College of Business Hall of Fame
2022 Alumni Inductees
From senior-level executives at top corporations to highly successful entrepreneurs, we are proud to welcome our 2019-2020 College of Business Hall of Fame inductees back to Illinois State University to interact with students, faculty, alumni and industry partners. Their accomplishments and commitment to excellence not only reflect their professional dedication and service to others, but also add value to our programs and the Illinois State brand for all of our graduates. For past inductees into the Alumni Hall of Fame and Service Hall of Fame [Read More...]
Holding this induction ceremony and luncheon during Business Week provides students, faculty, and other alumni the chance to interact with the inductees and learn from their experiences.
Glenn Bailey | ’67
Retired University Professor - Illinois State University
Glenn Bailey first came to Illinois State University in the 1960’s, graduating with a degree in Business Education in 1967. He also completed his master’s degree at Illinois State in 1970 while teaching at Erie Community High school in northwestern Illinois. After completing his master’s degree, he began teaching part time at Black Hawk (community) College in Moline while still teaching at the high school. This experience helped open the door to his next teaching position at Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon, Illinois. The greatest gratification from this position was helping provide career skills for those who had not yet entered the workforce and for those who needed additional skills to continue in the workforce. During the 25 years that he taught at Sauk Valley, he completed his specialist and doctoral degrees in business education at Northern Illinois University.
When Dr. Bailey retired from Sauk Valley in May, 2000, he and his wife returned to Normal, her hometown, for their retirement. However, he says he flunked retirement and began teaching at Illinois State the following August. He had hoped to stay at ISU for ten years, but he retired the second time after fourteen years. He became a tenure track professor and coordinator for the Business Education program at ISU during that time.
Dr. Bailey has been very active in professional associations by serving in many positions on their boards of directors. He also received the Illinois Business Education Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award as well as the Illinois Business Education Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor that organization grants. In addition, he received the Illinois Association of Career and Technical Education Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award and served as the National President of the Association for Research in Business Education.
Dr. Bailey is extremely appreciative of the opportunities the State of Illinois has provided him, both for the outstanding institutions where he attended as a student and for the teaching opportunities he has had. The Baileys have established endowed scholarships for students at both Sauk Valley Community College and Illinois State University. Dr. and Mrs. Bailey are enjoying retirement and being able to spend more time with their three children and five grandchildren. He enjoys working outdoors, walking, and bicycling and volunteers at the ISU Horticulture Center and Forward Paths, a foundation in Leesburg, Florida, that helps young people who have aged out of the foster care system.
Jaime Flores | ’80
Owner - Tamale Hut Cafe
Jaime Flores is a 1980 business marketing major. As a student he was President of the Association of Latin American Student. After graduation he became Director of the Cermak Rd. Chamber of Commerce unfolding economic development programs. He also joined the University admissions staff where he was an invaluable resource for minority students. He started the Hispanics in the 80’s program series before moving on to INROADS, INC.
For to decades Flores worked as a human resources consultant and manager for the non profit organization - INROADS, INC. that matched talented minority candidates with major employers. He helped shape the future of students through professional development and internships with Fortune 1000 organizations.
Today owner of the Tamale Hut Cafe’ since 2006, Flores uses his business to showcase local authors, artists, comics, musicians, and hosts non-profit organization. His business has hosted a variety of ISU student and alumni events over the years.
His community service includes work with the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, Goodwill Industries, Berwyn City of Homes, and Berwyn Ethics Commission. He served a decade on the ISU’s Board of Trustees.
Flores continues his strong ties to the University as an active and proud alum who encourages and mentors students. He worked to help create the University’s Latinx Alumni Network (LAN) and served as its first President. He assisted in the formation of the Nuestros Logros Graduation Program.
Jaime and Lizet are proud to announce the creation of the Jaime and Lizet Flores scholarship Endowment Fund. The endowment will give preference to ISU Hispanic Business majors and work with the Latinx Alumni Network in identifying and selection of students.
He and his wife Lizet are parents of two daughters Elizabeth and Helen.
Constance Gully ’86
President and Chief Executive Officer, Parents as Teachers National Center
Constance Gully is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Parents as Teachers National Center, a leading parent education and early childhood professional development organization serving professionals that work annually with families in all 50 states, 115 tribal communities, and seven other countries. Parents as Teachers works in partnership with child and family serving organizations to improve early development, learning and health outcomes for families.
Parents as Teachers transforms the science of home visiting, early development and family engagement into real life resources and tools for professionals that help parents, focusing on the earliest years of life because those years hold the most vulnerability and opportunity.
