Category: Past Speakers

Dr. Christopher Puto ’64 was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2003. He is a well-known leader in business education and has held management positions in the private sector. He most recently was the Dean and Opus Distinguished Chair of the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas. Prior to that, he served as Dean of the Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Puto’s academic specialties are marketing strategy, consumer and managerial decision-making and advertising. He was the first person to receive a Ph.D. in business administration from Duke University. Puto has an M.B.A. from the University of Miami (Fla.) and a B.S. in economics from Spring Hill College. He has won several research and teaching awards, including the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Consumer Research Award for significant long-term contributions to consumer research, and the Anderson Consulting Professor of the Year at the University of Arizona.

AMY M. RICE
Amy moved to Mobile Alabama a little over a year ago after living in Hawaii for 25 years. She graduated from the University of Maine and is a licensed civil engineer and also holds an associates degree in architectural engineering. The majority of her career has been spent working on large scale real estate projects throughout the Hawaiian islands. She has been involved in a variety of projects including affordable housing, luxury residential neighborhoods, high rise condos, private beach clubs, large lot subdivisions, waste water treatment plants, archaeological digs, and even golf course construction. The last 5 years in Hawaii Amy was employed by the US District Courts overseeing a $120 million dollar renovation of the Hawaii Federal Courthouse, while it was in use and occupied.
Amy transferred with the Courts to the Southern Alabama District to oversee the construction of the new courthouse as well as the renovation of the James Campbell courthouse in downtown Mobile. She lives in Baldwin County and has become a member of the Fairhope Yacht Club.

Biography: Tony Zodrow, Executive Director
For over 25 years, Tony Zodrow has served as an administrator for educational non-profits including a private university, two large museums and, for the past 10 years, as the founding Executive Director of GulfQuest, also known as the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico.
Since 2005, Zodrow has worked with the GulfQuest Board of Trustees and the City of Mobile to fund and establish the new interactive maritime museum’s exhibits and facilities. Featuring 90 interactive exhibits, simulators, displays and theaters, GulfQuest will be the first maritime museum dedicated to the Gulf of Mexico’s rich maritime heritage and culture. GulfQuest will open to the public on Saturday, September 26.
Prior to GulfQuest, Zodrow served as CEO of McWane Science Center, a $43 million interactive museum in downtown Birmingham, where he spearheaded an expansion that enabled the museum to host blockbuster exhibitions such as Titanic, Tutankhamun, and Einstein. During his tenure, Zodrow increased museum attendance and revenue through innovative programming and marketing strategies.
Before McWane Science Center, Zodrow served as Deputy Director of Omniplex, Oklahoma’s premier science center, in Oklahoma City. Zodrow managed fundraising, marketing and public relations and, in 2000, oversaw the marketing launch of the OmniDome Theater, Oklahoma’s first large-format theater ̶ an effort for which Omniplex received the IMAX industry’s top marketing award for the most successful launch of a new theater.
Prior to Omniplex, Zodrow served as Associate Vice President for fundraising, marketing and public relations for Phillips University, a liberal arts university in Enid, OK.
Tony and his wife, Shawna, a third-grade teacher in the Mobile County Public Schools, live in Mobile and have two children, Jackson and Rachel.

Biography of Quin Hillyer
Quin Hillyer is a Contributing Editor of National Review magazine, a Senior Editor for The American Spectator magazine, and a nationally recognized authority on the American political process. He has won mainstream awards for journalistic excellence at the local, state, regional and national levels. He has been published professionally in well over 50 publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, Investors Business Daily, National Review, the Weekly Standard, Human Events, and The New Republic Online. He is a former editorial writer and columnist for the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, the Mobile Register, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and a former Managing Editor of Gambit Weekly in New Orleans. He has appeared dozens of times as a television analyst in Washington DC, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and as a guest well over a thousand times on national and local radio shows.
Hillyer also has worked in professional or volunteer capacities in dozens of political campaigns, and served for five years as press secretary for U.S. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston of New Orleans. He was an original executive board member of the internationally acclaimed Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, formed to halt the then-meteoric political rise of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Hillyer also has volunteered in leadership roles for numerous church, civic, and educational organizations. He is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University, and is a Fellow of the Loyola University (New Orleans) Institute of Politics and of Leadership Coastal Alabama. He is married to the former Therese Robinson of Mobile.
251-656-2820
qhillyer@gmail.com

