Date: 3/4/08
Contact: Eric Jome
Ed Rust, chairman and CEO of State Farm, will be the keynote speaker for Illinois State University’s Business Week 2008, March 24-27. Events during Business Week will include a professional etiquette presentation, a networking dinner, seminars on job hunting and careers, and presentations by College of Business alumni.
The theme for this year’s Business Week is “What If? Embracing Opportunities and Challenges.” Business Week is sponsored by Illinois State’s College of Business and brings corporate and industry leaders to campus to speak on important issues, trends and developments. The week’s events help students better understand the skills needed for success in a dynamic global business environment and will emphasize educational preparation, leadership, service, etiquette, networking, goal setting, and career advancement.
Rust’s keynote address keynote address and the presentations by College of Business alumni are free and open to the public. For a complete listing of the week’s events, speakers, locations and student registration information visit www.cob.ilstu.edu/businessweek
Rust will speak on “Risky Business: Possibilities, Probables and Unknowns” at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26 in Bone Student Center’s Braden Auditorium. He will address two very different yet serious risks to American Business and, subsequently, to the nation and its future. A reception will follow at 3 p.m., in the Bone Student Center Old Main Room.
Business Week activities begin on Monday, March 24 with an ice-cream social from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the lower level atrium of the College of Business Building. That evening at 5 p.m., business etiquette expert Ray Angle will present a session on the “dos and don’ts” of business dinner etiquette for students. Angle’s presentation is in conjunction with a networking dinner for pre-registered students in the Bone Student Center Brown Ballroom.
On Tuesday, March 25, students can brush up on job interviewing skills by participating in mock interviews with company representatives from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the College of Business Building.
On Thursday, March 27, Business Week transition seminars will address the challenges of shifting from a student to a business professional. The 25-minute interactive seminars will run from 2 - 4:30 p.m. in the Bone Student Center Brown Ballroom. As transition seminar leaders, College of Business alumni will discuss topics such as the value of internships, successful job search techniques, job interview strategies, money management tips and balancing work and personal life.
That evening at 7 p.m., College of Business alumni will give individual presentations on various business topics. The presentations are sponsored by College of Business student organizations and will be held in several locations across campus. Please visit www.cob.ilstu.edu/businessweek for complete information on speakers and locations. This year’s alumni speakers include James S. Cardwell ’81, Sibling Entertainment Group Holdings, Inc.; Sakuntala Ganason MBA ’04, Microsoft Corporation; Alan J. Medina ’92, Bunge Deutschland GmbH and Bunge Austria GmbH; Scott R. Schumacher ’85, Coca-Cola Company; and Keith Wakeman ’86, Pilot Therapeutics.
Ed Rust has been chairman and CEO of State Farm for the past two decades, making him one of the longest-tenured top executives among Fortune 100 companies. The company is North America’s largest insurer of cars and homes, serving millions of customers across the U.S. and Canada. A native of Bloomington, Rust graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1972 and earned both a law degree and his MBA from Southern Methodist University. He began his career with State Farm in the company’s Dallas regional office in 1975. Rust serves on the boards of three publicly traded companies: Caterpillar, Inc., Helmrich & Payne, Inc., and the McGraw-Hill Companies.
Since 2001 he has served as co-chair of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of leading U.S. companies. He is past chairman of the American Enterprise Institute, the Financial Services Roundtable, the National Alliance of Business, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Rust, active in spearheading business community initiatives to improve the quality of education, co-chairs the Business Coalition for Student Achievement and serves on the boards of America’s Promise Alliance, the James B. Hunt, Jr., Institute for Educational Leadership, the National Center for Educational Accountability, Achieve, Inc., the Foreign Policy Association, the Committee on Economic Development and Illinois Wesleyan University.
