Remembering SigEp Giant, Fred Turner, 1933-2013

Kevin Teets provided this outstanding tribute to Fred Turner. Thanks Kevin.

Remembering SigEp Giant, Fred Turner, 1933-2013 Fred Turner, Drake ’54, was no ordinary man. At the age of 35, Turner was elected president of the board of McDonald’s and later became the company’s chief executive officer. He has been called the architect behind McDonalds—introducing the world to the Chicken McNugget, the Egg McMuffin and the Happy Meal. Turner died on Monday in Glenview, Ill., at the age of 80. His life reflects that of a pioneer in the food and service industry, accomplishments which earned him a SigEp Citation, an award that recognizes those SigEp alumni with the highest of professional and personal accomplishments. Turner started his career with McDonald’s at age 23. In a meeting with Drake University SigEps in 2007, Turner shared that his career choice was one that happened by accident. Before flipping burgers at a newly formed McDonald’s in 1956, Turner was a driver for a cookie delivery company in Des Moines, Iowa. He told the students that he wrecked the delivery truck and was fired from his first job. It was then that he met McDonald’s pioneer, Ray Kroc. Turner was pointing out to those students that sometimes “failure” and “bad luck” open the biggest doors. He said, “If I didn’t wreck that cookie delivery truck, I may not be where I am today.” When Turner met Kroc, McDonald’s had only 14 restaurants. Turner’s mishap in cookie delivery brought him together with Kroc at the right place and the right time. His leadership and dedication built the present McDonald’s empire into more than 31,000 restaurants in over 120 countries. Turner will be known for giving back to the places he loved. In 2010, he gifted $1.3 million to Drake University to build the Fred and Patty Turner Jazz Center, a 4,600-square-foot facility that now adjoins the Harmon Fine Arts Center on Drake’s campus. The center includes a practice and performance studio, jazz gallery, piano alcove, recording studio and student lounge called “Patty’s Place,” named in honor of Fred’s wife, Patty Shurtleff, who passed away in 2000. The two kindled their relationship on Drake’s campus. Iowa Delta Alumni Board President Gary Ordway '64, said that Turner has also given generously to the chapter’s capital campaign. “Fred made life-long commitments to enhancing the lives of Drake students. He really enjoyed young people and valued giving them opportunities. We are all fortunate that Fred found time to visit the chapter and attend chapter and alumni meetings at the Drake Relays. In addition to his generosity, Turner will be remembered as someone who loved to enjoy life and have fun. “Rod Rhodes and I got the chance to attend Fred’s annual ‘Fred Party', in Chicago,” Ordway said. “What a blast it was to have fun with Fred. His life and legacy will live on.” In his 2007 Citation acceptance speech, Turner said that the most common character trait you will find in successful people is persistence. He encouraged undergraduates to be persistent in all that they do and told the alumni that the best thing that can be given to “our descendants” are “roots” and “wings.” During that same Conclave, Grand Chapter President Stephen Shanklin said in his speech, “We are all standing on the shoulders of giants.” Fred Turner will be remembered as one of those giants. Fraternally, Kevin Teets Tennessee-Martin '06

Forbes Article Analyzes Billionaires

Billionaire Clusters

by Duncan Greenberg

provided by

Want to become a billionaire? Up your chances by dropping out of college, working at Goldman Sachs or joining Skull & Bones.

Are billionaires born or made? What are the common attributes among the uber-wealthy? Are there any true secrets of the self-made?

We get these questions a lot, and decided it was time to go beyond the broad answers of smarts, ambition and luck by sorting through our database of wealthy individuals in search of bona fide trends. We analyzed everything from the billionaires' parents' professions to where they went to school, their track records in the early stages of their careers and other experiences that may have put them on the path to extreme wealth.

Our admittedly unscientific study of the 657 self-made billionaires we counted in February for our list of the World's Billionaires yielded some interesting results.

First, a significant percentage of billionaires had parents with a high aptitude for math. The ability to crunch numbers is crucial to becoming a billionaire, and mathematical prowess is hereditary. Some of the most common professions among the parents of American billionaires (for whom we could find the information) were engineer, accountant and small-business owner.

Consistent with the rest of the population, more American billionaires were born in the fall than in any other season. However, relatively few billionaires were born in December, traditionally the month with the eighth highest birth rate. This anomaly holds true among billionaires in the U.S. and abroad.

More than 20% of the 292 of the self-made American billionaires on the most recent list of the World's Billionaires have either never started or never completed college. This is especially true of those destined for careers as technology entrepreneurs: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, and Theodore Waitt.

