IU College of Arts and Sciences announces 2017 alumni and faculty honorees
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The CEO of CareerBuilder, a decorated economist and strategist, and a prominent university chancellor are among the recipients of the Indiana University Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ 2017 alumni and faculty awards. This year’s recipients will be honored at a dinner and ceremony Friday, March 3, in Bloomington.
“Our award recipients are truly a remarkable group of people,” said Larry Singell, executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “They boast a stunning range of experiences and expertise, and their achievements are both inspiring and instructive. Their accomplishments are a testament to the value and applicability of a liberal arts education, and we’re immensely proud of the example they set for our current students.”
For 41 years, the College of Arts and Sciences has celebrated its alumni and faculty annually with three distinct awards: The Distinguished Alumni Award, the Outstanding Young Alumni Award and the Distinguished Faculty Award. Last year, the College introduced the Old Crescent Award, an honor commending exceptional acts of philanthropy.
The College will host its annual awards dinner March 3 in the Indiana Memorial Union. Attended by more than 200 alumni, faculty, students and friends of the College, the dinner will feature a panel discussion between Singell and the award recipients, and it will offer a unique opportunity for guests to meet and network with the honorees.
This year’s recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award are:
- Matt Ferguson (B.A. ’89) of Alpharetta, Georgia, the CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of "The Talent Equation."
- Kumble R. Subbaswamy (Ph.D. ’76) of Amherst, Massachusetts, the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts’ flagship campus in Amherst and the former dean of IU Bloomington’s College of Arts and Sciences.
The recipient of this year’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award is Rebecca Homkes (B.A./B.S. ’05) of London. Homkes is a teaching fellow/adjunct professor in the London Business School, the director of the London-based Ashridge Strategic Management Centre, co-founder of Next Wave Innovation, and the founder and director of 21st Century Strategy, a boutique consultancy firm.
This year’s Distinguished Faculty Award recipient is George Pinney of Bloomington, a professor of musical theater in the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance. An Emmy Award winner, Pinney has directed and choreographed for Broadway, the West End of London and more than 100 university productions.
The 2017 recipients of the Old Crescent Award are:
- William M. Goodwin (B.A. ’61) of Carmel, Indiana. For nearly 20 years, Goodwin has given back to the Department of Germanic Studies on an annual basis, contributing heavily to an unrestricted fund that supports the department as a whole and its students and faculty.
- Allen R. Siedle (Ph.D. ’73) of Bloomington. An adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry, Siedle has supported chemistry at IU for decades, funding undergraduate scholarships, a research fund, a distinguished lecture series and an endowed chair in inorganic chemistry.
The College of Arts and Sciences’ awards dinner is open to the public. The cost is $40 per person for members of the IU Alumni Association and $55 per person for general admittance. Reservations are required and must be made by Wednesday, March 1.
More about those being honored:
Matt Ferguson
Matt Ferguson is the CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of The Talent Equation. Ferguson has transformed CareerBuilder into a world-class organization that has revolutionized recruitment and job searching with the convergence of advertising, software and data. He has taken CareerBuilder beyond operating the largest jobs board in the U.S. to a global company that offers labor market intelligence, talent management software and other recruitment solutions. He has served as CEO of the company since 2004.
Working with top employers in more than 60 markets worldwide, Ferguson is often called upon to provide insights on the labor market, as well as job search and workplace trends. He has appeared on CNBC, ABC, CBS, Bloomberg TV, "Today," Fox News and CNN, among others. A 1989 graduate of IU, Ferguson earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a law degree from Northwestern University.
Kumble R. Subbaswamy
Kumble R. Subbaswamy is chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has previously served in a range of higher-education administrative positions, including time as dean of arts and sciences at the University of Miami, provost at the University of Kentucky, and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. At IU, Subbaswamy oversaw the development of many new programs and a reinvestment in the life sciences. He was active in the Big Ten's Committee for Institutional Cooperation and served as a coordinator of the Association of American Universities Arts and Sciences Deans’ group.
