."
CLASS OF 1989
DONATION
ACKNOWLEDGED
The Barton Kyle Yount Library is
richer thanks to the December 1989
graduating class and the Associated
Students Legislative Council. Due to
their generosity, the library has
added a new work station consisting
of a computer and monitor, a
CD-ROM disk drive, and a printer. A
plaque acknowledging the donation
will be placed near the new work
station in the library.
SUMMER 1990
11
TUITION
TAKES A BOOST
The Board of Trustees approved a
tuition increase that will bring
Thunderbird's tuition in line with
similar graduate business institutions,
both in the United States and overseas.
The tuition increase for new students
will begin with the fall 1990 semester
and the rate will increase by 25
percent the first year, an additional
15 percent the second year (fall
1991), and 10 percent the third year
(fall 1992). Continuing students for
fall 1990 will see an increase of 8
percent. Tuition for new students will
be $5,670 for fall/spring 1990-91,
and $4,155 for summer session 1991.
The adoption of new programs and
the enhancement of the School's
current programs will continue to
pay dividends to alumni as it has for
more than 43 years.
For the first time in the history of
Thunderbird, two graduates of the
May 1990 class tied to receive the
Barton Kyle Yount award. (I) Sheila
Mary Baker was a regular contributor
to Das Tor and also started and
presided over the School's chapter
of Amnesty International. Thomas
Sang-Ho Oh is an MBA candidate of
St. Edwards University in Texas and
interned in Tokyo last fall for Shiseido.
Thomas R. Horton, chairman
and CEO, American Management
Association, gave the commence­ment
address. congratulating the
348 graduating students.
CAM PUS NEW S
Shelby Yastrow
BEHIND THE
GOLDEN ARCHES
Shelby Yastrow, senior vice
president and general counsel,
McDonald's, was on campus to give
the Thunderbird audience an inside
look at one of the world's most
well-known companies. Yastrow has
been with McDonald's since 1978
when he joined as vice president,
general counsel, and assistant
secretary
With $18 billion in sales,
McDonald's is seventh among
Fortune service companies, and is
ranked among the five best-managed
American companies. Yastrow pointed
out that the key to McDonald's
success lies in doing what they know
best, making hamburgers. "Our
success is based on simplicity and
basics." At top management meetings,
time is spent arguing about the
quality and type of food served in
the restaurants rather than on
discussing strategy or international
political economy, Yastrow said.
As a McDonald emissary at Earth
Day in Washington, D.C., Yastrow
recently received a standing ovation
for the work his environmental task
force has taken on to address
problems like the recycling of
polystyrene. The task force has
convinced the biggest polystyrene
producers to contribute to the
creation of a recycling company that
will have nine plants by the end of
the year, allowing 2,000 restaurants
and the surrounding communities to
recycle polystyrene.
THUNDERBIRD
JOINS THE
FIESTA BOWL
What do football and balloons
have in common? The 1990 Dimen­sion
Cable Thunderbird Balloon
Classic and Fry's Airshow. Thunder­bird's
annual balloon race has joined
forces with the Fiesta Bowl to make
the race a Fiesta Bowl event.
The 16th annual race will take
place on Saturday and Sunday,
November 10 and 11, 1990, at
Glendale Municipal Airport. Shuttle
service will be available for alumni
attending Thunderbird's reunion
weekend. The classic will celebrate
all forms of aviation by including an
air show both days, along with
numerous ground displays of vintage
and modern aircraft. The balloon
glow will be
repeated this year at
dusk on Saturday,
November 10. The
colorful balloons
will light up pro­viding
a spectac-o
~
~--
ular display of color ~~~NDERBIRD
in the nighttime B ALL D D N
CLASSIC sky Following the
balloon glow, a western street dance
will feature country music.
The balloon race is sponsored by
the Friends of Thunderbird and
the City of Glendale and proceeds
from the event go to the Friends of
Thunderbird Mavis Voris Endow­ment
Scholarship Fund.
~.
~\VI~ ~~ ®
~
(I-r) Dr. Roy A. Herberger. Jr..
former u. S. Ambassador John Gavin.
Professor Jooquim Duarte. and Borbara
McConnell Barrett say hello prior to
the inaugural luncheon of the
Thunderbird International Symposium.
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
12
l'BIRD
INTERNATIONAL
SYMPOSIUM
FORMED
John Gavin, the former U. S.
ambassador to Mexico, was the
featured speaker at the inaugural
luncheon of the Thunderbird Inter­national
Symposium, an intellectual
forum for women recently founded
by the School. The event was
attended by more than 80 women
interested in learning more about
international issues confronting the
private and public sector today.
President Roy A. Herberger, Jr.,
welcomed the guests and Barbara
McConnell Barrett, a Phoenix attor­ney
and a member of the School's
board of trustees, greeted the
audience telling them, '~erica is no
longer an island unto itself. We must
be connected to the rest of the world.
We need to have access to informa­tion
- good, solid, top caliber
information on what's going on in
the world and that is what the
Thunderbird symposium is directed
toward providing to you."
An endowment to support the
Thunderbird International Symposium
scholarship fund for outstanding
students will be created from the tax
deductible donations to join the
symposium. Thunderbird's advanced
investment class, under the sponsor­ship
of Professor F John Mathis, will
invest these funds, reporting the
status of the investment each year to
the symposium.
CAMPUS NEWS
LAW
ENFORCEMENT
ON AN
INTERNATIONAL
LEVEL
International law enforcement was
the topic of a speech by Oliver
Revell, associate director of the FBI,
who visited campus in June. Revell
serves as the number three man in
the FBI and as one of the president'S
chief experts on investigative, counter­terrorist,
and intelligence activities.
Revell noted the growing focus on
international issues throughout the
country, issues which are more often
falling under the auspices of interna­tional
law enforcement agencies. One
such issue is the escalating problem
of economic espionage. Theft of
research information and high­technology
data is now a major focus
of the FBI.
International terrorism is another
topic of concern. Some nations resort
to intimidation and extortion for
political purposes. In past years,
these acts have been directed at targets
ranging from citizens of terrorist
nations living abroad, to representa­tives
of governments and businesses,
to the average citizen. Nearly one­third
of these victims are American,
according to Revell. He is currently
involved in increasing efforts to stem
the rising tide of terrorism abroad,
particularly through participation in
international organizations.
The drug war is another major
concern and Revell says that terror­ism
and drugs are now very closely
related. A disturbing trend he sees
emerging is one in which the
right-wing fascist military arms of the
drug cartels are coordinating efforts
with the communist militants in the
countrysides. These groups are then
conspiring together to seize control
of the coca-rich regions of the
country away from the national
governments. Both the immediate
and eventual implications of this
relatively new development for
international law enforcement are
serious indeed.
Revell concluded his remarks by
speaking about the problem of inter­national
financial fraud. Embezzle­ment
and the laundering of drug profits
are two areas of progress for inter­national
law enforcement at this time.
by Kevin Hoar '91
CONFERENCE
TO FOCUS ON
DESERf CITIES
Thunderbird played host to a
group of mayors from desert cities
around the world as part of an
agenda that was a prelude to the
1991 International Desert Cities
Conference to be held in Phoenix
next June. Dignitaries from Ankara
to Jaipur to the Gila River Indian
Reservation gathered in Phoenix this
April to identify common problems
and raise basic questions dealing
with the future of desert cities that
will help set the agenda for the 1991
conference. The School hosted an
international dinner and entertain­ment
on campus.
Thunderbird is well-represented
in the conference's endeavor to
address issues of urban ecology,
desert architecture, community
vitality, and global integration as
they relate to the desert setting.
Board of Trustee Chairman Richard
Snell chairs the conference, and
Claire Sargent '81 serves as presi­dent.
She has been involved with the
SUMMER 1990
13
Professor Robert Tance" Henry
Sargent, and Claire Sargent '81 at a
dinner honoring the Desert Cities
Mayors who were in Phoenix to
discuss an upcoming conference. The
preliminary meeting went very well
according to Sargent who says, "It
was important because it was the
beginning of a new global partnership
between desert cities."
project since its inception in 1988.
It is modeled after the International
Winter Cities Conference which was
held in Edmonton in 1988. The idea
began with the mayor of Sapporo,
Japan, according to Sargent, "who
was the first one to realize the
significance of cities banding together
because of environmental problems
or similarities."
International Studies Professor
Robert lancer is teaching a project
course this summer in which 15
students are working with Desert
Cities staff to establish a data base
to assist with the programming for
the conference.
Shoshana lancer, International
Studies Department Chair, is a
member of the conference task force
for economic development.
The 1991 conference will feature a
mix of sessions, panels, and other
activities fOCUSing on the theme:
"The 21st Century Oasis: A Future
for Desert Cities?" Other activities
will include an international trade
show, an exhibition of innovative
ideas for responses to desert living
by participating cities, arts and
cultural events.
FACULTY PROFILE
ACCOUNTING­INTERNATIONAL
STYLE
Pete Bergevin likes Thunderbird.
He likes the students, the faculty,
the international flavor of the
School. Coming from a perspective
of teaching in large university
classroom settings, this is heaven.
"Here it's really sane," says Bergevin.
"1 used to deal with students who
wanted classes and there was no
space. At Arizona State University, 1
would spend 10 minutes driving to
work and an hour looking for a
parking space. Here, 1 drive 35
minutes to work and have a parking
space right by my office."
Bergevin likes the idea of teaching
students who are interested in
management and entrepreneurship.
"What we're doing here is teaching a
tool to aid management, not generat­ing
x-number of accountants," he says.
"With Thunderbirds, 1 feel very
confident that although they may not
have 27 hours of accounting, the
nine or 12 hours of accounting they
have enables them to go to Europe or
the Pacific Rim and really be able
to function in that environment."
Bergevin finds faculty interaction
unique at Thunderbird. His area is
financial accounting as opposed to
tax or managerial accounting. "Here
there is no real distinction between
financiers and accountants. It is all
part of what we call world business.
This is the kind of attitude that
pervades the faculty and, hopefully,
we pass it on to students. Each disci­pline
is just one cog in the wheel.
It's not better, it's just different,
it's part of the interrelated whole."
Thunderbird's international aspect
allows students to look at things
from a different perspective than they
would at a traditional school. Bergevin
says one of the classic tenets of
American auditing is the idea of
writing everything out by check so
there is a paper trail which can be
traced. "When you look at a lot of
Oriental countries and their trans­actions,
a lot is done by courier
with satchels of cash," he says.
