Don Bibeault ’63Pavlos Karakoltsidis, M.S. ’74, Ph.D. ’81Cheryl Chadwick ’85Rich Brown ’84 & Mitch Diana ’84Chris Hitchener ’00Class Acts Profiles
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Diane and Bob Smith ’50
Bob and Diane Smith met as students at Rhode Island State College right after Bob returned from serving with the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Bob is now retired from a career with the family business, the Fred W. Smith Dodge/Chrysler dealership in Wakefield, R.I. Diane is also retired after many years working in a local real estate title company and law office.
The Smiths share a passion for local history. Bob collects vintage automobiles, and together the Smiths own and operate Carpenter’s Grist Mill on Moonstone Beach Road in Perryville, the only water-powered mill still in operation in Rhode Island. The mill was built by Samuel E. Perry in 1703.
“When I was a boy,” says Bob, “I’d watch the miller grind corn for hours; it was my dream to own a grist mill.” That dream came true back in 1985 when the late Rowland Robinson decided to sell his grist mill provided that the grinding tradition was continued, especially the grinding of Rhode Island whitecap flint corn for johnnycakes. A promise was made and today the Smiths continue to grind and market the product as Carpenter’s Rhode Island Jonnycake Meal.
The Smiths offer tours that include demonstrations of the mill in action showing how water-power moves the two massive granite millstones to grind the corn; visitors are then treated to johnnycake. “We are fortunate to have a farmer who grows this special corn and to have friends and neighbors who love to help at the mill,” says Bob, adding that URI’s Plant Science Department has continued to encourage local farmers and gardeners to grow a special strain of flint corn developed at the University.
Rhode Island is famous for its jonnycakes, and nobody makes them like the Smiths. “Using the right corn is the secret,” says Bob with a smile. “The taste is in the whitecap flint.”
—Bob Gulla
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Don Bibeault ’63
Some folks have a tough time dealing with adversity. Don Bibeault thrives on it. As a “turnaround” professional, Bibeault specializes in turning distressed companies into profitable ones. “It’s a little like being a knight at King Arthur’s Round Table and coming in to save the fair maiden,” he says.
During his stellar career, the northern California-based executive has rescued many “maidens.” In fact, in the field of corporate turnarounds, he’s a nationally recognized leader. His 1982 book, Corporate Turnaround: How Managers Turn Losers Into Winners (McGraw-Hill), was a seminal work in defining the entire turnaround industry. But the book happened almost by accident. “I did all the wrong things to get it published,” he laughs. “I only sent out six copies of my Ph.D. dissertation, but I got four offers.”
His work earned him the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Turnaround Management Association in 2005. “It’s my calling,” says Bibeault. ”I am dedicated to making the turnaround industry more professional.”
Bibeault became involved in this kind of work through serendipity and his own proclivities. “I’d go into a company meeting and be appalled at the inefficiency. The only thing they could decide was when to have their next meeting!”
Since 1970, Bibeault has resuscitated dozens of troubled, profit-challenged companies, including Massey-Ferguson, a Canadian company with 75,000 employees. When he takes on a company rescue, Bibeault analyzes the company’s difficulties and takes measures, often drastic, to save it from extinction, or at least to add enough value to facilitate a sale.
“It requires the ability to move fast and decisively,” says Bibeault. “And the time you can move the fastest is when everyone’s sweating bullets and the place is in decline. Sometimes I feel like Gary Cooper in High Noon coming in to clean up a dirty town.”
—Bob Gulla
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB BIBEAULT
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Pavlos Karakoltsidis, M.S. ’74, Ph.D. ’81
A rising star in international academia, Pavlos Karakoltsidis is currently the vice president for academic affairs and president for the research committee of the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki (A-TEI) in Greece, a school with 30,000 students and 500 educational staff.
“I coordinate every national and international program from a financial standpoint,” he says. Since arriving at A-TEI, Pavlos’ career trajectory has been impressive. He has ascended from assistant professor to chair of the Department of Food Technology to his current position in just over a dozen years.
Professor Emeritus Spiros Constantinides, Karakoltsidis’ advisor during his graduate studies at URI and now a good friend, attests to his former student’s abilities: “He demonstrates an exceptional ability to teach and conduct research, and his presence in the laboratory makes you look forward to being there to happily pursue your research activities.”
Karakoltsidis research has been highly acclaimed in areas of food science and technology. He has published his findings in dozens of prominent journals on his way to becoming a foremost authority in the field. While he was in Rhode Island, a major part of his research centered on marine food technology. One paper he authored at the time, “Chemical Composition and Protein Quality of Some Southern New England Marine Species,” was published in The Journal of Food Science.
Karakoltsidis credits his URI experience with many aspects of his professional development, but one truly stands out. “The best lesson I learned in the States was to have confidence in my own knowledge,” he says. “Having this as a tool and as ammunition has allowed me to handle any difficult situation—at least so far!”
As a graduate student in Kingston, Karakoltsidis showed clear signs of leadership ability; that ability has surfaced in a big way in his native Greece—so much so that he is now a possible future president of Alexander Technological Educational Institute.
