The West Virginia University College of Business and Economics will induct four exceptional graduates into the renowned B&E Roll of Distinguished Alumni at the end of September. An induction ceremony and luncheon will be held during WVU Homecoming Weekend Friday, September 30, at 11:30 a.m. at the Erickson Alumni Center in Morgantown.

This year’s inductees will include Russell Bunio, retired vice president and general manager of Supply Management and Procurement at Boeing, Camano Island, Washington; J. Thomas Jones, retired president and CEO of West Virginia United Health System, Morgantown, West Virginia; Don Parkinson, Secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Frankfort, Kentucky; and Robert Reynolds, president and CEO of Putnam Investments and president of Putnam Funds, Boston, Massachusetts.

“At the College of Business and Economics, we find it important to honor and recognize our graduates who have gone on to do extraordinary things in the business world,” Milan Puskar Dean Javier Reyes said. “The inductees of this year’s B&E Roll of Distinguished Alumni are highly accomplished and truly demonstrate what it means to be a Mountaineer. They serve as role models and inspiration for current B&E students. We are honored to be a part of their triumphant career paths.”

Bunio joined Boeing in February 1998 as vice president and general manager of supply chain management and procurement. Besides reengineering the entire procurement function, he was elected to the chair position for the Boeing Procurement Process Council, which coordinated purchases of $33 billion at 26 locations and required the management of 6,500 people. Bunio retired from Boeing in 2001. He then initiated Russell J. Bunio and Associates, a consulting group that focused on performance excellence and supply chain until 2015. After earning an economics degree from B&E in 1969, he began his career in 1970 at General Motors’ Inland Division facility in Dayton, Ohio. Bunio served in several facilities and divisions for GM until 1989, when he joined Cummins Engine Company as vice president of materials management. He currently serves as a board member of One by One, a nonprofit humanitarian group in Seattle, Washington, and the WVU Supply Chain Management Advisory Board at B&E. Bunio is also the author of The Graduate Handbook – You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.

J. Thomas Jones received an undergraduate degree in accounting from WVU in 1971 and a master’s in hospital administration from the University of Minnesota in 1973. He served as president and CEO of the West Virginia United Health System from 2002 until his retirement in 2014. During his tenure, the system became the state’s largest health system and grew from two to six hospitals, stretching from the Eastern Panhandle to Parkersburg. He also previously served as COO at Wheeling Hospital, CEO of St

Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington and CEO of the Genesis Hospital System in Huntington. He currently serves on the WVU Board of Governors and the boards of Arch Coal Inc. and City Holding Inc. Jones is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and has been recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Leaders in West Virginia by WV Executive Magazine, a Most Distinguished West Virginian by West Virginia’s Governor, received The Lornelle White Lifetime Achievement Award in Business from The State Journal and is a member of the West Virginia Business Hall of Fame.

Don Parkinson earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing in 1964 and his master’s degree from Stanford University in 1977. After graduation in 1964, he joined Procter and Gamble in sales, and then spent 11 years with General Motors in field management and marketing in several cities around the country, serving as advertising manager of Pontiac and then the national sales promotion manager. Parkinson was recruited to Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1980, where he served as Senior Vice President of Operations and then as the Senior Vice President of Franchising. Retiring in 2000, Parkinson briefly served as the Interim CEO of the Kentucky Center of the Arts and then as the liaison for the arts for the Mayor of Louisville. He was recalled to KFC in 2004 for two years as a consultant on various issues. For the next several years he focused on charitable boards, including the Jewish Hospital Healthcare System and the Heuser Hearing Institute. In December 2015, Parkinson joined the new government administration in the Commonwealth of Kentucky as Secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Robert Reynolds is president and CEO of Putnam Investments and president of the Putnam Funds. Building upon a distinguished 30-year career, he has revitalized Putnam through strong, sustained investment performance, new products designed for today’s market challenges and thought leadership on the future of retirement and workplace savings. In addition to his Putnam responsibilities, Reynolds is president and CEO of Great-West Financial, one of the nation’s top providers of retirement savings products and services, life insurance, annuities and executive benefits products. Prior to joining Putnam in 2008, Reynolds was vice chairman and COO of Fidelity Investments. He currently serves on several not-for-profit boards, including the West Virginia University Foundation, Concord Museum and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Reynolds earned a B.S. in Business Administration, Finance from WVU, where he also received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration. In addition, Reynolds is a recipient of the Boston College President’s Medal of Excellence and the Manhattan College De La Salle Medal.

This is the sixth class to be inducted into the B&E Roll of Distinguished Alumni, with a total of 26 inductees to date. The award was initiated in 2011 to commemorate B&E’s 60th Anniversary Celebration.

Nominees must meet specific criteria: in addition to being alumni of the College, they must be at least 10 years post-degree, and have distinguished themselves by success

in business or life at the regional, national or international level. Inductees are representative of the tremendous successes of B&E’s graduates.

B&E is also now accepting nominations for the 2017 Roll of Distinguished Alumni. To nominate an alumnus that meets the selection criteria, please send his or her name, a brief bio describing his or her accomplishments and contact information to bealumni@mail.wvu.edu.

For more on the B&E Roll of Distinguished Alumni and to view current and past inductees, please visit http://be.wvu.edu/distinguished_alumni/index.htm. For further information on the WVU College of Business and Economics, follow B&E on Twitter at @wvucobe or visit be.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

bd/09/20/16

CONTACT: Patrick Gregg, WVU College of Business and Economics
304.293.5131, patrick.gregg@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.