Congratulations

Organizations looking for bright young business school graduates have found a bonanza in this spring’s graduating glass at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce.
“We graduated 500 undergraduates,” said Daniel Maguire, the business school registrar, “and 187 of those were honor students.” That includes 21 with perfect 4.0 grade point averages. In addition, Maguire said, 299 of the graduates earned GPAs of 3.00 or above.

The department of economics, finance and legal studies had the highest number of graduates with 121 in finance and 18 in economics, followed by the marketing department with 95 and the Culverhouse School of Accountancy with 89. Culverhouse graduated 76 management students, 34 in management information sciences, 27 in general business, 24 in health care management and 16 in operations management.

Of the 500 undergraduates, 344 were from Alabama, representing 45 counties. Maguire said 15 other states were represented.

Ronald G. Bruno, a graduate of The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, has been inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame as the Distinguished Alabama Sportsman for 2009.

Bruno is a member of the business school’s Board of Visitors. In 1991, Bruno’s father, Angelo, and his mother, Ann, and their five children gave $4 million dollars to The University of Alabama to help fund a new Angelo Bruno Business Library and computer center on the campus at Tuscaloosa. The gift was at that time the largest gift that the University had ever received from a living donor and was the lead gift in a $40 million campaign for improvement of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and its facilities at the Capstone.

On Dec. 11, 1991, Angelo Bruno’s life ended unexpectedly and tragically when the corporate jet crashed in Georgia, killing all on board, including the corporate pilots. Angelo Bruno and other executives were making the traditional holiday visits to Bruno stores throughout the Southeast. During Angelo’s tenure as CEO, the company expanded to over 230 stores in the Southeastern states,  including Food World, Bruno’s Food and Pharmacy, Food Max, Piggly Wiggly Stores in Southern Georgia, Food Fare and Vincent’s Market.

Ronald Bruno has been a business leader in Birmingham for more than 30 years. His family’s philanthropy efforts have enriched hundreds of thousands of individual lives in Birmingham and Alabama over the years.

He graduated from UA with a bachelor of science in marketing in 1974. Following graduation, he started working for the Bruno’s Supermarkets, Inc., holding various management positions from 1974 through 1991. In 1991, he became Chairman and CEO and held that position until the company was sold in 1995.

His family’s philosophy of giving back to the community combined with their passion for golf lead Bruno and his father to start an annual golf tournament in Birmingham on the Senior PGA Tour in 1992. After the accident the tournament was renamed the Bruno’s Memorial Classic.

The tournament has become an annual tradition for Birmingham area residents, drawing some of the largest crowds on the Senior PGA Tour. The Bruno’s Memorial Classic was recognized as the Best Champions Tour event by players, tournament officials and media in a Sports Illustrated poll in both 2001 and 2004, the only times the award has been given.

In 2006, Regions Financial Corporation became the event’s title sponsor, changing the name to the Regions Charity Classic. Last year’s tournament celebrated a milestone as it surpassed $10 million in charitable giving to the Alabama community.

After retiring from Bruno’s Supermarkets, Inc. in 1995, Bruno founded an investment company, Bruno Capital Management, where he currently serves as president. Later that same year, he formed the Bruno Event Team with partner Gene Hallman and serves as its chairman.             

The Bruno Event Team has grown to encompass five separate divisions employing more than 50 full-time employees in eight offices throughout the United States. The five divisions include Golf, Five Star Catering, Zoom Motorsports, University of Alabama Gameday Operations and Think + Creative Services. The company is also affiliated with the Alabama Sports Foundation, managing numerous events for the Foundation. The Golf Division alone currently manages five annual tournaments on the Champions, LPGA and Nationwide TOURS. Bruno Event Team has managed, for the United States Golf Association, five of the last seven U.S. Women’s Opens and every U.S. Senior Open since 2004. They are also currently managing a combined five Senior and Women’s Opens through 2013.

