Top-level corporate alumni speak to Kelley students

Illustrating what a degree from the Kelly School of Business can do, several successful alumni returned to campus Friday to speak about their leadership roles and share with current students lessons they've learned from the job market.\nTony DiSalle, the vice president of sales, services and marketing at OnStar, spoke about the marketing techniques he has picked up along his career path. \n"Stand for something meaningful, and build a platform the brand can stand on," DiSalle said. \nHe also stressed the importance of the company's motto, "Always there, always ready."\nMBA student Brandon Ross had an internship at the OnStar headquarters this past summer working alongside DiSalle. \n"Tony's office was just three cubes down from mine," Ross said jokingly. He has recently accepted a job offer with Onstar for next year and will be relocating to Detroit. \nOne of the other alumni speakers was Ken Calwell, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Domino's Pizza. \n"Ken has been through a lot to get to where he is today, but he is driven, and it shows," said the co-chair of the conference, professor Tom Hustad. \nCalwell began his speech by telling the audience about the lawn mower business he maintained during the day and the classes he attended early in the morning and late at night in his home state of Kansas. \n"I applied to IU with a promise to work hard and achieve, and that's pretty much all I had going for me," Calwell said. "Professor Hustad opened my application letter and gave me a chance. I recently had a survey of the top five most influential people in my life, and professor Hustad was one of them." \nCalwell's ideas contributed a great deal to Domino's marketing techniques. Calwell talked about the most recent Domino's commercial about Brooklyn-style pizza. The idea came from Calwell's first trip to New York City twenty years ago. \n"I was being toured around the city by a Bronx native who was just so full of life," he said. "While walking amongst the skyscrapers, we picked up two slices of pizza, and he said to me, 'What are you doin'? Ya gotta fold the pizza like this.'" \nThis experience of the IU graduate formulated itself into the Domino's commercial that is currently being aired. \nSeveral alumni of the school were in attendance to hear from their fellow graduates.\n"I'm applying what I worked hard to learn here at Kelley every day," said 2003 graduate Kristin Parsons.