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Alumni Fellows
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Pam Coats • Robert Miller • Jack Borsting
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The College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce the 2004-2005 Alumni Fellow Awards. The following recipients will be honored the weekend of November 12, 2004, and will connect with students in an informal seminar while on campus to discuss their career paths and offer advice relevant to emerging graduates.
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| Seeing Success: Pam Coats |
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| Pam Coats ’84 |
In the almost sixteen years she has worked for the Walt Disney Company, Pam Coats (M.F.A ’84, Theatre Arts) has worked on over a dozen movies in a variety of capacities, including Tarzan, Toy Story 2, Lilo and Stitch, Brother Bear, and Finding Nemo. But the animated film closest to her heart is the 1998 release Mulan, which she spent five years producing. Based on one of the most famous legends in China, Mulan tells the tale of young girl who masquerades as a boy so she can go to war in her injured father’s place. Coats says she takes pride in the empowering message “Mulan” sends to young girls: “They can do anything they want and succeed at it.”
A large international audience responded to Mulan’s message. While less than 5 percent of movies break $100 million, Mulan grossed more than $236 million worldwide. At the time of its release, Mulan had the fourth largest debut of any animated film in history, grossing nearly $23 million during its opening weekend.
Coats says she still receives comments on the power of the film, particularly from fathers: “Dads like movies that send messages to their daughters telling them they can be anything they want to be.”
Aside from the personal satisfaction of seeing Mulan’s message take hold with her audience, Coats’ work earned industry honors as well. Her tenure on Mulan earned her the Annie Award for “Most Outstanding Individual Achievement for Producing in an Animated Feature Production.” The Annie Awards are the highest honor given for excellence in animation.
Now Vice President of Creative Affairs for Walt Disney Feature Animation, Coats supervises the creative development of animated movies in production and pre-production. From finding new material to picking and mentoring the creative artists and story artists who are actually drawing the film, Coats says the directing skills she developed at the UO are put to use everyday.
Coats came to Oregon from the Utah State University, where she received her B.F.A. in Theatre Arts, because there was a “fabulous theater department [that] was well-known for its directing and acting.”
Coats’ parents thought that she would “never get a real job” by pursuing theater. But, after graduating from the USU, Coats says she did what she had to do to stay connected with the arts — for the simple reason that she loved theater. She started off in Los Angeles working as a real-estate office assistant while doing odd theatre jobs during the evening. Her “evening work” ultimately led to full time theatre work, running box offices and managing a small theatre company.
Eventually, while working for the Los Angeles Arts Festival, Coats was recruited to Disney, beginning in an entry level position on The Rescuers Down Under in 1989. However, Coats’ talent was soon recognized with promotions to Associate Production Manager and then Production Manager for Development in 1991.
Her initial adventures as a full-fledged producer landed her in Florida, where she worked on the Roger Rabbit short, “Trail Mix-Up.” She also executive produced “Runaway Brain,” which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996 for best animated short feature.
Coats moved from the production world to the executive ranks in 1998, when she returned to California to assume the position she currently holds. One of the few women in the leadership position at Disney Feature Animation, Coats’ own personal story is in some ways like the story of a young warrior Mulan, a woman whose extraordinary devotion to the people and things she cared about forged a unique path to success. . .
“It’s important to hang on to your passion,” says Coats. “That’s what led me here.”
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| Trailblazing Robert Miller |
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Bob Miller ’64
(Photo: Jim Block) |
Ten years after graduating from the UO with a degree in sociology, F. Robert Miller ’64 began work with British Petroleum Scicon computing services, where he eventually became CEO. How does a sociologist find his way into business? The same way he finds his way from business into public service: through a fascination with systems and organizations, and an interest in people.
Miller’s schooling started out with a broad base at the UO, taking a lot of science classes and then being “drawn in” to social science through sociology. “The good thing about exploring in that way,” says Miller, “is that your education teaches you to think critically, to communicate effectively.” He adds that progressing in business means you also need to be able to work in diverse environments with diverse people, a fact to which Miller’s own resume — and zeal for travel — attests.
A couple years after graduating, Miller earned a competitive grant for study in Europe while he was enrolled in the International Business program at University of California, Berkeley. Miller says he was also fortunate enough to be supported by PacBell through grad school, then hired by them upon graduation.
“At that time in my life, I was trying to divine what I was interested in,” says Miller. Both his social interests and business prowess led him to work for the Rand Corporation a think tank in Santa Monica. His UO studies about urban problems weren’t all that unrelated to the human services programs — such as fire and police operations — that he ended up working with at Rand.
“Throughout my career, I’ve tried to improve the effectiveness of organizations by bringing them a systems approach.” So, it wasn’t a difficult leap to make, to go from studying social organization to analyzing corporate and government ones.
