Alumni Excellence Academy inductees have embraced the expectations of our graduates to change the world. Each of these distin-guished alumni has achieved a high level of authority within their chosen profession, have benefited significantly the mission of their organization, and have demonstrated personal integrity of the highest caliber.

Alumni Excellence Academy Award Recipients 2011

2011 Alumni Excellence Academy Award Recipients

Patrick Armstrong
President & CEO, Armstrong International

Patrick received his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1986.

Patrick is the president and CEO of Armstrong International, Inc.  Armstrong provides intelligent energy systems for thousands of companies across dozens of industry categories from food and beverage processing and chemicals and refining, to health care, education, industrial manufacturing and more.  

Armstrong International has solved virtually every imaginable problem in steam, humidification, compressed air, hot water, severe service industrial valves, heat transfer and electronic contract manufacturing services.

As a global company spanning five generations of family ownership, they are passionate about sustaining the needs of future generations by sharing knowledge and working together to achieve universal goals such as conserving and saving energy.

At Armstrong, they empower people to respond and take action. That’s why they remain one of the swiftest and simplest companies to do business with on the planet. 

 

Dr. Farshad Fotouhi
Dean, College of Engineering Wayne State University

Dr. Fotouhi received his BS in Computer Science in 1981, and his MS in Computer Science in 1982.

Dr. Fotouhi, chair of the Department of Computer Science at Wayne State University was appointed Dean of the University’s College of Engineering in December 2010.

As chair of the Department of Computer Science, Dr. Fotouhi developed and implemented a series of comprehensive strategic plans, which resulted in marked increases in national rankings and external funding, as well as recognition of improved research quality.

Dr. Fotouhi joined Wayne State University in 1988. Prior to being appointed chair of the Department of Computer Science, he was associate chair from 2000-2004 and a member of the faculty. He received a WSU College of Science Teaching Excellence Award in 1996 and several Best Paper Awards at various national and international conferences. Before joining WSU, he was a faculty member of the Lyman Briggs School at Michigan State University.

Dr. Fotouhi is a member of the Editorial Board of IEEE Multimedia Magazine, chair of the Steering Committee of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, and a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Semantic Web and Information Systems.

 

Thomas E. Gross Jr.
President & Founder, Cornerstone Advisory Group, Inc.

Tom received his BS in Engineering Metallurgy in 1983.

He also holds an MS from GMI Engineering & Management Institute in manufacturing management and an MS from the University of Detroit in mechanical engineering.

Over the past 28 years, Tom has held senior leadership positions such as CEO, President, Chief Operating Officer, General Manager, Vice President and Director. He has been a member of the senior management teams at Dürr AG, The Gleason Works, Fusion Coolant Systems, Ford & Earl Associates and Giddings & Lewis (Cross).

In 2003, Tom founded Cornerstone Advisory Group (CAG). CAG is a firm of senior business, engineering and manufacturing professionals that specialize in executing business development and improvement strategies that transition its clients into sustainable profitability.

In 2009 CAG formed WindTeknik as an affiliated division to serve the wind energy industry and transition clients into wind energy component manufacturing. WindTeknik also provides wind energy market research, wind farm pre-development feasibility analysis and new/used wind turbine sales to the wind energy industry.

In October 2010, Tom was retained as the CEO of Fusion Coolant Systems (FCS) to lead the company’s commercialization strategy and technology transfer efforts. FCS is a National Science Foundation grant funded clean-tech spin off from the University of Michigan’s Engineering School. FCS products offer productivity improving “Green” metal working cooling and lubrication advantages to the machine tool and metal cutting industry.

 

Larry D. McArthur
CEO, Ascent Logic (retired)

Larry received his BS in Paper Technology in 1965.

He is currently in a joint venture with the Chinese Government in a company called China Source.  The company's primary purpose is to assist companies in other countries move into the Chinese market and also to assist Chinese firms move into other areas of the world.

Larry has had a successful career in starting, growing and managing successful global high-tech companies for more than 30 years for IBM, Gould, Silicon Graphics, and others.  He is best known for his analytical and creative management strategies and has founded six high-tech companies and turned around eight.  He has bought and sold 20 companies and has raised over $250 million in capital for his companies in the U.S., Asia and the European Union.

Larry was the CEO of Ascent Logic, a leader in military systems engineering technology during a declining defense market and worked to create a totally new market strategy through exclusive contracts with Marsh & McLennan and AIG.

Larry and his wife, Helen have been married for 36 years and have a son, Ian who is a molecular biologist working for Genentech in San Francisco.

 

Donald P. Rizzetta
Senior Research Aerospace Engineer, Computational Sciences Center of Excellence at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Don received his BS in Aviation Engineering Technology Management in 1966.

Don is a senior research aerospace engineer at the Computational Sciences Center of Excellence for Air Vehicles Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH.  In addition to his BS from WMU, Don holds degrees from Purdue (MS ’69) and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

In 1969, after he completed his MS at Purdue, Don worked as a design engineer with Pratt & Whitney but then left to become a research associate at The Ohio State University in 1970.   Don remained at OSU until 1976 when he finished his Ph.D.  After completing his degree, Don became a visiting scientist for the United States Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory where he remained until becoming the senior specialist engineer at Boeing Military Airplane Company in 1977.  In 1982, Don left Boeing to become the senior research aerospace engineer with Wright Patterson AFB’s Computational Sciences Center for Excellence.

Don has authored or co-authored over 100 publications for conference and journals and is an associate fellow for the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee.  He has been an adjunct faculty member of the Ohio Aerospace Institute and a consultant to AFOSR (Air Force Office of Scientific Research) and NASA.

 

Douglas Szopo
Executive Director, Global Product Planning & Strategy For Motor Company

Doug received his BS in Industrial Engineering in 1973.

He also earned an MS from Wayne State University in Operations Research.  Doug has spent his entire career at Ford and in 2007 became the Executive Director of Product Planning.  

As the executive director of Product Planning, Doug Szopo is deeply involved in formulating the company's global cycle plan of new and freshened cars, trucks, crossovers and powertrains.Doug has traveled the world in his position at Ford.  He started at the River Rouge plant right out of college and had worked through a co-op at Ford while at WMU.  Doug learned a lot in his first position and realized that being an industrial engineer was more of a people-person job.  He enjoyed the interaction and focused on working with people.

During his nearly 40 years with Ford, he has held a variety of positions in manufacturing, product engineering, and business planning. Most notable of these prior positions was plant manager of the Dearborn Engine and Fuel Tank Plant, design manager for Duratec Engine, and pre-program manager for Advanced Powertrain Systems Engineering.