Bruno has served on numerous charitable and corporate boards over the past 25 years. The charitable boards include St. Vincent’s Hospital Foundation where he served as President, United Way where he served as Campaign Co-Chairman and Tocqueville Society Chairman as well as the Metropolitan Development Board. He is also very active with the University of Alabama, serving on the President’s Cabinet and has served as Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the College of Commerce and Business. He has also sat on the board of directors for the following corporations: SouthTrust Bank, Bruno’s Supermarkets, Inc. and Russell Corporation; he currently sits on the board of directors for Books-A-Million.

He was inducted into the Birmingham Golf Hall of Fame in 1994.

Bruno and his wife, Lee Ann, have one son, Gregory. The family attends Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Previous Distinguished Alabama Sportsmen include Dr. Wilford Bailey, Dr. David Bronner, Bill Ireland, Michael Stephens, Hall Thompson and Jack Warner. Bronner, Thompson and Warner als0 are member of the business school’s Board of Visitors.

Bruno joins the Class of 2009 sports greats which include: Larry Blakeney (football), Steve Bolt (track), Tommy Brooker (football), Janelle Kirtley Godfrey (water skiing), Charles Hannah (football), Jimmy Key (baseball), Lee May (baseball), and John Mitchell (football).

Colonial Bancgroup has named Lewis Beville, a graduate of the Culverhouse College of Commerce, as chief executive, replacing Bobby Lowder, who said last month he planned to retire.

The Montgomery-based bank, once the state’s second largest, also named director Samuel Sippial Jr. chairman of the board, a post also formerly held by Lowder.

The changes come after Colonial won a $300 million investment from a group led by Florida mortgage firm Taylor Bean & Whitaker, which became the company’s largest shareholder as part of the deal.

Beville has served as vice president and treasurer for Thames Batre Matteir Beville & Ison, a Mobile insurance firm.

Beville earned a degree in finance in 1974 and joined his father at Beville Insurance Agency. In 1990, Beville merged with the Thames Batré Mattei Agency. His areas of expertise include real estate, non-profits, marine and construction.

In 1981, Beville received his designation as a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter from the American Institute of Property and Liability Underwriters.

Active in industry, community and charitable organizations, Beville is director and past president of the Gulf Coast Chapter of CPCU’s and has served as director of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and Mobile Area Education Foundation. He is a member of the Dauphin Way United Methodist Church.

Benton Gup had just returned from four days in Vienna, Austria, and Athens, Greece where he discussed the United States financial crisis with Austrian economists and finance experts, did a 40-minute PowerPoint presentation for more than 80 guests, did an interview with English language radio station FM4 and talked with the local newspaper, Die Presse, all at the behest of the U.S. State Department.

So, how was the trip, Dr. Gup?

“Great,” he said. “I loved it.”

Gup is no stranger to such visits. Over the course of his career as a financial expert, lecturer, teacher and writer, Gup has visited about 30 foreign countries.

For his work, writing and research, Gup, Professor of Finance and holder of the Robert Hunt Cochran/Alabama Bankers Chair of Banking at The University of Alabama, has been named the third recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Midwest Finance Association, which he received in March.

“I am very humbled by that,” Gup said.

He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Cincinnati, as well as an M.B.A. and a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors. Gup joined the faculty at the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration in 1983, following 13 years at the University of Tulsa. He also has served as an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Gup has been a visiting professor or research scholar at universities around the world and at the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. He been called on numerous times by the U.S. Department of State to share his expertise with foreign governments.

He is a member of eight professional financial associations, and is a prolific author and editor. One of his more recent books, Too Big to Fail: Policies and Practices in Government Bailouts, is much in demand. He has published or edited 28 books, with two forthcoming, and has contributed to dozens of others. In addition, he has published or contributed to articles in most major financial journals, and is frequently called on to make presentations at professional meetings around the world.

Dr. Billy Helms, head of the Economics, Finance and Legal Studies Department at the Culverhouse College of Commerce, said Gup has been at the forefront of the teaching of modern finance since he has been at The University of Alabama.

“He always kept his focus on issues that had a material effect on the current business environment,” Helms said. “His numerous books have been concerned with topics that captured the attention of the policy makers who were struggling with issues that had both national and international significance.  Everyone respects him for his energy and his persistence in writing about issues in finance.”

