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	2006 Distinguished Entrepreneurial Alumni Award Winner Rao launched software company MphasiS in 1998 with a partner. When he sold it this summer years later for $380 million, there were 12,000 employees. His approach? “Get involved with things totally unrelated to your company. It puts things back into perspective.” When it comes to work, he said, “Certain things you delegate. You have to have that sense of letting go a little bit. Otherwise, you’ll never grow.” read story
	2006 Distinguished Public Service/Public Sector Alumni Award Winner Vitale is chief administrator for Chicago Public Schools, overseeing 47,000 employees for a salary of one dollar a year. “Some of what I do is actually coaching. That’s part of why I’m here—not just to do work, but also to build some capacity in the organization. We’ve attracted a lot of young people, and they’ve got some fairly significant responsibilities for their age and experience. I want them to do and learn. I consider coaching part of what I do.” read story
	2006 Distinguished Corporate Alumni Award Winner Edwardson served in top spots at Northwest Airlines, Ameritech, and United Airlines before landing the CEO job at the technology distributor Computer Discount Warehouse (CDW) in 2001. At Northwest, he said, “I would let my staff do things the way they wanted, but I’d also let them know I disagreed with what they were going to do. Usually letting them know that, they worked twice as hard to prove me wrong. And most of the time, they were right.” read story
	2006 Distinguished Young Alumni Award Winner Roehm headed up marketing teams at Ford and Chrysler that grabbed the public’s attention with edgy campaigns. In the newly-created position of senior vice president of marketing communications at Wal-Mart, Roehm is responsible for taking the retail giant’s marketing efforts in a new direction. In the automotive industry, Roehm found herself promoted to team leader over peers with 20 years experience. “I think I was able to make it work by saying, ‘I’m in this position to provide leadership and cover, not to tell you how to do your job. What I can do is give you insight and keep the hounds at bay so you can do the things that you know how to do well.’” read story