Urban Meyer and Frank Abagnale Jr. Headline Colorado State University College of Business 2011 Business Day April 13

Urban Meyer, former head coach of the University of Florida football team and two-time winner of the Bowl Championship Series, will be one of two capstone speakers at Business Day at Colorado State University at 2 p.m. April 13 in the Lory Student Center Theater on campus. Meyer will speak about mentoring and the role it has played in his success.

Frank Abagnale Jr., the inspiration for the popular “Catch Me If You Can” movie, book and recent Broadway play, also will be a capstone speaker at Business Day. He will speak at noon April 13 in the Lory Student Center Theater. Abagnale will speak about his journey from con man to ethical motivator.

Business Day events are free and open to the public.

Meyer is one of the most successful coaches in the history of college football. His winning percentage at the end of the 2009 season was .842 percent – the highest among all active coaches. Before joining the University of Florida, Meyer had a successful stint as head coach at the University of Utah, being named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. His overall win-loss record stands at 104-23, including a 7-1 record in major college football bowl games. The Colorado State University Rams were lucky to have the benefit of Meyer’s experience as the wide receiver coach for six years under Coach Sonny Lubick. He currently serves as a college football analyst for ESPN Sports.

Abagnale is one of the world’s leading authorities on combating forgery and embezzlement and document security for business. For more than 30 years, he has consulted many of the world’s leading financial corporations and governments. Associated with the FBI, his fraud prevention programs are in place in more than 14,000 financial institutions, corporations and law enforcement agencies across the nation. CNN’s Financial News named Abagnale one of its “Pinnacle 400” business leaders in 1998.

Other Business Day speakers include:

Libby Cook, co-founder of Wild Oats Markets and Sunflower Markets as well as the founder of the Philanthropiece Foundation. Cook will speak about “Building Community Through Business” at 10 a.m. the Lory Student Center Grey Rock Room. The Philanthropiece Foundation engages in broad-based community development and empowerment in building healthy and sustainable communities. A natural foods and grocery industry leader for a quarter-century, Cook is the recipient of numerous awards including the Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement from the University of Colorado School of Law, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the YWCA Hall of Fame Award for Entrepreneurship and the Esprit Entrepreneur Award.

Eric Bechtel, founder of Rule 1.02 Marketing, LLC, is one of the nation’s premier marketing experts whose diverse clients include 24-Hour Fitness, Ask.com, American Family Insurance, Burger King and many more. Bechtel will discuss “Athlete Marketing – Why the Rewards Far Outweigh the Risks” at 11 a.m. in the Lory Student Center Grey Rock Room. For more than 20 years, Bechtel has applied his passion for developing and implementing promotional and marketing programs for sports, media and entertainment industries across the nation.

Sonny Lubick, former head coach for the Colorado State Rams football team from 1993-2007 who led the team to six conference titles and nine bowl appearances. He was named National Coach of the Year by Sports Illustrated in 1994. Lubick will speak with Meyer at 2 p.m. April 13 in the Lory Student Center Theater. Lubick currently serves as director of community leadership outreach for the College of Business at Colorado State. 

Business Day was developed at CSU’s College of Business in 1979 as a way to offer the community valuable insights and access to some of the nation’s leading business minds. The first speaker who helped kick off the tradition was Ronald Reagan, who then was the former governor of California. Malcolm Forbes followed the next year.

The event is sponsored by the College of Business Dean’s Student Leadership Council in conjunction with The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative and Associated Students of Colorado State University.

For a complete listing of the schedule, visit http://biz.colostate.edu/newsEvents/Pages/eventDetails/BusinessDay11.aspx.
-30-