The College of Business and Information Technology thanks and appreciates Dr. Armand Ash for his continuous yearly support of Alumni Week!
Dr. Paul Miklovich
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Paul Miklovich, DBA'14
Dr. Paul Miklovich is an executive in healthcare management and leadership with over 35 years of experience in the private, public, and governmental sectors. For the last 30 years, he has worked at the Cleveland Clinic in a variety of roles in both technology and operations management. His experience covers all facets of hospital administration and the development of health care delivery systems in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean region.
Terry Onica, BSBA ’90
Keynote Speaker
Terry Onica, BSBA ’90
As director of Automotive at QAD, Terry is responsible for global marketing activities which include strategy and positioning, offering people knowledge, and field and sales marketing support for the automotive vertical. Terry works closely with customers to drive best practices and earn preferred supplier status. She is an industry leader in the development and global adoption of supply chain industry standards and best practices. Prior to joining QAD, Terry had worked at GM, Ford, and Johnson Controls. Throughout her 30 year career, she has been immersed in the automotive supply chain and technology space.
Supply Chain Best Practices
Supply chains in the automotive industry are critical in an industry where quality parts delivered on-time to the assembly plant are crucial. Terry will provide an overview of how global industry best practices combined with today’s technologies help to reduce inventory, skill gaps, costs, and risk. This combination will help supply chains transform their businesses in the coming years from the internal combustion engine to electric and autonomous vehicles.
Keynote Speaker
Ronald Muccioli, BSIM ‘69
Executive Director, Roush Industries
Senior Advisor to Dean for Transportation Design, Lawrence Technological University
Ronald Muccioli is Executive Director of Business Development at Roush Industries and a Senior Advisor and Adjunct Professor for LTU’s Department of Transportation Design. Ron has a wealth of international experience in the automotive industry. He began his career as an engineer with Ford Motor Company, where he worked on the first energy absorbing bumper system for which he has a co-patent.
After receiving his MBA he was promoted to Product Planning where he held various vehicle line positions, including Manager of Product Development in Brazil. Back in the U.S., he was involved in various sports car and motor sports functions, including Business Manager of the Ford Formula One team. Ron was also Chief Engineer for Mustang. He then moved to Fiat as Executive Director in Italy and the U.S. for 7 years, and at the same time was Managing Director for International Automotive Consultants, working with the CEOs/Presidents of several automotive suppliers on management organization, business development, and marketing. While at Fiat, Ron sold complete body shops to Ford Brazil, Ford Russia, Ford Turkey, and GM China. He joined Roush in 2003 and is responsible for the Global Ford account and all Roush business in China.
International Business Customs: Europe, South America, and Asia
Dr. Sheryl Mitchell, DBA '14
Dr. Sheryl Mitchell, DBA '14
City Manager of the City of Albion
Mitchell is the city manager for the City of Albion and chief administrative officer of the city, including management of a $14 million annual budget. She coordinates all city departments to implement the programs and policies of the City Council. Mitchell is focused on building a more vibrant community. Key components are economic vitality through job creation, and stabilizing and revitalizing the businesses and neighborhoods. Sheryl currently serves on the boards of the Greater Albion Chamber of Commerce, Summit Pointe, Calhoun County Health Commission, Regional Health Alliance, Albion Branch NAACP, and Ismon House. She began her municipal career working with the City of Detroit City Council for 13 years and then as Senior Analyst for the Oakland County Board of Commissioners for 17 years.
Sheryl Warren Mitchell received her Doctorate in Business Administration from Lawrence Technological University. She successfully defended her dissertation, An Exploratory Study of Priority Based Budgeting: Identification of Public Values and Public Priorities through Citizen Engagement in Government Budgeting Decisions, in 2014. She was also honored as one of two recipients of the 2014 Edward Donley Distinguished Graduate Award for excellence in academic, community, and campus leadership.
