Exceptional alumni
Lerner College alumni awards celebrate leading professionals
10:10 a.m., June 12, 2015--The Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics honored outstanding alumni with the 2015 Alumni Awards of Excellence during Alumni Weekend at the University of Delaware.
Speaking to an overflow crowd in the Alfred Lerner Hall Atrium, Dean Bruce Weber of the Lerner College said, “We’re sending our students out into the world with inspiring messages and fantastic advice. It’s about honesty, diligence, being flexible, maintaining your network and making sure you own your successes as you go forward.
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“The people we’re honoring tonight are the people who took that advice to go on and have great careers, and also maintain strong contact with the Lerner College.” Weber said.
This year’s honorees included:
- Tracey Beberman, managing director at JPMorgan Chase;
- Shawn McCall, CEO and president of iMortgage Services LLC;
- Joseph Slamm, co-founder of Hudson Clean Energy Partners;
- Thomas Taylor, senior relationship manager for UniCredit Bank AG; and
- Robert Wojciechowicz, head of Capital One’s commercial banking operations business.
During their acceptance speeches, honorees discussed their experiences as Blue Hens and how they contributed to later successes.
McCall said that the Lerner College prepared him with skills that have remained valuable throughout his career.
“A typical day for me involves sales, marketing, finance, accounting, economics, law, human resources, banking and new technology,” McCall said. “That sounds like my class schedule when I was an undergraduate.”
“Everything I learned at the University, I apply to my daily life every single day.”
Beberman agreed, saying, “I really learned innovative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit through the Lerner College.”
This year’s ceremony also featured one of last year’s award winners, John Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse, who splits his time between the United States and London, was out of the country during last year’s award ceremony. This year, Rittenhouse was able to fly to Newark from London especially for the ceremony.
Now the chief executive of the integrated energy company EDF Trading Group, Rittenhouse said that a project from his time as a Lerner College student helped expand his way of thinking.
After a difficult case study, Rittenhouse said that his professor “took the time to pull me aside and explain the error of my linear thinking.”
“I remember that case study today,” Rittenhouse said. “It prodded me to think differently.”
Rittenhouse also discussed the rapid changes happening at both UD and in the energy business, describing a not-too-distant future in which gasoline-powered cars and overhead power lines will be regarded as quaint.
He can make such claims with confidence, he says, because of the work of institutions like UD.
“The University of Delaware honed the way I think, and I really believe that it started my success,” Rittenhouse said. “It’s a place where new ideas are created and take hold.”
Article by Sunny Rosen
Photos by Duane Perry