Billionaires who derive their fortunes from finance make up one of the most highly educated sub-groups: More than 55% of them have graduate degrees. Nearly 90% of those with M.B.A.s obtained their master's degree from one of three Ivy League schools: Harvard, Columbia or U. Penn's Wharton School of Business.

Goldman Sachs has attracted a large share of hungry minds that went on to garner 10-figure fortunes. At least 11 current and recent billionaire financiers worked at Goldman early in their careers, including Edward Lampert, Daniel Och, Tom Steyer and Richard Perry.

Several billionaires suffered a bitter professional setback early in their careers that heightened their fear of failure. Pharmaceutical tycoon R.J. Kirk's first venture was a flop--an experience he regrets but appreciates. "Failure early on is a necessary condition for success, though not a sufficient one," he told Forbes in 2007.

According to a statement read by Phil Falcone during a congressional hearing in November, his botched buyout of a company in Newark in the early 1990s taught him "several valuable lessons that have had a profound impact upon my success as a hedge fund manager."

Several current and former billionaires rounded out their Yale careers as members of Skull and Bones, the secret society portrayed with enigmatic relish by Hollywood in movies like The Skulls and W. Among those who were inducted: investor Edward Lampert, Blackstone co-founder Steven Schwarzman, and FedEx founder Frederick Smith.

Parents Had Math-Related Careers

The ability to crunch numbers is normally a key to becoming a billionaire. Often, mathematical prowess is hereditary. Some of the most common professions among the parents of American billionaires for whom we could find that information were engineer, accountant and small-business owner.

September Birthdays

Of the 380 self-made American tycoons who have appeared on the Forbes list of the World's Billionaires in the past three years, 42 were born in September--more than in any other month. Maybe that's because September is the month the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans is published.

Tech Titans Who Dropped Out of College

Forget everything your guidance counselor told you: You don't have to go to college to be successful. More than 20% of the self-made American moguls on the most recent list of the World's Billionaires never finished college. Many of them made their fortunes in tech. Among them: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, (Oracle) and Theodore Waitt (Gateway).

Skull and Bones

Several current and former billionaires rounded out their Yale careers as members of Skull and Bones, the secret society portrayed with enigmatic relish by Hollywood in movies like The Skulls and W. Among those who were inducted: investor Edward Lampert, Blackstone co-founder Steven Schwarzman and FedEx founder Frederick Smith.

Goldman Sachs

A stint at investment bank Goldman Sachs is a prime credential for becoming a finance billionaire. Of the 68 self-made American billionaires that derive their fortunes from finance, at least eight cut their teeth in Goldman's investment banking, trading, or asset management divisions. The company's crown jewel: its "risk arbitrage" unit, which launched the careers of billionaires Edward Lampert and Daniel Och, as well as former billionaires Tom Steyer and Richard Perry.

Click here for the full list of billionaire clusters.

Copyrighted, Forbes.com. All rights reserved

A cool personal branding site for college students « Wally’s Follies

A number of years ago business guru Tom Peters wrote an article called "The Brand Called You" about personal branding importance and strategy. The article spawned lots of interest and the self-help guys made buckets of money showing people "how-to." The ideas even made it into SigEp CLA programs for a few years.

The idea of personal branding is, if anything, even more important today. The sooner you get started on the work of presenting yourself to the world honestly but with your best foot forward, so to speak, the better off you will be.

Most college kids today are already deeply into the Internet, but few have thought about how to use the Internet to help build a career. That’s what brand-yourself.com is all about. As students get closer to that dreaded day when they have to find a job, they’re going to find that MySpace profiles and silly stuff on Facebook just ain’t going to work.

Suffice to say a good personal brand is more than a snappy resumè and a Facebook page full of keg stand pictures.

A cool personal branding site for college students « Wally’s Follies

SigEp LinkedIn group reaches 2000 members

The social networking site LinkedIn is aimed at working professional people - I like to call it "Facebook for grownups."  Like many other networking sites they offer a group function. Members can create and join groups that reflect their interests, professions, or passions. My professional profile has been growing new groups since I signed up a few years ago. A little over a year ago Eric Chan (PA Theta - Carnegie Mellon University) created a Sigma Phi Epsilon group on LinkedIn and started sending invitations to his contacts. We at S&P saw an opportunity to help professional SigEps connect with each other and helped to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

We put a link on the sidebar and have written about the progress of the group a few times. The response has been incredible. Lately we have been routinely getting 10-15 member requests a day. Today we hit another milestone - 2000 members. If you have set up on LinkedIn and have not found the group yet, come on over and join up. If you are not "Linked" now is a good time to start, and SigEp can be your first group. You will recognize other members when you see our letters in the "Groups we Share" section. Oh, and be sure to add your chapter as a comment in the "Chapter Roll Call" discussion topic.