The Parents as Teachers evidence-based model is supported by 35 plus years of evidence of effectiveness in: early detection of delays and health issues; increased child cognition, language, and executive functions; increased parenting knowledge and practice; increased school readiness and success; and reduced child maltreatment.
In response to COVID-19, Parents as Teachers leads the Rapid Response Virtual Home Visiting collaborative (RR-VHV) in collaboration with the Institute for Family Support Professionals and the National Alliance of Home Visiting Models. RR-VHV provides best practice principles and strategies to support all home visiting professionals in maintaining meaningful connection with families during this time of increased anxiety and need.
Through collaboration, the RR-VHV is leveraging the extensive resources and expertise that exists across home visiting organizations to support the development and distribution of cross model, cross system approaches and guidance.
Prior to joining Parents as Teachers, Constance practiced public accounting for 10 years and later held several leadership roles over a 16-year period at Harris Stowe University in St. Louis, MO, including interim President and Executive Vice President for business and financial affairs. Constance is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with a Master of Business Administration from Lindenwood University, and Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Illinois State University.
A former Parents as Teachers parent herself, Constance is the proud mother of Nicholas Bowman and wife of Andre’ Gully.
Andy LaFrence ’84
Board Director and Chief Financial Officer - Vyant
Andy LaFrence attended Normal Community High School and did not venture far to attend Illinois State University where he earned a BS in Accounting and minor in Business Administration. Mr. LaFrence has 37 years of financial and operational experience serving public and private companies as a CFO, COO and a big four audit partner.
Mr. LaFrence was an audit partner at KPMG where he fostered early-stage medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Mr. LaFrence has serviced CFO of CNS Therapeutics, a venture backed drug company that was sold to Mallinckrodt for $100 million. He then joined Surmodics (NASDAQ:SRDX) and served as CFO as well as operational positions. Thereafter, CFO of Biothera Pharmaceuticals and more recently CFO and COO of StemoniX, Inc., which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vyant Bio.
Mr. LaFrence is currently CFO of Vyant Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: VYNT), a newly minted public company focusing on the transformation of pre-clinical drug discovery with the integration of human biology, derived from Nobel Prize winning induced pluripotent stem cell technology to create miniature brains, hearts and pancreases, with machine learning, augmented and artificial intelligence. The integration of human biology and technology derives a more effective and efficient process to identify human toxicity and efficacy from new or repurposed drugs to treat disease prior to entering human clinical trials. Mr. LaFrence is responsible for finance, investor relations, risk management, regulatory, compliance, tax, human resources and information technology.
Mr. LaFrence has a long history of corporate governance serving on over a dozen for profit and non-for-profit boards. He currently is the Audit Committee Chair and Board Member at American National Bank (Omaha, NE), Insitu Biologics and the University Enterprise Lab, a biotech incubator. Andy and his wife Kim live in Grant, Minnesota and enjoy traveling, skiing, boating and spending time with their family, including their 6 boys and their significant others, and friends as well as more recently learning to ice skate.
Jim Riggs ’68 | ‘80 MBA
Vice President (Retired), ITC
Jim started his career at Jostens, a manufacturer of Jewelry for both educational institutions and for corporations who wanted to recognize employee achievements. While at Jostens, Jim learned manufacturing operations through positions in Industrial Engineering, Production Control Management and Accounting Management. Jim decided to return to Illinois State University to enroll in their MBA program.
He was employed by International Tapetronics Corporation, a local Bloomington manufacturing company that designed, manufactured, and sold professional tape-recording equipment to the broadcast industry. Jim held positions of Production Manager, General Manager, Vice-President of Manufacturing and ultimately Vice-President of Finance. Jim was elected to ITC’s Board of Directors.
Jim developed collaborative relationships with his ISU professors. As outside consultants, a finance professor provided an independent valuation of ITC before being sold to 3M Corporation. Another professor provided statistical data to streamline production of the many models of equipment manufactured. He worked with the Illinois State University Technology center and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community affairs to expand manufacturing operations and bring tape cartridge production to ITC/3M.
On the entrepreneurial side Jim and wife Deb invested in real estate rental properties in Bloomington, Illinois and St. Augustine Florida. He was also involved in the startup of both a manufacturing company and retail computer company.
In 1984 Jim and Deb moved to Florida where he held positions of controller, CFO, and CEO of three different manufacturing companies before retiring in 2008.
Jim and Deb remain in touch with Illinois State University and return annually to attend alumni and sporting events. Their greatest satisfaction has been the ability to give back to Illinois State University through the establishment of endowed scholarships.