In his role as chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Subbaswamy has overseen a variety of major initiatives, including the establishment of the university’s Institute for Applied Life Sciences. He also serves on the boards of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts, Five Colleges Inc. and Cooley Dickinson Health Care. A 1976 graduate of IU, Subbaswamy earned his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed matter physics and has published widely on nonlinear excitations and the optical properties of novel materials.
Rebecca Homkes
Rebecca Homkes is the director of 21st Century Strategy, a boutique consultancy firm, where she works with CEOs and executive teams of top global companies and fast-growing enterprises on developing and executing strategies for growth, especially when facing extreme uncertainty. Homkes is also a teaching fellow at the London Business School’s Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship.
A fellow at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance and a director at the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre, Homkes is also a co-founder of corporate innovation consultancy Next Wave Innovation and a board member and mentor at GrowthX and the Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate. A 2005 graduate of IU, Homkes earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and her Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with majors in finance, accounting and international studies. A Marshall Scholar, Homkes earned her Ph.D. and M.Sc. in international economy from the London School of Economics and was an Indiana University Herman B Wells Scholar in 2005.
George Pinney
George Pinney is a professor and former head of the B.F.A. in musical theater in the Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance. Nominated for a Tony Award and a National Broadway Theatre Award in choreography, he received an Emmy Award for outstanding choreography for the PBS broadcast of "Blast!" He has directed or choreographed for Broadway, the West End of London, national and international tours, regional theaters and more than 100 university productions. At IU, Pinney developed Premiere Musicals: Developing Musical Theatre at Indiana University, a program that brings in equity actors to mix with student actors in workshopping new musicals, giving lyricists, composers and librettists the chance to develop their work in a laboratory setting.
Recognized as a master teacher, Pinney has been awarded IU’s Herman Frederic Lieber Award for distinguished teaching, five IU Board of Trustees Awards for excellence in teaching and membership in the Faculty Colloquium of Excellence in Teaching. His former students' accomplishments include more than 40 Broadway productions, 35 national and international tours, regional theater productions from coast to coast, as well as myriad roles in television and film.
William M. Goodwin
William M. Goodwin previously served in a range of executive roles at Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc., including controller, secretary-treasurer, chief financial officer and vice president. He was responsible for the awarding of grants totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Goodwin retired in 2007 as vice president of community development. An avid philanthropist and community volunteer, Goodwin was one of the founders of the Indiana Sports Corp., an organization that has brought hundreds of national amateur athletic events to Indianapolis. He also served as treasurer of the organization and as treasurer of the National Sports Festival and the Pan-American Games when the latter came to Indianapolis.
Before his time with Lilly Endowment, Goodwin worked as an auditor with major client responsibilities at Ernst and Young, and served as a liaison officer for the U.S. Army Intelligence and Counterintelligence School in Berchtesgaden, Germany. A 1961 graduate of IU, Goodwin earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in German and later earned his MBA from the Kelley School of Business.
Allen R. Siedle
Allen R. Siedle is an adjunct professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry. He previously served as a senior chemist and senior research scientist at 3M Central Research Laboratories in St. Paul, Minn. During his tenure at 3M, he continued participating in Department of Chemistry activities at IU, serving as a visiting industrial professor for 20 years. He remains actively involved in the department, collaborating with his colleagues, mentoring students, attending seminars, and generating patent-level science. A distinguished lecture is held annually in honor of his father, Raymond Siedle, who encouraged Allen to earn his Ph.D.
A 1973 graduate, Siedle received his Ph.D. in chemistry from IU. He has written more than 40 patents, has authored more than 130 research papers, and is considered one of the leading experts in polymer inorganic science. In 2000, Siedle received the University Graduate School's Distinguished Alumni Award.
Related Links
Media Contacts
Raymond Fleischman
Assistant director of advancement communications
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Office 812-855-7930
- rfleisch@indiana.edu