Gup’s first job was as a stockbroker in Cincinnati, where he worked in options and took care of the firm’s error accounts. After three years, he returned to the University of Cincinnati to earn his Ph.D., and then worked as an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland before heading to Tulsa.

Gup is a news junkie who watches CNN, reads the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the Times of London to get the global perspective on the world of finance.

He writes and edits early in the morning, but said he works “24-7.

What I enjoy is working on new things all the time - new problems, new issues. I don’t do the same thing over and over again.”

About the nation’s current financial problems, Gup said, “I think the toughest part of the financial crisis has been resolved and it now has become an economic crisis.”

Gup said he was “a mediocre high school student” who encountered a few problems his first try at higher education. “I started out in industrial engineering and wound up in economics.”

Gup has been a licensed pilot since 1970 and now flies a Cessna 182. His wife is also a pilot and both are active in the Civil Air Patrol.

He describes himself as inquisitive, opinioned, outspoken and caring, and would like to be remembered “as a scholar, someone who helped students advance, to learn; someone who opened doors for these people to grow.”

He said J. Barry Mason, dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce is “the best dean I have ever worked for and Billy Helms is the best department head I have ever worked for. Both have been supportive and let you do research.”

“Benton is a triple threat,” Mason said. “He has published a least one book a year for the past 25 or so years. He is an excellent classroom instructor, and he is sought out by governments and private sector organizations around the world for his expertise on banking and financial systems. I never know when I try to reach him whether he will be in Peru, Australia, Austria or testifying in Washington on such arcane issues as the Basel Accords. Truly, he is the rare Renaissance man. He has been the ‘go to’ person in the state for many years by the private sector on corporate banking issues.  His energy, enthusiasm and goodwill are infectious.”

Bill Gerdes is

Editor of The Executive

Dr. Michael T. Dugan, Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse School of Accountancy, has been selected by the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants as the 2009 Outstanding Accounting Educator in recognition of his many years of excellence in teaching accounting.

“This state-wide honor is special because I was competing against my peers in accounting education in Alabama,” said Dugan, who has received five teaching awards during his 24 years at the University.

The ASCPA award recognizes college accounting educators for excellence in teaching and for active involvement in the accounting profession. The award has the dual function of extending profession-wide recognition to the recipient as well as promoting role models in academe.

Dugan, a classroom teacher for 30 years, joins three other UA faculty members who have received the award since it was initiated in 1994. The first UA recipient was Dr. Robert Ingram (1994), followed by Dr. Mary Stone (2002), now head of the Culverhouse School of Accountancy, and Dr. Barney Cargile (2004), who has retired.

“This honor is very much deserved,” said J. Barry Mason, dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce. “All of Mike’s colleagues and students have long recognized his dedication to accounting education and it is wonderful to see it recognized by his professional peers as well.”

Dugan, who was born in Dallas but raised in New Orleans, also is the school of accountancy’s internship program coordinator. As such, Dr. Stone said, Dugan epitomizes accounting education. “Dr. Dugan is dedicated to maximizing the contribution of accounting academics to the accounting profession, while at the same time providing the guidance and mentoring that helps accounting students reach their potential,” Stone said.

Dugan earned his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from the University of New Orleans and his M.Acc. and D.B.A. from the University of Tennessee.

“I wanted to be a math major,” Dugan said, “but I spoke with an advisor my freshman year and she suggested I go into accounting. I did, and I fell in love with it.”

He said he thinks he received the award because he takes “an active and sincere interest in students. You have to be technically competent in the classroom but just as competent in helping and mentoring students and guiding them toward satisfying and rewarding careers.”

Dugan said his teaching career at UA has been highlighted “by working with a great dean” and great faculty colleagues.

Dugan, 51, is a CPA (Louisiana, inactive).  His five teaching awards include the National Alumni Association Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award.  He has published 45 articles in both academic and professional journals.  He is a member of the ASCPA and the American Accounting Association. Dugan’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of financial accounting and reporting.

Dugan is married to a former student, Stacie Newsome Dugan, and they have two children, Patrick, 11, and Bethany, 9. Dugan said the ASCPA award includes a plaque and $1500 cash.

“I won’t spend a dime of it,” he said. “I plan to open savings accounts for the kids.”