PRESENTATION TITLE: Rotary’s Relevance from Age 21 to 41
After graduating from Citronelle High School in 1992, Will Edmonds attended the University of Mobile, and graduated in 1997 with majors in International Business and French. Early in college, Will studied in Tours, France at the Institut de Touraine through the University of Alabama’s Capstone College International. Eager to study abroad again, in 1995 Will applied for and received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to study in Brussels, Belgium where he lived with a French-speaking family and attended classes at the Centre de Langues à Louvain La Neuve.
In 2007, Will completed a Master of Education with a concentration in French at the University of South Alabama. In 2009 he achieved National Board Certification for Teachers (NBCT) in the area of World Languages. Will was awarded a STAR research scholarship in 2010 through the University of Alabama at Huntsville to travel to Nova Scotia, Canada and St. Martinville, Louisiana to research the 1755 deportation of the Acadians to Louisiana. From 2005-2012, he served as president of the Mobile Chapter of the Alliance Française.
Will began teaching French at Burns Middle School in 1998 and joined the faculty at Davidson High School in 2001 where he currently teaches French 1-5, as well as AP and IB French. He currently sponsors the Davidson High School French National Honor Society and leads student trips to France every other year. Will is married to Lydia Greene Edmonds, and they have two very active little boys, William (5) and John Rault (2).

PHIL SAVAGE, JR.
Executive Director, Senior Bowl
Named Executive Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl in June of 2012, Phil is a native Mobilian and returned to the Port City after spending 20 years in the National Football League as a coach, scout, personnel director and general manager.
Phil’s “football life” began as a 6-year old quarterback for the Mims Park Redskins, continued at Murphy High School and progressed to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he played football and baseball. Following his graduation in 1987 with a degree in English, his career has included jobs in virtually every aspect of the game. From coaching offense and defense to scouting over 6,000 potential NFL draft picks and now to his latest ventures in the media, he has an all-encompassing perspective of both college and professional football.
Football Timeline:
• 1987-89 University of Alabama, Graduate Assistant/Tight Ends Coach
• 1990 UCLA, Graduate Assistant/Tight Ends Coach
• 1991-93 Cleveland Browns, Defensive Assistant/Defensive Backs
• 1994-95 Cleveland Browns, Area and National Scout
• 1996-02 Baltimore Ravens, Director of College Scouting
• 2003-04 Baltimore Ravens, Director of Player Personnel
• 2005-08 Cleveland Browns, Senior VP and General Manager
• 2010-12 Philadelphia Eagles, Player Personnel Executive
• 2013-present Reese’s Senior Bowl, Executive Director
Media Opportunities:
• 2009-present Crimson Tide Sports Network, Radio Color Analyst
• 2013-present ESPN, “The NFL Insiders”, Contributor and On-Air Talent
• 2013-present SiriusXM Radio, College Sports Nation and NFL Analyst
“I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best and brightest people in football. To have been exposed to coach Homer Smith for offense, Bill Belichick and Nick Saban for defense, Ozzie Newsome for player personnel and Eli Gold for broadcasting, I have been influenced by people at the very top of the sport. And tonight, with that knowledge as a backdrop, I’m looking forward to giving the kind of insight that will help you enjoy football even more. Thanks for being here.” –
Website: www.seniorbowl.com
Twitter: @SeniorBowlPhil
X’s and O’s
During this “quarter”, Phil is going to cover essential football terminology, explain offensive and defensive strategies and, through the use of videotape, give an overall tutorial on how to watch the game.
I. Basic Concepts of Football
A. Offensive Personnel Groupings and Formations
1. Regular = “21” 2RB/1TE/3WR (1st and 2nd Downs)
2. Silver = “12” 1RB/2TE/2WR (1st and 2nd Downs)
3. Blue = “11” 1RB/1TE/3WR (3rd Downs/Sub)
4. Red = “10” 1RB/0TE/4WR (3rd Downs/Sub)
5. Black = “23” 2RB/3TE (Short Yardage/GL)
B. Defensive Structures and Alignments
1. Base Even = “4-3” 4DL/3LB/4DB (1st and 2nd Downs)
2. Base Odd = “3-4” 3DL/4LB/4DB (1st and 2nd Downs)
3. Nickel = “4-2” 4DL/2LB/5DB (3rd Downs/Sub)
4. Dime = “4-1” 4DL/1LB/6DB (3rd Downs/Sub)
5. Hippo = “5-3” 5DL/3LB/3DB (Short Yardage/GL)
II. Videotape Review
A. Position Breakdown
B. Down/Distance
C. Personnel and Formations vs. Structures and Alignments
D. Run Plays
E. Pass Plays
F. Coverages
G. Pressures/Blitzes
III. Q&A
Introduction (6:15)
1. Welcome to the 1st Annual Girls of Fall/so pleased
-history/idea/added features/name/future
2. Poll: college/NFL fans, husband/boyfriend are fans,
son/husband/nephew playing football
3. Quick overview of Quarters (X’s and O’s, Officiating, Tailgating/Food Ideas, Fashion)
-David Smith, Panini Pete Blohme and PS
-air horn signals 2-minute warning and end of QTR
-10-minute break between QTR’s (rotate 3x/4th Fashion)
-Girls of Fall t-shirts available for $15
4. Cannot start game without National anthem (Dorothy Savage)
5. Thanks to AL.com and Press-Register for co-sponsoring this event
6. Get you ready with Snap Count drill
Pre-Fashion Show (8:00pm)
1. Covered classroom and the kitchen, now your closet!
2. Before we turn the program over to Lenise Ligon/Fox10 and begin the Fashion Show
3. Few comments about your role as a woman re: football
-not an easy game: PT, inj, losses, dedication of time/energy
-although you may never throw a pass or make a tackle, a very important role to play…BE THERE!
-CS: practices/Elvis, injuries/HS and college, crushing moments to SB35 win…always there!
-HS: Bible verse when needed most/Rom 8:28…was there!
-DTS: being hired as a GM at 39 and fired 4 years later, the emotional ups and downs of winning/losing in the NFL, getting the ‘Bama radio job and celebrating as much or more than the subsequent 3 BCS titles
-my point is that whether it’s your own husband, son, grandson, nephew or neighborhood kid, you might be the only encourager he is ever going to get
-DEPENDABILITY and RELIABILITY mean much more than pure ABILITY alone…will YOU be there?
4. “Boys of Fall”, here to sing our own rendition and dedicated to you, the “Girls of Fall”, Mr. Brad Hill
Post-Fashion Show (for LL)
1. Thank you so much for being here, see you in 2014!
2. Vendor booths will remain open
3. Overtime Q&A in segment rooms
Post-Mortem
-30-minute window for pre-game time
-signs for kickoff/start
-colored signs will move to rooms
-4 groups/rotate through 3 rooms and vendors
-move kickoff/fashion show to main ballroom (or extend room)
-earlier date?
-T-shirts: pink/black (order earlier)
-fashion show: more football-oriented and shorter
-another venue: AL.com (Birmingham)
-sponsors: Regions Bank, Red Diamond, Blue Rents
-other ideas: Sarah Thomas, equipment/apparel, walk-thru,
more interactive, etc

