Proud - Youngstown State University

Alumni Spotlight
capital for projects,” he said. “I decided early on that I didn’t
want to be just another banker. I want to better the community.
I want to help make things happen.”
Presley said he has generated more than $40 million in
commercial projects for the greater Youngstown area over the
last five to seven years, including apartments, town home and
condo projects in urban markets and senior citizen developments
for low- to moderate-income families.
For him, KeyBank’s size has been an advantage. “If you
want to make a significant impact with community development,
you have to find a big enough bank,” he explained.
“Because KeyBank is so big, we have the ability to focus on
projects that have a large impact on a community, multi-million
dollar projects.”
Wesley spent the first three years of his career at Bank
One, completing the company’s management training program
and working in branch management until he was recruited by
KeyBank. “I spent the first five years with Key as a lender,
hustling, looking for deals,” he said.
Since then he’s moved up the management ladder, from
managing a lending office to managing managers. He spends
much of his workday on the road, traveling from branch to branch.
“My mission, my desire, is to help people be the best that
they can be, in whatever organization inside the bank I’m running,”
said Wesley. “I still have to hit my numbers, but what
really drives me is helping people to excel.”
Both brothers are married. Presley and his wife, Nora, have
two school-aged children and live in Youngstown. Wesley is
married to the former Desiree Irby, also an YSU alumna. They
have a daughter and live in Cleveland Heights.
The brothers still look alike, enjoy the same kind of music
and entertainment, and share an unusual hobby – collecting
designer watches.
They talk a lot about the bond they feel as twins, and they
seem to enjoy the stir they cause because of their identical looks.
“We’re still as close as two brothers can be,” said Presley. “And
when I go to visit my brother in the Cleveland office, it’s mass
confusion.”
Karen Conklin
Building a Home for
the Animals
Karen E, Conklin, ’70
For 16 years, Karen Conklin lived and breathed Girl
Scouting. As executive director of the Niles-based Lake-to-
River Girl Scout Council, she was proud to say that the region
had more active scouts during her tenure than ever before in
its history.
Then it ended. A scouting district reorganization eliminated
Conklin’s position.
“I’ve got to admit, it was absolutely devastating, but you
pick up the pieces,” said Conklin, who earned her baccalaureate
in business administration at YSU in 1970. “I knew I had
all these skill sets, and there had to be somebody out there
who needed them.”
Turns out that “somebody” was the Humane Society of
Greater Akron, and some 400 abused, neglected and abandoned
dogs and cats that are packed in every nook and cranny
of its shelter, built 50 years ago to house just a fraction of that
number.
Conklin took over as executive director of the nonprofit
in October 2007, just in time to oversee construction of a
new, $7 million animal shelter and to head up an ambitious
fund-raising drive to pay for it. A philanthropic lender has
agreed to front the money needed for construction so the
project doesn’t have to wait.
Workers broke ground in May on the 25,000-square-foot
facility in Cuyahoga Falls, a “green” design that will accommodate
400 animals when completed, probably in early 2009.
Conklin wishes it could be bigger, because the number of
abused and abandoned animals keeps growing.
She’s also working to increase the center’s pet adoption
numbers and attract more volunteers. “I believe in the
mission, but as the manager my job is to run the place like a
business,” the director related.
Conklin commutes to the Akron center from the Liberty
Township home she shares with her husband Gary E. Offerdahl
and their two dogs, both “rescued.” The couple met
pursuing a mutual avocation – she is Ohio’s only female high
school wrestling referee, and Offerdahl is a 30-year referee
veteran. They created a blended family with six children, now
ranging in age from 16 to 32, when they married in 1998.
Conklin is a member of YSU’s Alumni Society Board of
Directors and sits on the Nonprofit Leadership Committee at
the Williamson College of Business Administration.
Summer 2008 47