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By Liz Warren-Peterson, Eller College of Management
October 10, 2008

Stanford University Professor Donald Kennedy, editor-in-chief of Science magazine, delivered the keynote address at The University of Arizona's Technology & Management Awards Luncheon in Phoenix on Friday. The annual Technology and Management Awards Luncheon, or TMAL, recognized the competitive advantage resulting from collaboration between engineering and business.

Several individuals who have made significant contributions in business and technology, and who are the vanguard of this critical collaboration, were honored.

TMAL creates awareness in the business community of the collaborative courses and student-focused programs being pursued by the College of Engineering and the Eller College of Management at the UA. These efforts focus on moving knowledge and ideas rapidly from the University to the marketplace.

New this year was the Shaping the Future Award, which recognized the contributions of engineers and business executives whose work today will have a profound effect on the society of the future.

The awards were presented by UA President Robert N. Shelton; Paul Portney, dean of the UA Eller College of Management; and Thomas Peterson, dean of the UA College of Engineering.

In his address, titled "Science: What's New, What's Promising, What's Political," Kennedy discussed science from three points of view. The first – what's new – covered recent scientific discoveries that seem to have "interesting possibilities but...uncertain futures," Kennedy said. The second – what's promising – focused on health, energy and the environment. The third viewpoint – what's political – touched on areas in which new discoveries have generated controversy, and why.

2008 TMAL Award Recipients

Shaping the Future Award: Chris Lewicki (College of Engineering)

Chris Lewicki is manager of the Phoenix Mars Mission, the first mission in NASA's Scout program, which successfully put the Phoenix Mars Lander on Martian soil on Sunday, May 25, 2008. Lewicki graduated from The University of Arizona's College of Engineering in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, and again in 2000 with a master's degree in the same subject. In 2001, when he was a senior flight systems engineer at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Lewicki became flight director for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers Mission.

More than 4 years after landing on Mars in January 2004, the two rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – are still going strong. At that time, Lewicki likened the experience of landing a rover to driving a sports car, but modestly asserted that flight engineers were "valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team."

Shaping the Future Award: Roberto Guerrieri and Alicia Coleman (Eller College of Management)

Before founding Incentive Logic in 1998, Roberto Guerrieri held several leadership positions in Silicon Valley companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer. He cofounded UGIVE.com, which introduced the first eReward catalog service to the Internet. UGIVE.com later changed its name to Incentive Logic, which provides incentive management tools and services to increase customer loyalty, sales performance and employee productivity. In 2007 and 2008, the company was named on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest growing companies in America. Guerrieri holds an MBA from The University of Arizona's Eller College of Management.

Alicia Coleman also holds an MBA from Eller College, and has been a driving force in developing longstanding relationships with Incentive Logic clients since the firm's inception. As vice president of worldwide sales, she is responsible for $35 million in annual sales. Coleman has extensive knowledge of the loyalty incentive marketplace. She owned a reward catalog business in the 1990s and was the founder of Decoratours, a start-up that provides personalized, guided decorating tours of unique stores and shops.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Jay Geldmacher (Eller College of Management)

Under Jay Geldmacher's leadership, Emerson Network Power's Embedded Computing group has grown from $300 million to $2 billion in revenue, and is one of the world leaders of power conversion and computing products. The company, headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., currently employs more than 31,000 people and has operations on three continents. The globe-trotting Geldmacher – whoo travels bout 250,000 miles a year – is responsible for establishing the company's strategic direction, formulating international marketing and business development strategies, retooling operations to accelerate expansion and control costs, and leading an executive team with accountability for fulfilling the company's mission and business goals.

Before joining Emerson Network Power, Geldmacher was executive vice president of Knowles Electronics, a $200 million global electronics manufacturer. Before that, he was vice president and general manager of the $100 million Asia-Pacific division, during which time he was headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. He attended the UAa on a full basketball scholarship. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Eller College, and a master's in business administration from the University of Chicago.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Douglas Silver (College of Engineering)  

Douglas Silver has spent the last three decades dedicated to the international mineral industry. After obtaining a master's degree in economic geology in 1980 from the UA, he began his career as an exploration geologist with the Anaconda Copper Company. He also worked for Noranda and Bond International Gold. Silver quickly found that his personal interest lay in mineral property valuations. In 1986, he created a private consulting company, Balfour Holdings Inc., and spent more than 17 years advising clients on global mineral appraisals, acquisitions and mergers and strategic planning.

Silver suspended his consulting practice in 2003 to found International Royalty Corporation (IRC), a global mineral royalty company of which he is chairman and chief executive officer. IRC was the largest mining-related public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2005 and has since been listed on the American Stock Exchange. IRC's revenue has grown from $400,000 in 2005 to $50 million in 2007.