As a young engineer fresh out of Purdue and working in industry, it didn’t take William (Bill) Uhrig long to recognize the importance of financial considerations alongside engineering decisions. So, he left his job at Lockheed Martin, and within the course of two years, earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and joined Three Cities Research, Inc. (TCR), a private equity firm in New York City that he now owns. The firm has converted dozens of struggling companies into profitable, growing industry leaders, resulting in regional job growth and economic development.

Uhrig is practically a household name in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AAE). He established a $2 million endowment to name the school’s headship, which allows greater flexibility to respond to urgent needs created by the school’s growth spurt. His generosity helped start the AAE Teaching Fellows program that formalized how AAE identifies, trains and supports PhD students to become instructors. His support of the Elmer Bruhn Professorship, the first “Rising Star” professorship in AAE, has enabled the school to recruit and retain outstanding junior faculty. In addition, Uhrig’s $1.25 million lead gift established the Purdue UAS Research and Test (PURT) facility, the largest indoor facility in the world for flying unmanned aerial vehicles.

His philanthropy also has been felt at the College of Engineering level with his kick-off gift of $5 million to initiate Project Bridge, the goal of which is to attract and retain underrepresented minority students, award scholarships, and prepare students for success on and beyond the Purdue campus.

He was recently named as a Distinguished Engineering Alumni recipient for 2023.

Sirisha Bandla’s earliest childhood memories involve lying on the roof of her family’s home in India and staring at the night sky.

“In India, your power would come in for hours at a time and then shut off. And when it shut off at night, the sky was just brilliant,” Bandla said. “There’s so many stars, and it’s hot there, so sometimes you sleep outside on the roof. Those are some of the memories I have, of me looking up and falling asleep under millions of stars. I think that slowly started my fascination with space.”

In time, she decided that she wanted to become an engineer and astronaut, too. And she applied to only one university, Purdue, because of her single-minded desire to reach that goal. Although not by the traditional path that most of the 25 previous Boilermaker astronauts had followed.

In July 2021, at just 34 years old, Bandla was one of four mission specialists on Virgin Galactic’s Unity 22 suborbital flight, which reached 53.5 miles above Earth. During a 90-minute mission on that July morning, the little girl who used to stare up at the stars was now among them.

As Virgin Galactic’s vice president of government affairs and research operations, Bandla provided an especially meaningful presence on the first fully crewed spaceflight by a private commercial company. Her mission is to help the company create opportunities for anyone to travel into space, and it did that very thing for her since poor eyesight prevented her from pursuing a coveted position as a NASA astronaut.

John Chiminski was named Chief Executive Officer of Catalent, Inc. in March 2009 and appointed Chair of the Board in October 2016. He later served as Catalent’s Executive Chair from June 2022 to June 2023, as part of a planned CEO succession and transition to an independent Board Chair.

Under his nearly 15 years of leadership, Catalent transformed from a carve-out of Cardinal Health into a global Tier 1 CDMO, significantly expanding its capabilities and market impact. His tenure included a successful IPO in 2014, the transition to a fully independent public company, and strategic investments that positioned the company for long-term growth. During his leadership, Catalent’s revenue grew at an 8% CAGR, and its enterprise value more than quintupled to $18.5 billion. In 2024, Catalent was acquired by Novo Holdings for $16.5 billion, reflecting its strong market position and the value created over the previous decade.

Prior to Catalent, Mr. Chiminski spent more than 20 years at GE Healthcare, where he held senior leadership roles across engineering, operations, and global business units. From 2007 to 2009, he was President & CEO of GE Medical Diagnostics, and previously led GE Healthcare’s global magnetic resonance and healthcare services divisions. Earlier in his career, he held cross-functional leadership roles in operations and engineering, including international assignments in France.

He has previously served as Chair of Ascend Advanced Therapies and as a Board Director for PhenomeX, DJO Global, and Graham Packaging.
Mr. Chiminski holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree from Purdue University, both in electrical engineering, as well as an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He was recognized with the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from Purdue in 2012, received the CPhI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, and in 2025 received Life Science Connect’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement in Pharma Services Award.

Simon Davidson is President of NobleReach Emerge, a program focused on transforming technology ideas and innovations from U.S. government-funded R&D initiatives into viable products and businesses.

Prior to the merger with NobleReach Foundation, Davidson was Executive Vice President for IQT Emerge, a wholly owned subsidiary of In-Q-Tel, Inc. Prior to founding IQT Emerge in 2020, he served as a managing partner and head of East Coast Investments for IQT, identifying and leading strategic investments in the field technologies practice. He has served as a board observer for several IQT portfolio companies.

