news and events links
- Innovation magazine
- Tech Week
- Dean's Lecture Series
- Faculty Awards and Honors
- Tech Pride Golf
- College of Technology Career Fair
- Report a News Story
- Distinguished Technology Alumni
- Biweekly e-newsletter
- Purdue Calendars
news archive
2008 Distinguished Technology Alumni
|
Past Distinguished Technology Alumni Links: |
These 11 College of Technology Alumni will be honored at the fifth Distinguished Technology Alumni Awards Friday, April 11.
Jen Bahan
Click image for print quality photo
Computer Graphics Technology
- BS ’99, Purdue University
Supervisor-Technical Animation/Rigging Lead, Rhythm and Hues Studios
Jen Bahan’s job description changes depending on the project. One day, she may work on creature development for flying characters in The Golden Compass. Another day, she may assist in creating fur and fat simulations for the dancing penguins in Happy Feet. No matter what her task, she knows she is where she is meant to be.
“I’ve wanted to work in animated films practically since birth,” she says. Her focused career goals led her to Purdue in the mid-1990s for the emerging computer graphics program.
Bahan has been a prolific animator and 3-D artist since she received her degree. Through 2003, she worked for companies that created video games for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Since she began work at Rhythm and Hues Studios, she has been involved in five well-known movies, with increasing responsibility for each production. Her problem-solving skills and work on the first Garfield movie resulted in an academic paper for SIGGRAPH in 2004.
The nature of her company’s work, and Bahan’s recruitment efforts, has attracted other Purdue graduates. “My favorite alumni experiences are always welcoming other Purdue grads into Rhythm and Hues,” she explains.
While she works on additional movies, she also is a facilitator for the company’s leadership committee, helping employees at all levels improve their abilities and skills.
Bahan and her husband, Adam Holmes, reside in Redondo Beach, California.
Ron Eller
Click image for print quality photo
Aviation Technology
- AAS ’79, Purdue University
- BS ’81, Purdue University
- MS ’84, Colorado State University
Reitred from Hewlett Packard
The education Ron Eller received at Purdue University provided a foundation for success through an unusual career progression. His love of aviation led him to earn a professional flight degree. Eller discovered, however, that a career in flight was not as enticing as flying itself, so he applied his Purdue-inspired thought processes, analytic skills, discipline, and excellence toward a business-related career.
That turned out to be a very worthwhile decision. Eller retired this year after 14 years at Hewlett Packard, which were preceded by 10 years as a management consultant. In all respects, Eller had a stellar career, leading growth, mergers, innovation, transformation, and business strategies with exceptional results. He is thankful for the "good, solid counselor" he found in Tom Carney, aviation technology department head, throughout his adult life.
His expertise has been sought on several boards and councils as well. He served on Denver’s Committee for Development of Denver International Airport; as director of economic development agency and of Houston Hospice; and as director or adviser to several information technology companies. He continues to serve on Purdue’s Advancing Aviation steering committee and has been active in The Indus Entrepreneurs since he became a charter member in 2003.
With additional free time, Eller looks forward to traveling and becoming more involved with his community. He also will advocate for environmental and conservation efforts.
Eller and his wife, Beth, reside in Fraser, Colorado. They have two adult children.
Allen R. Glassburn
Click image for print quality photo
Electircal and Computer Engineering Technology
- BS ’74, Purdue University
- MA ’83, Ball State University
- MS ’87, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Director-Business Operations Support, Indiana Michigan Power
From his uncle’s local television shop to a utility company with more than 500,000 customers, Allen Glassburn has been drawn to jobs that allow practical applications of knowledge. His electrical engineering technology degree, he says, offered him that opportunity.
He is responsible for financial planning for Indiana Michigan Power (I&M). In addition, he works closely with other organizations that are part of I&M’s parent company, American Electrical Power (AEP). Before joining I&M in 2004, Glassburn directed the financial performance and monitored non-financial performance criteria of AEP Energy Delivery.
From 1993 to 1996, he was president and chief operating officer of Kingsport Power, an AEP subsidiary in Kingsport, Tennessee. Prior to that, he served as region manager for I&M’s Muncie District and served as a director for Indiana Michigan Power Company. He also worked at the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant where his responsibilities included checking out the plant’s electric systems during construction.
Glassburn has served as a board member of his local chambers of commerce, Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, and for the Mental Health Association of East Central Indiana.
Glassburn and his wife, Marcia, reside in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They have three grown children.
Thomas D. Hjertquist
Click image for print quality photo
Industrial Technology
- BS ’76, Purdue University
Vice President of Maintenance and Purchasing, Landair Transportation
After graduating from high school, Thomas Hjertquist immediately started a career in construction as an apprentice. An accident on the job kept him from returning to “the trade,” he says, so he enrolled in the industrial education program at Purdue. At the urging of friends, he used his educational background and Purdue degree to begin his career outside of the school systems.