—Bob Gulla
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAVLOS KARAKOLTSIDIS
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Cheryl Chadwick ’85
Few companies in the world are as well branded as the BIC Corporation, a leading global manufacturer of pens, lighters, and consumer goods like shavers. This is product branding at its best. You know BIC’s color, orange; some of its ad slogans of years past, “Flick your BIC!”; and that odd mascot, the BIC Boy.
One of the leaders behind the company’s branding is Cheryl Chadwick, vice president and assistant general counsel for legal affairs in North America. Chadwick’s chief responsibility is to maintain BIC’s competitive advantage by protecting its patents and intellectual property.
“It’s a very fast-paced job,” she says. “We meet regularly with our clients, who are always launching new products, and we work closely with the marketing department to make sure we cover all the legal bases: trademarks, patents, contracts, and packaging issues.”
Because counterfeit products pose a real challenge to BIC, one of Chadwick’s responsibilities is to fight knock-offs. That’s why her legal expertise is so valuable.
Since the parent company is in France, Chadwick flies around the world, touching down in places in need of her guidance on patents and new product launches. “We launch new products all the time,” she says, mentioning “correction products” (Wite-Out®, Tipp-ex®) and shavers (BIC Soleil® Twilight®Shaver for Women with a lavender scented handle and a triple-blade). “In the last six years we have stepped up our new products, which requires us to be very involved in marketing and R&D.”
Chadwick, who also attended the Western New England School of Law, is currently firming up top-secret product launches for the 2008 school year. September is a busy time for the company’s stationery division, which typically introduces 10 to 15 products each year: “We’ve got different pens for different usages, and there are always new trends. Right now we’re working on emerging technologies in several product lines—it’s really exciting to see where the company’s headed.”
—Bob Gulla
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Rich Brown ’84 & Mitch Diana ’84
It’s a small world, after all—particularly when you’re from Rhode Island.
In September 2006, Richard “Rich” Brown Jr. ’84 was deployed with the Army. He reported to the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas, to begin training for a mission that would imbed him with Iraqi troops in Baghdad.
While on the flight from Kansas City to Fort Riley, Brown made small talk with his seatmate and quickly realized it was David “Mitch” Diana ’84, his former ROTC classmate.
“It was like old home week as we reminisced about where we had been,” Brown said by email. “We ended up as roommates during the training and deployed together, so the Rhody boys could talk about jonnycakes, quahogs, and Del’s Lemonade without boring our teammates.”
“It’s great to have an old friend to cover your back and for him to know his back is covered, too,” Diana said, also by email.
The two served on a Military Transition team (MiTT), a small group of soldiers who are imbedded with Iraqi forces, training them to secure their own country. The military—and politicians—view MiTT as the way out of Iraq.
Brown and Diana served in Baghdad from December 2006 to mid-November 2007.
“The Iraqis I met were brave and hard-working people who truly want this to work,” Brown said. “The average Iraqi displays extreme bravery in just going to work every day. All the Iraqis I worked with had family members or friends who had been kidnapped or killed. They understand risk more than we do, and they want to be free.”
Diana said 10 officers in the Iraqi Ground Forces Command were assassinated and another 20 were beaten and threatened with death if they returned to their jobs. They returned, willing to risk their lives for a chance at peace.
“We offered suggestions, but we didn’t solve it for them,” Diana said. “As Lawrence of Arabia said, ‘Better to let them do it imperfectly than to do it perfectly yourself, for it is their country, and your time is short.’”
—Liz Boardman
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Chris Hitchener ’00
When Chris Hitchener answered the phone in his office at Roger Williams Park Zoo, he was being pestered. But the source was not a boss or a colleague; it was Vincent, the zoo’s education Parma wallaby. “Vincent is one of the few endangered species in our education animal collection,” laughs Hitchener, brushing the six-pound marsupial off his leg. “He hangs out with me during the day; he needs to be around people in order to remain sociable.”
By title, Hitchener, 30, is the zoo’s early childhood program coordinator, but he’s much more than that. Not only does he work with kids at the zoo, he also serves as director of Zoo Camp on the Move, a summer community service program and outdoor adventure camp for young adults; and he is co-director of the zoo’s Roots and Shoots club, a community service program founded by renown Harvard zoologist Jane Goodall that runs during the school year.
“I’m what you’d call a conservation liaison,” he explains. “I teach the community about local and international conservation issues the zoo and other environmental organizations participate in.”
Hitchener’s focus is on educating kids both on and off zoo grounds, from environmental activism and exploring local wildlife habitats to working with scientists, conservationists, and environmentalists on special projects. “I have a real passion for the environment,” he says. “I love science, but I have a huge interest in outdoor leadership and connecting kids with that environment.”
Hitchener, who was raised in Warwick, R.I., began working for the zoo after graduating with a B.S. in zoology. In his spare time, he also assists in critical conservation projects, helping to bring species like the Karner blue butterfly and the American burying beetle back from the brink of extinction.
“It’s great to be working with people who are doing really important science,” he says. “They’re the real heroes. Around them, I feel like I’m still in the student phase. Maybe someday I’ll be one of those people myself.”
—Bob Gulla
