news

CEO alumnus advises on business success

By The Observer · Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013

Bill Angrick, a Notre Dame graduate from the class of 1990, spoke as a part of the "Boardroom Insights" lecture series put on by the Mendoza College of Business. Angrick is the CEO of Liquidity Services Inc., a multimillion dollar company that specializes in the buying and selling of excess materials between businesses. The lecture walked the audience through the various stages of growth of Liquidity Services, while also offering valuable pieces of advice on how to build a thriving company. Angrick said in the beginning, his goal was to "provide clients and buying customers the world's most transparent, innovative, and effective online marketplaces and integrated services for surplus assets ... An eBay from business to business." After raising capital from clients and venture capitalists, the company began to expand into buying and selling products from various sectors, Angrick said. He said he credits this growth to the "network effect." "More supply leads to more relevant listings for buyers, which leads to more buyers. More buyers leads to more transactions, meaning better results for sellers, thus creating more sellers, which circles back to more supply," Angrick said. He said the company received its first government contract in 2001- the US Military wanted to use the company to sell its own excess products. The company then went on to win the Defense Logistics Agency Award for Vendor Excellence four times. Liquidity Services Inc. went public in 2006. From there, the company grew at an quickly, its gross revenue booming from $72 million in 2003 to $360 million in 2008, Angrick said. Beginning in 2009, the business moved into acquiring other companies, such as GovDeals and Network International, and taking their markets global. They also expanded into other sectors, which included electronics, consumer packaged goods, biopharmaceutical products, and machinery. This year alone, the gross revenue of Liquidity Services Inc. was $1 billion and was on Forbes' list of Fastest Growing Tech Companies, Angrick said. Angrick said to run a large company, one needs to have strong convictions of where one is taking the company. He said that a key component to achievement is building great teams: cultivating top talent, bringing new employees into the mission of the company, making everyone feel a part of something, empowering employees to do their job, and making clear what the objective is, not how to achieve the objective. Angrick said one also has to be bold and take risks, and build awareness of their brand. At the end of the lecture Angrick reflected back on how what he had learned in his years at Notre Dame has influenced him throughout life. Angrick said Notre Dame's emphasis on strong values and faith has helped him immeasurably in his ventures, and the university's stress on community, teamwork, and excellence will stay with him throughout the rest of his life. "It is your obligation to make your mark," Angrick said.