Davidson was also an EVP at Allied Minds, an IP commercialization investor focused on early-stage development within the technology sector. He oversaw the technology portfolio, including origination of new deals and oversight of existing portfolio companies, and sat on the investment committee as part of the executive team.

He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he earned a bachelor of commerce degree with majors in economics and accounting. Simon Davidson's son is a 2022 graduate of the School of AAE.

Keyvan Esfarjani is executive vice president, chief global operations officer and general manager of Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Operations at Intel Corporation. He is responsible for the company’s worldwide manufacturing operations, including Fab Sort Manufacturing, Assembly Test Manufacturing and strategic planning, as well as corporate quality assurance, corporate services and supply chain.

Previously, Esfarjani led the company’s non-volatile memory worldwide manufacturing, responsible for leading the strategy and operation for Intel memory fabs, component assembly/test, and 3D NAND and Optane SSD manufacturing. In this capacity, Esfarjani oversaw internal fab operations, supply agreements and sub-contractor engagements.

Esfarjani earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering and operations research from Purdue University.

Tim Fahler's career has been built at the intersection of engineering rigor and capital allocation — exactly the combination Purdue's new Institute for Energy Innovation (IEI) is being built to scale across the energy sector, by pairing technical feasibility with hard-nosed economic analysis to turn faculty research into investable companies.

Fahler is Manager of Tango Foxtrot, a family office with a strong venture capital orientation focused on early-stage opportunities in energy, defense, and adjacent deep-tech sectors. Among Tango Foxtrot's portfolio is an early-stage investment in Adranos, the Purdue-launched solid rocket motor and propellant company that came out of the Purdue Innovates accelerator program and was acquired by Anduril Industries in 2023 — an exit Purdue Innovates publicly described as a clear win for its venture model. The Adranos story is precisely the kind of university-to-venture pipeline IEI aims to replicate at scale, and one Fahler has direct experience helping build.

Fahler also serves as an industry advisor to Purdue Innovates Accelerator Program cohorts, working directly with founders translating Purdue research into venture-backed companies and bringing operator experience, capital-markets perspective, and a network of energy and defense investors to early-stage teams.

Before launching Tango Foxtrot, Fahler was Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Novo Oil & Gas, an Oklahoma City–based exploration and production company focused on liquids-rich unconventional assets in basins including the Permian. Under his leadership, Novo grew from a startup to a $1.5 billion sale in 2023, after which Fahler stepped away from operating roles to focus on venture investing and family office investment management. Earlier in his career, he held engineering and leadership roles at PayRock Energy, Devon Energy, SandRidge Energy, and ExxonMobil, gaining deep operational and commercial experience across reservoir engineering, asset development, and executive leadership.

Beyond his professional work, Fahler is committed to serving his community in Oklahoma City. He serves on the boards of directors of The CARE Center, which provides hope and healing to children affected by abuse in Oklahoma County, and Youth For Christ OKC, which engages young people in lifelong relationships with Jesus through campus and community ministry.

Fahler earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 2002. A follower of Christ, he and his wife, Richelle, are the proud parents of two daughters — their eldest heading to Georgia Tech this fall, and their youngest, a rising high school junior, still very much a Boilermaker recruiting target.

Michael Graff chose to study engineering because it drew on his interests in math, chemistry and physics and allowed him to work with new and innovative technology. For him, it presented limitless opportunity in a changing world—a way to be a part of making it a better place. After getting his master's degree in chemical engineering at Purdue, Graff embarked on a long career that has led him to positions as president or CEO of chemical and polymer businesses across the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

He joined Air Liquide in 2007 and today serves as the chairman and CEO of American Air Liquide Holdings, Inc., executive vice president of the Air Liquide Group, and chairman of the board of Airgas. Based out of Houston, Texas, Graff leads the business operations for the Americas, the largest region of the Air Liquide Group, and is global chairman of the Group’s electronics business line while supervising the Group’s engineering and construction activities.

In addition to his work with Air Liquide, Graff serves on the board of directors of Westlake Chemical, as well as on a number of industry and civic boards. He became the American Chemistry Council’s newest board officer in January 2023. Graff is also a principal of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s American Energy Innovation Council, and a member of the National Petroleum Council and the United States Investment Advisory Council, chairing the Committee on Competitiveness for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

He was the recipient of the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering’s Outstanding Chemical Engineer award in 2002 and Purdue Engineering’s Distinguished Engineering Alumni award in 2008.

Born in Cuba, Carlos M. Hernandez arrived in the United States with his parents as a political exile at the age of 8. He grew up in South Florida and attended Archbishop Curley High School where his affinity for math and science guided him to an education in engineering. Although there was no prior family or geographic connection, his college search identified Purdue as the best fit as a highly regarded coeducational engineering university with broad offerings in academics, athletics and social opportunities. He set foot in West Lafayette for the first time in August 1972 for freshman orientation.

