Alumni Board Members

Mr. Davis is Vice President and Executive in Charge of the Barton Malow Company Health Facilities Group. He spent three years with Bronson Builders and Design (a subsidiary of Bronson Methodist Hospital and Tower Pinkster Titus and Associates) as project manager, estimator, and director of business development. In 1990, Barton Malow recruited him, and his passion for hospital building flourished. His accomplishments include: the new Delnor-Community Hospital and medical office building, Kosair Children's Hospital, and the new Spartan Stadium.

Kevin Ohl is an Executive with Crowe Chizek and Company LLP, and a partner with Crowe Group LLP. He leads the Crowe Chizek’s governmental consulting business in Illinois and Wisconsin. Kevin assists clients with developing technology strategy and leads projects related to implementation of business processes and systems. Kevin serves as a member on MSU's Computer Science and Engineering Strategic Partner Council, and has been a board member since 2002.

Stan Espenship retired in 2002 as President of Espenship-Kenway Consultants, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in forensic and expert witness work related to construction defect litigation, specializing in exterior window, door and wall systems for commercial and residential structures. Stan is a registered Professional Engineer for the State of Michigan.

Dr. Stephen J. Perkins
PhD Computer Science 1997

Stephen Perkins is currently President and CTO of NetMass Incorporated. He was a member of the technical staff in the Digital Signal Processing Research and Development Lab at Texas Instruments. He participated in the development of DSL proto-types, the IETF, the IEEE 802.14 working group, and Home Phone Networking Alliance (HPNA) standards group.

Keith Swaffar has worked for the engineering consulting firm of NTH Consultants for the past 24 years. He started at NTH in 1979 after completing his MS degree and is now the Chief Operating Officer. NTH is a 250 person firm with seven offices in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Keith is a licensed professional engineer and was the President of the Michigan Society of Professional Engineers for the 2002-2003 year.

Ms. Bechtel joined Baxter Healthcare Corporation in Illinois after graduation in 1991, assigned to the I.V. Systems Division. In 1995 Bechtel moved back to Michigan to work for General Motors Corporation.  Bechtel has been working on the Full Size Truck Platform since 2001 as a Vehicle Engineer supporting program management activities for cost improvement initiatives, future programs, and most recently the launch of the new 2007 Full Size Utility Trucks and now the upcoming Launch of the 2010 Full Size Utilities and Pickup Trucks.

In addition, Bechtel served as the GM Product Engineering Functional Recruiting Leader for MSU from 1999-2001. In January 2001, she was appointed the GM University Relations Team Coordinator for MSU, leading a GM team that is responsible for all engineering university relations activities at MSU.
Contact Information: lynn.bechtel@gm.com

Dr. Clear graduated from Michigan State University with a Chemical Engineering degree in 1994. She will be serving on the Alumni Board until 2010.

Mr. Noll is a partner in the Chicago firm of Schiff Hardin LLP. Noll counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property focusing primarily on patents. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, the Seventh Circuit, the Eighth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit, as well as the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, including the Trial Bar. Noll is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Claims Court and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Noll is also registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Vandy Johnson was named Vice President, Global IT Infrastructure in January 2007. He has responsibility for leading the development, implementation and support of a global IT infrastructure that will help support and sustain Medtronic’s business strategy.  Mr. Johnson is also a member of Medtronic’s Global Technology Council. Mr. Johnson joined Medtronic from General Mills, Inc. where he held numerous roles of increasing responsibility in IT, most recently as the Senior Director, Information Systems Operations.

Dave Pahl has been with Texas Instruments Semiconductor division in Dallas since 1986 working in Field Applications Engineering. He was in initially stationed in San Jose, California, where he worked in Technical Sales and Sales Management for over seven years. He then worked in Dallas and Houston in various Marketing management positions before transitioning into an IC development management role. Most recently, Dave is managing TI's Imaging products division.

Mr. Colucci is President of Automotive Fuels Consulting, Inc., providing consulting services related to automotive fuels. He was Executive Director, Materials Research at GM. Prior to that he had been Department Head, Fuels and Lubricants leading GM's efforts to improve commercial fuel and lubricant quality for better vehicle performance and reduced vehicle emissions. In December 2001, he received the SAE's Edward N. Cole Award for Automotive Engineering Innovation.

Dr. Foster is president and principal engineer of BBF Engineering Services, PC, specializing in road- and bridge-related construction engineering, traffic and transportation engineering, utility and permit coordination and project management. BBF was profiled in Black Enterprise magazine and in Essence magazine and has been highlighted in Michigan Contractor and Builder magazine, Jet magazine and the Detroit Free Press. Dr. Foster has delivered commencement addresses at the engineering schools of the University of Notre Dame and Wayne State University. She has also authored a book titled For Love and Money: Seven Guidelines for Achieving Success in Your Home and Business.

Mr. Gentile joined Diamond Shamrock Corporation in 1966 and in 1973 was asked to head the Computer Automation Group. In 1977 he was appointed Manager of Planning. In 1982 Joe joined Amoco Corporation as Manager of Telecommunication Planning. He retired from Amoco (now BP) in February 2000. In April 2000, he co-founded Sagitta Technology Partners, Inc.

Mr. Deepak M. Advani
Computer Science 1986

Mr. Advani is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Lenovo, and was Vice President, Marketing and Strategy of IBM’s Personal Computing Division. He was responsible for running the High End Intel Server business for IBM and was also a member of the Senior Leadership Team which is comprised of the top 300 worldwide executives within IBM. Previously, Mr. Advani was the Director of the Scalable Parallel (SP) system software development organization.

Mr. Nathan is currently employed with Lear Corporation, a fortune 500 company that provides Automotive OEMs world wide with total interior solutions.  He has been in the automotive industry for the past 12 years and employed with Lear Corporation for the past 11 years. John has been awarded or is pending award of approximately 22 plus patents for new innovations. In addition, John enjoys supporting the Southfield High School Students each year during the annual First Robotics National Competition.

Mr. Green is working on advanced military inlet and exhaust systems. He also serves as the campus recruit leader for MSU at GE, completed the Edison Engineering Development Program in 2002, and worked as an Aeromechanics Engineer before moving to Aircraft Engines.  Brian is currently enrolled in the mechanical engineering doctoral program at The Ohio State University.