Learning to SOAR™: Changing Your Mindset to Change Your Position
Mr. David Johnson BSBA '92
Keynote Speaker
Mr. David Johnson BSBA '92
Vice President of Customer Service & Marketing at DTE
David L. Johnson, is the vice president of Customer Service & Marketing for DTE Electric,an electric utility serving 2.1 million customers in Southeastern Michigan, and DTE Gas, a natural gas utility which provides service to 1.2 million homes and businesses in Michigan. Both are operating units of DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE), a diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide. The DTE Energy portfolio also includes non-utility energy businesses focused on power and industrial projects, natural gas pipelines, gathering and storage, and energy marketing and trading. Johnson is responsible for leading day to day customer service operations which includes call centers, business offices, billing and meter reading services, credit and collections, and theft. He is also responsible for customer marketing, major account services and customer research. Johnson joined DTE Energy in 1999, and has served in a variety of progressively more responsible roles. He previously served as director of revenue management and protection. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in customer service, working previously as vice president of customer service for San Antonio Water System and as senior manager at AT&T.
Sheryl Warren Mitchell received her Doctorate in Business Administration from Lawrence Technological University. She successfully defended her dissertation, An Exploratory Study of Priority Based Budgeting: Identification of Public Values and Public Priorities through Citizen Engagement in Government Budgeting Decisions, in 2014. She was also honored as one of two recipients of the 2014 Edward Donley Distinguished Graduate Award for excellence in academic, community, and campus leadership.
Leveraging Relationships in Business: Attributes that Leaders look for in Employees
Fred VanderVoord, MSIO '99
Keynote Speaker
Fred VanderVoord, MSIO '99
Fred VanderVoord has spent the last 20 years of his career at the Chrysler Tech Center in Auburn Hills, now owned by FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles).
Fred was hired into the Product Design Office and has spent his entire time in that branch of the company. Fred spent 19 years fulfilling roles in operations within the Design Office and most recently moved to Planner for Dodge and Ram Studio. In this new role he has become responsible for workforce engineering, projecting future product budgets for the Product Design Office, and arranging development activities that support the design and styling of future vehicles for Dodge and Ram design studios. Previously he was the Manager of the Milling, Digitizing, Rapid Prototype department which accomplished all industrial operations necessary in the world of automotive design and styling for Chrysler. Before joining Chrysler, Fred served 4 years in the United States Marine Corps, honorably discharged as a sergeant, and spent 10 years as the Photogrammetric Mapping Manager of Air-Land Surveys in Clarkston, MI.
Mr. VanderVoord holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Ferris State University.
Keynote topic: Where we were - Where we are - Where we are going: Attempting to bring awareness to how the framework of our present and past influences our future characteristics.
Rosemary K. Bayer, CIMBA '03
Keynote Speaker
Rosemary Bayer is Chief Inspiration Officer of ardentCause L3C, a nationally-recognized technology company serving the nonprofit and education industries with software solutions that achieve better outcomes through data collection, mining, analysis, visualization and communication of results. The company provides unique capabilities for improving organizational performance and enabling effective collaboration and community impact through cross-organizational information sharing.
At ardentCause, Rosemary is CEO and leads product development. Before ardentCause, Rosemary spent 25 years in information technology at Sun Microsystems, Amdahl and Control Data Corporation; as systems engineer/inventor; engineering management; and General Management of a large global division.
Since August, 2012, Rosemary is also the lead instructor for the Michigan Inforum ACTiVATE® program, a 10 month educational program originally created with the support of the National Science Foundation, designed to help women start technology companies and leverage technology transfer from research universities in the U.S
Rosemary co-founded the Michigan Council of Women in Technology and its Foundation, providing support for girls and women pursuing technology careers and interests.
Be a Master Builder (don't follow the instructions)
Cary Wood, MSIO'96
Keynote Speaker
Our Keynote Speaker for the week is Cary Wood, MSIO'96. Cary will be giving a presentation on Thursday, March 21st at 12:15 pm in the Marburger Auditorium as part of LTU's Blue Devil Entrepreneurial Venture Series. His topic will be 21st Century Product Development & Manufacturing.
Cary is President & CEO of Sparton Corporation, and is on the College of Management Board of Advisors. Cary will also be speaking to our FIN 6013 & GLM 6353 classes in the evening after his keynote address.
