Board of Directors

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Cody Atkins
General Manager
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Cody began his career in retail with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1995 while attending Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Cody has spent the previous eleven years in various managerial positions within Wal-Mart. In 2003 Cody relocated to Lincoln, IL as General Manager of the Lincoln Wal-Mart. Prior to moving to Lincoln, Cody operated facilities in Monett, MO and Fayetteville, AR.

Cody serves on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army, is a member of the Steering Committee for the Lincoln Art and Balloon Festival, coaches youth baseball, and is Treasurer of the Lincoln Logan County Chamber of Commerce.

Cody and his wife, Sara, live in Lincoln, Illinois, with their two sons Coleman and Cooper.

Greg Bange
Auto Operations Manager
State Farm
Greg is a graduate of Eureka College in Eureka Illinois, with Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Psychology & Sociology. He started his career with State Farm in 1984 as a Fire Underwriter in Illinois where he progressed thru several underwriting supervisory roles, as well as Fire Claim Representative. In 1994, Greg accepted a Learning & Development Dept. opportunity in State Farm's Corporate Headquarters, Bloomington IL . From there he relocated to New Jersey in 1996 to assume Fire Underwriting middle management responsibilities for the Metropolitan New York City area & the state of New Jersey. He returned to Bloomington, IL in 1998 where he was promoted to Fire Property &Casualty Underwriting Consultant. This opportunity was followed by relocation to the Kalamazoo Michigan area in 2000 as Division Manager for Michigan Auto Claims. In 2008, Greg was offered his current position in Bloomington IL as Great Lakes Zone Auto Underwriting Operations Manager.

Greg has achieved several professional designations including: Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Associate in Management (AIM), Associate in Claims (AIC), INS, and Global Environment of Insurance (GEI).

In recent years he has also been a member of Board of Directors for Michigan Agent & Associates Political Action Committee, a delegate to the Board of Directors for Michigan Property & Casualty Guaranty Assn., and has co-chaired the Executive Steering Committee for Facilities at Gull Lake Community Schools.

Greg is married to Diane, and has two teenage sons, Brett and Austin. He spends his free time involved with his children's extracurricular activities, participating and spectating in several sports, and reading periodicals and sources of trivia.


Kenny Eathington
Partner
Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP
Kenny practices in the areas of real estate, corporate, commercial, environmental, and bankruptcy law as well as business and estate planning.

Kenny represents many clients in commercial and residential real estate transactions. He also advises various financial institutions on lending issues and loan documentation. Moreover, he assists clients acquiring or divesting businesses and locations by negotiating contractual terms, performing due diligence, and advising on entity formation. Many clients rely on Kenny's counsel regarding day-to-day operations such as review of loan documents, equipment leases, minimum purchase agreements, sales agency agreements, marketing agreements and other contracts.

From 1983 to 1988, he was employed by Farm Credit Services of Northwest Illinois as a branch manager and credit analyst. Prior to joining Husch, Kenny was an associate with a Peoria, Illinois, law firm for over two years.

Kenny is the recipient of the Peoria Area Association of Realtors Affiliate of the Year Award (2004) and the Peoria County Bar Association Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award (2001).

Randy Erickson
Senior Vice President & Commercial Banking Manager
Commerce Bank
Randy graduated in 1981 from Southern Illinois University graduate, with a Bachelor of Science in Finance. He has been in the banking industry for his entire career of over 31 years, working with Commercial Banks, Mortgage Banks, and Savings and Loans. He also served 5 years with the Treasury Department as a Bank Examiner. Randy is active in several community and professional organizations including United Way, Illinois Bankers Association, RMA, and YMCA. Randy has been happily married to his wife Susan for over 31 years and has two boys age 16 and 13.


Jim Farrell
Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications
OSF Healthcare System
Jim is responsible for the development and execution of OSF HealthCare system-wide marketing, communications plans, and activities. He directs the efforts of system-wide partners, i.e., advertising agencies, database marketing firms, and a patient satisfaction company to ensure optimum utilization of marketing-related dollars for the system and the individual entities (including six hospitals and one nursing home, 80 physician offices and a health insurance company). Jim oversees an accumulated annual budget exceeding $5 million.

