Pitt's Business School Honors Five Community Leaders at 45th Annual Business Alumni Association Awards May 14

PITTSBURGH-In recognition of their commitment to the University of Pittsburgh and contributions to the community, Pitt's Joseph M. Katz School of Business and College of Business Administration will honor five individuals and one corporation at the 45th Annual Business Alumni Association Awards Program at 6 p.m. May 14 at the Senator John Heinz History Center and Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, 1212 Smallman St., Strip District.

Bill Flanagan, executive vice president of corporate relations for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and host of "Our Region's Business," will serve as Master of Ceremonies. The event will begin with a catered reception, followed by an awards ceremony from 7 to 8: 30 p.m.; it will conclude with tours of the Heinz History Center and Sports Museum.

The 2009 honorees are Distinguished Service Award winner Kazunobu Nakao, owner of Nakao International Human Resource Consulting; H.J. Zoffer Medal for Meritorious Service Award winner Sy Holzer, president of PNC Bank; Distinguished Alumni Award winners Andrew Hannah, president and CEO of Plextronics Inc., Jeff Kelly, president and CEO of Hamill Manufacturing Company, and Delena Spencer, vice president and controller of the High Volume Analog and Logic Division of Texas Instruments Inc. (TI). The Corporate Appreciation Award will be presented to the Pittsburgh branch of Deloitte LLP, a professional services organization that provides services related to audit and enterprise risk, tax, consulting, and financial advisory.

Brief biographies of the honorees follow.

Nakao earned an MBA at Pitt in 1994. He serves on the Pitt Business Alumni's Board of Directors and is the representative for the Katz Alumni Network in Japan. He is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, the Garden State Business Network, and the Japanese-American Society of New Jersey. In 2004, after more than 15 years in the Human Resources industry, Nakao launched Nakao International Human Resource Consulting, a Fort Lee, N.J.-based firm that provides human resource consultation for Japanese companies operating within the United States.

Holzer is a 1984 graduate of the Katz School's Management Program for Executives. A member of Pitt's Board of Trustees, he serves on the board's Health Sciences, Nominating, and Property and Facilities committees. He is chair of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Council and a member of the Katz School's Board of Visitors, Pitt's School of Pharmacy Board of Visitors, and the Children's Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees. Active in the banking industry for more than 35 years, Holzer was named president of PNC Bank in 1997.

Hannah earned an MBA at Pitt in 1992. He is a board member of the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercializations Center, Etcetera Edutainment, and the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance as well as a member of the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) Solar Technology Review. Under Hannah's leadership, Plextronics Inc., an international printed electronics company, has won numerous honors and distinctions, including the "Pittsburgh Business Times" #1 fastest-growing manufacturing company in Pittsburgh and the U.S. Department of Energy's 2007 Energy Innovator Award. Hannah was named the IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA Champion for his outstanding contributions to the printed electronics industry.

Kelly earned an MBA at Pitt in 1976. He is the president of the Board of Career Connections Charter High School in Lawrenceville and serves on the boards of the Dynamic Supply Network (DSN) Innovations, the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, and Serra Catholic High School. He is the immediate past chair of the Westmoreland-Fayette Workforce Investment Board and also has served as chair of the Westmoreland County School-to-Work Partnership from 1996 to 2000 and the National Tooling & Machining Association in 2007. Kelly has served Hamill Manufacturing-a machining and fabricating operation serving the defense, power generation, and aerospace industries-for more than 30 years.

Spencer earned an MBA at Pitt in 1992. She is a diversity advocate and has been instrumental in driving initiatives throughout Texas Instruments and across Texas, including the Women of TI Fund, which was created to close gender gaps in technology-based professions. She serves on the board of directors of The Women's Museum and the Women's Issue Network and is a member of Leadership Texas and the International Women's Forum Fellows Program. Spencer has been with TI in various capacities since 1992.

Deloitte is one of the world's leading accounting and consulting organizations, with more than 35,000 employees working from more than 90 offices across the United States. The 2009 Corporate Appreciation Award will be accepted by Robert C. Denove, who is managing partner of Deloitte's Pittsburgh office.

###

5/11/09/amm