"That's a viable way of doing busi­ness,
but by the same token, how do
you account for that? How do you
control those kinds of activities?
From an American perspective, that
is something we would never con­sider.
Suddenly you are faced with a
different perspective. It comes as a
challenge, and it is something 1 never
considered or explored until coming
to Thunderbird."
Bergevin rotates in and out of four
areas of teaching. His two favorites
are international auditing and
intermediate accounting. He is
currently writing a book encompassing
the principles of accounting geared
toward the international student. He
is halfway through the project and
says it is more work than he ever
anticipated but it will be worth it.
"1 want to be able to say that in
one semester we can give you an
overview of accounting with an
Pete Bergevin
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
14
international flavor. Hopefully we
can get down in 400 or 500 pages
the essence of accounting as an
information discipline and, at the
same time, expose students to an
international view of accounting."
Consulting with the federal
government, the state of Arizona,
and independent restaurateurs also
occupies Bergevin's time. He grew
up in a restaurant environment and
offers management advisement to
restaurant owners in the areas of
cost containment and financial
recording. For the federal and state
governments, he functions as a
financial analyst and education
specialist. The latter ties in with his
interest in education research. "How
people learn, what things are
important, what constitutes a relia­ble
course are all a part of what I'm
writing about at Thunderbird," says
Bergevin. "1 noticed when 1 began
teaching here that there would be
non-English speaking students who
could punch out anything on a test
dealing with numbers, but concep­tually,
if the same question were
asked, they would have difficulty
with it. The issue ultimately
becomes, are they missing the con­ceptual
questions because they don't
have proficiency with the language?
Or, could it be that the questions 1
am asking are unreliable, for an
international student body?" He says
the ideal would be to design a test
that is reliable across language
borders. This is the area he is working
with for the federal government -
what constitutes a valid test question,
how to evaluate people for careers as
civil servants. It is more of an educa­tional
measurement and evaluation
study than an accounting mission.
Bergevin's interest in politics is
nurtured at the school. "It's really
fun to interact with students who
are aware of the political activities
worldwide," he says. "They are
attuned to that. 1 think it bodes
well for a future career because,
ultimately, that is what marks you as
a successful person as opposed to
someone who is technically proficient
in a very small niche. If you don't
have broad horizons then 1 think it
is hard to go far."
CN.
ALLEN McINNES -BUILDING A BRIDGE
Allen McInnes is the executive
vice president at Tenneco in Houston.
As a member of the corporate office,
a three-man team that oversees all of
the Tenneco operations, his responsi­bilities
include the activities of the
Packaging Corporation of America,
Albright and Wilson - a UK-based
chemical company, Tenneco Realty,
the Operations Technologies group,
and the International Development
department. McInnes holds three
degrees from the University of Texas,
including a Ph.D. He is a member of
the Thunderbird Board of Trustees
and presides as chairman of the
World Business Advisory Council.
Thunderbird student lane Ginsberg
recently interviewed McInnes to find
out his views on the activities of the
World Business Advisory Council,
and its relationship with the School.
Q. How did you originally become
involved with the WBAC and
Thunderbird?
A. I became involved after Jim
Ketelsen, chairman and CEO, gave
the commencement address in May
1983. At that time the School was
preparing to set up a World Business
Advisory Council and Tenneco was
asked to join.
Q. What does the World Business
Advisory Council actually do for
the School?
A. To answer, you have to look at the
history of the WBAC. At the time
that the organization was started, it
was an advisory group, and still is an
advisory group to the business
department. In the early 1980s, there
were a lot of changes needed. The
School felt the need for advice from
people within industry. They were
concerned with curriculum, admit­tance
requirements, graduation stan­dards,
and student services such as
placement, teaching, and learning
aids in the form of computers and
library facilities.
Allen T. Mcinnes
Q. As chainnan, do you actually
work on any of the committees or
do you just oversee them?
A. I try to participate in each of the
committees when we meet on campus.
We always have a whole morning
dedicated to committee activity, and I
try to rotate through each of the
committees to get a good sense of
what's going on so I can be in a
position to add whatever I might be
able to bring to their considerations.
Q. The MIMIMBA controversy
seems to have elicited quite a few
differing opinions, from the stu­dents
anyway. Do you feel that the
students are well-prepared to go on
to work for a company in the
international area?
A. I think the students are getting a
good program, and certainly with the
MIM they're getting a curriculum
that is not duplicated anywhere else
in the country and, in my opinion,
can't be duplicated in any other
institution of higher education in
this country - simply because we
have an equal balance between the
language, the international studies,
and the business program. There is a
feeling that some of the students
would like to have more of a
business background. I think the
feeling is that rather than take away
from the fundamental program,
which we think is very good, we
SUMMER 1990
15
should give the students the oppor­tunity
to take some additional
courses and receive credit hours for
which any other institution would
give them an MBA also. The whole
idea is to create even more market­able
students. But, at the same time,
I certainly don't think there's any
desire to lower the standards or the
value of the MIM.
Q. One of Dr. Herberger's planks is
that the School is going to be
harder to get into, and harder to get
out of. There's a lot of competition
- it seems like every MBA school
is hanging the international shingle
on its door. Where do you see
Thunderbird jitting in by the year
2000?
A. First you have to understand
where Thunderbird is right now. In
my opinion, it is the leading school
for international business and inter­national
studies in the country. The
challenge that we have today is
recognizing that everybody is trying
to duplicate us. I'm involved with a
number of other institutions and,
frankly, all of those schools look with
envy upon the kind of program we
have. The challenge is to maintain
our leadership by moving our
program to a new plateau and
provide an even more superior
program for our students. This is the
real challenge Roy Herberger has, to
jump shift - take our leading
program and move it up again so
that we will continue to maintain the
lead and, therefore, continue to have
a high demand for the School's
services and graduates. To help
accomplish this move, we have a
major campaign beginning to raise
additional funds to provide all the
staffing, services, and facilities
needed to carry this new program
into the 21st century.
Q. What do you think about
Thunderbird's rankings in some of
the recent journals and publications?
A. Business Vkek, I believe, had a
recent survey of the best interna­tional
schools. These publications
are all ranking MBAs. They don't
rank MIM programs. By not having
an MBA, we are excluded from that
continued on
page 31
VIEWPOINT
TEACHING ETHICS AT THUNDERBIRD
Robert Tancer is a proJessor oj
international studies at Thunderbird.
He holds a an LL.B. Jrom the University
oj Michigan and an LL.M. Jrom
Harvard Law School. ProJessor Tancer
is also a member oj the Board oj
Trustees oj the Flagstaff Institute.
I began teaching 154882, Business
Ethics in the Multinational Environ­ment,
in the spring of 1990. It is the
purpose of these comments to share
with you the development and
emergence of the course during its
first semester. I would urge all of
you to comment on its content and
suggest avenues for improvement.
After reviewing some of the
materials used in ethics courses at
other graduate business schools, I
began establishing priorities appro­priate
to the Thunderbird environ­ment.
The first of these was to create
a framework broader than that based
on the Judeo-Christian tradition,
common to many approaches, but
somewhat limiting for Thunderbird.
I was concerned with international­izing
the existing material to make it
more relevant to our students. I was
able to focus on what each member
of the class, in a different context
it could be your employee, brought
with himlher. Rather than label or
describe it, I tried to emphasize
that each student should be intro­spective
and sensitive to his own
moral make up and understand what
form of behavior would be accept­able
or not to him, for it is often the
individual's own values that can
influence the group's. To interact
with one's own values, I explained
that each business entity had its
own standards and it was important
to understand what they were before
one could be comfortable in a given
corporate environment. Thus the
focus became clear, the relationship
between the individual and the
group, (corporation/employer). This
analysis was consistent with the
organization of the materials in our
text, K. Goodpaster, Ethics in
Management.
Although only one of the chapters
specifically dealt with global issues,
anyone of the other cases could be
internationalized. For example, such
domestic cases raising questions of
improper accounting practices,
product safety or bankruptcy could
easily be transferred abroad as our
students quickly understood. Thus
the question of international content
became increasingly less important
as I began to understand that
marketing a new brand of cigarettes
in a heavily black neighborhood in
Philadelphia raises identical ethical
questions as marketing the same
cigarettes in Thailand. This does not
mean that ethical issues for the global
corporation do not have their own
complexities, but rather that certain
ethical standards are universally
applicable.
I also wanted something special
to begin the semester, which would
set the tone for the course. After
discussing this requirement with
whoever would listen, one friend
asked whether I had ever read The
Parable oj the Sadhu, or had seen
the video of it prepared at the Harvard
Business School. She explained that
when General Electric acquired
Kidder Peabody all of its employees
were required to see the tape and
participate in a discussion of it. I
quickly obtained a reprint of the
article and knew it was going to be
the introductory case for the ethfcs
course. The case involves a group of
mountain climbers, representing
several different nationalities, prepar­ing
to cross a dangerously high pass
in the Himalayas. Into their midst
appears a dazed sadhu, ill, under­nourished
and inadequately clothed.
Each of the mountain climbers
must decide what form, if any, of
assistance to offer the sadhu, and at
the same time assess the cost in time
and effort to achieve his own coveted
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
16
personal goal, the crossing of the
pass. The case offered multiple levels
of analysis and ample opportunity to
evaluate both individual and group
responses. Class discussion was
lively, perhaps the most provocative
comment coming from an Indian
student, who criticized the Ameri­cans
for trying to help the sadhu,
who, he maintained, clearly wanted
to be alone and possibly even to die.
He viewed them as meddlesome and
interfering. This added a global
dimension to our discussion, not
even approached in the Harvard
video, which was shown to the class
follOwing our own analysis.
The case method is the traditional
way ethics courses are taught at
business schools for they offer the
opportunity for class discussion, and
better cases raise questions, but do
not offer solutions.
In addition to the text, three
original cases were prepared for the
class, two with the assistance of a
recent graduate, John Parisot. The
first of these included the Lockheed
scandal involving bribes to govern­ment
officials in Japan and the
Netherlands in exchange for the
purchase of aircraft. These events
produced the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act, which continues to set
the boundaries for United States
corporations and their executives in
making payments to foreign officials.
With inSightful comments from our
two Japanese students we were able
to explore the phenomenon of gift
giving on different cultural levels,
although we were never able to reach
a consensus as to when a "gift"
becomes a "bribe." Of course we
dealt with the dilemma of retaining
one's market share in countries
where payments of this kind are
prevalent, and some students ques­tioned
the wisdom of the American
legislation.
