Michigan Tech Alumni Association

He began his career as a process engineer at a refinery owned by Creole Petroleum Corporation, a subsidiary of Exxon, and he quickly moved into management. After the Venezuelan petroleum industry was nationalized, he worked in many technical and managerial positions for the state-owned oil company, Petroleum of Venezuela, which owns CITGO Petroleum.

One of the most recognizable mottos in the world was coined not by a copywriter but by an engineer. Ford Motor Company's "Quality Is Job One" was a slogan and a corporate touchstone for seventeen years, practically forever in the short-attention-span world of marketing. It originated with one man's obsession with making everything better.

Octave Du Temple, a native of the Copper Country, received bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from Michigan Tech in 1948 and 1949. His studies were interrupted by military service during World War II, when he taught flying and navigation. He also studied at Northwestern University, where he earned a master's degree in business administration in 1955.

Richard Robbins graduated from Michigan Tech in 1956 with a degree in mechanical engineering and has since become an international leader in tunneling machine technology. Under his leadership from 1958 to 1993, The Robbins Company set records in tunnel boring technology, from mining applications to the boring of three large tunnels under the English Channel.

John Soyring provides global business leadership for a multi-billion dollar annual revenue portion of the IBM software business. This role includes functional leadership for strategy, research & development, marketing & sales, business development, product support, and services related to the IBM offerings...