Buisness

            On April fourth, 2003 at eleven o"clock AM I attended the Ruth Butler Executive in Residence Program to hear John Ruli, a former Marshall University student, speak. The majority of the audience was Marshall Students; a few others were faculty and staff. There were approximately sixty-five audience members present. Most of the audience members were business majors; others were there for extra credit in a certain class I was a captive audience member because it was mandatory for my Microeconomics class to attend. The majority of the rest of the audience were voluntary. The composition of the audience varied in gender, religion, and ethnicity. The average age was probably about twenty-one, with a few exceptions for faculty and staff. The education level was college and above. John Ruli spoke about how to be successful in the business world. .
             Prior to the speech I was given a hand out with information about the speaker. He is currently the Chief Administrative Officer of the Simon Property Group, the world's largest publicly traded retail real estate Company. He is primarily responsible for Human Resources and Administration for Meret Inc. Mr. Ruli and his wife currently live in Carmel Indiana, with their four children. The speaker was introduced by one of the staff members of the Lewis College of Business. Mr. Ruli was qualified to speak due to the fact that he has worked his way from director of Human Resources at Lazarus Department stores to the Chief Administrative Officer of the Simon Property Group. He was also a Marshall student which everyone in the room a connection with him. He has been in the business world long enough to know what it takes to make your way to the top, he has done it. The initial impression I got from Mr. Ruli was that he was a nice guy that was here because he wanted all Marshall Students to succeed the way he has. He established good ethos, he was funny and relaxed, and it seemed that he loved what he did.