Friday afternoon, with a late bit of sun peaking through after early morning clouds, the Oregon State University College of Business community took a moment to celebrate the construction launch of Austin Hall, the new home for the College of Business that will open in Fall 2014.

That community included not just current students and faculty but alumni, friends, family and those invested in Oregon and its continued economic growth – and it was a capacity crowd with more than 300 people in attendance.

“The dream and this journey to Austin Hall has been a vision of so many alumni and donors for many years and I have had the privilege of carrying this dream and sharing the story of the College, of Bexell Hall, of the people and the programs,” College of Business Dean Ilene Kleinsorge told the crowd assembled on 26^th Street to see the official launch.

The lead gifts came from two storied OSU families, those of Ken and Joan Austin and the Al and Pat Reser. Together they pledged a combined $16 million — $10 from the Austin’s themselves — to kick off the campaign.

Then Friday Kleinsorge announced that 1965 College of Business graduate and E*TRADE co-founder Bernie Newcomb raised his already substantial gift of $250,000 to $1 million, becoming the sixth to pledge at least $1 million.

Newcomb has been a strong supporter of the College of Business for many years.

Friday Newcomb’s partner Gerry Marshall was in attendance at the construction launch. She also took time to visit with COB faculty and staff picked as Newcomb Fellows and the students supported by the Newcomb Family Scholarship.

Newcomb’s gift pushed the campaign past its original $30 million philanthropic goal, a major milestone as the campaign continues toward the Fall 2014 completion of Austin Hall.

Throughout the afternoon different members of community took turns to share their thanks and what the new building will mean to them.

Oregon State University President Ed Ray addressed the gathering, and noted that while many buildings at OSU have names on them, Austin Hall will be a fitting tribute for a great OSU family.

“I can’t think of a name other than Austin we could be prouder of being on this building,” Ray said.

College of Business student Connor Deeks shared testimonials from his fellow students, from bringing together students, alumni and faculty into a single space to the creation of a landmark students could point to as a point of pride.

“Austin Hall will propel students to achieve their highest potential,” Deeks said. “I take great honor in saying thank you.”

Representing the state of Oregon, state Treasuer Ted Wheeler pointed out that while Austin Hall was a great moment for OSU, it would pay dividends for the entire state economy by helping to better prepare graduates to contribute in the workforce.

“[Austin Hall] is the kind of thing we need to invest in now to continue the economic development of our state,” Wheeler said.

You can continue to follow the progress of Austin Hall by going to business.oregonstate.edu and clicking on the live webcam, where you can watch the construction as it happens

For Alex Polvi, entrepreneurship comes down to one simple phrase:

“Just go for it.”

That’s exactly what he and fellow Oregon State alumni Dan Di Spaltro and Logan Welliver did after graduating from OSU.

In 2008, the trio moved to Silicon Valley and created Cloudkick, a startup dedicated to helping customers better manage their cloud computing resources.

Exactly two years later they were finalizing the sale of the startup to Rackspace, the second-largest cloud-computing company in the world.

All three took a risk, driven by a desire to do something they loved with the skills they had acquired at OSU. Now, just more than five years removed from graduation, the group has cemented their reputations as innovative entrepreneurs.

The story of Cloudkick began before OSU, when Polvi and Welliver met growing up in McMinnville, Oregon.

At OSU Polvi studied computer science, where he met Di Spaltro, while Welliver pursued graphic design.

Polvi says working in the Open Source Lab at OSU gave him the skills he needed to land internships with Mozilla and Google and eventually his first job out of school.

After graduating, Di Paltro and Polvi moved to San Jose, California. A year out of school the pair decided to start a new venture, and Polvi called Welliver to join them.

“It sounded like a good opportunity, and I knew Alex well enough to trust his nose for business, so I flew down to San Jose to meet with him and Dan,” Welliver remembers. “After that meeting, I closed up shop in Portland and moved down to San Jose to give it a shot.”

Di Spaltro and Polvi created the technical aspects of the project while Welliver used his graphic design talents to make the final product visually appealing and intuitive for users.

After participating in the Y Combinator accelerator program in 2009, the company launched and started its ascent in the cloud-computing world.