Whereas the Lockheed case raised
ethical issues in the context of
cultural differences, our second
original case, Mobil's divestiture in
South Africa, provided the opportu­nity
to contrast an ethical issue with
a legal one. We examined some
proxy material sent to Mobil share­holders
in 1987 that included a
proposal by a group of stockholders
that the company divest itself of its
operations in South Africa because of
the apartheid policy practiced by the
government. The president of Mobil
responded by urging the sharehold­ers
to vote against the proposal
because Mobil's activities in South
Africa were not in violation of the
United States boycott legislation. By
justifying continuing activities in
South Africa on their legality under
United States legislation, Mobil's
president effectively sidestepped the
ethical issue of doing business in a
country practicing apartheid. Interest­ingly,
Mobil did withdraw from
South Africa the following year as a
result of new legislation prohibiting
the foreign tax credit to United States
firms receiving taxable income from
South Africa. The case illustrated
several important aspects of the
corporate decision-making process,
as well as raising the more funda­mental
issue of doing business with
countries engaged in policies with
which we are not in agreement.
These corporate decisions parallel
those of government. Do we extend
or withhold most-favored nation
status to the Soviet Union because
we do not agree with its policy of
Jewish emigration or Lithuanian
independence? Seeing the similarities
of choice between governmental and
corporate decision making helps
provide an element of understanding
between these two sectors.
Our final original case involved
the question of the introduction of a
cholesterol-reducing drug in light of
the inconclusive evidence of the role
cholesterol plays in causing heart
disease. In our analysis of this
question, we not only considered the
drug industry, but also the value of
new food products marketed for their
alleged ability to lower cholesterol.
We were also able to consider the
broader role of the drug industry, in
the marketing of patented drugs
internationally, generic drugs and
their cost. With the increased concern
for quality health care delivery on a
global basis the drug industry
remains important for future study.
Our course was graced by the
participation of four outstanding
visitors. Dr. George Baker, retired
dean of the Harvard Business School
spoke on the role of the outside
director, a subject we touched upon
frequently during the semester.
During his long and distinguished
career both at Harvard and as a
consultant, Dean Baker served on a
variety of corporate boards. He
brought wisdom and a perspective to
our class that none of the students
will ever forget. He, in turn, an
octogenarian whose entire academic
career was spent at Harvard was
thoroughly impressed with the
openness and enthusiasm of our
students.
Carole Hall of Kidder Peabody
joined us in our discussion of
leveraged buyouts, particularly the
one at RJR -Nabisco. Her knowledge
of finance and the stock market as
well as her own moral viewpoint
were both informative and stimu-
SUMMER 1990
17
lating. The basis of our discussion
was the case, Buyout at RJR Nabisco:
Ethics and the Board oj Directors,
prepared by R. O. Mason, Carp P.
Collins Distinguished Professor,
Southern Methodist University. Mason
proVided considerable guidance to
me as I was preparing the course. We
were also fortunate in the publication
during the semester of Barbarians at
the Gate, The Fall oj RJR Nabisco,
the authoritative account of the
buyout by two W:!ll Street Journal
reporters, Burroughs and Helyar.
Ellen Pallestrant, a recent immi­grant
to the United States from South
Africa, assisted in our discussion of
the divestiture issue. Her own recent
involvement in the intellectual life of
South Africa, as an important writer
and politically-committed individual
provided insights into the changing
world of South Africa that would
ordinarily not be available to us. She
particularly sensitized us to the
importance of tribalism in South
Africa, and spoke of Nelson Mandela
and the ANC, thereby preparing us
for his triumphant visit to the United
States and Canada.
Finally, Dr. Carman H. Brooks, a
well-known Scottsdale cardiologist,
and father of Tbird alumna, Kathy
'87, participated in our discussion of
the cholesterol drug. Dr. Brooks'
knowledge and openness in discuss­ing
the drug industry and its
relationship with the medical profes­sion
was informative and useful. Dr.
Brooks was raised and educated in
Canada where he also practiced
medicine before moving to Scottsdale.
His own profeSSional experience in
two Significantly different health-care
delivery systems added considerable
breadth to his remarks.
The ethics course will be repeated
again in the fall. With the continuing
interest in the subject, it could well
become a required course in the
curriculum as it already has in many
graduate business programs. I would
hope that over time different
members of the faculty would teach
it, as the subject matter is very much
molded by the values and orientation
of the professor. Finally, our goal
should be to develop a library of
original cases, each with strong
international perspectives, that would
reflect the uniqueness of our School.
THUNDERBIRD NETWORK
ARIZONA
Back to the Future was the
theme for an evening of
reminiscing at Thunderbird.
The Phoenix chapter had
dinner on campus, toured the
facilities, and finished the
evening at the Pub. July found
Tbirds from Arizona escaping
the summer heat while camp­ing
at the Mogollon Rim near
Payson. Kim Royster '85 and
Hein Schoustra '83 were
responsible for organizing
the group.
CALIFORNIA
Gold Coast
The Central Coast met the
Gold Coast when Pacific
InterTrade invited Southern
California alums to mix and
mingle with members of the
Central Coast World Trade
Center in June. Guy f
Tozzoli, worldwide president,
World Trade Centers Associa­tion
was the honored guest
and featured speaker at this
event. First Tuesdays in
Westlake Village will take a
summer break and reconvene
after Labor Day on September
4 at Cisco's Mexican Restau­rant,
Westlake Boulevard, at
5:30 p.m.
Greater Los Angeles
The L.A. chapter sponsored
the first of a series of class
reunion parties. The first one
was held in July and featured
the 1947 to 1957 graduating
classes. Hosts were Ted Johnson
'54 and his wife, Barbara. July
was also the month for the
inauguration of a game of
"paintball" complete with
paint guns, goggles, masks
and paint tubes.
Orange County
For the third year, Marc
Gallin '86 hosted an inter­national
food fest at his
beach front manse at Seal
Beach. A barbecue, potluck,
beach games, and fun were
available for all to enjoy on
Bastille Day.
San Diego
By popular request the
Elephant Bar on La Jolla
Village Drive was chosen as
the permanent First Tuesday
location beginning on July 3
at 6:00 p.m. Several North
County Tbirds have requested
that the San Diego chapter
. hold a monthly meeting in
North County. The chapter is
currently looking for a site for
a Last Thursday of each
month for Tbirds who live
ancIJor work in that area.
A summer picnic was held
at Crown Point North in July
and organized by Laura
Makey '87. The event featured
volleyball and other summer
games.
San Francisco
The Bay Mystique, the San
Francisco chapter newsletter,
has introduced some new
features to its monthly news­letter.
Information Technology
will focus on computers and
biotech - their human
implications, their business
impacts, and their entrepre­neurial
possibilities. The Bay
Area Stock Watch recaps new
developments in companies,
stock prices, new issues,
mergers, acquisitions, man­agement
changes or anything
that may affect alums invest­ment
in the company. An
international news quiz will
be published courtesy of John
Ordway'88.
A program looking at the
globalization of the media
industry was co-sponsored by
the San Francisco alumni
chapter and the International
Forum committee of the
World Affairs Council in June.
Featured speakers were Pro­fessor
Ben Bagdikian, dean of
the School of Journalism,
University of California at
Berkeley, and Mike Cerre,
producer of Globe TV in
Sausalito, a magazine format
television series in and for
foreign markets. Lori Nelson
'88 helped organize the
program.
Twenty entrepreneurs
gathered at a meeting to hear
about training, database and
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
18
u. S. Leasing Corporation in San
Francisco employs three T'bird gradu­ates
(I-r): John Brooke '85, corporate
pricing analyst; David Walker '79,
manager, new f!larket development;
and Matthew Mitchell '83, national
marketing manager. Mitchell writes,
"We cherish the time spent at
Thunderbird and consider it an
integral part of the success we've
known in the working world."
john Snyder is the latest recipient of
the Phoenix Alumni chapter scholar­ship.
Snyder is interested in a career
in international banking and finance
and graduated summa cum laude
from University of Arizona in Tucson
prior to attending Thunderbird.
Midwest T'birds got together in
Detroit for a night out on the town.
(I-r): Angela Elgin '89, Steve Green
'89, Vera Heidolph '89, Mary Frances
Allen '88, Ernane lung '89, Gilder
Jackson '89, and Eliza Murray '88.
Photo courtesy of Eliza Murray.
Charlotte Kennedy Takahashi '76
was selected for the Thunderbird
Alumni Association Distinguished
Alumni Award for Entrepreneurship.
As she was unable to attend the
Spring Banquet this year; Takahashi
received the award from Charles
Stockholm '56, a member of the
Board of Trustees during his recent
trip to Tokyo. Takahashi is the
president of OAK Associates, K.K.,
Japan, and an active member of the
Tokyo alumni chapter.
communication services pro­vided
by Barrett Consulting of
Colorado. The June meeting
featured Linda Haun '74 who
facilitated a "Haves and
Needs" networking session.
San Francisco was the site
for Export Pacific 90, the
third annual exhibition and
conference for Pacific Rim
traders held in May. Robert
Lees '77, president of Pacific
InterTrade Corporation, and
].H. Dethero '58, regional
manager for California State
World Trade Commission, were
featured speakers. Lees guided
the audience through 'The Art
of Overseas Negotiation" and
Dethero spoke on "Putting the
Financing Together." Major
sponsors included The Asian
Wlll Street Journal, Japan
Airlines, and the U. S.
Department of Commerce.
COLORADO
Denver
Alfred Hamburg '75 was
the guest speaker at the June
Tbird Tuesday meeting. His
topic was "Brazil: The Current
Revolution, Its Cause and
Effects." Hamburg has worked
in France, West Germany and
Brazil in the capital goods
and banking industries, and
currently works with Paine
Webber in Denver.
ILLINOIS
Chicago
Dr. Roy A. Herberger, Jr.
was given a rousing reception
by the 90 plus alumni who
gathered at the MidAmerica
Club in Chicago to listen to
Thunderbird's president out­line
the future of the School.
Dr. Herberger gave the group
insight into Thunderbird's
plans for building, finances,
and how the School will beat
the competition.
