Page 44 - BusinessWest May 30, 2022

AIC
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vinced him that his future shouldn’t be in dentistry.
“I believe in the value of mentor- ship, not only because it helps people move forward with their professional aspirations, but because mentors find in you what you may not have found in yourself,” he explained. “He saw in me a skill set, a desire for professional growth, a desire to work in higher edu- cation ... he once told me ‘I don’t think you should stay in dental schools — I see you as a holistic administrator.”
This same mentor advised him that he would need a Ph.D., or another one, to be exact, this one in higher educa- tion administration, which he earned at Saint Louis University’s College of Education and Public Service.
He then “went through the aca- demic ranks,” as he put in, serving
in a number of capacities, including adjunct faculty, full-time faculty, pro- gram director, assistant dean, dean, provost, and chief academic officer, before becoming president and CEO of Saint Luke’s College of Health Sciences.
There, as noted earlier, he helped orchestrate a merger with Rockhurst, a union that was different from many of this type because Saint Luke’s was successful at the time, not struggling as many schools are when they look to merge with a larger institution.
“This was the case of two very strong academic institutions, financial- ly healthy academic institutions, com- ing together with a common vision,” he explained. “Our merger became an example of how two strong institutions can come together, as opposed to tra- ditional mergers, where one institution has troubles and the other one does not, and I was proud to be part of that process.”
As noted, he would go on to vice president for Strategic Initiatives and Academic Innovation, and as acting chief inclusion officer at Rockhurst.
He was in that role, when, without the encouragement of any recruiters, he applied for the position of president
Whalley
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store data on the cloud. Sheil explained some clients want to store all their data remotely in the cloud, others choose to split between the cloud and on-prem- ise servers, while other clients prefer to keep their on-premise storage. Having expertise in cloud storage has helped Whalley clients get around some sup- ply chain issues.
“When clients order a storage device and then learn it will be up to six months before they see it, we can offer them cloud storage while they wait,” Sheil said. “When their device finally arrives, they can take it off the cloud. It gives them flexibility.”
In addition to shipping products out the door, Whalley has seen growth in
at AIC, earned the opportunity to inter- view for it, and eventually visited the campus in January. It made quite a first impression, as he recalled.
“Sometimes when you visit a cam- pus, and I’ve had the privilege of visit- ing many, you get a feeling, or you get what I call a vibe when you visit an aca- demic institution,” he said. “My wife and I left this college and we looked at each other, and we knew it felt right.”
During that visit, he said he met with a number of faculty, staff, and students, who collectively presented a picture of what they were looking for in the school’s next president.
He summed it all up this way: “They said they were looking for someone who could help them and help this institution become prominent in the community while continuing to serve that demographic of student, and continue to provide that access,” he recalled. “If you hear that, and I look back at my story, you can’t be more mission-aligned and vision-aligned; it’s an alignment of the mission to who I am.”
Course of Action
Getting back to his unusual start date, Benitez said it has been beneficial in a number of ways, especially in the manner in which it has enabled him
to get a head start on his work, and do a lot of that ‘learning and doing’ he mentioned.
The ‘doing’ part concerns every- thing from commencement to putting the budget together for the new year, he said, adding that the ‘learning’ takes many forms and is ongoing.
For starters, it involves meeting with every employee on the payroll, he said, adding that this is what he did when he was president of Saint Luke’s Col- lege of Health Sciences, an exercise that became a tremendous learning experience.
“First and foremost, I need to know my colleagues’ aspirations — what are their needs?” he explained. “I always say that people come first, and if I can learn to understand each and every
its managed- services area, which Sheil explained as the first line of defense for the client.
“With remote workers logging in at all hours of the day, internal IT staffs are straight out keeping their systems going,” Sheil said. “From our data cen- ter, our managed services staff may see a problem developing before it actu- ally becomes a problem.” Using the example of a defective hard drive, Sheil said his staff would notify the client’s IT director and immediately replace the device.