LinkedIn Group has 1000 Members

I like LinkedIn.com as a social networking site because of its professional demeanor. No one writes on your wall, and you don't need to worry about being attacked by vampires or zombies. It is easy to put up a good version of a resume and you are encouraged to ask questions and other profession types will often give very intelligent answers.

Last October(2007) Eric Chan created a group on LinkedIn to help SigEps find each other and build their personal networks of contacts. He knew me from the blog and invited me to be one of the first members. Groups on LinkedIn are not very intrusive. Mostly you can search them and send a message to a member even if you don't have a direct "network" connection to them.

I published the link to join the group here (it's on the sidebar), made a few posts about it, and went about making sure that more people knew about it. Any time I connected with a SigEp on LinkedIn I'd make sure they got a link to the group so they could join too, and many have.

Today, the group got its 1000th member. That is noteworthy in itself, but there is more to the story and it has direct bearing on our "Lifetime Experience."

While helping people join the group (Eric made me an 'admin' so I could approve requests) I have reconnected with at least half a dozen of my chapter brothers from thirty-odd years ago. And it is interesting to see how they turned out: Randy is the head of United Way in Albuquerque, NM; Alan is CEO of McCormick (as in Spices); Steve is a "product management evangelist" - whatever that is. They don't know it yet but I'm going to nag them to come back to our next Alumni Weekend. I have also connected with several younger alums whom I have yet to meet in person, but I hope to at an alumni reunion soon.

I'll bet that there are several SigEps out there that you remember from your days in the chapter or maybe a guy you talked to at a Conclave but didn't get an email address. Wouldn't it be neat to find out what they are up to? You might even make a business connection.

If you have a LinkedIn account you can request to be added simply by clicking on the link. If you don't, the same link will help you sign up first.

By the way, when you sign up be sure to ask me to connect, too.

Tennessee Alumnus Magazine - Wilson Has a Taste for Leadership: Alan Wilson

Alan Wilson, Tennessee Alpha '80, is the new CEO of McKormick Spices. This article comes from the University of Tennessee Alumnus Magazine.

America’s palate is becoming more sophisticated, and Alan Wilson is big into the business of supplying the spices to satisfy the nation’s taste buds. Wilson (Knoxville ’80) is the new CEO and president of McCormick & Company Inc., the world’s largest spice producer, headquartered in Baltimore with operations in such diverse locales as India and France. These international operations require a geographically nimble CEO—Wilson travels about 35 percent of the time. Recent destinations have included China, India, Australia, and countries of the European Union.
[...]
Wilson graduated in communications (“I thought I wanted to be a broadcaster”), served in the army, and worked for Procter & Gamble before joining McCormick in 1993.[...]
He says he wants to continue to grow the company. Many parts of the world could be ripe for expansion, with Eastern Europe on the short list. He’s proud of McCormick’s history of social responsibility and points to agricultural sustainability programs the company began 25 years ago. As he wrestles with cost and personnel decisions, he tries to be ever mindful about consistently communicating McCormick’s priorities. Wilson says he establishes professional objectives and is graded on his performance like everyone else in the company. “I pride myself on beating my objectives,” he says.

Alan was also president of the SigEp Chapter in Knoxville. I could share a number of spicy incidents from that time, but for now, let's just say "What happens in SigEp, STAYS in SigEp."

Tennessee Alumnus Magazine - Wilson Has a Taste for Leadership: Alan Wilson

Slumlord 101

What a great idea.

First, graduate from college and move out of the "student ghetto" - that area of barely livable houses and apartments that surrounds most schools and caters to dorm overflow. Then you turn around and start buying up property in the same ghetto and renting it back to your friends and former neighbors.

A year ago, Jeff Shea began buying up rental properties around the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he had only recently graduated with a business major. Shea, 23, who lives in Chicago, owns three rental homes near campus, including a four-bedroom house he bought for $138,000 and rents to four students for $1,800 a month.

"It's the best time ever to buy houses," Shea said. "The rent is inflated because so many people go to school here."

Just be sure to let people think you have a slightly more respectable job - like piano player in a whorehouse.

There are some risks, of course.

But like any real estate investment, buying in a college town comes with risks, particularly for investors. Think Animal House. Students are known to drink, punch holes through windows, spill beer on carpets, or just not be very responsible.