In every job Hjertquist has held, he has helped improve his employer’s operations. His resumé highlights several accomplishments, including increased profits, higher employee and customer satisfaction, reduced costs, and more positive safety records.
In his current position as a vice president at Landair Transportation, he is responsible for all asset management processes, from purchasing to disposal.
Hjertquist and his wife are active in their church and community. They also love to travel.
As a parent in a Purdue family, he is excited to prepare his grandchildren for educational pursuits at one of the University’s campuses as well. They received some extra Boilermaker training in 2001 as they all traveled to cheer on the Purdue football team in the Rose Bowl.
Hjertquist and his wife, Linda, reside in Greeneville, Tennessee. They have two grown children and four grandchildren.
Randall Ket
Click image for print quality photo
Building Construction Management
- BS ’80, Purdue University
Vice President, Hunt Construction Group
Randall Ket feels a tremendous amount of gratitude to the faculty of Purdue’s building construction management (BCM) program, especially program founder D. Dorsey Moss.
“He accepted me in the program and convinced Hunt to hire me,” Ket recounts. “His influence was enormous.”
Twenty-eight years later, he is vice president of the company where he received his start. Ket sees his job as more than just creating a space for an office or kitchen. The research facilities he works on, he says, are buildings that may help someone cure an illness. He hopes to continue his involvement with similar projects.
Ket’s extensive career project list includes new buildings, renovations, expansions, and remodels in eight states. Ket is charged with facilitating on-time and on-budget delivery of his company’s projects. His expertise areas include not only types of buildings (facilities for universities, laboratory and research, office buildings), but also personnel topics (large project staff management, owner/contractor relationship development, and minority business development).
He believes the academic rigor of the BCM program instilled in him a work ethic and integrity that will last throughout his career.
In addition to spending time with his family, he enjoys Purdue football and basketball, Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, and bass fishing.
Ket and his wife, Diane, reside in Brownsburg, Indiana. They have two grown children.
Jane A. Liedtke
Click image for print quality photo
Graduate Studies
- BS ’76, Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey)
- MEd ’78, Trenton State College
- PhD ’83, Purdue University
Director, Our Chinese Daughters Foundation
Director, The Best in China
While Jane Liedtke was still a full professor, and a year after she adopted her daughter from China, she founded Our Chinese Daughters Foundation (OCDF). The organization provides Chinese culture programs to children adopted from China and their families, schools, and communities. The organization has offices in Beijing, China, and Bloomington, Illinois.
Liedtke’s involvement with China is more than familial. She has served as a cultural and industrial management consultant to American, European, and Chinese companies since the early 1990s. Liedtke brings to her clients years of experience navigating the management and supervision of employees in foreign joint-venture and state-run companies.
Prior to and during her non-profit and consultancy work, she enjoyed a 30-year career as a teacher and college professor — in New Jersey, Maine, Oregon, and Illinois — in the areas of industrial arts, vocational education, and industrial technology.
Liedtke credits her graduate work in the early 1980s with helping her make a name for herself in the field of industrial education/technology education and industrial technology. She was well published throughout her professorial career and still spends much of her time publishing books and magazines about Chinese culture.
Liedtke resides in Bloomington, Illinois, and Beijing, China, with her daughter.
Timothy John Martin
Click image for print quality photo
Computer and Information Technology
- ABS ’81, Brown Institute
- BS ’95, Purdue University
Principal Solutions Manager, CSS-BCM Program Office, Microsoft Corporation
When searching for a degree program as an adult student, Timothy Martin had strict beliefs about what the curriculum should offer. He found a perfect match in the College of Technology’s computer technology program.
“Purdue offered a strong curriculum that integrated math, business, and science in the framework of solving technology problems based upon business factors,” Martin says.
So it seems he has the perfect career in which to use his skills. In 2005, Microsoft recruited Timothy Martin to start the new Business Continuity Management Program Office for Customer Service and Support. His work within the first two years earned him one of Microsoft’s annual “Great People Great Performances” awards.
The lessons he learned as a student of James Goldman have been part of every work experience during the last 11 years: define the problem and craft the right solution. Since he earned his degree, Martin has worked for small Internet start-up companies as well as companies listed in the Fortune 50.
His parents, wife, and children have been terrific supporters of Martin’s career choices. Spending more time with family is one goal in the coming years. Another, more personal, goal is “Learning to snowboard without killing myself,” he says.
Martin and his wife, Cindy, reside in Seattle, Washington, with their two sons.
