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September 25, 2007

Krannert celebrates 50th anniversary with lecture, panels, alumni

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -
Krannert skywalk
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Purdue University will celebrate 50 years of the Krannert School of Management on Oct. 25-26 with alumni panels, musical activities and speakers, including former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell and Nobel Prize laureate Vernon Smith.

"Krannert has undergone many changes over the last 50 years, as has the entire field of business and management," said Richard A. Cosier, Krannert School dean and Leeds Professor of Management. "Since I came to Purdue in 1999, we've been able to complete funding of Rawls Hall with the generous help of people like Jerry Rawls, who made the lead $10 million gift for the construction of the state-of-the-art classroom building. It's our brick-and-mortar testament to education at Krannert, but it's really our faculty and our students who will keep us moving forward with great research and innovative thinking."

Richard A. Cosier
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The anniversary program is free and open to the public and kicks off at 9 a.m. Oct. 25 in Krannert auditorium with a keynote address from Smith, who was awarded the Veriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2002. Smith's first teaching job was at Krannert in 1955, where he taught "Principles of Economics."

A panel discussion on leadership will follow the lecture. Krannert alumni panelists include Eileen Bedell, president of the Bedell Group; Bruce Olson, president of the BBI Group; and Kelvin Pennington, president of Pennington Partners.

Afternoon events include a talk by Hugo Sonnenschein, Krannert alumnus and former president of the University of Chicago. Sonnenschein received his master's and doctorate degrees in 1963 and 1964.

Jerry S. Rawls Hall
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The final panel of the first day will discuss crisis management. Krannert alumni panelists include Joe Forehand, the retired chairman of Accenture; Bill Kassling, chairman of Wabtec  Corp.; and Bettina Whyte, managing director of MBIA Insurance.

The seventh annual Leadership Speakers Series, which is the only event that requires preregistration, features Mitchell and begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Purdue Memorial Union. Mitchell represented Maine in the U.S. Senate for 14 years and has remained active in international politics since his retirement in 1995. He has been in the news recently for his role in the investigation of steroid use in major league baseball. Tickets are still available for his talk by contacting Tim Newton, Krannert director of external relations and communications, at (765) 496-7271, tnewton@purdue.edu.

Vernon Smith
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The second-day schedule includes the following parallel sessions that begin at 9 a.m.:

* Krannert alumni panel on "Managing in a High-Tech Environment": Christine Kowalski, group vice president of operations at Boston Scientific; Jerry Rawls, president of Finisar Corp.; and Craig Saddler, president of Boeing Australia.

* Krannert alumni panel on "What it Takes to Lead": Jane Brock-Wilson, managing director of Berkshire Partners; Tom Howatt, president and CEO of Wausau Paper; and Jim Lewis, president of the Disney Vacation Club, Walt Disney Co.

* Krannert alumni panel on "Professional Conduct/Ethics": Vicky Bailey, Anderson Stratton International; Susan Butler, CEO of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute; and Gary Lehman, president and CEO of Fairfield Manufacturing.

Hugo Sonnenschein
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Purdue athletic director and Krannert alumnus Morgan Burke will speak at 12:30 p.m. in a tent behind Rawls Hall. Also on hand will be Krannert alumni and former Purdue quarterbacks Mike Phipps and Mark Hermann.

The two-day celebration culminates with a free concert in a tent behind Rawls Hall by The Buckinghams, a rock band whose top-10 hits in the 1960s included "Kind of a Drag," "Don't You Care," "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," "Hey Baby, They're Playing Our Song" and "Susan."

The Krannert School of Management had 2,692 undergraduate students enrolled during the 2006-07 academic year majoring in management, accounting, industrial management and economics; 405 master's students; and 87 doctoral students. The school offers master's degrees in management and human resource management; four executive MBAs through a combination of distance-learning and part-time residence on campus; bachelor's degrees in accounting, economics, management and industrial management; and the doctorate.

Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 49402432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu

Sources: Richard Cosier, (765) 494-4366, rcosier@purdue.edu

Tim Newton, Krannert director of external relations and communications, (765) 496-7271, tnewton@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

PHOTO CAPITON:
The Krannert building (at left), located on the corner of Grant and State streets, was connected to Rawls Hall when it was completed in 2002 by means of a skywalk and a tunnel. Krannert School of Management will celebrate its 50th anniversary in October. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)

A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2007/krannert-skywalk.jpg

PHOTO CAPTION:
An interior view of Jerry S. Rawls Hall, the newest Krannert School of Management building, which was completed in 2002. The $35 million, 128,000-square-foot, four-story building includes Internet- and videoconference-enabled classrooms and wireless access points throughout the building. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)

A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2007/krannert-anniversary.jpg

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