The Goose Island Brewery
event was rated "Fantastic!" by
about 40 alumni, who were
also treated to a surprise tour
of the brewery. Fifty alums
joined together for the
2nd annual Cubs vs. Dodgers
game at Wrigley Field in
July. Pub Night, every third
SUMMER 1990
19
Thursday, has resumed for the
summer months during happy
hour at Ranalli's on Lincoln
Avenue, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
LOUISIANA
Tbirds in and around New
Orleans are gathering on First
Tuesdays at Birraporetti's on
the fourth floor of Jackson
Brewery in the French Quar­ter.
The group has been
meeting since ovember,
according to Steve Mobley
'77. Steve invites anyone
passing through or moving to
the area to meet them on the
first Tuesday of each month ,
beginning at 6 p.m.
MISSOURI
St. Louis
Tad Dageford '86 and Susan
Levin '89 have decided what
St. Louis needs is Thunder­bird
First Tuesday. JD's Bar in
the Galleria was the site for
the inaugural event in June.
Located near the Innerbelt
and Highway 40, St. Louis
alums gathered for an evening
of conversation and convivality.
NEW ENGLAND
First Tuesday in June saw
the Thunderbird Club of New
England kick off activities to
increase their involvement in
the New England interna­tional
business community.
The club hopes to have parti­cipation
from other Boston
international groups and
encourages all interested to
join them.
NORTH CAROLINA
Tbirds from Charlotte
and vicinity gathered at The
Artist's Cafe in May. The
event was organized by
Bobby Damsky '81 and Scott
Thomas '82.
OREGON
The Portland area alumni
held a Tbird international pot­luck
in June, with Christopher
Acheson, senior vice presi­dent,
international division ,
First Interstate Bank of
Oregon, as the guest speaker.
Acheson spoke on Pacific Rim
Business: Economic and Polit­ical
Conditions.
THUNDERBIRD NETWORK
PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh
First Tuesday's are currently
being held at Froggy's, 100
Market Street, in Pittsburgh
beginning at 5:30 p.m. Becky
Christoff '89 has organized
the activities.
TEXAS
Dallas
The Dallas/Fort Worth
chapter held its annual spring­time
get-together in Addison
at the outside International
Food Bazaar during Dallas's
Salute to the World Week.
Houston
Rice University in Houston
was the site for the 1990
economic summit of world
leaders. Mark Kerrissey '76 is
chairing a committee of
Houston alumni to volunteer
their services to the summit
which was attended by Presi­dent
George Bush and delega­tions
from Italy, Japan, West
Germany, Canada, the United
Kingdom, France, and the
Commission of the European
Communities.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Greater Washington
Thunderbird Alumni Associa­tion
has moved TBird Tues­day
to Samantha's Restaurant
and Cafe, located at 1823 L
Street, N.W, (702) 223-1823.
The Thunderbird Washing­ton
Alumni Club presented
Dr. Yuri N. Maltsev, who
spoke on Perestroika in the
Soviet Union: results and
perspectives. Dr. Maltsev
served more than ten years as
a senior advisor on economic
policy in the Soviet Union.
The event was coordinated by
K. C. McAlpin '73 and Brian
Marshall '73.
In June, the WMBA -
alumni groups of Thunder­bird,
U of Chicago, Columbia,
Darden, Tuck, and Wharton -
set sail for a reprise of their
successful rafting trip down
the Potomac River, sponsored
by the Columbia Business
School Club. The alums also
picnicked at Timberlake Park
in July.
The Greater Washington
D.C. alumni association is
planning a one-day confer­ence
involving the issues of
events in Eastern Europe and
how they impact Western
Europe and 1992. The con­ference
is scheduled for
October 19, 1990. Anyone
wishing to volunteer or who
knows of experts in the field
is asked to call Kathy Boyce
'83 at (202) 377-4198.
WASHINGTON
Prospective students, fellow
Tbirds, employers, and com­munity
leaders who actively
support Thunderbird were
among the visitors at the
School's booth located at the
annual Export-Import Exhibi­tion
and Conference held at
the Washington State Conven­tion
& Trade Center in Seattle
in May. Many Washington
area Tbirds volunteered their
time and support to the
conference.
The Washington chapter of
the Thunderbird Alumni Asso­ciation
assisted with the 1990
Goodwill Games held July 20
through August 5 in Seattle.
Lisa Craig Napoli '87 coordi­nated
Tbirds who volunteered
to serve as interpreters and
assist visitors from around the
world. The Games included
sporting competition, an inter­national
trade exhibition, and
an arts festival.
The Washington state chap­ter
has a new exective board.
The board includes Elizabeth
Atwill '83, president; Jeanne
Chase '88, vice president; Lee
Duran '8 7, treasurer; Bob
Hawkinson '83, former presi­dent;
Katherine Arrington '88,
newsletter editor; and Whitney
Kim '87.
~
Graduates of the December 1988
class were in Paris on business and
got together for a minireunion
recently (I-r) Mork Heffernan, Eli
Lilly, Canada; Anton Hooijmaaijer,
Dow Chemical, Belgium; Laurence
Delesalle, jacob Delafon, France; Bill
Logue, Dames & Moore, France;
Linda Munsch, Domicor, Inc., Chicago;
and Curtis Fox, jomes Kuhn & Co.,
Belgium. Photo courtesy of Linda
Munsch.
The Thunderbird alumni in Nigeria
gathered for a group photo at a
meeting held at the home of Vassi/y
Barberopoulos '88. First row (I-r):
Adeleke Odutola '75, Barberopoulos,
Garry Moore '64, Carol Stengel Briam
'85. Second row: Messrs. Berit Briam,
Ukoha, Dono Agha, Caroline Ufaeyen
'80, Kayode Pitan, Adeleke, Ikpe.
Third row: Prince Olu Eweka '82, Ibe
Ukoha '68, Peter Agha '83, Chief
Kingsley Ikpe '73,jean Pierre Briam,
Eunice Eweka, Olukayode Pitan '86,
and Adebayo Ade/eke '82.
REUNION
WEEKEND:
BIGGER,
BETTER ...
AND MORE
Mark your calendar now
for Thunderbird's annual
reunion weekend, starting
Friday, November 9, through
Sunday, November 11,1990.
The reunion honors the
Classes of 1950, 1960, 1965,
1970, 1980, and 1985. This
year's activities will include
golf and tennis tournaments,
Thunderbird faculty involve­ment
in educational seminars,
and, of course, the 16th annual
Thunderbird Balloon Classic
and accompanying activities.
Watch your mailbox for more
information. We'll see you at
the races!
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
20
ALUMNI UPDATES
1947 -1949
Gloria Wasielewski Kreisher '47 is a special
assistant to the English language program
division for the U.S. Information Agency. She
lives in Washington D.e. Robert L Bean '48 is
the president of the Sunbelt World Trade
Association in Tucson, AZ. He also serves on the
Arizona District Export Council.
REUNION 1950 NOViEfMBt~ f ' -11, 199'
Selwyn]. Graves '50 is the president of Adobe's
Inc., a holding company, for restaurant and
financial services. He lives with his wife, Ann, in
EI Cajon , CA.
1951-1955
Earl W, Bellinger '51 has retired from the U.S.
State Department, and lives with his wife,
Michele, in Les Arcs, France. Sarah A, Hough
'52 is the owner of a catering firm . She lives in
Terrace Park, OH. Herman G. Rhoton '52 is a
partner of The Auto Butler Road Service, an
emergency road service. He lives in Phoenix, AZ.
Samuel Schulman '52 is the owner of lnfopack,
a custom packaging firm . He lives with his wife,
Ruth, in Irvine, CA. Robert H. Morehouse '53
has been elected chairman of Atlas Copco K. K.,
Tokyo, a subsidiary of the Swedish multinational
manufacturer of air compressors, tools, and
construction and mining equipment. He
continues his appointments as visiting associate
at the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian
research at Harvard , and senior adviser on Asia
to Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Group in
Stockholm. He lives in Tokyo, Japan. Eugene H.
Shultz '53 has recently retired from his position
as employment interviewer for the State of
Florida. He lives in Auburndale, FL. W. Ted
Johnson '54 is a vice president and account
executive for Standard Chartered Bank, Los
Angeles branch . G. Yves Beyer '55 is a medical,
pharmaceutical and scienti fic buyer for the
purchase bureau of the State of New Jersey. He
lives in Morrisville, PA.
1956 -1959
H,P' 'Dan' Daniels '56 is president of
PharmaResearch Inc., a clinical trial management
service. He and his wife, Ann, live in Carmel,
IN. Paul T. Welborn '57 is the vice president of
finance for Goodyear de Chile S.A.I.e. He lives
in Santiago, Chile. Dean W. Dietrich '58 is a
realtor with Shannon and Lucks, a real estate
firm. He lives with his wife, Carolyn, in
Annandale, VA. Richard A. Redder '58 is a vice
president of development and administration for
Technoserve, Inc., a non-profit international
development firm . He and his wife, Beth, live in
Westport, CT. Pieter A. Vos '58 is the director of
European operations for Hedman Company, Inc.
He lives in Palatine, IL.
1960 REUNION ill NOVEMBER 9 - ll, 1990
Charles R. Gist is a vice president for Citibank
N.A. He lives in Westport, CT.
Robert L Bean '48 j. P. Bryan' 66
1961-1964
John Gunnerson '6\ is the president of j.M.
Gunnerson & Associates, an international
networking company. He lives with his wife,
Cheryl, in Portland, OR. F.E, McMinn '61 is the
vice president of Biltmore Equities and Securities
Ltd., an investment securities firm in Scottsdale,
AZ. Alan Blank '62 is administering a small
foundation and wildlife trust outside of Cabo
San Lucas, Mexico, where he lives on a ranch
with his wife, Lola, and their daughter, Rachel.
Miles D. Freitag '62 is the president of Solvay
Animal Health Inc. He lives with his wife,
Cheryl, in Apple Valley, MN. Thomas H.
Aageson '63 is the president of Mystic Seaport
Museum Stores. In November he was named
vice president of marketing and merchandising
and to the management committee of Mystic
Seaport. He lives in Mystic, CT. Stephen V
Naegle '63 is the vice president of commodity
marketing for Orange Company, a firm growing
and processing oranges. He lives with his wife,
Maria Christina, in Winter Haven, Florida, after
spending seven years in Mexico. His son Stephen
Jr. attends the Catholic school, while Vance is
getting his master's from University of Oregon.
