By Charlie Feigenoff

The great thing about an engineering degree from U.Va. is the number of doors it opens. While many SEAS graduates go on to successful careers as professional engineers and researchers, others enter the business world, where the knowledge, analytical methods, and communication and leadership skills gained on Grounds provide a unique advantage.

Engineering School graduates have gone on to assume posts at a number of businesses that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Consider the accomplishments of David Kettler (ECE '67, '70, '71). Kettler was vice president for science and technology and chief architect for BellSouth, where he was responsible for the entire Bell South research and development activity and spearheaded the industrywide consortium that helped create standards for DSL technology.

Or John Muleta (SIE '86, Law/Darden '93), bureau chief for the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. Muleta is responsible for all FCC domestic wireless communications programs and policies, including cell phones, paging, personal communications services, public safety, and other commercial and private radio services.

In fact, some SEAS engineering graduates never planned to practice engineering. Chip Owen (ME '79, Darden '84) came to U.Va. intending to take his engineering background and go into business. Today, he is the executive vice president and chief operating officer for Equity Office, the nation's largest publicly held office building owner and manager.

Understanding Technology

Because many successful businesses these days employ new technology in their business systems and production processes, or develop and distribute new technology to their customers, it's a distinct advantage to know how something works. Muleta maintains that he draws on his engineering background virtually every day. "Having a component-level understanding of engineering is a huge benefit," he says. "My ramp-up time for new technology is rapid."

Chip Owen concurs. "A thousand of my employees at Equity Office are operating engineers," he remarks. "Although I've never torn down a chiller myself, at least I understand the issues when I talk to them about it."

Being able to refer to basic engineering principles is also the source of the mobility Engineering School graduates often experience in the business world. During her 23 years at IBM, Scottie Ginn (EE '80 has held posts in a variety of different technical areas, including process development and chip design. Currently, she's vice president of operations for the Systems Development Group, where her responsibilities include everything from strategy to finances to hardware development. "Being able to move from one field to another and quickly master the intricacies is exactly what's required for success in a large company," she says.

Thinking Like an Engineer - and Beyond

The kind of analytical, logical thinking that forms the fundamentals of engineering transfers quite well to business. "You learn the art of decision-making at U.Va.," the FCC's Muleta notes. "We were taught how to break down complex systems into their components and put them together. This approach is engrained in the way I work. I don't even think about it."

At Merck & Co. Inc., Michael King (ChE '76) finds the Engineering School's emphasis on process similarly useful. As senior vice president for the science and technology group in manufacturing, King can't afford to be stymied by complexity. When faced with a new challenge, his approach is straightforward: "I listen, gather the data I need to understand the scope of the problem, develop potential hypotheses, test them, and take the most likely path forward." Such an analytical approach, he points out, is equally useful when applied to organizational as well as technical issues.

Many U.Va. graduates also cite the importance of being able to take courses elsewhere at the University as critical to their success in business. Communications expert Kettler took courses in economics, foreign affairs, German, philosophy, and sociology and drew on the perspectives he gained to interact more effectively with nonengineers worldwide. "This kind of experience also helps you think more creatively about technical issues," he says.

Loria Yeadon (ECE '85), CEO of Honeywell Intellectual Properties, believes the broad-based education that is the hallmark of the Engineering School has helped her see engineering in context. "In my humanities courses, I gained a sense of how technology and life intersect," she says. "This is a critical insight if you are to handle real-world projects successfully and in a morally and ethically responsible way."

Yeadon, formerly the chief intellectual property litigation counsel for Honeywell International and now team leader of IP licensing and enforcement strategy for the company, also credits the Engineering School for sharpening her communications skills. "I make many presentations around the world, often speaking before people with different legal, technical, business, and cultural backgrounds," she says. "I need to communicate clearly with them all in a way that builds relationships and achieves Honeywell's objectives."

Leading and Managing Others

As any U.Va. graduate will tell you, there is more to the University experience than just the course work, important as that is. The University places a premium on nurturing individual initiative and leadership, two areas that are critical to business success. Entrepreneur Eric Tumperi (ME '83) was active in Trigon and served as managing and then executive editor of Corks & Curls, the University yearbook. "I learned quite early what was needed to recruit and manage a 200-person staff and produce a 700-page yearbook under budget and on schedule," he says.

Tumperi has put these skills to good use. As co-founder, president and COO of Enterpulse, he developed an extremely successful Internet-based trade show management system that includes online registration, exhibitor directory, floor-plan management, and e-commerce capabilities for exhibitors and attendees. Currently, he is chairman and CEO of his second start-up, AnyTransactions, which has developed a voice verification system for probation offenders.

For Jay D. Miller (BME '87), the collegial atmosphere he found at U.Va., paired with an outstanding technical education, provided excellent preparation for his role as CEO of Vital Images. This fast-growing biotech company produces enterprisewide advanced visualization and analysis software solutions that significantly increase the productivity of radiologists reading CT, MR, and PET scans. At U.Va, Miller was impressed with the importance of hiring people who work well together in teams. "U.Va. is a very social environment," he says. "I learned how much can be accomplished when people work closely together."

Underpinning this all is the University's honor system. As David Kettler points out, at a time when business ethics have received considerable scrutiny, the tradition of honor that students experience at U.Va. makes a real difference.