2006 Honorary Degree
William B. Wylam
Doctor of Engineering
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He is recently retired from Remy International in Anderson, Ind., where he was corporate director of technology and now serves as president of International Energy, LLC, and chairman of Electricore Inc., both in Indianapolis, where he lives.
Wylam was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and moved to Muncie, Ind., at age 12. He earned his bachelor of science degree in metallurgical engineering in 1957 from Purdue in West Lafayette, where he was president of Dover Co-op House, president of the Student Cooperative Association and a member of the Reamer Club.
He has spent his entire professional career with Delco Remy (now Remy International), formerly a division of General Motors Corporation, in various positions in Anaheim, Calif., plus Muncie, Anderson and Indianapolis in Indiana. Wylam was the driving force in the 1970s behind Delco’s maintenance free lead-acid battery, which remains the industry standard today. In the late 1980s, he was responsible for establishing Delco Remy ventures in Korea, Brazil and China. Through a family partnership, he established International Energy in 1997 to advance international business development in energy-related fields.
In 1990 Wylam became chief engineer of a technology development group that made great strides in electric vehicle propulsion systems, making Delco Remy one of the leading players in these technologies. On behalf of Delco Remy, he was instrumental in establishing the Electricore Consortium, an Indiana-based non-profit corporation that organizes public-private partnerships to conduct research and development projects in the area of advanced manufacturing and electric vehicle technologies. He has been chairman of its board of directors since its inception. Electricore has managed projects totaling nearly $150 million since its founding in 1992.
Wylam has been a member of the Dean’s Industry Advisory Council of the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI since 1997, while his community activities include serving as a board member for the Madison County United Way, Anderson Symphony Orchestra, and Boy Scouts of America.