Richard Kithil, Jr, '64 is involved with Overseas
Employers Registry which publishes a biweekly
newsletter listing specific employment opportu­nities
in Europe, Asia, Caribbean/Latin America,
Africa, and the Middle East. The company is
located in Boulder, CO. Michael]. McTighe '64
is an assistant counsel of the State of New York,
department of social services. He lives in
Flushing, NY. Claus T. Morch '64 is in sales
with Swe-Den Inc., a Scandinavian handicrafts
and gifts importer. He and his wife, Elisabeth,
live in Madison, CT.
REUNION
1965 1.t6'
NOVEMBER 9 - ll, 1990
Jerome K. Pascoe is the managing director of
Monarch S.A., an international agent and
consulting firm in Brussels, Belgium.
1966 -1969
Max E. Bissey '66 is a regional manager for
Cosdel (Far East) Limited , a wholesaler and
reta iler of Hallmark ca rds, Sanrio, Dakin, and
quality gifts in Hong Kong, Singapore, and
Malaysia. He lives with his wife, Byong-eh Bissey,
in Hong Kong. ].P. Bryan '66 is the chairman
and chief executive officer of Torch Energy
Advisors Inc., an oil and gas property
SUMMER 1990
21
management firm. He lives with his wife, Mary
Jon , in Houston, TX. John]. DiFazio '66 is a
zone vice president of sales for Dow Chemical
Company. He lives with his wife, Judith , in
Farmington Hills, Ml. Bob Dolezal '66 is a
senior plan ner for the City of Tucson. He and his
wife, Chris, live in Tucson, AZ. Jon C. Dyer '66
is the executive director of Savoy Brands
International Inc. He lives with his wife, Sharon,
in Miami, FL. Thomas B, Kenan '66 is an
international business developer for Harris
Corporation, a communications and military
electronics systems firm. He lives in Sebastian,
FL. Noel E. Lang '66 is a partner and vice
president of an import and export company,
Inout-Comercial , Importadora E Exportadora
Ltda., based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He lives with
his wife, Patsy, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Perry S.
Melton, Jr. '66 has started a consulting firm
which specializes in assisting companies that
wish to establish operations in Mexico. He lives
in Rio Rico, AZ. William R. Brown '67 is the
president of Latin American operations for
Carrier Corporation, an air conditioning and
refrigeration equipment firm. He lives with his
wife, Marina, in Miami, FL. William C. Dyer
'67 is the general manager of American
International Management Inc. He lives in
Redondo Beach, CA. Thorn Farver '67 is a
self-employed oil and gas financial consultant.
He and his wife, Carol, live in Houston, TX.
]. Clark Hallmann '67 is a board member of
County National West Investment. He lives with
his wife, Ulla, in London, England . John P.
Moynier '67 is self-employed and owns a
financial and real estate investment firm in Napa,
California, where he lives with his wife, Melinda.
Jonathan Parentice '67 is the president of
TransGem Corporation, an import firm of
Brazilian minerals, located in West Bend, WI.
Kenneth Banks '68 is the vice president of
marketing communications for Eckerd Drugs,
Clearwater, Florida. He was inducted into the
Retail Advertising Hall of Fame at the 38th
annual retail advertising conference in February,
an honor given to someone who has contributed
Significantly to improve the standards and
techniques of retail advertising and marketing.
John DeKellis '68 is the president of Retail
Interact, Inc., a computer software firm. He lives
with his wife, Cindy, in Sacramento, CA. ].H.
Kuhlman '68 is the president of Key Interna­tional,
Inc., an export management company. He
and his wife, Susan, live in Scottsdale, AZ.
David P. Weber '68 is the vice president of
research for the Milwaukee hub at Dain
Bosworth & Co. He lives in Milwaukee. Steven
M. Friedheim '69 is the general manager for
WGBO-TV He recently married Mary E. Kaus,
and they have a baby girl, Erica. Their home in
Lincoln Park was determined to be a national
historic landmark. The family now lives in
Chicago, IL. John G. Ives '69 is a consultant for
Richard Kenyon Associates, a financial consult­ing
firm . He lives with his wife, Monika, in
Summit, NJ. David Johannesen '69 is a vice
preSident and senior sales representative for
Prudential Investment Corporation , an institu ­tional
investment management firm . He lives
with his wife, Julia, in ew York, Y. Marshall
R. Malden '69 is setting up a North American
sales office in Scottsdale, Arizona for a
Thai-German manufacturer of ceramic Ooor and
wall tiles, based in Bangkok, Thailand . He lives
in Phoenix, AZ. Paul E. Peters '69 has relocated
from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia to accept a
position as the national logistiCS manager for
Thndem Computers. John C. Polhemus '69 has
ALUMNI UPDATES
been transferred from Malaysia and is now the
managing director for Goodyear's subsidiary in
Turkey, john has spent 20 years with Goodyear
with assignments in 9 countries, He lives in
Istanbul, Turkey. His daughter, Raegan , will
marry this summer and settle in Phoenix, and
his twin sons will enter University of Nevada,
Las Vegas this fall as freshmen ,
REUNION
1970 ii'
NOVEMBER 9 - 11, 1990
A,L Cheek III is the international regional
manager for Cessna Aircraft Company, He lives
in Farmers Branch, TX, Roger Decort is the
owner and principal of Socially Sensitive
Investments, an investment research and
management firm, He lives with his wife, Trudy,
in Mesa, AZ, Malinda Elliott is the owner of
The Writer's An, a company specializing in
writing/international travel. She lives in Santa Fe,
NM, Dennis P. Gesin is with Coldwell Realty
and is also the owner and operator of Gesin's
Grocery. He lives in Elizabeth, CO, Alexander E.
Naughton is vice president and the general
manager of ASLK-CGER Bank. He lives with his
wife, Merrill, in Larchmont, NY Brian R. O'Hare
is the president of Winning Strategies, a business
planning and marketing consulting firm, He
lives in Warwick, Rl. john R. Pope is a director
of Gubbins Lambrasi, an advertiSing firm, He
lives with his wife, Maria Elena, in Santiago,
Chile, Chase Chonggwang Rhee has been
appOinted to the Advisory Council on Asia
under the California commission for economic
development. They are to advise the commission
on economic developments in the Pacific Rim
region and their relevance to California, Austin
M. Seay is a vice president and area manager of
Pan Marine, He has been reaSSigned to Rio De
janeiro, Brazil, where he is in charge of the
company fleet which services the Brazilian
offshore oil and gas industry,
1971
Robert]. Austin is the first secretary, political
officer at the American Embassy in Caracas,
William H. Murphy is the chief operating
officer for Navarro Financial Corp, He and his
wife, Catherine, have a new daughter, Eryn
Elizabeth, born September, 1989, They live in
Dallas, TX, Ray B. Myhre is a regional manager
for J. I. Case Company, an agricultural
machinery firm. He lives with his wife, Louise,
in Roseville, CA, Michael]. O'Shaughnessy is
the chairman of Red Crane Books, a publisher of
trade books, He and his wife, Marianne, live in
Santa Fe, NM, Aloysio Vasconcellos is
self-employed as the president of an import!
export firm and international trade advisory
under its parent company, Westchester Interna­tional
Corporation, He and his wife, Regina, live
in Mamaroneck, New York. Anthony R, Wilmer
is president and owner of an advertising/
promotion agency, Fresh-Brands Marketing, Inc.,
located in San Francisco, Services include new
product introductions, retail sectional and
store-wide promotions, and advertiSing for
regional and national food companies,
1972
Bill Acheson is a marketing and sales
representative for PR. Valve and Fitting Co" a
subsidiary of Crawford Fitting Co" maker of
valves and fittings, Bill lives in Santurce, Puerto
Rico, Antonio Bowen is temporarily working in
Managua, Nicaragua, with a foreign commerce
international cooperation program at the
Institute for Foreign Commerce Development.
Michael S. Moe is the director of international
sales for Carver Boat Corporation, a family
cruisers and motor yachts firm, He lives with his
wife, Darcy, in Racine, WI. Dennis], Orio is the
assistant vice president, international depart­ment,
for Chubb and Son Inc., an international
property and casualty insurance underwriter, He
lives with his wife, Margaret, in South Orange,
NJ. Donald E. Pierce is the vice president of
commercial banking for Wells Fargo Bank. He
lives with his wife, Florence, in Elk Grove, CA,
Michel Vann is a vice president of commercial
loans for Sun Bank Southwest N,A, He lives in
Ft. Meyers, FL
A L U M NIP RO F I L E
PROMOTING
TOURISM IN
HONG KONG
Eugene C. Sullivan '67
never guessed that his
participation in an
advertising competition at
Thunderbird would even­tually
lead to a position as
executive director of the
Hong Kong Tourist Associ­ation,
Back some 23 years
ago, Sullivan's advertising
team worked on a cam­paign
for the Swedish
Government Tourist Bureau
promoting the island of
Gotland as a summer
resort. The course
was a precursor of today's
InterAd,
Sullivan was born and
raised in upstate New York
and attended a university
in Florida to "escape the
cold, harsh New York
winters, He studied inter­national
affairs and lan­guages
and also took oppor­tunities
to travel on assign­ment
to Latin America,
That was what started my
bent toward international
business," says Sullivan.
At Thunderbird Sullivan
studied Spanish and Portu­guese
and wanted des­perately
to be posted to
Latin America, "Like the
military, where your skills
are in one area and you are
aSSigned to another, my
first employer, Coca-Cola,
sent me to Asia, and I've
never looked back," says
Sullivan.
Sullivan spent three
years in japan working for
Coca-Cola in a variety of
marketing capacities. "Dur­ing
my first year in japan
when my japanese was
very poor, 1 was traveling
in the northern part of the
country with a salesman
who spoke little English ,"
says Sullivan, "When I
learned that he had been
born and raised in Brazil,
we switched to Portuguese
for the remainder of the
trip and communicated
fluently, confusing all the
japanese within hearing
distance!" Years later,
Sullivan played the role of
a guide for Korean partners
during a business trip to
Brazil. '1\gain, my language
studies from Thunderbird
came to the fore," he says,
From japan, Sullivan
moved to Hong Kong with
his wife, Barbara, and from
there it was back to
Atlanta, Coca-Cola's home
base, Shortly afterward,
Sullivan left Coca-Cola
and joined Borden where
he worked in a marketing
capacity for almost 11
years, during which time
he spent about six years
based in the Philippines.
