Spring 11 MASTER.indd - Thunderbird Magazine

class notes
work in Bolivia, Colombia, Italy,
Spain and Australia. He retired in
1989. … Don Pierson ’59 has
retired after 30 years as a school
administrator.
1960s
Carlos Cortes ’62 is a retired
Latin American history professor
from the University of California
at Riverside. For the past
10 years he has worked with
Nickelodeon, a children’s cable
network, as the creative and
cultural adviser for “Dora the
Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!”
… Merle Hinrichs ’65 was
recently interviewed in The Wall
Street Transcript about his Hong
Kong-based company, Global
Sources. In 2010, Thunderbird
conferred upon him the honorary
degree of Doctor of International
Law. … Fred Frese ’67 recently
was the keynote speaker in Nebraska
for the annual fundraiser
of the National Alliance on Mental
Illness Tri-County. Frese has a
doctorate in psychology from
Ohio University and has worked
for 40 years as a practitioner and
advocate for people who have
mental health problems.
1970s
Shiraz Peera ’71 was recently
interviewed in India West newspaper
about his friendship with
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who
was shot Jan. 8, 2011, in Tucson,
Arizona. The assassination
attempt made global headlines.
Peera told the publication that
Giffords is a “good soul” and
the type of person who would
forgive the man who shot her.
… Constantine Theodorou
’73 is still serving in Prague,
Czech Republic, as the tourism
counselor of the Greek Embassy
responsible for promoting Greece
in the Czech Republic, Slovakia
and Poland. … Kent Hiland ’76
has been appointed president of
Emerson Climate Technologies-
Latin America. He has been with
Emerson Climate Technologies
for 27 years. He is fl uent in English,
Spanish and Portuguese. …
Mark Emkes ’76 has been appointed
commissioner of fi nance
and administration for Tennessee
Gov. Bill Haslam. Emkes is the
former head of Nashville-based
Bridgestone Americas. He was
the president and CEO of the
Japanese tire maker’s North,
Central and South American
subsidiary until he retired in 2010
after 33 years with the company.
… Siegfried Kiegerl ’77 was
re-elected to his fourth term in
Alumnus guides $7.6 billion Caterpillar deal
Multinational
companies
with more than
a century of
experience often slow down
in their old age, but mining
machinery company
Bucyrus International has
been moving quickly under
the leadership of Timothy
Sullivan ’76.
The Wisconsin-based
company moved up 18
spots to No. 9 on Fortune
magazine’s 2010 list of the
100 fastest-growing U.S.
companies. “That’s a pretty
unusual situation for a company
that is 130 years old,”
said Sullivan, president
and CEO of the worldwide
industry leader in mining
machinery manufacturing
and service.
The rapid growth caught
the attention of Illinoisbased
Caterpillar Inc.,
which announced a
$7.6 billion Bucyrus
takeover on Nov. 15, 2010.
Sullivan, who spoke at
Thunderbird two weeks
before the announcement,
will leave Bucyrus after the
deal closes.
REINVENTING THE
MODEL
Sullivan credits the recent
growth at Bucyrus to a decision
made 10 years ago to
overhaul the Bucyrus business
model — a difficult
process that required significant
turnover in senior
leadership.
“We decided to become
more of a service-oriented
company rather than just be
a pure manufacturer of large
mining machinery,” he said.
Since then, Bucyrus
International has grown
organically and through
acquisitions. Sullivan said
the service focus creates a
reliable and sustainable
revenue source because
mining machinery requires
scheduled maintenance.
The new model also
has helped the company
pull through the global
recession unscathed. “A
service-oriented model is
the largest insurance policy
any company could have,”
he said.
GLOBAL OUTREACH
Even before the adoption
of the service-oriented business
model, Bucyrus International
started a different
type of transformation —
from a domestic company
to a global powerhouse.
62 spring 2011