East Campus restoration is topic of business breakfast

Bob Miller, Western Michigan University associate vice president for community outreach, will discuss East Campus restoration during the kickoff of the 2011-12 Keystone Community Bank Breakfast series on Friday, September 30.

Miller's talk, titled "Update on East Campus," begins at 8 a.m. in the Dean's Conference Room in Schneider Hall, home of the WMU Haworth College of Business. The event begins with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and is free and open to the public. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the College dean's office at (269) 387-6059. Parking is available in the nearby Fetzer Center parking lot.

Miller came to WMU in 1999 as associate vice president for community outreach. In that capacity, he focuses on developing WMU's Business Technology and Research Park on the Parkview Campus in Kalamazoo and on facilitating numerous services and outreach efforts in the local area and beyond. His duties include overseeing WMU's participation in various community-based projects, serving as the University's point person with Kalamazoo city and county officials, and providing staff support for the WMU Foundation.

Prior to coming to WMU, Miller held management positions with several local companies and was involved in the broadcasting industry for more than 20 years. He is a university alumnus who has worked with the WMU Alumni Association since graduating in 1972 and served as association president in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

Miller also is active in community affairs serving on the City of Kalamazoo’s Economic Development Corp., Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, and Local Development Finance Authority.   He is a director for the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce, Communities in Schools, Downtown Development Association, Downtown Tomorrow, Inc., Local Initiatives Support Corp., the Vine Neighborhood Association and MRC Industries. In addition, Miller is a member of the advisory council for the United States Tennis Association Boy's National Championships.

The Keystone Community Bank Breakfast Speaker Series is underwritten by Keystone Community Bank. The series provides an opportunity for the local community to hear top business leaders and WMU faculty, alumni and friends of the Haworth College of Business discuss current business related topics. 

Haworth College of Business welcomes new MBA outreach and recruitment directors

Roxanne Buhl

Alex Manga

The Haworth College of Business now has two new directors working to spur on recruitment and outreach efforts in the region for the MBA program.

Roxanne Buhl will serve as director of the MBA program for Grand Rapids, and Alex Manga will serve as director of the MBA program for Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. In the newly created positions, the directors will develop and implement strategies to increase outreach efforts in the recruitment of MBA students in both Grand Rapids and Battle Creek regional sites as well as on main campus in Kalamazoo.

Buhl will manage the outreach efforts of the Grand Rapids MBA program and will be physically located in the Grand Rapids regional site. She has over 17 years of business development, marketing and project management experience with non-profit, private, and publicly-traded organizations. Her background includes talent acquisition, job development and job resource consulting. She has developed and managed programs and services for organizations such as Steelcase Inc., the global leader in the office furniture industry; Whirlpool Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, and the State of Michigan.

Prior to joining WMU, Buhl was project coordinator for Davenport University’s Institute for Professional Excellence. She also held progressively responsible positions with Right Management, the world's largest talent and career management consulting firm. In previous positions, she consulted with and advised organizations on strategic business issues. She managed the marketing needs of 50 internal customers, in four regional locations, serving more than 700 client companies in addition to facilitating the introduction of Michigan's Talent Bank in West Michigan.

Buhl has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix and Master of Business Administration with a marketing concentration from WMU. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, the national scholastic honor society and Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business honor society.

Buhl is a Leadership Grand Rapids graduate. She is a mid-Michigan InForum council member, an active volunteer for WMU’s Grand Rapids MBA alumni and a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and the Association of Human Resource Managers.

Alex Manga will manage the outreach efforts of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo MBA programs and he will have offices at both the Battle Creek regional site and in Kalamazoo on the main campus at WMU.

Manga spent 20 years in the automotive and medical plastics industries for Milacron Inc. and its subsidiaries where he held positions in research and design, sales, business development and operations.

While there he received several sales and sales management awards for exceeding goals, new product development, patents and process improvement.

Manga has owned four businesses since 1999 including an e-commerce parts distribution company serving the motorcycle industry, a medical device manufacturing company, an athletic training academy and an Italian restaurant.

He has taught management courses at WMU since 2009. He earned his bachelor’s degree in student planned curriculum from WMU, his Master’s of Business Administration from WMU and is currently working on his doctorate in interdisciplinary evaluation also at WMU.