After leaving Purdue, he enrolled at the University of Miami Law School, graduating in 1979, and thereafter joined a Miami law firm representing contractors.

In 2007, Fluor Corporation – the largest publicly-traded engineering and construction company on the New York Stock Exchange with worldwide projects – offered him the position of chief legal officer. In 2019, he took on the role of chief executive officer retiring in December 2020. Prior to joining Fluor, he served as general counsel for ArcelorMittal Americas, a major steel producer that is part of the ArcelorMittal steel group.

Hernandez brings decades of executive leadership experience in key industries. His career has spanned engineering, procurement, manufacturing and distribution companies, and his expertise includes risk management, safety and environmental matters, governance, compliance and law.

Peter Lambertus built the Charles River Development financial services company from the ground up, in part because he got a kick out of doing things that were hard. “I enjoyed taking on difficult jobs that others avoided or couldn’t do,” Lambertus says. “I was sometimes a maverick in wanting to remedy bad situations or technical designs even though it meant an uphill battle against status quo and bureaucracy.”

Today, the company Lambertus founded and ran until its 2018 sale to State Street Corporation supports over 300 clients in more than 40 countries, managing over $25 trillion in assets. As he looks back on the foundation for his success, he is grateful to Purdue for helping him learn how to approach problems.

He credits his Purdue education in playing a major role in acquiring the critical-thinking skills necessary for creating work products and solving problems. “Purdue engineering taught me to understand not just ‘what’ and ‘how’ in approaching situations, but just as importantly, ‘why,’” he said.

In June 2020, the Purdue Board of Trustees approved the naming of the second Gateway Complex building as Lambertus Hall in recognition of Peter and Ann Lambertus’ $10 million gift. The Complex was dedicated in April 2023.

Shawn Lyon’s career in energy has spanned more than three decades, beginning when he joined Marathon Petroleum Company as an engineer after graduating from Purdue in 1989.

Lyon credits Purdue for many of his early leadership learnings. As head manager for the men’s basketball teams under American Hall of Fame Coach Gene Keady from 1985 to 1989, Lyon learned first-hand how to align different people to a common goal. Coach Keady’s “play hard” philosophy affirmed the value of a strong work ethic in Lyon, which he witnessed firsthand when the Boilermakers became back-to-back Big Ten champions in 1987 and 1988.

Over the last decade, Lyon has been a visionary for transformative change. He has actively fostered a culture of safety within his organization and across the pipeline industry, driving change through influence, teamwork, strong communication and empowerment. He developed and grew an industry-leading, award-winning public engagement program which has served as a model for the pipeline industry. He cultivated and fostered partnerships with regulators, pipeline watchdog groups, and operators to achieve strategic alignment, receiving accolades for culture, innovation, and leadership. In 2019, he was presented with the Pipeline Leadership Award for driving transformation and improvement in the industry. He is an active public speaker on overcoming the challenges of transformative change, the benefits of Pipeline Safety Management Systems, influencing safety culture, and public engagement strategy.

Since 2019, by appointment of Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Lyon has served on the Technical Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Standards Committee, an advisory body to the U.S. Department of Transportation. He also serves as chair of the board of the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port. Previously, he served as chair on the board of the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association; chair of the pipeline industry’s implementation of the Pipeline Safety Management System; and on the Michigan Pipeline Safety Advisory Board by appointment of Governor Rick Snyder.

One of Lyon’s most cherished Purdue memories is proposing to his best friend, Connie Bousman, at Mackey Arena half-court in 1989. They married the following year and are the proud parents of three children—Mackenzie, Gabby, and Noah, who will graduate from Purdue in 2025.

Ryan Ott is co-CEO at Ott Scientific, a family owned and operated group of specialty chemical manufacturing companies including Polysciences, Bangs Laboratories, Ethos Biosciences, and Creative Consumer Products. He currently is executive vice president of Polysciences, Inc., and serves as chief executive officer for Fishers, Ind.-based Bangs Laboratories and Ethos Biosciences, a bioscience company with three core capabilities: dye, stain, and reagent manufacturing, ELISA development and manufacturing with a focus in nephrology, and Lateral flow assay development and manufacturing.

Ott earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue in 2007 and an MBA from Villanova University in 2014.

Patricia Poppe (BSIE '89, MSIE '90) joined PG&E in January 2021 after five years as President and CEO of CMS Energy and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Energy, where she focused on connecting the utility more closely with its customers and adapting lean operating system principles throughout the business. In her decade-long career with the Michigan company, she also served as Senior Vice President of Distribution Operations, Engineering and Transmission; Vice President of Customer Experience, Rates and Regulation; and Vice President of Customer Operations.