At the same time, he was
traveling to the regional
centers, from Pakistan
to Korea, When Borden
decided to close its office
in Japan, Sullivan moved
to Monsanto where he was
appointed chainnan and
representative director of
Monsanto japan, a major
chemical/electronics finn
in Tokyo. He had been
with the company for 2 lJ2
years when an executive
search firm approached
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
22
him about the Hong Kong
Tourist Association open­ing,
Sullivan's expertise
in the field of promoting
and marketing consumer
goods, along with his
Asian knowledge, was just
what the Hong Kong
Tourist Association Board
was looking for - some­one
who could promote
pragmatic products and
ideas rather than a tourism
specialist. "This was an
offer I could not resist,"
says Sullivan. "It also had
the added dimension of
living in Hong Kong, a
place my wife and I had
come to know and love
during a previous assign­ment
in the 1970s,"
Today, Sullivan is
responsible for a staff of
350 people and over 1,700
members, He reports to a
board made up of hotel­iers,
airline executives,
restaurateurs, and busi­nessmen.
He travels widely,
especially to countries and
regions that provide Hong
Kong with the bulk of its
visitors and attends an
endless stream of profes­sional
conferences and
seminars where the inter­national
travel industry
meets to assess the state of
one of the world's fastest
growing industries, With a
six-day work week, Sullivan
likes to spend his spare
time with his wife and two
daughters, "There's always
something exciting hap­pening
in Hong Kong," he
says, "Whether it be street
festivals, visitors coming
into town, rides in the
harbor or up in the Peak
tram , there is always some­thing
interesting going on,
I've got the best job in the
world - because I've got a
great product to sell,"
CN,
ALUMNI UPDATES
1973
A. Rodney Boren, Jr. has been named executive
vice president of Norwest Bank Minnesota and
head of its capital management and trust group.
He lives with his wife, Susan, in Minneapolis,
MN. Frederick H. Bruns is the safety director
for Weyerhaeuser Company, a paper and pulp
firm. He lives with his wife, Anne, in Eugene,
OR. Bela De Mariassy is the finanace manager
for International Turbine Engine Corporation. He
lives with his wife, Darra, in Phoenix, AZ. David
L Foster is the director of Worldwide Brands,
Inc. , a consumer products logo licensing firm.
He lives in Tokyo, japan. George F. Hardy is the
owner, treasurer and secretary of Pacific Pastures
Inc. , a food importer and distributor. He lives in
Santa Rosa, CA. Kingsley Ihenacho Ikpe has
taken an early retirement from ICON limited ,
merchant bankers. He has established an
investment banking firm, Thomas Kingsley
Securities limited, Lagos, Nigeria. He is the
president and chief executive officer and intends
to be active in capital market activities as well as
in debt/equity swap arrangements. Ernest L
Kangas is a senior vice president for ClA
Insurance Associates, an insurance broker of
export credit/political risk insurance. He lives
with his wife, Melody, in San Ramon, CA. Jill
Matousek is a partner of Rodin and Associates, a
public relations firm. She lives in San Francisco,
CA. Randolph K. Miller is an attorney living in
Eagle Pass, TX. Charles L Rucquoi is a
self-employed international financial consultant
in Stamford, CT. Perry D. Smith has been
named director business development, Asia for
Sonoco Products Company, a producer of
industrial and consumer packaging products. He
is responsible for identifying and developing new
business opportunities, for key customer and
investor relationships, analyzing and responding
to business and political trends and ongoing
support of Sonoco Asia start-up and existing
operations. Sonoco is located in Hartsville, Sc.
1974
Lawrence J. Burr is the chief executive officer of
Sigma-Atlas Corporation, an aluminized steel
and steel service center. He lives with his wife,
Anne, in Chagrin Falls, OH. Del Carver is the
president of Advanced Technology Ltd. He lives
in Fargo, NO. John P. Castro is an assistant vice
president ofJohnson and Higgins, an interna­tional
insurance brokerage firm. He lives in
Floral Park, NY. Ted Guggisberg is the president
of Inland Motors, a Ford dealership. He lives in
Redlands, CA. Brian A. Joedicker is a supplier
cost analyst for McDonnell Douglas Helicopters.
He lives in Gilbert, AZ. Ralph C. Johnson is a
world-wide international sales manager for
AM-Bruning, a computer aided design firm. He
manages a 35-country distributor network and
lives in Santa Clara, CA. Bruce C. Marks is the
director of national accounts for Sky Tel
Corporation, a manufacturer of paging equip­ment.
He lives with his wife, Kristi, and their
daughter, mylor Melissa, born in March, in
jackson, MS. Robert B. Mills is a self-employed
consultant in the area of international agricul­tural
products. He and his wife, Brenda, live in
Burt, Iowa. Jim Sherfey is the preSident and
chief operating officer of Olympiad Corporation,
a computer manufacturing firm. He lives with
his wife, Arlene, in Moraga, CA. Dan Sutton is
the president of Sutton Business Investments, a
business brokerage firm. He lives with his wife,
Carol, in Midlothian, VA. Hans W Thiele is a
controller for Penske 1hick Leasing. He and his
Steven M. Friedheim '69 Chonggwang Rhee 70
wife, Susan, live in Nashville, TN. Donald C.
Williams is an assistant vice president in the
equipment leaSing department of Union Bank.
He lives with his wife, Noriko, in Tiburon , CA.
Robert G. Young is the manager of Otis
Engineering Corporation , a surface safety
systems firm . He lives with his wife, Kumsun, in
Carrollton, TX.
1975
George P. Barros is a self-employed insurance
agent/regional representative. George sells insur­ance
and securities in Providence, Rhode Island ,
where he lives with his wife, Gabriella. Charles
Clausen has been promoted to international
manager, sales and engineering for Spicer
Off-Highway Axle Division. He has account
responsibility for Hyundai and Hamworthy and
for interfaCing with off-shore affiliates. He lives
with his wife, Maureen, in Ft. Wayne, IN.
Michael T. Curtiss is the chairman of Image
Systems Technology Inc., a consulting firm . He
lives with his wife , judith, in Bloomfield Hills,
MI. Larry Deckerhoff is a senior manager for
NCR Corporation, a computer firm. He lives
with his wife, Kay, in New Concord, OH. John
M. Derby is a vice preSident of investment
consulting for Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. He
lives in Rumson, Nj. Philippe Deyrnes has been
promoted to secretary general of the Kimberly­Clark
France group of companies. He lives in
Paris with his wife, Henny. Tom W. Glaser is a
region II language arts curriculum coordinator
for Dade County Public Schools. He lives in
Hollywood, FL. Fred Haggerson is a senior
programmer and analyst for Intel Corporation,
an electronics manufacturer. He lives with his
wife, Mary Lou, in Tempe, AZ. Kenneth
McPherson is the manager of business
development for Raytheon Company, a govern­ment
services firm. He lives with his wife, Patti,
in Nashua, NH. Alwin M. Miller is a system
analyst for S.I.G., a systems integration firm in
Hyattsville, MA. Brian P. Pinkstaff is a sales
manager, Yellow Pages, for Southwestern Bell
Telephone Company. He lives in Chesterfield,
MO. Serge M. Pinto is a partner with Bingham
Bigotte and Company, a trading company. He
lives in New York, NY. Linda L Stack is an
executive vice president and group account
director for Procter and Gamble, with Noble!
DMB & B, an advertising firm. She lives in
Mexico City, Mexico. Paula G. Vogel is the
marketing communications manager for A-dec
Inc., a manufacturer of dental equipment, chairs,
delivery systems and cabinetry: She lives in Lake
Oswego, OR. Victoria \¥.Igner Ross is a certified
financial planner for IDS Financial Services. She
recently appeared in the cover story of the April
issue of Changing Times, and she was
interviewed for the December 1989 issue of
SUMMER 1990
23
Perry D. Smith 73 Victoria Wagner Ross 75
Business \.Iteh. She is currently being inter­viewed
by Savvy, and will also appear in the
September issue of Money magazine. She and
her husband, Steven, live in Glenview, IL.
1976
John R. Austin is an investment officer with
Citibank N.A. He lives with his wife, Eileen, in
Rockville, MD. Virginia K. Cazeault is a senior
\~ce president of MetroBank, N.A. She lives in
Houston, TX. Diane Clauss Huth is president of
King Com, Inc., manufacturer of a low calorie
com chip. Her responsibilities will include sales,
marketing and finance. Her husband , Marvin
'76, is vice president of operations. They now
live in Miami. Martha S. Cook is a self­employed
private consultant. She lives in New
Canaan, C1. Don H. Hiruo is a manager of sales
and planning for Tokai Rika U.s.A., Inc., a
subsidiary of Toka Rika Ltd., japan, an OEM
automotive supplier. He and his wife, Marcia,
live in Franklin, Ml. Mustafa Mamujee is the
executive director of Mamujee Brothers Limited,
a hardware, steel, engineering and building
materials manufacturer in Mombasa, Kenya. He
lives in Mombasa with his wife, Shakila. Ken A.
McNeil is the president of Denver Brewing
Company, which brews and exports beer to
Eastern Europe. He lives in Denver, CO. Carlos
G. Orchard is an export director for Linder
Industrial Machinery Co., a KomatsulDresser full
line distributor in Miami, FL. James R. Peters is
the president of Paper Products Marketing, an
international paper trading and distribution
firm. He lives with his wife, Sally Mayer Peters
'75, in Lake Oswego, OR. Judy Purze is a real
estate manager for Hit or Miss Inc. , a retailer of
women's apparel. She lives in Irving, TX. Lynn
Weitzke is the European marketing manager,
Simplesse division, for Nutrasweet Company
She will be relocating to Paris in the next six
months to help establish European headquarters.
She currently lives in Chicago, IL. Anne
Whistler Honstein has been promoted to senior
vice president and manager of the loan division
at the First National Bank of Santa Fe. Her
husband, Roderick '78, is president of
Honstein Oil Co. They live in Santa Fe, NM.
1977
Barry R. Baldwin is a self-employed consultant.
He lives in Darien, C1. Ethan B. Book,Jr. is the
president of New England Executive Service. He
lives in Fairfield, C1. Lois Brown-Vera is an
international sales representative for Anacomp
International , a computer output microfilm firm.
