The Olin School of Business honored four alumni and a St. Louis-based business at its 17th annual Distinguished Alumni Dinner recently at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis.
Olin School Dean Stuart I. Greenbaum, Ph.D., announced the honorees: alums F. Roger Dierberg, Theodore R.P. Martin, Ja Song and Norman J. Tice.
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. received the Dean’s Medal, awarded for exceptional dedication and service to the school.
Dierberg, vice chairman of Dierbergs Markets, earned a master of business administration degree in 1962. The business was founded near St. Louis by his grandfather in 1864 and has remained in the family for four generations.
While completing an M.B.A., he pursued a successful career as an engineer at McDonnell-Douglas — working at night — for five years. He credits his education from the Olin School as the foundation for the rest of his life.
In 1969, he joined his brother Bob in the family business. Today, the company has 19 locations in the St. Louis area and opened its first Illinois store this month.
Dierbergs is among the largest privately held companies in St. Louis and one of the top florists in the nation.
Martin is chairman emeritus of Colliers, Turley, Martin, Tucker — the dominant commercial real estate service firm in the central United States.
He earned a bachelor of science in business administration degree (B.S.B.A.) in 1949 and has been a leading figure in St. Louis real estate for 40 years. After following his father into the real estate business in 1950, he became a vice president of Stifel Realty before launching Martin and Associates in 1957.
In 1972, his company merged with the Turley Corp. and Westgate Management to become the biggest commercial and industrial real estate firm in the metropolitan area. He pioneered an in-house research division, which today is widely considered the leading source of information on real estate trends and properties in the Midwest.
Song is chief executive officer of Daekyo Co. Ltd. in Seoul, South Korea, that country’s leading educational information service provider.
He earned an M.B.A. in 1967 and was one of 15 students who first participated in an exchange program with the Olin School and Yonsei and Korea universities in 1958. He taught at the University of Connecticut, then returned to Korea’s Yonsei University in 1976 as a professor, and later became business school dean.
In 1992, he was named president of Yonsei University. Along with Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, he announced a student exchange agreement between Yonsei and the University in 1997.
He is a member of WUSTL’s International Advisory Council for Asia. He became president of Myong Ji University in 1997 and was named minister of education for South Korea in 2000.
Tice retired as chairman of two Boatmen’s Bancshares affiliates in 1969 and as chairman of the board of MasterCard International.
He earned a B.S.B.A. in 1987 and is one of the pioneers of the credit card industry. His career began with Boatmen’s upon graduation from the University.
In 1969, he was named president of City Bank of St. Louis, which was acquired by Charter Bancshares in 1983. In 1985, a merger with Boatmen’s brought Tice full circle.
As chairman of Boatmen’s Credit Card Bank, he was responsible for all credit card products and their delivery systems for Boatmen’s. He has been a dedicated supporter of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work for more than 20 years and serves on its national council.
Anheuser-Busch has played a key role in the Olin School’s transformation into one of the country’s leading centers of business education.
In 1989, the Anheuser-Busch Foundation established the August A. Busch Jr. Distinguished Professorship of Managerial Economics and Strategy, currently held by Jeroen Swinkels, Ph.D. A decade later, the foundation made a major gift to support executive education at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center.
In 2002, the Anheuser-Busch Foundation became one of two founding sponsors of the Olin School’s executive master of business administration program with Fudan University of Shanghai, China.