Boiler Business Exchange announces Hall inductees

INDIANAPOLIS — The Boiler Business Exchange of Indianapolis Inc. has teamed with Purdue's Krannert School of Management for the second year to announce its Business Hall of Fame Class of 2017.

The Business Hall of Fame has been created to acknowledge and showcase business leaders who have achieved exceptional success and have strong ties to Purdue and the state of Indiana.

The class will be inducted at the Krannert Leadership Speakers Series Dinner to be held at the Indiana Roof at 6:30 pm, Sept. 28.  The event highlights include a video introduction of each inductee, along with recognition of several Krannert alumni award recipients. Three distinguished Krannert alumnae will be guest panelists in a panel on leadership moderated by Gerry Dick, host of Inside Indiana Business: Beth Brooke-Marciniak, global vice chair of public policy at EY; Linda Clement-Holmes, officer and adviser to the chairman at Procter & Gamble; and Carolyn Woo, CEO (retired) at Catholic Relief Services.

Net proceeds from the event will be used to fund Krannert scholarships. Individual tickets are $100 ($50 for expenses and $50 that can be considered a charitable contribution). Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.krannert.purdue.edu/events/lss.

The 2017 Class of BBE’s Business Hall of Fame includes:  Sonny Beck, CEO of Beck’s Superior Hybrids; Bill Bindley, chairman of Bindley Capital Partners; Maria Crowe, president of Manufacturing Operations at Eli Lilly & Co.; Tim McGinley, founder of House Investments; and Brian Reichart, president of Red Gold.

Sonny Beck, agronomy ‘62, master’s agricultural economics ’64: Beck joined the family business, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, early out of college and has since helped grow Beck’s Hybrids to now the largest family-owned retail seed company in the United States. His industry leadership accomplishments include: president of the American Seed Trade Association, president of the Indiana Crop Improvement Association, and charter member of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture Advisory Board. The National Agri-Marketing Association named him the 2014 Agribusiness Leader of the Year, that organization’s highest honor.

Bill Bindley, industrial economics ’62: Bindley founded and led Bindley Western Industries, a national pharmaceutical and nuclear pharmacy company that was a Fortune 200 company when it merged with Cardinal Health. That transaction created the largest health care distributor in the world at the time. He also founded Priority Healthcare, a national provider of biopharmaceuticals and therapies for chronic disease states, serving as president, CEO and chairman. He also has been chairman of Guardian Pharmacy, the third-largest institutional pharmacy in the United States. Currently, he is chairman of Bindley Capital Partners, a private-equity firm headquartered in Indianapolis.

Maria Crowe, industrial management ’82: Crowe has spent 35 years with Eli Lilly. She is currently president of manufacturing operations, leading Lilly’s global manufacturing network on several different continents, and has responsibility for Lilly’s contract-manufacturing organization. She was vice president for global drug product manufacturing, which included emerging markets manufacturing, external drug-product operations, and U.S. distribution. She served as Lilly’s vice president for drug product manufacturing in the United States and Latin America, general manager of a Lilly plant in Ireland, general manager of another facility in Puerto Rico, and plant manager of Elanco in Lafayette.

Tim McGinley, chemical engineering ’63: McGinley made his mark both in the classroom and on the basketball court at Purdue. He is an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer as a three-year starter for Purdue, while earning the Lambert Award for the highest grade-point average. McGinley earned his MBA from Harvard and was a White House Fellow under President Lyndon Johnson. He later served as deputy assistant secretary of labor. McGinley was founder of House Investments, a commercial and residential real estate investment firm. He also served 20 years on the Purdue Board of Trustees, including a record 16 as chairman.

Brian Reichart, industrial management ’72: Reichart was working in the family business, Red Gold, before ever becoming a Purdue student. Reichart joined the company after graduation as a plant manager and engineer. Now the company’s president and CEO, he has guided Red Gold through a transformation from a regional and seasonal packer with less than 200 employees to a national supplier of tomato products, employing more than 1,300. Based in Elwood, Indiana, Red Gold is the largest privately-owned tomato-processing company in the world, distributing its product to all 50 states and more than 16 countries. 

Source: Pete Quinn, BBE Chairman, 317-713-2107, peter.quinn@colliers.com, Matt Folk, BBE President, 317-844-8462, mfolk@tmcc.com