Less than a year later the company had grown to 12 employees — including six OSU alumni.

In December of 2011, Rackspace acquired Cloudkick, capping an amazing journey for the startup and its three founders.

Looking back, Polvi says the group had its share of luck, but they made it possible by following their passions and starting something of their own.

“Just the fact that we started a company in the first place positioned us to have 20 times more luck than someone who didn’t,” Polvi said.

Welliver said his main piece of advice for students and young entrepreneurs is to start working on what they love now instead of waiting for more favorable conditions.

“If you’re truly passionate about something, start working on it today,” Welliver said. “I hear too many people endlessly pitching ideas instead of building them. Executing a poor idea has infinitely more value than postulating you have a great one.”

Lori Chamberlain, COO and senior VP for the Oregon Bankers Association, and Ryan Smith, CFO of Nike Golf, represented the Oregon State University COB at the awards luncheon in Portland. We congratulate both of them on their great careers so far and are excited to see where they go next.

To get to know a little more about Lori and Ryan, check out the videos the Portland Business Journal Produced to highlight each honoree.

Looking only at Don Robert’s title, one may not immediately think of entrepreneurship.

But as CEO of Experian, LLC, the world’s largest credit services company, Robert must constantly be on the lookout for the next great idea and foster an environment that encourages and rewards innovation.

“I really think that defines entrepreneurship, constantly having to make left-hand turns and constantly having to reinvent the plan as you go along,” Robert said.

A native Oregonian, Robert grew up in North Portland and attended Oregon State, where he earned a degree in business administration.

“I got a great business education at Oregon State and it stood me in good stead when I graduated and entered banking,” Robert said. “I had fantastic professors. Two or three who were particularly noteworthy, and I still think about and I still have their books on my bookshelf at home.”

Robert was also introduced to the idea of leadership at Oregon State thanks to his roommate, then-ASOSU President Jeff Strickler.

Strickler made sure Robert was involved and active, encouraging him to join the Memorial Union Program Council and other student activities.

“Jeff dragged me into a lot of activities on the periphery of student activities and student government and it was in those activities I became more comfortable with the idea of leadership,” Robert said.

From Oregon State Robert went straight into the business world, excelling at every step.

Starting at US Bancorp and then First American, Robert advanced to become a Group Executive.

In 2001 he joined Experian as Chief Operating Officer in North America, before becoming North American CEO and eventually Group CEO.

At each stop he worked hard to expand his skillset. Robert learned how to be an effective communicator, a strong leader and a pragmatic executive.

At Experian, Robert said one of his major goals as CEO is creating an environment that makes it possible to develop and support the ideas that become new Experian products.

“Institutional innovation and a big part of my job is to create a platform where we allow the best ideas to come forward, to be developed, to be bankrolled and put into the marketplace at a very rapid pace, because one of the primary growth vehicles we have in the company is bringing new products into the marketplace,” he said.

Robert said a major entrepreneurial challenge for Experian has been moving into new markets, such as India and Columbia. Both areas required new solutions and quick thinking to make the endeavors successful.

“We’ve had to create new products, throw away our original business plans,” Robert said. “We’ve had to raise financing locally. We’ve had to do things we didn’t anticipate.”

Robert’s advice for current students is to find something they’re passionate about, work harder than anyone else to get it, but not to be afraid to fail along the way.

“You never learn and you never grow when everything is going great,” he said. “It’s only during the tough times that you get stretched and that you develop as a person.”

Over the next few days on the College of Business Blog we’ll introduce you to the honorees of the 2013 Weatherford Awards, which honor entrepreneurs and innovators who further Oregon’s pioneering spirit. As posts are added we’ll link to them below. This year the awards will recognize:

• Don Robert, CEO of Experian
• Barabara Roberts, the first and only woman elected governor of Oregon
• Dr. Albert Starr, co-inventor of the world’s first successful artificial heart valve.
• Dan DiSpaltro, Alex Polvi and Logan Welliver, the trio of Oregon State alumni who co-founded the cloud-computing management startup Cloudkick.

Each day we will  profile a different honoree with a glimpse into how they changed the world by advancing entrepreneurship, innovation, and social progress.