Jerry Carl is new to the business of political service, but an old hand at the business of making successful businesses.
A native of Mobile, the District 3 Mobile County Commissioner has started, built and sold numerous businesses. His professional experience, along with an abiding interest in the welfare of his community, brought him into the realm of public service.
He and a contingent of supporters in District 3 campaigned in the November 2012 election cycle to seat Mr. Carl as representative of the vast southern district of Mobile County, stretching from Mobile Bay to downtown Mobile and west Grand Bay.
The commissioner continues to manage his businesses. A sampling of his entrepreneurial efforts during his 30-year career includes:
• Manufacturing / Church furniture.
• Wholesale Sales / Independent Sales Rep group of Home Medical Equipment and Funeral Home supplies.
• Retail Sales / Open 20 plus retail locations supplying Home Medical Equipment and Supplies across multiple states / Pharmacy’s specializing in Inhalation Solutions and bleeding disorders.
• Timber sales & management / Cricket & Butterfly, LLC
• Developer / Developed River Oaks subdivision in Orrville, AL, as well as West Side Park a commercial office development on Schillinger Road.
But his proudest accomplishment is being married to his wife, Tina, for more than 30 years, raising his three kids, focusing on his four grandchildren and service as a deacon at his Luke 4:18 Church.
Other service work includes church missions as far away as Africa.
For leisure, Mr. Carl enjoys the outdoors with a dose of adventure. He is an avid hunter, fisherman, skydiver, scuba diver, and an airplane pilot.

BIO OF SY LICHTENFELD
Sy Lichtenfeld served almost three years in the U.S.Army during World War II in airborne and combat infantry units as a rifleman. He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge after his unit was surrounded for three days and had run out of food and ammunition. He was taken prisoner at the point of a bayonet and spent over five months as a Prisoner of War in Germany.
The war Department has awarded him the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, The Purple Heart, The Bronze Star, the Prisoner of War Medal, World War II Battle of the Bulge Medal, The European Theatre of Operations Medal with three battle clusters, as well as many others for his years of service.
After the war, he attended Purdue University and obtained a degree in engineering and operated successful businesses in Chicago and Miami. He resided in Miami for 47 years with his wife, Natalie and their three children. In February 2011, Sy & Natalie relocated to Mobile to be near family.
He has been very active in the American EX-Prisoners of War Organization having served as a Commander of three EX-POW Chapters and on the Board of Directors of the Florida Dept of Ex-POWs. He was a Veterans Service Officer for many years helping other Vets in obtaining their benefits.
He is presently active in the South Alabama Veterans Council, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Alabama Chapter No.1 of the Rolling Thunder and various Veteran Service Organizations. In addition, he travels throughout Mobile and Baldwin counties educating school children and others about World War II.
In April 2014, he was appointed by the Governor of the State of Alabama to serve as a member of the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs.
The Library of Congress has accepted his book which he has written about his experiences in the Army as a Prisoner of War.