EDITORS: In some cases, press members can arrange meetings with these business leaders prior to or following their lectures. Contact Laurie Van Horn, 492-5188, for information.
John Hess, a professor at the College of Business and Administration at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has a specific goal for students in his Profiles in American Enterprise class.
He wants them to understand the realities and intricacies of todayÂ’s business world.
Hess relies on business leaders from around the country to educate and entertain his Profiles class. Each week, students study a particular industry within American business and hear a lecture from a CEO or an entrepreneur. The executives also have the opportunity to meet with small groups of students.
“It’s great for the students, but it’s also a nice deviation for the executives,” Hess said. “They’re not on a business trip, they’re not meeting other CEOs or even university administrators. They’re here to meet students, and they’re able to be very candid about their businesses.”
In addition to the weekly lectures, Profiles students attend small, weekly recitation sections led by former students who have taken a special semester-long class in preparation. In previous years, almost 20 percent of the students have applied to help lead the class the following year.
Hess creates a new textbook each semester to tailor the content to the specific speakers and industries to be covered. “It think it’s the only class of it’s kind in the country,” said Hess, who created Profiles 10 years ago.
In 1993, Hess received a Teaching Excellence Award from the Academy of Business Administration and was named Outstanding Post Secondary Educator by the National Federation of International Business. He received the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge's Leavy Award in 1991.
This fall, the 580-plus undergraduates in HessÂ’ class will be privy to discussions with the following:
Lloyd S. Lewan, chairman of Lewan & Associates, the largest provider of total office technology in the region (Sept. 8);
Jerry D. Choate, chairman and CEO of the Allstate Corp., the countryÂ’s largest publicly held personal lines insurance company (Sept. 15);
Ellen R. Gordon, president of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc., the nationÂ’s sixth-largest candy maker with 1995 sales exceeding $313 million (Sept. 22);
Donald Belcher, chairman, president and CEO of Banta Corp., a technology and market leader in printing and digital imaging (Sept. 29);
Irvine O. Hockaday Jr., president and CEO of Hallmark Cards, the worldÂ’s largest provider of greeting cards and related items. The organization employs more than 40,000 people (Oct. 6);
Kevin J. Burns, chairman of Intersolv, a software development company whose 1996 sales exceeded $150 million (Oct. 13);
Susan M. Pratt, owner and general manger of Pratt Properties in Longmont, an 85-year-old business (Oct. 20);
Hank Brown, former Republican senator and graduate of the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØSchool of Law (Oct. 27);
Richard Chandler, chairman and president of Sunrise Medical, Inc. in Carlsbad, Calif., which deals in the respiratory, rehabilitation and recovery needs of the disabled and elderly (Nov. 3);
John F. Grundhofer, president and CEO of U.S. Bancorp, the nationÂ’s 14th largest commercial bank with assets of $70 billion (Nov. 17);
Clay S. Timon, chairman, president and CEO, Landor Associates – a brand identity consulting and strategic design firm in San Francisco – (Nov. 24);
Bill R. Lennartz, technological entrepreneur from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. In the last 30 years, Lennartz has turned around six technology related companies with a total sales volume of more than $62 million (Dec. 1);
Mo Siegel, chairman, Celestial Seasonings (Dec. 8).