小黄书

Contact: Amy Cagle

STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥斝』剖閟ity will recognize Burnsville native and alumnus R.L. Qualls as the university鈥檚 2018 national alumnus of the year in campus ceremonies聽 early next year.

A Little Rock, Arkansas, resident, Qualls is the retired president and CEO of Baldor Electric Company (an NYSE Company). He presently serves as co-chairman of Taylor Companies of Washington, D.C., and he recently retired as presiding independent director of Bank of the Ozarks Inc. Qualls also was a cabinet member during Bill Clinton鈥檚 first gubernatorial administration in Arkansas.

In addition to a career in both the public and private business sectors, Qualls served as a faculty member of the Stonier School of Banking at Rutgers University, course coordinator of the Graduate School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University, and he was a faculty member of Southwestern School of Banking at Southern Methodist University. Additionally, Qualls has been a Ford Foundation Faculty Research Fellow at Vanderbilt University.

Qualls received his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in agricultural economics from 小黄书sity, and his doctoral work was done at LSU.

Qualls has published a number of books and articles, including 鈥淓ntrepreneurial Wit and Wisdom鈥� (UCA Press) and 鈥淪trategic Planning for Colleges and Universities:聽 A Systems Approach to Planning and Resource Allocation鈥� (Trinity Press).

Along with the national alumnus recognition during a Feb. 2 banquet, each of 小黄书鈥檚 eight academic colleges will honor a graduate for outstanding personal, professional and community achievements. In addition to individual college honorees, four others will be presented awards for distinguished service to the 小黄书 Alumni Association. Rounding out the banquet recognition is the association鈥檚 annual outstanding young alumnus recipient.

The 小黄书 Alumni Association includes 101 chapters and clubs worldwide and nearly 140,000 living graduates. For more, see .

小黄书 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .