Neil and Karen Bonke of Los Altos Establish Professorship at Clarkson University

POTSDAM, NY (11/08/2010)(readMedia)-- A generous gift by Neil and Karen Bonke (BONK-ee) of Los Altos, Calif., has established the Bonke Professorship in Engineering Management at Neil's alma mater, Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.

"My Clarkson education prepared me for a successful career and the multi-disciplinary study approach served me well in the fast-moving, entrepreneurial, high-tech world," says Neil Bonke. "This endowed professorship gives me an opportunity to thank Clarkson, but even more so to help the university pursue even greater excellence."

Neil Bonke is a private investor and director at Novellus Systems Inc. and Sanmina-SCI Corporation. He previously retired as chairman/CEO of Electroglas Inc., where he led a successful IPO in 1993. Electroglas is a manufacturer of semiconductor testing equipment. He graduated from Clarkson in 1964 with a major in industrial distribution (now engineering & management).

Karen Bonke graduated from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1964 and formerly taught school in the Rochester, N.Y., area. She now devotes her time to grandchildren and various service organizations.

R. John Milne has been named the first Neil '64 and Karen Bonke Assistant Professor. Before coming to Clarkson, Milne spent 26 years at IBM, rising to become one of the company's most celebrated engineer-inventors by applying the mathematical techniques of operations research to complex problems in supply chain management.

"We are excited to have John in this role," said School of Business Dean Timothy F. Sugrue. "We are grooming future leaders at Clarkson, and John's knowledge and experience from being a technical leader at IBM will transfer well to our students."

"As a technically oriented, practically focused university and a small, friendly one, Clarkson is a great fit for me," said Milne. "In contrast to other strong programs whose primary goal for students is to turn them into academic theoreticians, at Clarkson the focus is on developing students into future leaders in business."

Milne has more than 40 patents granted and pending. In 2005, he was designated a Master Inventor by IBM, where he has most recently worked as a senior engineer. That year he won the prestigious Daniel H. Wagner Prize from the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) for co-developing efficient methods for solving a mixed integer program for semiconductor supply chain optimization.

Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in six alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.