She lives with her husband, Benjamin, in San
Diego, CA. James A. Emslie is a vice president
of Wells Fargo Bank N.A. He lives in Long
Beach, CA. Steve Ganster is the president of
ALUMNI UPDATES
Technomic ConsultanlS International, a market­ing
consulting firm . He lives in Evanston, Ilo
Thomas E. Halder has been promoted to cost
accounting manager of Emerson Electric
Company, Rantec Division. He lives with his
wife, Kimiko Hirata Halder '77, in Simi Valley,
CA. Robert W. Hesson, Jr. is the president and
chief executive officer of Healthca re Marketing
and Management Services in New Orleans, LA.
John M. Holliman III is the managing director
of Valley ational Investors, venture capital
investmenlS. He lives with his wife, Dawn
Tankersley Holliman '77, in Phoenix, AZ. Scott
K. Johnson is an associate of Development
Associates, Inc., a government and management
consulting agency. He and his wife, Donja, live
in Washington D.C. Robert G. Lees was recently
elected vice chairman of the World Trade Center,
providing services from Santa Monica to San
Luis Obispo, CA. Robert L. Levine is an
assistant to the administrator of Superior Home
Health Care. He lives in Knoxville, TN. Ben
Miedema is the regional coordinator for
International Cooperative Education. He lives in
San Antonio, TX. Ziya Muhamedcani is a
marketing manager for johnson & johnson
liliwan. He and his wife, Safiye live in lilipei.
Kenneth S. Paley is the vice president,
consumer services for Citibank. He lives with his
wife, Pamela, in Bangkok, Thailand. Ashok Patel
is employed by Sunkist Growers Inc., and is
responsible for the international expansion of the
Sunkist soft drink program. He and his wife,
Parul, announce the birth of their daughter,
Kesar, in February 1990. The family lives in
Irvine, CA. Paul Tolnai is a regional manager for
The Hanes Co., an investment real estate firm in
Orange, CA. Albert]. Wright is an assistant
vice president at Bank of New York. He lives in
CoilS Neck, NJ.
1978
Catherine Baldwin-Nixon is a financial analyst
with Montclair State College. She married
William Nixon in September of 1989, and they
live in Upper Montclair, NJ. Christoper Bates is
a managing director, Asia/Pacific, for Thermadyne
Holding, lnc. He lives with his wife, Ling U, in
Singapore. Byron W. Battles is a senior
telecommunications consultant for Aries Group,
MPSG. He lives with his wife, Janelle, in Silver
Spring, MD. Juan X. DeMesa is the vice
president of Mechanics National Bank, a small
business administrator. He lives in Hawthorne,
CA. David A. Dustin is the manager of contraclS
administration for Vinnell-Brown & Root
Services, an overseas defense-base maintenance
services firm . He works in Ankara, Turkey.
Dennis M. Egge is the regional director,
contraclS, for The Boeing Company, a commer­cial
aircraft firm. He lives with his wife, Diane,
in Mercer Island , WA. Dean B. Gadda is a
product specialist, original equipment tire
division, for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
He lives with his wife, jenny, in Canton, OH.
Warren M. Gitt is the director of llIfIrketing for
Kirschner Medical Corporation, an orthopedic
devices firm. He lives with his wife, Marcy, in
Columbia, MD. John P. Klecker is a senior
financial analyst for United Technologies
Automotive, an automotive electronics and wire
assembly firm. He lives with his wife, Sandi, in
Sterling HeighlS, MI. Howard Lasser is the
director of financial reporting and controller of
Revlon International Corporation. He lives in
Brookfield, CT Stephen L. Liston is a managing
partner of Montachem, a chemical export firm .
He lives in Bellaire, TX. Annick Luke is a
Brian I Farmer '79 Ashok D. Patel
financial analyst for Canadian Bond Rating
Services. She and her husband, Randy, live in
Point Claire, Quebec. R. Timothy McKnight has
taken a five year assignment as Abteilungs­Direktor
in the multinational coordinating group
for Dresdner Bank AG in the Federal Republic of
Germany. His wife, Pat, and children, Pippa,
Alan and Elizabeth, live in the lilunus area of
Frankfurt. Rick Newell is a regional sales
manager for Midland International Tileworks, a
ceramic tile manufacturer. He lives with his wife,
Mary, in Trabuco Canyon, CA. Gerald F.
Richardson sells commercial real estate for
Prudential Duperier Real Estate. He and his wife,
joan, live in Beaumont, TX. Lewis W. Ross is an
associate with Quality Domestics Inc., ajob
placement firm. He lives with his wife, Suzon, in
Kinnelon, NJ. David P. Scott is the manager and
owner of Anderson, Clark & Associates, a
recruiting firm. He lives in Verdi, NY. Tim
Watkins is the regional manager, developing
world, for Mobile Telesystems Inc. He lives in
Washington D.C. Roger Wittlin is the vice
president of the fixed income division for
Goldman, Sachs & Company. He is in charge of
fixed income mortgage distribution. He lives in
San Francisco, CA. Larry Wolfe is an area
manager for Southeast Asia for Foster ParenlS
Plan, a nonprofit development firm . He lives in
Manila, the Philippines.
1979
Christine M. Christoff is an account represent­ative
for Ameritech Industrial Purchasing Guide.
She lives in Akron, OH. Rebecca Christoff is a
credit analyst with PGH National Bank. She lives
in Brentwood, PA. Brian T. Farmer is
procurement coordinator of International Air­porlS
ProjeclS, an airport procurement company
in Saudi Arabia. In his tenth year at King
Abdulaziz International Airport, he has traveled
around the world and visited T'birds in Hong
Kong, New York, Los Angeles and Singapore this
past year. Vadim Fischer is a grain broker with
Pasternak Baum and Company, Inc. He lives
with his family, including his daughter,
Anastasia, born in November, in Ridgefield, CT
Rainer Lilienthal has been named line
representative for the U.s. Gulf for Maragua Line,
a liner service to Venezuela. An article on Rainer
recently appeared in Port of Houston magazine.
He lives in Houston, TX. Kendra L. Mahoney is
an associate with Chase Manhattan Bank and has
relocated to the Chase Houston office. She lives
in Webster, TX. Marcial R. Marambio is the
president of Socimer International Corp., an
investment banking firm . He and his wife,
A1ejandra Bunster, live in New York. George L.
Miller is an international counsel for Federal
Express Corporation, a transportation firm. He
lives in Tokyo, japan. Robert Morency is the
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE
24
vice president of operations for Oklahoma State
Universiry Employees Federal Credit Union. He
lives in Stillwater, OK. Yupha Phatanavibul is a
loan review officer with Valley National Bank.
She lives in Phoenix, AZ. Howard Rosenman is
the international sales manager for Educational
InsighlS, Inc. He lives in Dominguez Hills, CA.
Eric D. Schroder is a managing director for
johnson & Higgins PB. Co., Ltd. , an insurance
brokerage. He and his wife, Therese, live in
Bangkok, Thailand. R. K. Stratton is an
independent distributor for the ational Safety
Association. He lives in Baltimore, MD. Carolyn
A. Tolf is a general manager, executive office at
Bank of New Zealand. She lives in Wellington,
New Zealand. Nobuyuki Uemura is an assistant
manager for PHP Nominees Pry. Ltd. in Tokyo,
japan. He and his wife, Yoshiko, have a new son,
Shuhei, born last October. Pete Wlod is the vice
president of marketing for South Hills Electron­ics.
He lives in PitlSburgh , PA.
1980 REUNION ill NOVEMBER 9 - 11, 1990
Joseph M. Callahan is a consultant for Arizona
Public Service Company. He lives(in Phoenix,
AZ. Vern R. Christensen is a vice president of
Creditanstalt-Bankverein. He lives with his wife,
Vickie, in Larchmont, NY. Frank]. Corbishley
graduated from General Theological Seminary in
May, 1990, and became an ordained Episcopal
deacon in june. He lives in New York, NY.
Daniel R. Dalton is the business manager of
Dalmo Victor. He lives with his wife, Coleen
McKeighen '81, and their children, Terence and
Sally Rose, in Hayward, CA. Phineas Dickinson
is an assistant vice president for the Bank of
Boston. Phineas and his wife, jan, live in
Garland, TX. Jan-Henrik Dohlen is a director of
IMFC Ltd., a property development firm. He
lives in Berkshire, England . William M. Eiffert
is the president of Computer Leasing Exchange
Company. He married Leslie Hodge in February,
and they have now moved to San Diego,
California to open a new office. Lindsey].
Fessler is a vice president of Westpac Banking
Corporation. He lives in Rutherford, NJ. James
M. Fluker is a vice president of trading and
multinational banking for the Bank of New York.
He lives in New York, NY. Linda L. Jaekel is a
district sales manager for Equifax Marketing
Decision Systems. She lives in Washington D.C.
Jan Jaroszewicz is a senior vice president of
development and finance for Rahn Properties,
Inc., a real estate development firm. He and his
wife, Terrill, live in Boca Raton, Flo Virginia
Krivis is a commercial attache at the American
Embassy Caracas, commercial section. Hermann
Krutzfeldt is the managing director of RBC
Servicios Financieros in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Tom Kuhnle is the first vice president of
Christiania Bank. He lives in Westport, CT
Richard Liebars is an assistant vice president of
DeulSche Bank Capital MarkelS in the United
Kingdom. R. Niels Marquardt is the first
secretary with the American Embassy in Paris,
France. Harold L. Meeks is the owner and
managing director of Carigroup, N.v. He lives in
Saba, N.A. Antilles. Enrique A. Melian is a
managing director of Sotogrande S.A. , a real
estate firm. He lives with his wife, Diana, in
Cadiz, Spain. Paul Meyer is a real estate broker
with Cushman Realry Corporation. He lives in
Pasadena, CA. Richard Moore graduated from
ALUMNI UPDATES
the University of Minnesota Medical School in
june and is currently in residency at Abott
Northwestern Hospital in internal medicin e.
1989. Jeff Plonsker is an associate with Sandler
O'Neill and Partners, L.P , an investment banking
firm . He lives in jersey City, NJ. Dennis Roper is
the Peru division manager for Parker Drilling
Company. He lives in Lima, Peru with his wife,
Nikkie and one-year-old daughter, Putri Aisha.
Ron Seel is the preSident of j ansen, English &
Associates, a manufacturers' representative. He
lives with his wife, Karen Williams Seel '81, in
Clearwater, FL. Karen is the controller of
Williams Architects. Susan Soskin is a vice
preSident and country manager for Israel and
Cyprus for The Chase Manhattan Bank N.A. She
lives with her husband, James Simpson, in
He and his wife, Sue, live in Plymouth, MN.
