Olin Business School feted four of its top alumni during the 2014 Olin Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner, held March 4 at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton.
The school presented four Distinguished Alumni Awards, the Dean’s Medal and the Olin Award, which recognizes the important impact scholarly research can have on business results.
Distinguished Alumni Awards went to:
Eric G. Flamholtz, PhD (MBA ’66), professor emeritus at University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Business
An organizational and individual effectiveness guru, and a pioneer in human resource accounting, Flamholtz preaches three keys to success: “focus, focus, focus.”
“Lots of companies think they do strategic planning, but they don’t,” Flamholtz said. “You can’t play chess without a plan. In business, you need to plan strategically and tactically at all levels.”
His Management Systems Consulting Corp., which he founded in 1978, has helped numerous iconic American companies grow and succeed — among them Starbucks Corp., Simon Properties, PIMCO, Baskin-Robbins, Tommy Bahama, Wolfgang Puck Food Co., American Century Investors, Guggenheim Partners and scores of other entrepreneurial clients.
Jesse N. Hunter (Executive MBA ’06), executive vice president and chief business development officer at Centene Corp.
Hunter, who is responsible for business development at Centene, has been at the center of its remarkable growth since joining the company in 2002, when revenues were $460 million. The company projects 2014 revenues of $13.5-$14 billion.
In December, Hunter orchestrated two major acquisitions aimed at enhancing Centene’s ability to serve “people with complex health-care needs.” Its controlling stake in U.S. Medical Management signals Centene’s entry into the provider side of health care; its new adjunct Fidelis SecureCare of Michigan expands the company’s ability to serve “dual eligibles” — patients who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid.
A Knoxville, Tenn., native, Hunter long has focused on a health-care career, even as a finance undergraduate at Miami University of Ohio.
“Initially, I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but I learned pretty quickly that I was best suited to focus on the business side of health care.”
Alfred S. Koh (MBA ’83), former CEO of Samsung SDS
In 2011, Koh became CEO of IT services provider Samsung SDS and has taken it it from a domestic to a global player and made a significant contribution to its success.
In just two years, he transformed the company, hiking its global revenue share to 40 percent from 12 percent.
Koh said he has been able to live his dream because of great mentorship from his father, the Olin Business School and colleagues during his 30 years as a manager for IBM and Samsung.
Koh recently stepped down as Samsung SDS CEO and is moving from Sandy Hook, Conn., to San Jose, Calif., where he’ll serve as special corporate adviser to Samsung SDS to help solidify the company’s global transformation.
Wade D. Miquelon (MBA ’89), executive vice president, chief financial officer and president of international for Walgreen Co.
Miquelon is helping remake the Fortune 30 American retailer and pharmacy into a global leader in the health-care arena.
Since joining Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co. in 2008, Miquelon has worked to revamp the company’s retail, health-care and international strategy.
The company, he said, apart from having 8,200 retail stores, is now the No. 1 U.S. immunizer, operates 800 primary-care clinics, ranks as America’s largest provider of home infusion services and boasts a significant presence in hospitals.
He is orchestrating the $30 billion Walgreen Co. merger with international pharmacy and wholesaling giant Alliance Boots to help his company scale up globally. Via the partnership, Walgreen Co. now has a presence in nearly 30 countries, said Miquelon, a St. Louis native.
The Dean’s Medal went to:
Richard J. Mahoney, former CEO of Monsanto Co., distinguished executive in residence at Olin Business School and distinguised executive in residence at the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.
Mahoney began his career at Monsanto in 1962, working his way up in new product development and marketing. He made a name
for himself in agricultural chemicals, Monsanto’s most successful division.
He was elected to the Board of Directors in 1979 and elected president in 1980. In 1983, Mahoney was named chief executive officer.
During his 13 years as CEO, Mahoney transformed the St. Louis- based organization into a broad-based life sciences and specialty chemical company, concentrating the company’s resources on agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, food ingredients and specialty chemicals — away from its historical reliance on petro-chemicals and commodity fibers and plastics.
During that period, the company grew rapidly, based on the commercial success of its major increase in research investments and on acquisitions of life-science businesses with a strong research base.
The Olin Award went to:
Lamar Pierce, PhD, associate professor of strategy at Olin Business School.
Pierce won the Olin Award for his research paper, “Cleaning House: The Impact of Information Technology Monitoring on Employee Theft and Productivity,” written with Daniel Snow of Brigham Young University and Andrew McAfee of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The paper examines how investments in technology-based employee-theft monitoring can improve profitability by both reducing misconduct and increasing productivity.