NW Illinois Economic Development Annual Meeting
NW Illinois Economic Development Annual Meeting's guest speaker was Vicki TenHaken. TenHaken has been a professor of management at Hope College since 2000. As the Ruch Director of the Baker Scholars program at Hope College, she has guided a select group of honors business students, developing their leadership potential and business professionalism in experiences regionally, nationally and abroad, including trips to Panama, China and India. She led the college’s Japan May Term in 2004 where she met professor Makoto Kanda who would become her partner in researching long-lived companies.TenHaken worked in corporate settings for more than 25 years before joining the Hope faculty. Her positions included executive vice president of strategy, general manager of a successful new business venture, vice president of marketing, director of new business development and corporate planning at Herman Miller, Inc., and human resources management roles at both Herman Miller, Inc. and General Electric.
Her publications include the 2016 book Lessons from Century Club Companies: Managing for Long-Term Success; several papers on topics of leadership and corporate longevity; and a handbook for new managers. In 2007, she received an award through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program to teach and conduct research in Krakow, Poland.
TenHaken has served on the Board of Trustees for Resthaven Patrons, a health care and housing organization for seniors, and West Michigan Regional Airport. Prior to joining the faculty, she was also a member of Hope College's Board of Trustees.
NW Illinois Economic Development is proud to celebrate the 100-year-old businesses in our region. Our panel of Century Club
companies was moderated by Professor Tenhaken as we celebrated the past, discussed century-long successes, and previewed future plans.