Gary A. Northrup is a vice preSident of
Commonwealth National Bank. He lives in
Mechanicsburg, PA. David S. Paris has joined
First City Bank, Texas, in Hong Kong. As vice
president and representative, he is responsible
for First City's Hong Kong representative office
and its joint venture, ACB International Ltd .,
with Bank of China and China's MOFFER[ He
married Nancy Remme in 1987. The couple has
one daughter, Christina Elise, born in October,
A L U M NIP RO FILE
PURCHASING
FOR THE STARS
John Secunda '73 is the
director of purchasing
for NBC Burbank in
California. He was recently
interviewed by a fellow
Los Angeles-area T'bird ,
Lincoln Levin '86, editor
of the Greater Los Angeles
T'bird alumni newsletter.
The following is an excerpt
from that interview.
Q_ What do you do?
A. As a director of pur­chasing
for NBC, I manage
a group of six people who
provide procurement sup­port
for the Burbank
studio operation. We are
responsible for negotiating
practically everything that
the studio needs except
the talent. This includes
off-site studio leases when
our studios are booked,
the purchase of studio
cameras, edit machines,
special effects equipment,
make-up, wardrobe, scenic
set construction materials,
props, etc. Most of our
time is spent negotiating
- finding the best source
at the most favorable cost.
As a department, we are
responsible for purchasing
ma terials and services
valued at approximately
$20 million annually and
have a goal to save 10 cents
on every dollar. That's how
our performance is judged.
Q. Can you describe a
unique purchase your
department has made?
A. A few years ago when
NBC was celebrating its
60th anniversary, it was
decided to assemble all the
stars who made NBC what
it is today. Don Johnson
from Miami Vice was
filming on location but the
studio wanted him in
Burbank for the taping of
the anniversary special.
Due to the production
schedule in Miami, he said
he could only do the special
if a private jet would fly
him and his co-star to
Burbank. It was our job to
arrange for a private jet,
find a pilot, and negotiate
the lowest cost.
Q. How does your back­ground
fit in with what
you do today?
A. When I graduated
from Thunderbird, most
of my peers were focusing
their careers on sales,
marketing, and financial
positions. Even though I
concentrated on finance at
Thunderbird, it really
didn't interest me as an
occupational pursuit. Pur­chasing
was considered an
underrated and ignored
function until the early
'70s, and RCA was one of
the few corporations that
offered a formal purchas­ing
training program. After
some parental guidance
from my astute father, I
decided to jump into
something that was con­sidered
a growth area.
When I learned how the
purchasing function could
affect the bottom line, I
decided to pursue it as a
career. What is fun about
working for a TV network
is the range of commodi­ties
that we are buying
to support television pro­duction.
Q. What are some of your
hobbies?
A. One of my outside
interests is swimming -
competitive swimming. 1
train at least six days a
week. When I'm not train­ing
in the pool, I'm working
with weights or running
around Lake Hollywood, a
3.2-rnile course circling a
reservoir in the Hollywood
Hills. Although there is a
certain amount of com­petitiveness
in the work
place, I find that I need to
express myself competi ­tively
in the sports arena as
well. I'm comfortable and
secure in the swimming
pool, so for the last several
years I've been involved in
the Masters Swim Pro­gram,
a program designed
so that you compete
against people in your age
group.
Q. I understand you are a
family of Tbird alums.
A. Yes. My two sisters and
brother are all Thunder­bird
alumni. My s ister
LeAnn graduated in 1969,
met her husband Goran
Peters '69 at the School,
and both live in Sweden
with their five children .
Mary graduated in 1972
and later became an FBI
agent in New York City.
My brother Jim graduated
in 1976 and started his
own company, an insur­ance
rehabilitation com­pany
in Charlotte, North
Carolina. He and his wife,
Deborah , live in Belmont,
North Carolina.
SUMMER 1990
25
London. Gregory D. Sutherland is the manager
of instructional design and documentation for
Morrison Knudsen Inc., transit division. He lives
in Hornell, NY Mutsumi Suzuki is a brand
manager for Procter & Gamble Far East, Inc. He
lives in Osaka, Japan. Dominique Thisse is a
director of operations for Ryobi Europe,
manufacturer of power and garden tools. He and
his wife, Genevieve, live in Les Bains, France.
Mary M. Uppgren is the director of training for
Hotel Nikko in Chicago. She lives in Evanston,
IL. Susan Wood Newman is the owner of
Newman j ordon & Associates, an advertiSing
and marketing firm. She lives with her husband,
Stewart H. Newman '80, in Utah.
1981
Jonathan M. Berman is the president of The
TonJon Company, a manufacturer of specialty
appliances. He lives with his wife, Karen L.
Berman '81, in Oak Park, IL. Karen Biggs
Berman has been promoted to vice president of
Leo Burnett Company, an advertising finn , and
is currently working on the Phillip Morris
account. She and her husband, Jonathan M.
Berman '81, live in Oak Park, IL. Jonathan is
the owner/partner of The TonJon Co. William L.
Boatwright is a vice president for REES
Financial Group, an investment brokerage finn .
He lives in Costa Mesa, CA. Lauren Bonoff
Fessenden is a senior analyst for Moody's
Investors Service. She lives with her husband,
Hart, and their daughter, Molly, born in April of
1989, in New York, NY Mario Carra is a
marketing manager for Western Europe, North
Africa and the Middle East for GTE Overseas
Corporation. He lives in Milano, Italy. Ann
Connors is a vice president of Commerce
Financial Corporation in Chicago, IL. Robert A.
Dean III is an independent consultant for
logistical management, currently working in
Bangladesh. He is married to Lisa Templeton
Dean '81. Ellen M. Dieringer is a special agent
with Northwestern Mutual Life. She lives in
Glendale, WI. Richard K. Driscoll is a
department manager for The Boston Company,
an investment services firm owned by American
Express. He and his wife, Marguerite A. Barden,
live in Boston, MA. Michelle Foster is the
marketing director of Ft. Myers News Press. She
lives with her husband, John Davenport '81, in
Ft. Myers, FL John is the director of financial
services for American Retirement Corp. Marc D.
Galligan is a vice president of Chase Manhattan
Bank N.A., where he will be setting up the
Boston office for the North America corporate
fi nance division. He lives in Wellesley, MA.
Robert C. Griffin is the president of Anderson
Griffin , which will be o{'ening a branch office in
Atlanta. He lives in San Francisco, CA. Craig S.
Heinze is the export manager, international
development director, for Nokia Consumer
Electronics GmbH, in Germany. Shirley Henning
is [he manager of financial institutions for
Citibank AG. She lives in Frankfurt, West
Gennany. Sando Johnson was promoted to
general manager for the Liberia Tractor
Corporation LlBTRACO. Sando fonnedy was a
sales director and has been with the company
since 1974. He lives in Monrovia, Liberia.
Jeff C. Kleinschmidt is the finance director for
Neumaticos Goodyear S.A. He lives with his
wife, Isolina, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Nicholas C. Mast has joined Canadian Imperial
Bank of Commerce as a vice president in the
Chicago-based corporate finance group. He is
responsible for relationship management activi ­ties
in the midwestern United States. He lives
ALUMNI UPDATES
with his wife, Donna, and their daughter, jaclyn,
in Gurnee, IL. Peter Neumannn has been
promoted to senior buyer for Siemens Corpora­tion.
He lives in San j ose, CA. Lars-Johan Nybo
is a consultant [or Asplan Sorlandet NS , a
strategy firm. He lives with his wife, Lavinia, in
Kristiansand, Norway. Joseph P. O'Dowd is the
international marketing director for Solvay
Animal Health. He lives in Minneapolis, M
Glen A. Parsons is the director of the Lemoore
Academic Center at Chapman College. Glen has
a son, Cameron, 22 months old. The fam ily lives
in Hanford , CA. Pieraloo Pecchlo is participat­ing
in an executive training program in j apan for
the EC Delegation. He lives in Tokyo, japan.
Thomas Persons is a vice president of Wells
Fargo Realty Finance in San Francisco, CA.
Dawn Reiche Mahowald is an account
development manager for Hewlett-Packard
Company, a computer manufacturing fi rm. Her
husband, Thomas J. Mahowald '81, is a
self-employed marketing consultant. They live in
Loveland, CO. Kathleen M. Sifer is a vice
president and representative of Mellon Bank
N.A. She lives in Mexico City. Thomas]. Simon
is working as European treasury manager for
Graco Inc., and lives in Paris, France. Robert M.
Strickland is working for The Coca-Cola Export
Corporation. He lives with his wife, Marianne
McCoy Strickland '82, in Quito, Ecuador.
Claude Tellef is a manager of Grant Thornton,
an accounting and consulting group. He lives in
Danville, CA. James D. Thayer is the preSident
of Overseas Strategic Services, a firm providing
market access internationally. He lives in
Portland, OR. Bruce W. Thomas is a vice
president of Bank of America, Los Angeles. He
lives in Hermosa Beach, CA. Nancy A. Vorona is
the marketing manager of Integrated Display
Technology Ltd., an electro nics firm. She lives in
Hong Kong. Brian K. Wilson is a project
director for lOG Development Corporation, a
real estate developer. He lives with his wife,
Laura, in Laguna Beach, CA. Boon-Peng Yee is a
senior vice president for Dean Witter Reynolds
Inc., and lives in Fullerton, CA. Jesse D. Young
is a sales manager for the Santa Cruz Operation
GmbH, a software manufacturing and marketing
firm . He lives with his wife, Carmen, in
Neu-Anspach, West Germany.
1982
David S. Benson is working for Pitman-Moore
Inc. in Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Ann M. Covill is
a loan officer at First Interstate Bank of Arizona.
She lives with her husband, j eff, in Phoenix, AZ.
Robert H. Donnell is a self-employed computer
programmer. He lives in Long Island City, NY
David Henderson is teaching at Los Angeles
Southwest Community College. He lives in Los
Angeles, CA. David Hubinger is a vice president
and general manager for Nestle Foods Corpora­tion.
He lives with his wife, j anine, in Wilton,
CT Diane E. Hull is an attorney, practicing in
White Bear Lake, Minnesota. She lives there with
her husband, Rick Trombley, and their three
children, Rya n, Amy and Laura. Janet Johnson
Collett is an account manager for American
Express Company. She lives in Summit, N].
Alexander J. Kluth II is an operations manager
for Beer Capitol Distributors Inc.