If you’d like to join us to honor this distinguished group and their achievements, the awards take place Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower. Registration runs until Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. Click here to register.

Jon DeVaan said while he was working on the initial release of Excel, the current Microsoft corporate vice president didn’t know the program would become an omnipresent part of work life.

“The focus was ‘We think this will help people a lot, and everything will flow,’” DeVaan told the audience at Wednesday’s College of Business Dean’s Distinguished Lecture at the LaSells Stewart Center.

DeVaan has been at Microsoft since graduating from OSU in 1982, starting with his work on Excel and most recently helping to design the new Windows 8 operating system. DeVaan ran his presentation from a Microsoft Surface, the company’s new tablet computer.

The theme of the talk was how individuals and organizations must focus on improving, or risk falling behind by simply continuing to do what brought them success in the past.

In his own experience, DeVaan recounted how when he started with Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 was the dominant spreadsheet program. But while Lotus saw only a professional market for its product, Microsoft wanted to make a product that could be used by anyone.

“Our motto was a computer on every desk, in every home,” DeVaan said.

A quarter century later, that initial goal has helped make computing accessible for many more people than even DeVaan imagined at the time. He remembers sitting on a plane and being grabbed by the person next to him after mentioning he worked on Excel.

“He said he hated his boss, but he didn’t need him anymore because he had a PC and could start out on his own,” DeVaan remembered.

DeVaan counseled the audience to always confront hard truths and set aside time to fix them. To work smarter, not harder, which can be difficult when that sometimes hurts efficiency in the short term.

He noted that the initial release of Word, the popular text editor, was delayed for two years and Access, a database management program, was cancelled twice.

DeVaan said at Microsoft the company has built in time for “renewal activities,” reviewing how the company is working, not just what it’s producing.

“No one ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happen,” DeVaan said,  borrowing a favorite quotation.

Instead, he pointed out “everything real has problems,” and the key to good leadership is knowing which problems have to be fixed and which are OK to live with, for now.

As long as you take time to focus on improving the process, and not just trying to fix every issue as it comes up, you’ll find things get better in the long run.

“You don’t know where new ideas will come from, but renewal activities create the space where that’s possible,” DeVaan said.

Video Part I

Video Part II

In his opening remarks at the Austin Family Business Program Excellence in Family Business Awards, Oregon State University President Ed Ray noted how the family enterprises being honored all made a point to maintain strong traditions.

“Tonight’s horonorees reflect a vibrant sense of the importance of strong family roots,” Ray said.

From Atiyeh Oriental Rugs, which started in 1900 and only five years later advertised itself as “Portland’s Permanent Rug Store,” to the Anderson Family Farm of Ellensburg, Wash., which started in 2011, each family found success in applying a set a values which reflects the spirit of each family.

The ceremony, held Thursday Nov. 15 at the Governor Hotel in Portland, coincided with Governor John Kitzhaber’s proclamation of Nov. 15 as Family Business Day in the state of Oregon.

Honorees came from a variety of backgrounds and industries, including real estate, agriculture, waste disposal, wineries and even kite manufacturing.

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists:

Dean’s Award for Family Business Leadership

Atiyeh Oriental Rugs of Portland

Micro Family Business (nine or fewer employees)

Coelho Winery of Amity

Andersen Family Farms of Ellensburg, Wash.

Small Family Business (10-24 employees)

Winner: Fruithill, Inc. of Yamhill

Finalists: Twelve-Mile Disposal Service of Portland, Gomberg Kite Productions International of Lincoln City

Medium Family Business (25-99 employees)

Winner: Melvin Mark Companies of Portland.

Finalists: Alan Brown Tire Center of Newport, Musgrove Family Mortuaries of Eugene.

Large Family Business (100+ employees)

Winner: Generations, LLC. of Portland

Finalists:Ulven Companies of Hubbard, Capitol Auto Group of Salem

Faculty Award

Bobby Garrett, assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Oregon State University.

Student Award Winner

Christopher Thompson, a recent College of Business graduate who joined his family firm, TEC Equipment, Inc.

Every year a special group of former Beavers returns to help assist the college and provide feedback and guidance as part of the Dean’s Circle of Excellence.