However, Miller ended up spending the bulk of his career thinking about a completely different system — computers. While working for Scicon, he helped to develop the systems integration techniques for environmental testing, refining the automotive “smog check” process that is now being implemented in twenty states.
After Scicon, Miller worked at the helm of two other environmental services companies. Though he and his staff were continually developing and implementing profitable new hardware and software technologies, Miller emphasizes that “a lot of the detailed technological skills learned are somewhat transitory. It’s comes down to effective problem solving, effective communication, and knowing how to motivate and work with and through people.”
Envirotest became the leading provider of emission inspection services and saw its market capitalization increase from $30 million to $275 million under Miller’s leadership.
Now, Miller is blazing a new trail. Though he continues to consult with environmental services companies in his retirement, he’s put his entrepreneurial skills to work for the non-profit sector.
In 2000, he traded his CEO position at Envirotest for one at Entrepreneurs Foundation (EF), a non-profit organization that works with Bay Area technology and life sciences companies to develop community involvement and philanthropic programs as part of their corporate culture.
“It’s about harnessing the talent and the financial resources of the entrepreneurial sector for the good of the community,” says Miller.
Though sometimes newer companies are “scrambling to make their business plan, to stay alive, and get to the next funding milestone,” Miller says that EF has made it appealing for them to get involved in the community.
“CEOs are not myopic. They know that a strong community will be more supportive of their companies. Corporate community involvement can also be successful in retaining employees.”
Just as he helped build the growth of the environmental services company, Miller’s “systems approach” to the social sector has also caught on. EF currently works with over 100 Bay Area companies and has spawned affiliate organizations in seven other cities, including Portland.
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Mathematician Jack Borsting
Reflects on the Values and Variables of Success |
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| Jack Borsting ’60 |
When Jack Borsting, M.A. ’52, Ph.D. ’60, was asked for advice to students who look to follow his career path, he responded, “My career path has been challenging and diverse with unique opportunities. It is not easy to follow someone else’s career path. Each individual has to structure their career based on their goals and what makes them enjoy their work.”
Since receiving his doctorate degree in mathematics in 1960, Jack Borsting’s career has taken him many places, from the Air Force to the Pentagon to the University of Southern California.
Originally from Portland, Borsting received his bachelor degree from Oregon State University (OSU) before coming to the University of Oregon (UO) for graduate work. An OSU professor recommended the UO due to its strength in statistics.
Though Borsting says he’s enjoyed every position he’s had, he takes the most pride in his time at the United States Department of Defense. In the early 1980s, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. In this position, he served as Chief Financial Officer, running the Defense Department’s information and budgeting systems. The Department of Defense has twice honored his work with its Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
Before he was appointed to the Department of Defense, Borsting served as Provost and Academic Dean at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. After the Pentagon experience, Borsting returned to his academic roots as Dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of Miami.
A few years later, Borsting became Dean and Robert Dockson Professor of Business Administration of the University of Southern California’s School of Business Administration. After leaving the Dean’s position, Borsting became Executive Director of USC’s Center for Telecom Management. Now Dean Emeritus, Borsting continues to follow a passion for teaching at USC’s Marshall School of Business.
In addition to his academic position, Borsting has made significant contributions to professional organizations in his field. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Institute for Operations Research & the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the Military Operations Research Society (MORS), and the International Engineering Consortium (IEC). He also has served as past president of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) and MORS. Both ORSA and MORS have honored Borsting with their distinguished service award.
He has also been awarded OSU’s distinguished service award and he has served on eight public company boards and also several non-profit boards.
Though his career path may be too diverse for future generations to follow, Borsting offered advice for recent college graduates: “Set goals, but look for opportunities. Always be willing to change.”
Borsting also suggested that students should strive to stay in contact with their classmates after graduation: “Establishing a long term network of people is very important.”
One classmate that Borsting has maintained contact with over the years is Mary Alice Wetzel, a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council. “The life long contact that I have had with Jack and his wife, Peggy, has allowed me to follow Jack’s outstanding and varied career,” Wetzel said. “He is a great person to honor with this distinguished award because he has used his education to develop not only a varied career but also to participate in many forms of public service.”
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The nominations of your distinguished classmates are welcome! Please send your notes of support to alumnidev@cas.uoregon.edu, or forward materials to the Development Office, UO College of Arts and Sciences, 1245 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1245.
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1245 University of Oregon • Eugene, OR • 97403-1245
(541) 346.3950 • FAX (541) 346.3282 • alumnidev@cas.uoregon.edu
Copyright © 2004 University of Oregon
Updated October 28, 2004
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