Homegrown Alumni Drive Hometown Success
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Homegrown Teacher-turned-CFO alumni Mary Kabacinski drive hometown success Also inside… . Kress Center progess!FEBRUARY Dr. Sci-fi2005 ‘Luv U’ memories Notes from 2420 Nicolet… Dear Friends, Greetings from Green Bay’s University of Wis- consin, where we are serious about “Connect- Three cheers foring learning students to life”…but, still Founders find time for fun. and alumni stars! My wife, Cyndie, and I took it as a great compliment when a friend said we must be UW-Green Bay’s biggest cheerleaders because we attend so many performances, games and special events. That’s why we decided to dress the part with our get-ups (right) for the Frost Fest chili cookoff—a campus tradition in which costumed faculty and staff serve lunch Inside UW-Green Bay in the Nicolet Room. February 2005 • Volume 31, No. 2 Hometown proud 2 My time inside the suit dishing up home- •FGreenvilleEATURES ‘School’ supplies the world made “Phoenix Phire” chili was five-alarm hot, Editor • Righting the ship in Oconto but a cool way to relate to students. I sensed, Chris Sampson • Label it high-tech in Algoma once again, that school spirit is on the rise. Friendly people and a lively campus Editorial Staff 4 atmosphere are great assets. Grads leave mark in NE Wisconsin Chris Sampson Our greatest attraction, however, will always be academic excel- Sue Bodilly 2 lence. We have exceptional faculty and staff and a top-tier ranking Virginia Dell Green light! Donors make new 6 among Midwest regional universities. Our students achieve tremen- Scott Hildebrand student events center a ‘go’ dous things. Lindsey Oostra I invite you to sample this for yourself at the annual Academic Designer Dr. Sci-fi Excellence Symposium on Tuesday, April 19. Nearly 100 display sta- Mary Thiesen Professor’s second career is out-of-this-world success tions will fill the Phoenix Room as top students share their research Photographer 8 and creative work with campus and community. (That’s Mayor Jim Eric Miller Campus romance Schmitt, left, listening last year as Brian Peot outlines his class plan February brings for downtown Green Bay.) Found- Contributing Photographers warm memories ers Association members will receive an addi- 12 Sue Bodilly 8 tional invitation to the Spring Reception to be Lindsey Oostra held in conjunction with the symposium. Mike Roemer • Speaking of the Founders, thanks again to 15 all who made our annual fall dinner such a Inside UW-Green Bay is success. I once again acknowledge our guest 12 Campus news published by the Office of DEPARTMENTS 12 presenters on educational connections, pic- University Advancement 15 Alumni notes tured here, from left, including Verna Fowler of and its Marketing and 15 the College of Menominee Nation, Dan Nerad Communication unit. We welcome your comments. of the Green Bay schools, Bill Hynes of SNC, Address them to: Inside (myself), Jeff Rafn of NWTC, and Jane Muhl of Bellin College of Nursing. UW-Green Bay Editor, There is plenty to cheer about. Funding is assured for our new student sports Cofrin Library Suite 815, and events center. Also notable is a quiet trend: A rising generation of UW-Green or fax (920) 465-2340. Bay alumni is applying its creative and entrepreneurial skills to keeping our Mail change of address notification to Inside UW- Northeast Wisconsin economies competitive. Green Bay, Cofrin Library Thank you for your support in helping us “Connect learning to life.” And, Suite 820, University of remember, Go Phoenix! Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001. Bruce Shepard Cover photograph of Mary Kabacinski ’71, CFO of School Specialty, Inc., by Eric Miller Chancellor PROMOTING FROM WITHIN: Homegrown alumni, hometown industries, global impact ORIGINALLY TRAINED AS a classroom teacher, it is fitting that more than 30 years later, Mary Kabacinski has followed her life’s work back into the classroom—as executive vice president and chief financial offi- cer of School Specialty, Inc., the nation’s leading marketer of school supplies. KabacinskiT graduatedeache from UW-Green Bayr in-turne d-CFO aims to school competition 1971 with a degree in humanism and cultural change and a certification to teach mathemat- ics to middle and high school students. But a desire for career change motivated her to return to UW-Green Bay for more accounting credits, achieved in 1978, and a CPA license in 1981. I loved On the recommendation of Karl Zehms of the UW-Green Bay business administration faculty, Milwaukee and Kabacinski interviewed and got a job with the lived there for Arthur Andersen accounting firm in Milwau- kee. She spent the next 10 years progressing 20 years. But toward partner status through the normal Green Bay is ranks to senior manager. She joined her client, Marquette Medical Systems, in 