{"id":4339,"date":"2012-12-18T13:43:48","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T13:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=4339"},"modified":"2016-01-11T15:14:07","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T15:14:07","slug":"fully-recognized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/fully-recognized\/","title":{"rendered":"Fully Recognized"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peter
Peter Veruki thanks the attendees at the 2012 Owen Circle dinner as Eric Noll and wife, Georgiana, look on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peter Veruki didn\u2019t attend Owen or any other school at Vanderbilt. He doesn\u2019t teach or conduct research at the university either. But ask many alumni which person had a big impact on their lives while at Owen, and odds are Veruki\u2019s name is near the top of the list.<\/p>\n

Veruki came to Owen in 1988 at the behest of former Dean Marty Geisel. The two met when Veruki was working on Wall Street, recruiting and training MBAs. Geisel, then at the University of Rochester, was looking for Wall Street jobs for his MBA candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was impressed with his style, and when he went to work at Owen he called and asked me to come down,\u201d Veruki says. \u201cHe told me that Owen was too good to be just the best school in the Southeast. He wanted someone to help market the school on Wall Street and in California and Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially Veruki wasn\u2019t interested in leaving New York for Nashville, but eventually Geisel won him over. Veruki came on board to lead Owen\u2019s career center, but running that office was only part of his job. He also was charged with working his Wall Street connections and strengthening relationships with alumni\u2014relationships that could eventually mean internships and jobs for Owen students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d get out on the road and take students with me,\u201d Veruki says. \u201cTraditionally career centers just sit back and wait for the companies to come to them. We changed all that\u2014we took our students, or at least their resumes, to the companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPeter was an inspiration to me and he always gave me good advice, even if it wasn\u2019t what I wanted to hear. I owe a lot of my career to the start that he gave me, and I will always remember that.\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u2014Paul Jacobson<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

During this time Owen\u2019s reputation went from being a regional school to a national one. The rankings improved, and applications from other parts of the country increased. Students received one-on-one coaching and were encouraged to set their sights high. Veruki realized that Owen had turned the corner in 1990, despite a bleak job market. Several students landed noteworthy positions, including Eric Noll, MBA\u201990, who is now Executive Vice President of NASDAQ OMX Group\u2019s Transaction Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left Owen, I had an offer from the Chicago Board Options Exchange,\u201d Noll says. \u201cBefore I started at Owen, I didn\u2019t realize that such jobs existed. But Peter and Hans Stoll really opened my eyes. They educated us on what kinds of jobs were out there and how to get them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately Geisel died in 1999, just as the school was starting to make its mark. Veruki left soon thereafter to take a position at Rice University. Several years later, just as he was ready to retire, Veruki got another call from Owen. Jim Bradford, who was Acting Dean at the time, wanted Veruki back.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim told me that I didn\u2019t necessarily need to return to Nashville. He said, \u2018I need you in Seattle and New York, getting alumni reconnected,\u2019\u201d says Veruki, who currently lives in Houston. \u201cHe and I both realized that every alum out there is a potential employer, and they\u2019re the ones hiring MBAs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of his career at Owen, Veruki has made a real difference to the school\u2019s alumni. Owen graduates can be found in boardrooms around the world, and many credit Veruki for their success. In fact, a group of them, led by Eric Noll and his wife, Georgiana, established a scholarship in Veruki\u2019s honor\u2014a rare recognition for a staff member. The scholarship was announced at the 2012 Owen Circle dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the last to know. Even when I was seated at the dinner with five of my favorite alumni, I still didn\u2019t suspect anything,\u201d says Veruki, who now serves as the school\u2019s Director of Corporate Relations. \u201cBut then they started calling them up to the podium, and I finally realized what was going on. I was so humbled.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the scholarship is designated as the Wall Street Scholarship. When Veruki retires, it will be given his name.<\/p>\n

Paul Jacobson, MBA\u201997, Chief Financial Officer at Delta Airlines, was one of the first to contribute to the scholarship fund. \u201cWhen I got the call about the scholarship, I just felt that it was the right time to make a sizeable gift,\u201d he says. \u201cPeter was an inspiration to me and he always gave me good advice, even if it wasn\u2019t what I wanted to hear. I owe a lot of my career to the start that he gave me, and I will always remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veruki hopes that the type of student to receive the scholarship will be someone \u201cwho could go to Wharton or Harvard to study finance,\u201d he says, \u201cbut instead chooses Owen because our finance faculty is second to none. We\u2019re looking for a person who appreciates the culture we have here\u2014the camaraderie and teamwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Owen culture is something appreciated by today\u2019s employers. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve found at Delta is that Owen alumni really fit our group dynamic,\u201d Jacobson says. \u201cThere\u2019s a level of humility that really helps them blend in with our culture. We\u2019ve had a lot of success hiring Vanderbilt MBAs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noll further explains the reasoning behind honoring Veruki. \u201cHis longevity, his concern for students and their future and their careers, have been extremely influential,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s always lots of recognition for strong faculty\u2014like endowed chairs\u2014but it\u2019s not always so easy to recognize staff members. That\u2019s why I\u2019m so happy to be a part of this scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you would like more information about the Wall Street Scholarship, please contact the Owen Development and Alumni Relations office at (615) 322-0815.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Veruki didn\u2019t attend Owen or any other school at Vanderbilt. He doesn\u2019t teach or conduct research at the university either. But ask many alumni which person had a big impact on their lives while at Owen, and odds are Veruki\u2019s name is near the top of the list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,66],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-4339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bottom-line","category-departments","tag-fall2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8758,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions\/8758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}