Library memorializes 'Touchdown Jesus' artist

By The Observer · Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013

Millard Sheets, the acclaimed artist who created the iconic "Word of Life" mural on the south-facing wall of Hesburgh Library, said he was inspired by the history of knowledge and learning, with Christ as the master teacher. As part of the Hesburgh Libraries Lecture Series, curator of historical art Janet Blake presented "The Story Behind 'Touchdown Jesus,' Millard Sheets: An Artist's Journey to the 'Word of Life,'" on Friday in the William J. Carey Auditorium. "To say that the mural is impressive in scale and powerful in design is an understatement," Blake said. "It sums up the artists' skill at creating arresting, representational imagery in abstract design. "The idea for a mural came about as the architecture firm of Ellerbe & Co. in Minneapolis was designing the new library. "Because [University President Emeritus] Fr. Theodore Hesburgh had expressed concerns the building might look like a grain silo without some kind of decorative element, their design concept included a mural on the south-facing wall," Blake said. "Hesburgh thought this would be a great solution to the problem." Architect Thomas Ellerbe worked with Sheets previously and asked him to submit his name for consideration for the project. Out of 12 artists, Sheets was chosen, Blake said. At that time, Miller was at the peak of his career as an artist of watercolors, murals, and architectural art, Blake said. Blake said Sheets was born in California and attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, where he learned the basics of art. "Learning the basic language of art became his own philosophy as a teacher: that an artist must learn the necessary skills before exploring style," she said. From an early time, Sheets' work displayed an interest in people from other cultures, and this theme was reinforced by his extensive travels, Blake said. "Shortly after completing his studies at Chouinard, he booked passage on a banana boat headed for New York," Blake said. "The boat stopped at ports of call in Central and South America, and Sheets sketched constantly." By the age of 23, Sheets' work had been displayed in an individual exhibition and "Los Angeles Times" art critic Arthur Miller praised his work, she said. "[Miller] described the young artist as an unparalleled phenonmenon in the art world of southern California," Blake said. Blake said Hesburgh shared his thoughts on the theme of the mural with Sheets. "Sheets came up with three ideas, and the second was approved," Blake said. "In that design, he put Christ at the top, with his disciples, to show that he is the great teacher. The others scholars, beginning with the prophets of the Old Testament would begin at the bottom and zig-zag their way up the composition." Blake said there are nine groups of teachers in all, including figures from the Renaissance and the Age of Science and Exploration. She said the figures are types, not specific persons because the mural doesn't use individual identifications. The detailed logistics of constructing such a large mural were daunting, Blake said. "The "Word of Life" mural was a departure for Sheets, who had been designing mosaics with small glass tesserae from Italy. Now he would be working with pieces of granite of varying styles and shapes," Blake said. Blake said Sheets had always worked with the philosophy that subject dictated style. "For this project, the subject matter and the material dictated style, which would be abstract pieces assembled to create a representational image," Blake said. "In essence, the mural is not a mosaic, it's like a giant puzzle, comprised of 324 panels." Blake said Sheets worked hard to find the correct colors and shades of granite to use for the mural. Sheets wanted to find a piece of granite that looked like gold, but was told there was no such thing, Blake said. "He'd just about given up when a package arrived. Inside was a small piece of gold granite, from of all places, Brazil," she said. "It was from a quarry that hadn't been worked in 25 years. After much persuasion and many weeks, Sheets was able to get them to quarry a block for him. He ended up with a sizeable block and was able to utilize it with great success."

Alumnus screens movie on public education

By The Observer · Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013

Notre Dame alumnus and independent film director Patrick Creadon, '89, returned to the University on Friday for a screening of his new documentary "If You Build It." The film, which screened in Debartolo Performing Arts Center, will premiere in theaters in 2014. "I would describe this film as a cross between 'Extreme Home Makeover' and 'The Breakfast Club,'" Creadon said. "This is a story of what our education can be if it dares to try new ideas and dares to try things that it doesn't normally do." "If You Build It" follows the efforts of Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller, two architects invited to rural Bertie County in North Carolina by Dr. "Chip" Zullenger, Bertie County's Superintendent, to help revitalize the struggling public school system, Creadon said. Creadon said the movie shows how education can change if it dares to try new ideas and give students a reason to feel indebted to their community. "A sad thing about brilliant kids is that they leave their hometowns and they never come back," Creadon said. "They feel that they have nothing to give back to the community. They never get asked to solve problems in their own town." Creadon said the goal of his documentary is to motivate kids to give back to the institutions that help form them. "This story we're telling is trying to reverse that," he said. "This is about what those kids can do for their community and ultimately become better citizens." Pilloton, who appears in the film, said Bertie County represents a prime example of the demise of rural America. "It's the hollowing out of small towns. The brain drain where the educated and qualified leave and never come back," Pilloton said in the film's opening minutes. In the film, she said orienting new projects around things that the community needs could be vital to public education. She said design and building classes offer the chance to create a different type of classroom, giving youth the opportunity to imagine a new future for themselves. Creadon said the impact of the film has already been recognized outside of Bertie County, in places such as Washington D.C. "The White House asked us to be part of a program called Film Forward where they take four documentaries and screen them worldwide to, essentially, show what America can be," he said. "I think what they see in this film is an educational model that could work everywhere. It could work in small-town America and anywhere overseas." Creadon was proud to return to his alma mater to show his work. "As a third-generation Domer, Notre Dame really meant something to me before I even attended," Creadon said. "What made this place for me would be the professors. I never really knew what I wanted to do and I was majoring in international relations and I was set on a path to law school. It was a head of the Psychology Department Dr. Daniel Lapsley who told me to take a year off before graduate school and it was then when I started my career."