Commencement Speakers Have Entrepreneurship in Common

 

Two “self-made” professionals will address 2015 graduates at The University of Findlay’s Commencement on Saturday, May 2.  Although they work in vastly different realms, the speakers are both examples of the drive and perseverance needed to launch and market a successful business.
President, talent acquisition solutions for ADP, Terry Terhark will address graduate students at a 9 a.m. ceremony. Terhark is the founder and former CEO of The RightThing, a recruitment process outsourcing firm, which was acquired by ADP in 2011. Starting his bachelor’s degree after he had built and sold a successful company, Terhark is a 2006 graduate of UF’s College of Business with a major in business management
Terhark founded The RightThing in 2003 and built a client list that included companies such as Kellogg, Johnson & Johnson, Northwest Airlines, Harvard University and Wal-Mart. The company was named for his personal philosophy, “If you do the right things, good things will happen.”
Prior to founding The RightThing, Terhark was founder and CEO of Selective Staffing Inc., which was acquired by Aon in 1998. From 1998-2003, he served as senior vice president in Aon’s employment outsourcing group.
In 2012, Terhark and his wife, Betty, committed $1 million to the University’s Give Voice to Your Values Campaign for the renovation of Old Main, as well as creating additional scholarships for graduates of Liberty-Benton High School.
The youngest recipient of the JFK New Frontier Award, Veronika Scott, 25, will speak at the undergraduate ceremony, which starts at 3 p.m. (Doors open at 2 p.m.) Scott is returning for her third speaking engagement at UF. Earlier this spring, she addressed students, faculty and community members as part of the Heminger Business Ethics Lecture Series and was also the keynote speaker at the University’s first annual Teaching Symposium.
Scott is the founder of The Empowerment Plan, a non-profit that employs mostly parents from Detroit’s homeless shelters. Her “product” is a three-layered winter coat that converts into a sleeping bag or a bag for carrying other items. The product idea came about as a project in a Creative Studies class, while Scott was working on her bachelor’s degree.
“We believe in giving second chances to those who want it, and providing warmth to those who need it,” The Empowerment Plan’s website at www.empowermentplan.org explains.
In 2011, Scott received the Industrial Design Society of America’s IDEA Gold Award. She was also named one of CNN’s Ten Visionary Women in 2014.
A total of 949 undergraduate and graduate students will be graduating from UF this spring.
With more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, The University of Findlay offers 54 bachelor’s degree options, 10 master’s degree options, and three doctoral programs. This year will see the first graduates of the Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Writing program which was added in 2013.

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