Thompson excited to support students

Rosalind Thompson launched a successful consulting company almost three years ago, and this fall she will teach business students how to do the same as the new Goodyear Executive Professor.

According to the university’s Web site, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company established the Goodyear Executive Professorship at Kent State’s College of Business Administration in 1973. The program provides a bridge between academic and business communities.

Thompson said she heard of the position opening from a colleague of hers and thought right away the job had been designed just for her.

“I read the description and was very excited about the possibility,” she said. “I love working with students and helping them set or achieve their goals.”

Thompson said approximately every two years an experienced, non-academic corporate executive is hired to prepare students for the “real world” through business-oriented lectures and programs at Kent State.

“My plan is to take the best of what other GEP’s before me have done and add my own twists, interests and personality to it to ensure an engaging, authentic learning experience for my students,” Thompson said.

Thompson’s work doesn’t stop at teaching. She will be planning and coordinating the Pilliod Lecture Series, which addresses topics of interest and importance to both the academic and business communities, according to Kent State’s Web site.

The lecture series brings distinguished business speakers to the university twice each year. It is named for Charles J. Pilliod, the retired chairman and CEO of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

Stephen Colecchi, president and CEO of Robinson Memorial Hospital, is the most recent Pilliod guest speaker. He visited Kent State in February to discuss the future of health care in a speech he titled, “Our Health Care Economy: A Bright Spot in Northeast Ohio’s Future.”

At Orange Hill Associates, the consulting company that Thompson launched almost three years ago, she helps clients strategize and implement plans for their companies. She said she also does quite a bit of leadership development, training and coaching. Prior to forming her consulting business, she was the executive vice president for human resources at Jo-Ann Stores, Inc. in Hudson, Ohio, for 13 years.

Thompson has a bachelor’s degree from Carroll College in Wisconsin and said she has more than 30 years of experience in multi-billion dollar companies. She will start as the new Goodyear Executive Professor for the fall semester while keeping up with her career in the business world.

“(In the future,) I will continue working in business, teaching and training in some capacity as long as I can,” she said. ” I love what I do.”

Contact College of Business Administration reporter Rebekah Maple at [email protected].