James Olson effectively helped AT&T get back into stable conditions during his brief tenure as the CEO of AT&T. He is considered one of the last of his generations as a CEO, this being due to the fact he spent his entire working career, a span of 46 years, working his way up AT&T’s chain of command.
Mr. Olson became an AT&T executive vice president in 1977 and was elected vice chairman in 1979. He became the chairman and chief executive of AT&T Technologies in 1984 and the president and chief operating officer the following year. He was elected chairman in September 1986.
Cyrus Osborn was a manager at General Motors in the 1930s and 1940s. He is best known for inventing the railroad dome car in 1947. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Osborn served in World War I and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with an M.E. degree in 1921. Osborn then started as an apprentice with Dayton Engineering Laboratories (a division of General Motors). He rose through the ranks to manage G.M.’s overseas division, and then became the second in command at G.M.’s Opel division in Germany in 1936.
His leadership of Opel from 1937 to 1940 was marked by increasing controversy as tensions between the United States and Germany increased prior to the outbreak of World War II. Osborn was elected a vice president of the corporation in 1943. He retired from G.M. in 1962 after 45 years of service.
Kirk Perry is president, brand solutions at Google and serves on the board of Hillerich and Bradsby Co. (maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats). He was president of family care at Proctor & Gamble before being named president, brand solutions at Google.
As head of family care at P&G, Mr. Perry led a unit that included Puffs, Bounty and Charmin, considered one of the company’s more successful business units in recent years. He previously ran P&G’s North American baby care business and had been tapped by former Chairman-CEO Bob McDonald to design one of many company restructuring efforts in recent years before that.
Kevan Parekh, Michigan ’93, assumed the role of Apple’s senior vice president and chief financial officer on January 1, 2025. Kevan graduated with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Kevan has over twenty years of experience leading global finance teams at major companies. Before joining Apple, Kevan held a number of senior leadership roles at Thomson Reuters and General Motors, including working across Europe and Asia.
Kevan joined Apple in 2013, and has played a key role in Apple’s financial and business planning, and product development planning since then. Prior to becoming CFO, he served as Apple’s vice president of Financial Planning and Analysis. Before that, he served as Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Finance, supporting a number of different functions throughout his tenure, including Engineering, iTunes, Marketing, Retail, and Sales.
As CFO, Kevan oversees Apple’s accounting, business support, financial planning and analysis, treasury, investor relations, internal audit, and tax functions. He reports to CEO Tim Cook.
Poe has served as CEO in the insurance industry for 44 years – including 20 years as President and founder of Poe & Associates, a public company and a predecessor to Poe Financial Group. Poe & Associates was the most profitable NASDAQ Company in the country in 1991.
Poe & Associates was the largest property and casualty insurance agency based in the State of Florida and the 12th largest in the United States. Mr. Poe also served two terms as mayor of Tampa from 1974 to 1979.
Donald G. Prigmore spent his entire working life was spent with General Telephone (GTE)/Sprint Communications, where he rose from a right-of-way buyer to GTE National Plant Manager, Operating Vice President of GTE Indiana and GTE Southwest, President of GTE Michigan and GTE Southeast, before becoming president of Sprint Communications.
Despite his numerous personal and corporate recognitions, he was most proud of having been inducted into the El Dorado Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.
Brian Reichart is President and CEO of Red Gold, LLC. Red Gold is a family-owned and operated tomato processing company headquartered in Orestes, IN. Brian graduated from Culver Military Academy as a member of Black Horse Troop Lancers and from Purdue with a B.S. in Industrial Management.
Red Gold was founded by Brian’s grandfather in 1942. Brian worked at the cannery throughout high school and college before joining the staff full time as Plant Manager and Chief Engineer. As President and CEO, he’s grown the company from a small regional and seasonal packer to a national supplier of tomato products. Red Gold expanded into institutional food service supply and private labeling for grocery store chains across the U.S. and the number of full-time employees grew from 170 to 1328. The physical plant expanded to three production facilities, a distribution center, a corporate office, and a trucking company. The company now processes over 10,000 acres of tomatoes.
Today Red Gold is the largest privately owned tomato-processing company in the world, distributing tomato products to all 50 states and exporting to 16 countries.
Andrew W. Robertson was regarded as one of the shrewdest managers of his time and was recruited to become the chairman of Westinghouse (1930-1946) just as the Great Depression hit. Robertson organized the first advertising department and decentralized operations, guiding the company into military electronics with the activity from World War II.
Arthur H. Sapp was born in Ravenna, Ohio. Following his graduation from Ohio Wesleyan University, he taught school in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Kansas City, Missouri; and Huntington, Indiana. He received his legal education at the University of Chicago and at the Indiana Law School, and began practicing law in Huntington in 1912, and served as district prosecuting attorney for three terms.
Mr. Sapp became a member of the Rotary Club of Huntington in 1917 and was President of that Club. He had served Rotary International as President (in 1927-28), First Vice-President, Director, District Governor and as committee chairman. Mr. Sapp had been a Trustee of DePauw University and Evansville College, President and Director of the Huntington Y.M.C.A., Chairman of the State School Aid Commission, and member of the State Highway Commission. He also had been President of the Rural Bankers Legion Life Insurance Company of South Bend, Indiana.
