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The Williams College of Business

Executives in Residence

The executive-in-residence program in the Williams College of Business is designed to allow for experienced executives to mentor our students and also work with faculty. Our executives-in-residence meet with each entering freshman student and provide them with career mentoring. They also guest lecture in classes and work with the Dean to achieve the mission of the College.

Karen G. Centner

Karen Centner is the founder of e-Com Solutions LLC, a consulting company that has served retailers in the $100M to $5B range, with a particular concentration on multi-channel retailing. Prior to consulting, she spent a 35-year retail career with Macy’s New York, Lands’ End, e-Bags.com and Chico’s. Early in her career Karen’s responsibilities were concentrated in merchandise buying, planning, design, product development, sourcing and marketing. Extensive business travel throughout Asia and Europe ultimately resulted in her overseeing all merchandising functions for Lands’ End in Japan, Germany and the UK. 

Karen was named VP/ GMM for the Lands’ End website, a move that broadened her exposure beyond product to a new and emerging channel for the catalog company. She was a critical player in the launch and growth of the website as well as development of new products and applications, ultimately utilizing and focusing those skills throughout the rest of her corporate career. After Lands’ End Karen spent time at e-Bags.com, an online bag and shoe start-up, as the first VP/GMM and grew it to represent over 500 brands. She completed her corporate career at Chico’s where she was the first VP/GMM for the online channels of Chico’s, White House/Black Market and Soma --- all women’s apparel companies. She grew the web businesses revenue from 2% of total company revenue to over 20% during her tenure. 

Karen has been actively supporting the EMBA program by working with the professors and students of the last two cohorts. The focus of this experiential capstone class is to build a strategic plan for a prominent Cincinnati company by combining learnings from the academic program along with real time data from the target companies, ultimately delivering a strategic plan to each company’s executive team. 

Karen received her MBA from Xavier University, and her BA from Mount St. Joseph University.

Michael J. Conaton

Michael J. Conaton retired as Vice Chairman of the Midland Company, a position he held from 1961. Prior to that he served as controller of The Maloney Company. Conaton was a Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. He earned his B.S. degree from Xavier University and was awarded the Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Xavier. Conaton is Chairman of the board of trustees of Xavier University and also served as its Interim President. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Midland Company and has also served on the Board of Directors of Key Bank, N.A., Society National Bank, Ameritrust Company, Athenaeum of Ohio, and the Metropolitan Club among many others. In addition, Conaton was awarded the Paul L. O'Connor Leadership Award for his contributions to Xavier.

Dr. Daniel Geeding

Daniel Geeding is founder of Guidance Partners LLC, a consulting practice supporting entrepreneurs and nonprofit agencies. Dan most recently managed Interact for Health's financial and investment systems, and is a professor of management (emeritus) and former director of the Center for International Business at Xavier University. He also served as dean of Xavier's Williams College of Business and as director of the college's Center for Management and Professional Development and the Executive MBA Program. Dan currently serves as a director and chairman of the board of directors for both Frisch's Restaurants, Inc. and the Corporation for Findlay Market.

Michael P. Gendron

Mike Gendron is the founding partner of CFO Insight LLC. He has extensive global experience throughout Europe, Latin America and the Far East at companies ranging in size from public "Business Week's Hottest Growth Companies in America" 10 billion dollar global organizations. Industry experience includes high-tech electronics, telecom equipment, FDA regulated operations, and industrial instruments. He is a published book author on topics including international business, mergers and acquisitions, and E-business.

During his career, he has been the CFO in global corporations - both public and private -and has extensive executive experience in Fortune 500 corporations. He was also a partner in a national firm of CFO's. He has led or panicipated in MandA buy/sell transactions in France, Germany, China, Mexico, Canada and the US in industries such as high-tech electronics, telecom equipment, FDA regulated industry and industrial instruments.

He frequently speaks and writes about topics such as mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and E-business, and he maintains a website dedicated to financial management and mergers and acquisitions (https://www.cfoinsight.net)

In addition to flying high-performance airplanes as an instrument rated pilot, Mike enjoys backpacking, skiing, golf and gourmet cooking. He has a BS in Accounting and an MBA in Finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Mike is Vice-chairman of the Management and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board at Xavier University, and a member of numerous private company advisory boards.

Dr. David H. Hehman

David H. Hehman is the retired President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, a $100 billion regional wholesale bank serving more than 700 commercial banks, thrifts, credit unions and insurance companies chartered in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. He currently serves on the board of Brighton Properties, Inc. and Pentegra Retirement Services, Inc. and is an adjunct professor of economics at Xavier. Prior to joining the Federal Home Loan Bank, Dr. Hehman was an assistant professor of economics and finance at Xavier. He received his B.S.B.A. in economics from Xavier and his doctorate in economics from the University of Cincinnati.

Robert McEwan

Robert McEwan worked for GE Aviation for 34 years. During his time with GE, he covered various manufacturing and engineering positions in several disciplines such as supervision, quality, manufacturing engineering and MRP. McEwan was trained and certified in many GE management programs, most notably 6 sigma Black belt and LEAN production systems.

At GE Aviation, McEwan was responsible for the manufacturing and repair of highly sophisticated airfoils, introducing new manufacturing technologies for jet engine components across the supply chain, the delivery work at airfoil shops including 2500 employees, and cost and quality for all airfoil components. He led over 500 manufacturing engineers responsible for industrializing new materials and processes and advanced Aviation engineering to mature these technologies.

During this period for GE he managed other significant operations across the business in both the commercial and military engine divisions. McEwan served as the CF6 program overhaul leader in Ontario, California and plant leader for the Turbine airfoils in the Madisonville, Kentucky facility. He managed the Cincinnati, Ohio manufacturing facility and was responsible for the assembly and test of their most popular engine, the CFM56. His other assignments covered various manufacturing, engineering and services positions.

Robert McEwan has a Masters of Education and general MBA from Xavier University along with a Bachelors of Mathematics from Morehead State University.

Keith Wirtz

Keith Wirtz currently serves as Managing Member and Portfolio Manager for Walrus Partner, LLC., an equity boutique based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this role, he is responsible for both business strategy as well as the activities of the Dividend Growth Portfolio. Prior to joining Walrus in 2013, Mr. Wirtz served as President and CIO for Fifth Third Asset Management, Inc., a position he held for ten years. Earlier, Keith spent eighteen years at Bank of America where he held various senior positions including President and Chief Investment Officer for their Global Investment Division and their institutional asset management subsidiary companies.