Two Supply Chain Students Receive $5,000 Scholarship Awards

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (April 15, 2008) – The R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation has awarded two students at Penn State's Smeal College of Business with $5,000 scholarships.

Douglas Burke and Andrew Spicher, Smeal students majoring in Supply Chain and Information Systems, have been selected to receive two of the six available 2008 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Awards.

Burke is a senior Schreyer Honors Scholar who is president of Smeal's Supply Chain Management Association. He has completed an internship and a co-op with CSX Transportation, and will graduate in December following an internship with Johnson & Johnson.

Spicher is a junior Schreyer Honors Scholar minoring in German. He is a member of the Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals and the Institute for Supply Management, and has accepted a co-op with Johnson & Johnson.

The Richter scholarship is presented annually to supply chain students based on high-achieving academic records, strong leadership skills, high ethical standards, and a commitment to a career in supply chain management. Nancy Richter, president of the Richter Foundation, interviews the finalists who are selected from the initial pool of applicants, and then two high-level supply chain management executives interview the finalists and choose the ultimate winners.

Along with the tuition support, Richter Scholars also are enrolled in a mentoring program and invited to attend with all expenses paid the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) International Conference in St. Louis, where they will be honored at a special Scholarship Presentation Awards Banquet on May 5. This year, Norm Aggon, instructor in operations and supply chain management, will represent Smeal along with Burke and Spicher at the ISM Conference.

Winners of the Richter Scholarship are also enrolled in a mentoring program where they are paired with an established executive from a Fortune 500 company. They are invited to a Power Conference for executive leadership in supply chain management one year after graduation and upon gaining real-world experience. Richter Scholars attend the ISM Conference with all expenses paid two years later, as well.

Throughout his career in supply chain, Gene Richter led three corporate teams to Purchasing Magazine's Medal of Professional Excellence. At Black & Decker, he fine-tuned strategies of global sourcing, long-term agreements, and centralization of key commodities. At Hewlett-Packard, he worked with a team to develop written sourcing strategies and to negotiate strategic alliances with worldwide leading-edge suppliers. And at IBM, his team formed customer solutions procurement, set up a technology convergence office to tap into suppliers' technical know-how, and moved the purchasing process to the Internet.

The Supply Chain and Information Systems Department has been participating with the Richter Scholarship for four years. Burke and Spicher are the fourth and fifth Smeal recipients in those four years. The former Smeal recipients are Leslie Hubbard, Marcio Oliveira, and Tania Mirabel Santiago.

For more information on the Richter Scholarships, visit the Institute for Supply Management Web site.