Three Speakers Scheduled To Share 'Executive Insights' This Fall

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (September 17, 2007) – Penn State's Smeal College of Business continues its Leadership in Focus: Executive Insights guest speaker series this fall by welcoming three high-level executives to the college to connect with Smeal students and faculty.

Smeal alumna Julie McHugh '86, company group chairman of Global Virology Business for Johnson & Johnson, is scheduled for Sept. 28. Alumnus Stephen Sheetz '69, chairman of Sheetz, Inc., will be the college's guest on Oct. 19. And the fall slate of speakers will wrap up on Nov. 2 with James Clifton, chairman and chief executive officer of The Gallup Organization.

Each guest will be greeted with a reception hosted by Smeal Dean James Thomas, during which they can network with Smeal faculty and discuss the latest issues affecting their specific organizations. They also meet in small groups with interested students who are alumni of their internship programs or are future employees and interns. Each visit culminates with an interactive on-stage conversation with Dean Thomas in front of students and faculty.

McHugh's conversation with Thomas will take place at 11:15 a.m. on Sept. 28 in the Business Building's Struthers Auditorium.

Leadership in Focus: Executive Insights, an initiative started in the 2006-2007 academic year, was designed to complement the Smeal educational experience by bringing high-profile business leaders to the college to connect with students, faculty, and administrators to share some of their experiences in leadership.

"Learning firsthand from true business leaders and innovators has a real, positive impact on students and adds a new dimension to their education," Thomas said. "This program is just one more thing we're doing at Smeal to offer our students a world-class education."

Past Executive Insights guests include Art Rooney II, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and James Turley, chairman and chief executive officer of Ernst & Young.

The speaker series will continue in the spring 2008 semester with guests including Robert Pasterick, vice president and chief financial officer of commercial airplanes for Boeing, and Smeal alumnus James Stengel '83 M.B.A., global marketing officer for Procter & Gamble.

Complete details and schedules for each speaker will be announced as they become available.

For more information on the Executive Insights series, visit www.smeal.psu.edu/about/lecture/execin.html.

About Julie McHugh
Julie McHugh '86 is company group chairman, R&D and commercial for the worldwide virology business at Johnson & Johnson, a dynamic and growing area of the corporation’s pharmaceutical business. A 20-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, she came to Johnson & Johnson in 1999 with the acquisition of Centocor. Since July 2004, she served as president of Centocor, where she provided leadership to that company's commercial operations and medical affairs functions, as well as many other critical business support and enabling functions.

McHugh joined Centocor in 1996 as director of marketing for the emerging Immunology Franchise. Prior to that, she led the marketing communications team at Astra-Merck for Prilosec® and held product management positions at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and SmithKline Beecham.

McHugh holds a bachelor's degree in finance from Smeal and an M.B.A in international management from St. Joseph's University.

About Stephen Sheetz
Stephen Sheetz '69 is chairman of the board of Sheetz, Inc., one of the largest family owned and operated convenience store chains in the country. Sheetz currently operates 337 stores in six states and employs more than 11,000 people. With 2006 revenues exceeding $3.5 billion, Sheetz ranks No. 79 on the 2006 Forbes list of top private U.S. companies.

As a teenager, Sheetz began working in his brother Bob's first Sheetz store in 1960. Upon graduation from Smeal in 1969, he became supervisor and director of operations for the four Sheetz stores in operation. He has served in the management of the Sheetz organization ever since. He served as president from 1984 to 1995 and, on Oct. 1, 1995, transitioned to his current role as chairman.

In addition to his bachelor's degree from Smeal, Sheetz is a graduate of the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard University. He is a past member of Penn State's Board of Trustees and currently sits on Smeal's Board of Visitors. In 1999, the Penn State Alumni Association honored Sheetz with its Alumni Fellow Award, the Alumni Association's most prestigious award.

About James Clifton
James Clifton led the acquisition of The Gallup Organization in 1988, at which time he became CEO of the organization founded by the renowned polling pioneer, George H. Gallup. Under Clifton's leadership, Gallup has enjoyed a tenfold increase in its billing volume and has expanded from a predominantly U.S.-based company to a global organization with 40 offices in 20 countries. The Gallup Organization is one of the world's largest think tanks and providers of public opinion polling and management consulting.

Clifton is best known in the business world as the creator of The Gallup Path. This metric-based economic model establishes the linkages between human nature in the workplace, customer engagement, and business outcomes. The Gallup Path is integral to the performance management systems in more than 500 companies worldwide and forms the basis of most of Gallup's total revenues.

Clifton serves as chairman of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. He has received honorary degrees from a number of institutions, including a Doctor of Commerce degree from Bellevue University in Nebraska and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Medgar Evers College in New York and Jackson State University in Mississippi.