“In many cases, before the client is even aware of a potential issue, there’s an overnight envelope on its way with a new hard drive,” Sheil said. “In this way we can be an extra set of eyes for
person’s personal and professional aspirations, I can serve them better. You don’t learn about an institution until you’ve talked to its people.”
Benitez said he’s already met
with senior staff and many groups of employees, and has a schedule packed with one-on-one interviews for the next few months.
He’s also meeting with students, tak- ing in events, meeting with the faculty senate and individual faculty members, all in an effort to learn more about the school, where its stakeholders want to take it, and how it will get there.
“But while learning, we’re also doing,” he said, adding that he and team members have been preparing for both the new school year and the first “envisioning exercise,” as he called it.
“We’re already gathering a group of faculty, staff, and administrators in a room and start to envision what the future of AIC is going to look like,” he said.
“There has to be ownership of the vision, “he went on. “It’s not ‘here’s the president’s vision and others will execute it’ — in my mind, that will never work; it will never have owner- ship. People need to feel that they belong and that they have a sense of ownership.”
As for his own vision for the school, Benitez said he wants an AIC that is heavily involved in the community and responsive to the constantly changing needs of its students, the community, and area businesses.
“It’s not ‘what can the community do for AIC?’ On the contrary; it’s ‘what can AIC do for the community?’” he explained. “I see an AIC that is vibrant, that creates an environment where, when I walk through the corridors of this institution, it feels like home for all. I should be able to walk the campus and say ‘do you feel at home here?’ If I hear everyone saying ‘yes,’ I think we’re doing our job.”
While working on the visioning pro- cess, and as part it, Benitez said he will continue and hopefully broaden AIC’s
them.”
Security is an area that continues to
grow and remains essential.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth in
the products we sell for cyber security,” Sheil said. “We also provide knowledge to our clients so they can prevent ran- somware attacks and other threats.”
Screen Test
When he looks to the future, Sheil admits that as a sales professional for 34 years, he always sees the glass as half full. After Whalley found success despite a pandemic and a supply chain crunch that continues, he believes the company is now poised for explosive growth.
“Before COVID you would get a
mission of providing access and oppor- tunities, work that has become the focal point of his own career in higher education.
“My focus has always been on creat- ing opportunities for access, for diver- sity, for equity, for inclusion,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s been on working with minority populations and creat- ing pathways into higher education
for demographics of students where higher education is not always seen as a viable option.
“Some of my colleagues will say ‘it makes sense to you — you come from a Latino background, a demographic group under-represented not only in the health professions but in educa- tion in general,’” he said. “And I say ‘yes, it does make sense to me, but it’s the right thing to do.’ And that’s why I’ve devoted the majority of my career to that work of creating transitions, pathways, and pipelines for students from under-represented backgrounds to arrive in higher education, earn a degree, and obtain a better way of liv- ing for themselves.”
Grade Expectations
Benitez said he shook more than 600 hands during those commence- ment exercises earlier this month, which he described as a humbling experience in many respects.
Most humbling were those wishes for good luck from the students, he said, adding that they certainly reso- nated with him.
He understands there are many challenges facing the school, from the uncertainties stemming from the pan- demic, to ongoing enrollment issues stemming from smaller high school graduating classes and a host of other issues, to that ongoing task of creating more pathways to higher education.
He not only understands them, he embraces them and wants to tackle them head on. That’s why he took this job, and that’s why he took that early start. There’s plenty of work to do, and he wanted to get right to it. u
quote, get a PO, order the product,
it comes within a week and we can install it the next week,” Sheil said. “If we can get back to that type of normal business environment, I believe our company will experience tremendous growth.”
In seven years, the company will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Sheil said he’s excited about the upcoming anniversary while he reflected on how far Whalley has come.
“It’s good to know that we’re a com- pany where you can stay more than 30 years and have a career,” he said. “We want to keep on growing our business while at the same time remain a great place to work in the future.” u
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