RESEARCH Business Industry

EDUCATION
Grateful alumnus behind gift to unique cross-disciplinary program

Mark Reutter, Business Editor
(217) 333-0568; mreutter@uiuc.edu

11/1/2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Alan M. Hallene learned the hard way how to combine business and engineering as he built the Montgomery Elevator Co. into the largest escalator manufacturer in North America.

"I had to learn accounting principles, how to control inventory and how to handle marketing expense at the same time I was involved in the technical side of engineering escalators and elevators," Hallene said. "It was quite a challenge."

To give UI students a head start on similar challenges, Hallene recently arranged funding for a major expansion of the pioneering Technology and Management Program at the University of Illinois.

The program, believed to be the nation's first interdisciplinary program for undergraduate students, enables engineering and business students to learn together through joint classes and to work side-by-side on team projects.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave $1 million in Hallene's name to endow a master's degree program in technology and management. The gift was made in recognition of Hallene's long service as a member of the MacArthur Foundation's board of directors.

Hallene said the UI program serves a vital need in today’s business. "Even more than when I was young, corporations have a pressing need for managers who understand and communicate effectively in the language of both business and engineering."

The master's degree curricula will build on the multidisciplinary approach of the undergraduate program, which is taught by faculty members in the College of Engineering and College of Commerce and Business Administration.

Currently students are admitted to the program in their junior year. Engineering majors study fundamentals of accounting, corporate finance and principles of marketing, while business majors take courses in materials science, mechanics and introduction to electrical and computer engineering.

Following these courses, the students jointly take classes in strategy management of innovation, business process modeling, new product development and undertake a team project.

The master's program will provide intensive joint training, with students doing projects underwritten by industrial sponsors. Hallene said he expects the master's program to expose students to "real-world" problems and include workshops and lectures "conducted by industry people who come to campus and teach from their own work experience."

Hallene graduated from the university in 1951 with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. When he started at Montgomery Elevator in 1953, the company had annual sales of $3 million. When he retired as president in 1994, its annual sales were more than $500 million.