Previously, Poppe served as a Power Plant Director at DTE Energy. Prior to joining DTE Energy, Poppe held a variety of plant management positions in the automotive industry.

Named to Crain's Detroit Business magazine's 2016 list of 100 Most Influential Women, Poppe enjoys sharing the insights she has gained throughout her career.

Daniel Rosckes is the vice president of global procurement at Apple, a position he has held since December 2000. Prior to that, he served as director of procurement at Compaq Computer Corporation from January 1987 to December 2000.

He currently serves on the advisory board for the Institute of Hard AI at Purdue.

Amy Schumacher is the Chief Executive Officer of The Heritage Group, overseeing the company’s portfolio of more than 30 businesses and 5,000 employees. She is also a member of its board of trustees.

Amy has been part of The Heritage Group family of businesses since 2008, when she founded Monument Chemical — THG’s specialty chemicals business — and served as Monument’s President and CEO for eight years. In that role, she was responsible for growing Monument from a small, Indianapolis-based business into a global company with operations in Europe and the US.

In 2016, Amy transitioned to President of The Heritage Group and was appointed CEO in 2020, marking the fourth generation of Fehsenfeld family leadership.

She graduated from Purdue University with a B.A. in Education and B.S. in Civil Engineering and received her M.B.A. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She serves on the boards of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Calumet Specialty Products, and the Purdue Engineering Advisory Council.

Amy enjoys spending her free time with her husband, Jim, and her two daughters.

Paul Stahura earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1984 and an M.S in 1987. He is currently a board member for Donuts, Inc., a domain name registry company. Previously, Stahura served as CEO of Donuts.

Stahura started his professional career working as an engineer for Cybotech based out of the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette. After Cybotech, he founded eNom, which became the second most successful domain name registrar in the world. Stahura was CEO of eNom until he sold it to Demand Media, where he became the president and a board member. In 2009, Stahura left eNom and Demand Media and co-founded Donuts, where he was CEO until he stepped down in 2017.

He holds eight patents, is on the board of seven different companies and is currently invested in 25 startups. The startup he is proudest of is iSpot.tv, a TV ad measurement and analytics company where he was the founding investor.

Stahura currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and three kids, all four of whom are either currently attending or have graduated from Purdue. His father was also an alumnus of Purdue (Northwest campus) back in the 1950s.

Jim Tompkins is an international authority on designing and implementing end-to-end supply chains. He has started 15 businesses that have done over $2 billion in worldwide revenue during his 50-year career, has worked with private equity, designed countless industrial facilities and supply chain solutions, and enhanced the profitable growth of numerous companies, giving him an insider’s view into what makes great companies even better.

He co-founded Brangent Inc. in 2022, focusing primarily on Leadership and Organizational Development, Organizational Transformation, Strategy and Talent Development. In 2020, he founded Tompkins Ventures LLC, a global hands-on solutions network that helps executive teams turn problems and challenges into competitive advantage. He previously spent 40+ years as founder and chairman of Tompkins International from a backyard startup into an international consulting and implementation firm.

Boon-Lock Yeo earned a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1992. He has served as a vice president of engineering at Google for 16 years and leads a global team responsible for Google Pixel software development and testing. Previously, Yeo led engineering and product at Alphabet Access/Google Fiber. He joined Google/Alphabet in 2007 and returned to Silicon Valley in 2014 after 11 years in Shanghai where he headed Google’s engineering and research efforts in Greater China and southeast Asia and co-led the Google China operations.

Before he joined Google, Yeo led R&D efforts for Intel in China, served as the general manager for Intel Asia-Pacific R&D Ltd., and oversaw the rapid expansion of Intel R&D efforts in Shanghai. He received two Intel Achievement Awards -- the highest Intel award recognizing outstanding accomplishments with significant business impacts.

Yeo received his PhD in electrical engineering from Princeton University. He is internationally recognized for his pioneering research work in data compression and compressed data processing and is an IEEE Fellow. In 2020, Yeo received an Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering (OECE) award from the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in recognition of his achievements.

Juan M. de Bedout leads Technology & Global Engineering for RTX. He guides the company’s overall technological vision and strategy, including its engineering operations, investments in research and development, and programs for companywide product safety and product cybersecurity.

Previously, de Bedout led Aerospace Technology at RTX, working with the company’s businesses to shape the technology vision and strategy for the company’s commercial offerings, and to drive the identification and use of technology synergies and best practices across RTX

de Bedout attended Purdue University and holds three degrees in mechanical engineering: bachelor of science, master of science, and Ph.D.