The University of Northern Iowa College of Business has a long tradition of exceptional preparation of sales professionals, and the newly established UNI Center for Professional Sales Excellence extends that impact on current students and offers comparable value to businesses across Iowa.  Featuring a dedicated space for sales development activities, student internship opportunities, and recruiting events, the UNI Sales Center will allow students to build skills, earn badges and certificates that showcase their professional sales capabilities, and build relationships with potential employers. 

The University of Northern Iowa holds a special place in the hearts’ of Rod and Heidi Foster. Rod started his long career in accounting because of his education at the College of Business. UNI is also where he met his wife, Heidi, a graduate of the chemistry program. They now have two grown sons—one of which is also a UNI graduate. Because of their UNI experience, Rod and Heidi both feel the need to give back to the university and repay it for giving them the tools and experiences to be successful in business and life.

George Graham Rice? Never heard of him. Who is he? A century ago, though, he was a famous flamboyant scammer, a pied-piper of stock manipulation.

While incarcerated for the third or fourth time, he wrote a series of periodical articles that eventually coalesced into a book. As with other scammers, Rice was brazen, even boastful about his felonious escapades. He wryly entitled his book My Adventures with Your Money.

Tim Lindquist began painting when he was just a teenager. A friend invited him over to learn how to create a dog on canvas, and Lindquist was hooked. He asked for paints that Christmas and considered majoring in art at college. But he chose accounting instead, becoming an educator and professor at the College of Business.

Most of my readers are familiar with small towns in Iowa that have longstanding family-owned businesses, such as family eateries. Grandparents, parents, and children may own and work in these restaurants. They often have loyal employees that are “part of the family.” These owners may be unable to afford to pay their workers much more than $10 per hour, to say nothing of the proposed $15 per hour minimum wage.

After months of dreary experimentation in her basement, Dr. von Frankenstein, PhD, has concocted an effective antidote and vaccine for a deadly virus sweeping the United States. She files and receives a patent for her discovery.