Jim enjoys running, basketball, coaching youth soccer, and teaching courses in Healthcare Planning & Marketing, Healthcare Economics, and Methods of Research for the School of Graduate Studies of the University of St. Francis, in Joliet, Illinois. He and his wife of 30+ years, Sharie, have four children.

Tom Farrell, CPA
Assurance Partner/Managing Director
McGladrey
Thomas M. Farrell is a Partner in McGladrey’s Peoria office. He has over 25 years of public accounting experience. To currently holds the Peoria lead partner position.

Tom's current responsibilities include a concentration in providing audit, accounting, tax, and consulting services to clients in the manufacturing, wholesaling, distribution, transportation, retail, and financial services industries. Tom serves on McGladrey’s audit and accounting internal inspection team which performs quality control reviews of approximately 90 offices.

Tom has been recognized as a concurring reviewer, independent report reviewer, and financial institution specialist by McGladrey’s National Office of Risk Management.

   

Brian R. May
Partner
Accenture
Brian graduated from Marquette University in 1988 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He began his career in Milwaukee with Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) in January of 1989 where he has spent the majority of his time serving automotive and industrial manufacturing clients. He was promoted to Partner in September of 2000. Brian currently has responsibility for Accenture's business in Peoria.

While in Milwaukee, Brian served on the Board of Directors for COA Youth and Family Services, an inner city educational and social program organization. He and his wife Kris moved to Peoria in 2006.

Brian and Kris met in kindergarten almost 40 years ago and have been married for 19 years. They have twin 4 year old daughters, Eden and Alaina. In their spare time they enjoy boating, golfing and spending time with their family.
   

Ned Neuhaus
Senior Business Resource Manager
Caterpillar Inc.
Ned works as Senior Business Resource Manager in Caterpillar's Global Finance and Strategic Support Division. He earned his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign and is a CPA. Prior to joining Caterpillar in 1990, Ned worked at Price Waterhouse in Peoria.

Since joining Caterpillar, Ned has held a variety of financial positions, including several positions in Caterpillar's European operations in the UK, Switzerland and Belgium as well as serving as Director of Internal Audit. Ned is a classroom consultant and also served as Secretary-Treasurer of JA in Peoria prior to going overseas.

Ned, his wife Dee Dee and their two daughters live in Peoria.

Bob Pfohl
Systems Supervisor, Global Purchasing Business Resources
Caterpillar Inc.
Bob is employed by Caterpillar, where he is responsible for the worldwide deployment of IT asset management processes and systems. During his 24 year career with Caterpillar, he has held positions in Accounting, Manufacturing and Information Technology. Prior to his current position, he was IT manager for Cat Ag Products Inc., where he was responsible for the implementation of an ERP system and startup of two Joint Ventures.

Before beginning work at Caterpillar, Bob graduated cum laude from Purdue University with a BS in Industrial Engineering. In 1986, he earned his MS in Business Management from Aurora University.

Bob enjoys golfing, bowling, working around the house, and coaching his daughters' soccer teams. He is currently president of his homeowner's association and has served as an officer on two other homeowner's associations, been a member of his daughter's school board, president of the school's Home and School (PTA) association and co-chair of his church's capital campaign. He, his wife Lisa and two teenage daughters currently reside in Dunlap and have previously lived in north and northwest Peoria.

Rick Richardson
Chief Operating Officer
Simantel
Rick Richardson is the Chief Operating Officer of Simantel. He joined the firm in 2007.

Rick graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 1989 with a degree in finance. He joined Arthur Andersen in Chicago as an auditor and then worked in a number of progressive finance positions in the investment management industry, with Stein Roe & Farnham and Phoenix Duff & Phelps, the latter as Controller. He completed his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1995. In 1997, he joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a management consultant and relocated to Peoria. Rick then spent five years as the VP of Finance for Kathryn Beich, Inc. in Bloomington, helping to lead the transition of the school fundraising business from Nestle USA to private equity investors. Most recently, he led the business and financial operations of Clifton Gunderson LLP, the nation's 13th largest public accounting firm.

Rick lives in Peoria with his wife, Kara, and their two children.

In addition to serving on the board of JA, currently as Chairman, Rick is a member of the Illinois CPA Society, the AICPA and has served on the Finance Committee of St. Vincent de Paul parish in Peoria.