The Dean’s Circle of Excellence provides an opportunity for alumni and friends to become engaged with the College of Business, to use their influence and affluence to further the college’s goals, and to participate in ensuring future success.

The group meets for the first time this school year Friday Nov. 2, welcoming six new distinguished alumni to the Circle:

John Gilleland

Gilleland serves as President and Chairman of the Campbell Group in Portland, a preeminent provider of timberland investments.

He earned a BS in business and finance from Oregon State University and is a certified public accountant. Gilleland is a board member of Gatlin Gabel School, the Oregon Symphony, Friends of the Children, and Youth Resources, Inc.

Rich Jansen

Jansen is the CFO of Jubitz Corporation in Portland, a multi-dimensional transportation services company offering commercial fueling and travel services to fleets, the professional driver, and local and traveling public.

He previously served as CFO of Johnstone Supply, a $1.1 billion distributor of HVAC products. Jansen was also president of Sunrise Express Trucking and Kalt Manufacturing before selling each business.

Jansen is also involved with the Financial Executives Institute
and a board member of Life Span Labs
and Ace Business Incubator.

Mark J. Kralj

Kralj is Principal in Ferguson Wellman Capital Management in Portland.

He’s a member and past president of the Chartered Financial Analysts Society of Portland, a past chair and trustee of the OSU Foundation, an Ambassador’s Board Members for OSU’s Austin Family Business Program and trustee for the Providence Child Center Foundation.

Thomas E. Leaptrott

Leaptrott is the President of Quantum Leap LLC in Vancouver, Wash., a Vancouver, Wash., supplier of packing materials and plastic bags used in the recycling industry.

Tom is one of the leading forces behind ORPET, Oregon’s first PET recycling facility, which was honored by the White House for creating rural U.S. jobs.

He graduated from OSU with a BS in business administration in 1985.

Carol Potts

Potts is the Vice President and General Manager of the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Group in Illinois.

She’s served as a board member with the Economic Club of Chicago, Mayor’s Technology Council (Chicago), DuPage Technology Park Member Executives Club (Chicago) and Hinsdale Junior Women’s Club.

Potts was also recognized in Fortune Magazine’s “Who’s Who in Chicago Business” in 2006.

David R. Williams

Williams is the Vice President of Utility Services at NW Natural in Portland.

Williams currently serves as Chair of the Oregon Workforce Investment Board, and is a member of the Central City and Downtown Clean and Safe Board of the Portland Business Alliance; the Multnomah County Homeless Youth Oversight Committee and the Portland Police Activities League.

He graduated from Oregon State University with majors in business and social science.

The May 3 Summit features a panel discussion with David Andersen, president of Anderesen Construction Company; Mark Edlen, CEO of Gerding Edlen,; Derrick McGavic, founder and principal of Newport Capital Partners; and John Stirek, president of Western Operations for Trammel Crow.

Diane Detering-Paddison, chief strategy officer of Cassidy Turley, will serve as moderator while Tom Toomey, president and CEO of UDR, Inc., has the keynote on how real estate professionals can do more with less.

The panel will look at the many changes the real estate industry has been faced with over the past decade as consumers and businesses are faced with growing uncertainty and fewer resources, and what must happen to encourage growth in the next decade as the technologically savvy and more urban centered Generation Y continues to dominate the workforce.

Each speaker brings different expertise and experience to the discussion, including the construction industry, multi-family housing, commercial real estate and sustainability practices.

“I view real estate as one of many economic drivers,” Edlen said. “It not only creates the obvious construction jobs but more importantly real estate development creates the spaces within which people can, live work and play.”

While integrally connected with the economy, real estate decisions also inform the desirability of a company and the image it wishes to project, Edlen said.

“Is it space that will give them a hiring advantage when recruiting Gen Y, which is the largest bulge yet to push through the country, or will it conversely cause them to view that company as a less than desirable place to work?” Edlen said. “Where any particular building is located is critical as we see people looking to work and live in livable, sustainable, walkable and culturally rich communities rather than in isolated auto dependent areas.”

The CEO Summit begins at 7:30 a.m. at the Governor Hotel in Portland. Cost is $50, which includes breakfast. Click here more information or to register.