John E. McDonald
Click image for print quality photo
Organizational Leadership and Supervision
- BS ’68, Purdue University
Retired from Banc One Capital Markets Inc.
As a student looking for an academic program that was more closely aligned to his interests, John McDonald switched his major from engineering to industrial supervision. His family background in manufacturing and his degree selection served him well throughout his banking career.
McDonald began his 35-year career in Lafayette, Indiana, with Lafayette National Bank. During those years he served as an officer in eight institutions as the banking industry experienced a series of mergers and acquisitions. In 2003, he retired as managing director of the large corporate real estate group in Banc One Capital Markets Inc. in Chicago, Illinois. This group provided debt-side funding for real estate investment trusts (REITs) and publicly traded national home builders.
McDonald can be seen at all the Purdue home football games, and he travels with family members (including his grandson) to the Purdue bowl games. He is a lifetime member of the Purdue Alumni Association and John Purdue Club.
He is active in his church and continues his involvement with his professional and civic organizations.
McDonald and his wife, JoAnne, reside in Chicago, Illinois. They have two grown daughters.
Jon R. Odom
Click image for print quality photo
Statewide Technology
- AS ’72, Purdue University-Richmond
- AS ’77, Purdue University-Richmond
- BS ’81, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
President and Owner, Productivity Fabricators Inc.
Jon Odom took his first college courses while working full-time in Richmond. The locally available classes in industrial engineering technology and then in mechanical engineering technology helped his career progress.
His 45-year career started with National Automatic Tool Company, where he worked as a milling machine operator and later with time study and rate setting. After he earned his associate’s degrees, he moved into supervisory roles at Ford Motor Company and again at National Automatic.
Now, as president and owner of Productivity Fabricators Inc., Odom oversees operations of a steel fabrication business that produces outdoor advertising structures. He has led the company since 1994. Continually looking ahead, he is working to build the customer base of his company to further ensure its success.
Odom enjoys fishing, gardening, and volunteering. He is a 30-year board member of the Richmond Salvation Army. In 1998, the Richmond Chamber of Commerce awarded his company the Business Growth Award.
Odom and his wife, Connie, reside in Centerville, Indiana. They have three children and seven grandchildren.
John R. "Rick" Schooler
Click image for print quality photo
Computer and Information Techology
- BS ’82, Purdue University
- MBA ’89, University of Indianapolis
Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Orlando Regional Healthcare
After taking two years of pre-med courses, Rick Schooler received some advice from a family member: consider a career in “data processing.” That was 1978. Thirty years later, he is in the midst of a successful career that involves his initial love of healthcare and his bachelor’s degree in computer technology.
His College of Technology professors prepared him with leadership skills and realistic expectations about the industry, he says.
As vice president and chief information officer for Orlando Regional Healthcare, Schooler is responsible for information technology, telecommunications, clinical informatics, biomedical engineering, and purchasing and materials management. Prior to 2001, Schooler held a similar position for the Central Georgia Health System. In 1998, he was named one of three CIOs of the Year in the state of Georgia.
Active in several organizations affiliated with his career, Schooler also is a board member with the Healthcare Center for the Homeless. He wants to make a difference in the lives of the homeless, he says.
Schooler credits his success to his faith and the support of family members.
When he isn’t working or volunteering, Schooler spends time at the beach, fishing, golfing, and enjoying the thrill of the real estate market and investing.
Schooler and his wife, Cindy, reside in Orlando, Florida. They have three grown sons.
Mark A. Stidham
Click image for print quality photo
Mechanical Engineering Technology
- BS ’79, Purdue University
President, North American Exhaust Division, Faurecia Exhaust Systems Inc.
Within seven years of his Purdue graduation, Mark Stidham had become a vice president for Atwood Automotive in Rockford, Illinois. While in this position, he helped the company acquire nine product patents, including one assigned solely to him. Each successive promotion, at Atwood and beyond, has built on his early successes.
Stidham’s ability to improve each division or company he has served has made him a valuable asset. He has overseen cost reductions, improved quality, product launches, sales increases, and profit improvements. His scope of responsibility also has ranged from engineering to marketing to management.
At Faurecia Exhaust Systems, Stidham oversees the operations of eight manufacturing facilities in the United States and Mexico. Profits, sales, and quality have all improved significantly during his five years as division vice president.
Throughout his career, Stidham has volunteered his time with Junior Achievement and Boy Scouts of America. He also is a 27-year member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and served on the Mechanical Engineering Technology Industrial Advisory Board for the College of Technology.
He enjoys traveling with his wife and restoring antique cars.
Stidham and his wife, Cheryl, reside in Sylvania, Ohio. They have two grown children.