Ed J. Scott
Corporate Treasurer
Caterpillar Inc.
We are pleased to announce that Ed Scott, currently Chief Audit Officer, has been appointed Corporate Treasurer. Ed's extensive finance and treasury background across many organizations including Solar Turbines, Financial Products Division, Corporate Treasury and his current role as Chief Audit Officer make him very well qualified for this new role. Over the years, Ed has made significant contributions to the company including implementation of a very successful internal audit co-sourcing arrangement with Ernst & Young, excellent support of the Audit Committee, development of cost effective funding sources to support Cat Financial's growth and the leadership he recently provided to the Strategic Planning Committee.

Ed began his career with Caterpillar Inc. as a Finance Analyst in Corporate Treasury in 1981. He held several finance positions at Caterpillar until he relocated to Santiago, Chile to become Finance Representative for the Southern South America District Office of Caterpillar Americas in 1987. He returned to Peoria in 1990 where he was Foreign Exchange Administrator in Corporate Treasury and later, Treasurer for Solar Turbines. Ed joined Cat Financial in 1996 where he held several positions including Treasurer, Vice President for Marine and Latin American retail finance operations and finally, Executive Vice President and CFO. He relocated to Peoria to assume his current duties in 2007.

Ed holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Marquette University and an MBA from the University of Illinois. He currently serves as Chairman of Junior Achievement of Central Illinois.

Junior Achievement Staff

Caitlin Quinn
Program/Office Assistant

 

Jenny Doerr
Events/Office Manager

 

Donna Moravec
McLean County Program Manager

Donna is the new Program Manager for McLean County.  Before joining Junior Achievement, she worked with McLean County Compact in Bloomington.  Donna holds a B.A. in Business from Illinois Wesleyan University.

 

Donna volunteers with the McLean County Master Gardeners, having completed the University of Illinois Master Gardener program.  She also volunteers with the Normal West Band program.  Donna and her husband Dave, also a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, have three children.  Sarah is a senior at Normal West High School, Joseph is a junior at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, and Daniel is a senior at Illinois State University.

 

 

 

 

 

Angie Houck
Program Director

Junior Achievement of Central Illinois
Angie joined JA in 2007 and is now the Program Director. She is responsible for recruiting and training JA Classroom Consultant volunteers and teachers; managing, evaluating, and registering JA classes; researching, writing, and implementing grants; and managing interns. Before her tenure at JA, Angie was an Adjunct Instructor of Communication at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, IL. She holds a B.A. in Speech Communication from Truman State University and an M.A. in Communication from Illinois State University.

Angie is a member of the American Society for Training & Development, Heart of Illinois Chapter and is a Certified Facilitator for the Pacific Institute, 21 Keys for High Performance Teaching & Learning as well as the Study Circles Resource Center. Angie enjoys volunteering for community outreach initiatives through her church and resides in Washington, IL, with her three children.

Larry Timm
President

Speaker Bio

Junior Achievement of Central Illinois, Inc.
Larry is privileged to serve the growing Junior Achievement (JA) family of schools, business professionals and board members.

This local JA office has nearly quadrupled in classroom reach since 03-04, now reaching over 14,500 students each year. That growth makes JA of Central Illinois one of the fastest-growing JA offices in America, out of 130+ coast-to-coast. The local renaissance has earned this office several local and national awards, both in and out of JA circles.

Larry graduated with a Magna Cum Laude Bachelor of Arts Communication degree from Greenville College in 1993, completed Pennsylvania State University’s Developing Managerial Effectiveness class in 2006, and Penn State’s Strategic Leadership Course in 2010.

After seven years in marketing and advertising, and running his own business as well, Larry spent three years as Peoria Christian School's Business Department Head and Director of Public Relations. It was there that he learned first-hand how valuable JA is to not only the students, but also to those from the business community. He has been with Junior Achievement since January 2004.

Larry was honored to be in the inaugural class of 20 Under 40 Leaders in McLean County in 2006, and also the 2006 class of 40 Under 40 in Peoria. His active participation at Riverside Community Church includes teaching the Good $ense Financial Course to adults. He also serves on various boards including the Salvation Army Advisory Board; Larry’s wife and three boys are also active in Scouting.