It's not every day that a native
Nebraskan has a cargo ship named after him. Yet that's exactly what happened to
UNO alumnus Herb Sklenar.
On Oct. 5
the Vulcan Materials Co. christened the H.A. Sklenar in honor of the company's
former CEO.
Vulcan's
enormous ships carry crushed limestone for road beds from a Yucatan, Mexico,
quarry that produces 12 million tons per year to ports in Tampa, Fla., and
Mobile, Ala.
The
largest of Vulcan's ships, the 810-foot, $60 million H.A. Sklenar can carry
68,000 tons per load in its 2.6 million cubic feet of cargo space. A built-in
conveyor belt efficiently offloads the aggregate at port.
Vulcan
Materials Co., located in Birmingham, Ala., is a member of the S&P 500 and
is the nation's foremost producer of construction aggregates.
Sklenar
graduated with honors in 1952 from the business program at what was then Omaha
University after growing-up on a 32-acre farm outside Omaha.
He went
on to earn an MBA from Harvard University.
Vulcan recruited Sklenar as vice president of
finance in 1972. He rose quickly through the company ranks, becoming president
in 1983, CEO in 1986, chairman in 1992 and chairman emeritus upon retirement in
1997.
Named in
June 2007 as the third recipient of the Birmingham Business Journal's
"Best-in-Business Lifetime Achievement Award," Sklenar finds ways to extend
opportunities to others. He and his wife, Ellie, were the first to provide
full-ride scholarships to students enrolled in UNO's College of Business
Administration.
Congratulations,
Herb!
• UNO's MBA degree requires you
to individually conduct and document an in-depth analysis of a business of your
choice. Several of these cases have won national competitions and/or been
published. It's no wonder UNO MBAs are tops in strategy.
• UNO's
MBA degree provides the opportunity for a year-long course in Investment
Portfolio Analysis that involves hands-on management of a $2 million
fixed-income fund. The UNO MBA team qualified to compete internationally at
RISE (Redefining Investment Strategy Education), where UNO's MBA team placed
FIRST in Spring 2007.
• UNO's
MBA degree enables you to study with faculty who were previously in business or
government, who now serve on boards of directors of corporations and
not-for-profits, AND who earned doctorates in business.
• UNO's
MBA degree prepares you to make challenging business decisions. Graduating UNO
MBA students' overall scores are consistently in the top 5 percent nationally
on a comprehensive exam from ETS* on strategy, finance, accounting, marketing
and management. [*Educational Testing Service, publisher of the GRE (Graduate
Record Exam) and TOEFL.]
• UNO's
MBA degree is accredited by AACSB-International, the most rigorous graduate
business program accreditation—the gold standard. It means your degree will be
accepted and respected by every firm and organization, worldwide.
• UNO's
MBA program provides access to area business and community leaders through
CBA's Ron and Shirley Burns' MBA Leadership Speaker Series, and to other up-and-coming
leaders (your student colleagues), faculty and college deans during MBA
Association activities.