1989 and served a wonderful as the company’s CFO until 1998 when the town, and the company was sold to GE Medical Systems. By nature of the business transaction, region a great her position was eliminated. place to live The timing couldn’t have been better. Kabacinski was put in touch and work. with School Specialty, Inc., Green- — Mary ville, Wis., a company in search of Kabacinski a CFO. She was offered the job, and accepted in August of 1999. With Mary Kabacinski maps strategy parents in Green Bay, and three with colleagues at School Specialty, brothers in the Fox Valley, Kabacin- Inc. As chief financial officer, she has played a leadership role in ski called the opportunity to move promoting growth of the Appleton- back to the region a “very, very nice area employer into a nationally homecoming.” regarded, $1 billion player in the As executive vice president and competitive school supplies industry. CFO she is in charge of general accounting, treasury and taxes and investor relations for the publicly The company mails more than 40 million 20 percent. We’re now about eight times larger a company that I know and like and can feel traded (NASDAQ: SCHS) company, catalogs annually to its customers and serves than our nearest competitor.” good talking about. which is now approaching market them through 2,800 employees focusing on Kabacinski’s day-to-day is by no means mun- “It’s interesting to note that Karl (Zehms) capitalization of $1 billion. The relationships with administrators and procure- dane, nor repetitive. In fact, she’s right where needed convincing to recommend me for the company offers and develops more ment specialists. Its growth has been nothing she was meant to be. Arthur Andersen job,” she says. “He thought than 80,000 products—from short of phenomenal. “Being a public-company CFO is really an that I wouldn’t be happy outside Northeast “ supplies (paper products and furniture) to “We have a two-pronged growth strategy,” area that I enjoy,” she says. “I had hoped I could Wisconsin. It turned out that I loved Milwaukee age-, grade- and subject-specific curricula for Kabacinski says. “Our internal growth has been carry over my investor relations skills and work and lived there for 20 years. But Green Bay is both public and private schools, kindergarten about seven percent per year, slightly outpacing for a company I liked. In the process of working a wonderful town, and the region a great place through twelfth grades. It also sells branded the five percent industry growth. Secondly, we with Wall Street, I found out something about to live and work. It’s been interesting how my products such as Elmer’s glue and Crayola like to acquire and integrate companies. Our myself. I really like to sell. I’ve been able to take career has come full circle.” crayons. compounded annual growth rate is in excess of my financial background and leverage it ‘selling’ 2 February 2005 February 2005 ” 3 PROMOTING FROM WITHIN: IN LESS THAN A DECADE, Cruisers Yachts of Oconto left bankruptcy to become one of the nation’s most competitive luxury yacht builders. Rick Jelinski, a 1974 UW-Green Bay graduate who majored inA managerial Phoenix systems, has served tale: as the company’s general manager during much of its regeneration. Grad“If you want a story about helps the Phoenix rising yachtmaker emerge from ashes from the ashes, this is it,” Jelinski says of the rebirth of Cruisers Yachts. A slowing economy and a short-lived but sales-killing federal luxury tax had spelled I think I probably doom for the original company, Jelinski recalls. Venture capitalist K.C. Stock (Stock Lum- fit the typical ber) feared the devastation to his hometown UW-Green Bay graduate economy and foresaw the company’s potential. He purchased Cruisers Inc. in 1993. back then. I was raised with “First came the end to the luxury tax,” Jelin- a blue-collar work ethic ski says. “Then management worked to redefine the company’s niche, reinvigorated the dealer (and) we were encouraged network and hired a new engineering staff that from childhood to continue worked on revitalization of the product line. Then came the prosperous economic times and our education baby-boomers entering into retirement years past high school. with expendable income.” A little more than a decade later the busi- — Rick Jelinski ness is flourishing, especially on the high end. Yachts range in size from 28 to 54 feet and in value from $100,000 to $1.2 million. They are sold throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and South America. The company also builds sportfishing yachts. The company, Oconto’s largest, now has more than 660 employees and has a sister manufacturing facility in Wilmington, N.C. Jelinski says he joined the company in Janu- Rick Jelinski, here at the helm of a 370 Express, helped promote the recovery of Oconto’s largest employer.