Students? Irresponsible? I'm Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
College Towns: Still a Smart Investment - Yahoo! News

Usual and Customary Politics

I and I am sure everyone else was glad that the National Board of Directors and the elusive -  membership unknown - and double-secret OGH Nominations Committee saw fit to suspend the rules unilaterally established by a previous NBD and present Brother Archie Yeatts with the much deserved Order of the Golden Heart at the end of his term as Grand President. Probably few undergraduates really do appreciate the years and years of service Brother Yeatts provided to the Fraternity prior to his tenure on the NBD and subsequent election to GP. Congratulations, Archie, and let's hope that such silly rules established by a scorned board member(s) don't repeat themselves in the future.

So, now that I have your attention, perhaps a little history lesson and one clear resounding example will give you a peek behind the curtain of mystery in our Fraternity's body politic.

As far back as I can remember (over 15 Conclaves), it was always customary to present the outgoing Grand President the Order of the Golden Heart Award (if he didn’t already have one). It is much deserved as anyone who has diligently served a term or two on the National Board and then a two year run as Grand President has devoted a considerable amount of concentrated volunteer time to the Fraternity. That is up until the 1989 Conclave when a dark horse candidate trumped the heir-apparent in his campaign for Grand President. This, of course, sent shock waves through the "good ole boy" politics much more than most will admit. Once the "dark horse's" reign was completed in 1991, there was retribution to be delivered. The first move was to enact an emergency resolution to immediately go into effect with the 1991 Conclave that the Grand President would no longer be given the OGH at the end of his term. It then became “tradition” that the Past GP would receive his OGH at the next Conclave. In 2005, this was suspended for appropriate reason and, in this writer's opinion, was appropriate again in 2007. However, retribution continued for our 1989 Dark Horse GP who should have, according to the new rule, received his in 1993 .... He did not receive his OGH in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, but finally did in 2001. Guess it would have looked bad for the Fraternity if a living Past Grand President didn't have an OGH by the Centennial. 

It is interesting to also note the Heir Apparent that the Dark Horse upset was closely tied to the OGH Nomination Committee (while the constitution of this committee is possibly the best kept secret in the Fraternity, this author knows for an absolute fact, that the Heir Apparent served and may still be serving on the OGH Nomination Committee).

This author feels very strongly that we should go back to the earlier precedent of giving the outgoing GP his OGH. It just makes sense.

The other lesson here is that when you begin to upset the body politic there are penalties to be paid. It would be interesting to see what other clandestine, double-secret activities might be discovered if one lifts the curtain higher and lets the light of day in. Does the old boy politics still extend to alumni nominations process? That will be an insider story in the next installment of Usual and Customary.

Great indeed is the mystery of the Fraternity (politics, that is).

Examples of Mentoring

This is a textbook case of identifying and nurturing talent. So much the better that both the Mentor and Mentee are SigEps. Better still that they are both from my chapter and I know them.

Bank president, CEO resigns

Founder Clayton says he'll back Daniels in potential acquisitions

By JOSH FLORY, floryj@knews.com
June 26, 2007

For many people, rising to the presidency of a bank with more than $364 million in assets would be the pinnacle of an outstanding career. For Matt Daniels, it's a good start.

Daniels, the 28-year-old president and CEO of Clayton Bank and Trust, announced Monday that he will step down from that position to pursue other business opportunities.

"The bank's doing well and there's a good management team there, and after we made the expansion into Knoxville and things were set up, (it) just seemed like a good opportunity to leave the bank on good footings and try something new," he said in an interview.

The announcement marks the latest chapter in a fascinating partnership between Daniels and Clayton Bank founder Jim Clayton, who made a fortune in the manufactured housing business.

Daniels was president of Clayton's old fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and began working for Clayton in 1997 as a college intern. He joined Clayton Homes after graduating from the University of Tennessee and by the age of 23 had been tapped as president of First State Bank, in Henderson.

Since then, the bank has grown through acquisitions and, in 2005, opened a main office in downtown Knoxville.

Daniels said he is planning to take three or four months to look at other opportunities, adding that "I'm going to look at the potential acquisition of banks." The executive said he has no specific candidates in mind, but he should have ready access to funding.

In a news release, Jim Clayton said he has already offered to provide the capital for Daniels to "buy his own bank." "I will be the first investor in whatever Matt pursues," Clayton said in the release.

The resignation takes effect on June 30. Clayton will serve as interim president of the bank that bears his name until a permanent successor is named.

Business writer Josh Flory may be reached at 865-342-6994.

Congratulations to Bros. Daniel and Clayton on what looks to be the mid-point of a long and successful collaboration.

KnoxNews: Business