Business

Oct. 2 – 11 a.m. – Memorial Hall 230 & 240 – Moderator: Dr. Doug Leif, professor of business administration

Brad Borkhuis ’01 is the founding coach of Epitome Coaching & Consulting. As CEO at 24, tasked with turning around a business, he quickly learned the importance of values and integrity in business. As a head football coach, he applied his business concepts and personal philosophy to athletics and took a three-win team to back-to-back region championships. His experiences at BSU on the football field and in the classroom were his foundation. Today, using his experiences from business, coaching and physical challenges like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, he leads Epitome Coaching and Consulting teaching lessons of value-based living and success around the world.

Mary Beth Dondelinger ‘86 has served as Optum’s vice president of operational training since 2007, where she supports 20,000 clinicians, advocates and service agents in their health care support roles for UnitedHealth Group members. Dondelinger graduated from BSU with bachelor’s degrees in accounting and education, with minors in business and communications. After teaching post-secondary accounting, she began working as a corporate trainer at UnitedHealth Group in 1994. In 2014, her training organization was recognized by the International Standards Organization as achieving upper one-percent performance ranking worldwide.

Joseph Grabowski ’80 is CEO of Wenck Associates. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aquatic biology and a minor in chemistry at BSU before earning a master’s degree in water resources from the University of Wyoming. He did additional post-graduate course work in industrial hygiene and completed his mini-MBA though the University of St Thomas. Throughout his 34-year career, Grabowski has consulted in the engineering field specializing in the investigation and remediation of hazardous waste sites. He has co-authored peer–reviewed technical journal publications and lectured internationally. Grabowski was selected to receive a 2015 BSU Outstanding Alumni Award.

Bemidji-native John Kittleson ’87 graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and immediately went to work for Bituminous Roadways, Inc., a Twin Cities-based asphalt paving contracting company. He started as a marketing coordinator who also handled insurance claims, then grew into various roles including safety manager, estimator and project manager, division manager of a new start-up operation and vice president before assuming his current role as company president. Kittleson is a member of and involved with the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota, the Minnesota Asphalt Pavement Association, the National Asphalt Pavement Association, the Minnesota Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, and the Minnesota Surveyors and Engineers Society. In addition, he is a management trustee on the Minnesota Laborer’s Union Laborer-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust fund. He is a proud father of three, including daughter Lisa, now in her senior year at BSU.

Richard Siegert ’67 earned degrees in business administration and education at BSU. He began his career in public education in Wyandotte, Mich., but returned to Bemidji in 1971 to pursue a career in the lodging industry. During his 44 years in Bemidji, he has led and served the community through a variety of affiliations including Bemidji Chamber of Commerce, Bemidji Curling Club, First Lutheran Church Board, Beaver Pride, BSU Foundation Board, Bemidji Visitors & Convention Bureau Board (past president) and Bemidji Lions Club (past president), among others. He currently is co-chair of the Paul Bunyan Expressway Coalition.