Mendoza Exchange

Great work, team!

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 16 September 2019
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Not only did our football team have an impressive showing this weekend, the College also got off to a great start with two kickoff events:

On Friday, Tom Mendoza delivered the first talk in the new Dean’s Speaker Series on the topic “Building a Vibrant Workplace Culture in Good Times and Bad.” Tom, who recently retired as the vice chairman of NetApp, spoke candidly about leading a company through disruptive change and the importance of building a culture of respect and transparency. I was thankful to see a full auditorium — more than 325 people attended, including faculty, staff, students and visitors. If you missed it, I encourage you to watch the video, which will be posted to the Dean’s Speaker Series website. I want to especially thank Jean Meade, who organized the event and the lunch with students that followed. There are two more talks scheduled for this fall:

  • Oct. 11: Joe Ucuzoglu, CEO of Deloitte
  • Nov. 22: Robert Jackson, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner

The second terrific event was the Mendoza tailgate on Saturday before the game. Our tailgates are always fun times, but the committee has gone above and beyond this year in making these memorable events. Everywhere you looked around the atrium and courtyard, people were enjoying the great food, games, special T-shirt giveaways and most importantly, a sense of community among the 1,064 students, alums, faculty, staff and friends.

I appreciate the hard work, creativity and hospitality of tailgate committee members Kelli Kilpatrick, Jim Cunningham, Nick Farmer, Joan McClendon, Joseph Torma, Sarah Carruthers (Development), Deb Coch and Jenna Schiemer, as well as of the many student workers who helped.

If you didn’t make it Saturday, you have two more chances:

Oct. 12, 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (ND vs USC)
Nov. 16, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (ND vs Navy)


It’s a great privilege to host events such as these that give us a chance to learn and relate to each other beyond our daily jobs. I plan to attend all of the Dean’s Speaker Series talks and the tailgates, and hope to see you there.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn