Local Businessman Receives International Honor Society’s Achievement Award

Keith Busse, chairman and CEO of Steel Dynamics, Inc., was formally presented with the Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) 2010 Business Achievement Award last night (Monday, April 26, 2010) by James Viehland, executive director of BGS. The award was announced last week at the BGS International Honoree Luncheon in Anaheim, Calif.

Busse was nominated for the award by Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) faculty members Dr. Michael Slaubaugh and Dr. Janet Papiernik of the Department of Accounting and Finance in the Richard T. Doermer School of Business and Management Sciences. They are also the co-advisors of IPFW’s BGS chapter. 

One to four individuals have been presented the award each year. This year there are two other recipients, Joseph J. Plumeri, chairman and CEO of Willis Group holdings, and Robert S. Reitman, former CEO of Trazonic Companies. According to the BGS Web site, “"ndividuals are nominated...on the following criteria:

• Significant accomplishment in business demonstrated through an individual’s position, career progress, leadership, financial/market share results, and community impact;
• Evidence of significant generosity through enhancement of a community or an educational institution;
• The significant accomplishment in business and the evidence of generosity may be over a career or the past 5 to 10 years;
• Evidence of continued and/or further service to humanity beyond the acts of generosity; and
• The nominees shall have been a model of ethical business leadership in his or her career and have exemplified the highest honor and integrity consistent with the ideals of Beta Gamma Sigma."

Otto Chang, dean of Doermer School of Business, noted what an honor the award is for both Busse and IPFW. "We are very pleased to be the first AACSB business school in the state of Indiana to nominate the first Hoosier to win this distinguished international award. We are very proud of Mr. Busse's business achievement and his unwavering commitment and support to education. He well deserved this worldwide recognition," said Chang.

Beta Gamma Sigma is the international honor society serving college and university business programs that are accredited by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Only ten percent of all business schools worldwide receive the AACSB International accreditation. Membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest recognition a business student can achieve in a program accredited by AACSB International.