The University of Guam connects in a variety of ways with businesses and their executives who do business throughout the region. As such, those relationships are part of the economic impact of the university that trickles down into the community and to the other islands as alumni continue on to do business throughout Micronesia.
Jerry Tan
President
Tan Holdings
“UOG has prepared me well to manage our family business in this region. I had the opportunity to study at UOG while working at the same time in which I gained real life experience. By graduating from UOG, it allowed me to continue strong networking with my high school and college classmates which has been so helpful in a small island community.
“Recognizing the high importance and critical needs of an expanding workforce in the Marianas, our family has been supporting UOG as a donor to ensure it continues to develop our local talents for the island’s employment needs in the region. ”
Wei-Li Tung
Partner
Deloitte & Touche LLP – Guam
“Deloitte has a long-standing relationship with the School of Business as a participant in its internship program. Each semester, Deloitte partners and managers interview a number of intern applicants and make offers to those who are best suited. During the program, each intern is provided with training and is assigned to a team of supervisors who closely guide them so that they can succeed on assignments and receive valuable experience in a professional services firm. Over the years, Deloitte has derived great benefit from this program from hiring into full time staff those highly accomplished graduates. We have found our UOG hires to be smart, driven, responsible, diligent individuals who always act with a sense of community pride — a great embodiment of what a fine higher education institution such as UOG contributes to its community.
“The success of UOG is very important to Deloitte, a professional services firm whose business model necessitates the regular hiring of accounting majors. Being the only four-year higher education institution with an accounting major program, UOG is the only reliable pipeline of professionals in our field.”
David J. John
Chairman and CEO
ASC Trust LLC
“A trained workforce, both in book learning and on-the-job skilled training is imperative for a strong and dynamic economy. This is true today and will become even more true as technology and robotics enters more and more industries.
“Contrary to the belief of many politicians, you cannot legislate a living wage. Increasing minimum wage by anything more than inflation begets more inflation. Truly increasing our employees’ purchasing powers requires increased hourly production, which comes from increased use of technology and a better educated and trained workforce. UOG is at the center of developing our future employees, managers, entrepreneurs and community leaders. A strong future for our island depends on a strong and vibrant university.”
Wayne L. Cornell
President and CEO
DZSP 21 LLC
DZSP 21 LLC has approximately 50 or so UOG graduates on our payroll, year after year.
When I first joined DZSP 21 in 2007, my Management Information Systems/Information Technology team was mostly UOG graduates, with five of them having graduated together. I have been in the installation maintenance, operations, and management industry both as a Navy Civil Engineer Corps Officer and as a Defense Contractor, for over 45 years. That DZSP 21 MIS team was the best group of IT folks that I had ever known, and they were working for me! I was blessed! Their exceptional knowledge, competence and professionalism was the result of a combination of factors, I am sure but was largely dependent on the great education they had received from UOG.
“I am a Life Member of the Society of American Military Engineers, a member of and Past President the Guam Post of SAME, and a SAME Fellow. Since UOG established its College of Engineering several years ago, the SAME Guam Post began a partnership with UOG, providing mentorship and encouragement to its engineering students. We helped them establish a Student Chapter of SAME, which has been nationally recognized as an exceptionally active Distinguished Chapter for the last four years, even though Guam is only a small [to] medium-sized Post.
“Our Post has been sponsoring engineering scholarships for decades. Charlie Corn Scholarships are offered to residents of the Marianas and the Micronesian islands … who are current high school seniors or university students pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time undergraduate technical degree in an accredited engineering or architectural program. ”
Christopher K. Felix
President and principal broker,
Century 21 Realty Management Co.
“A resident of Guam for over 47 years, in the past I have attended classes at UOG to better myself in my profession and in doing business. I have taken classes such as administration and accounting. I got a lot from them that helped me.
“About 15 years ago I taught off-campus real estate courses for UOG and enjoyed it tremendously. I taught about 200 hours of classes.
“About seven years ago I was asked to be a regent for UOG and was appointed by the governor and ratified by the Guam Legislature. I served for the allotted six- year term and sat and chaired a number of committees and had the honor of being the chair for my last year. So I became very involved in the activities and workings of UOG.
“I also was part of the selection committee that selected Dr. Krise as the new president of UOG. Working with him and [past president] Underwood was another honor and privilege. I learned the importance of UOG, both as an educational facility and the research and activities it does for our island. There is so much that UOG does for Guam that most are not aware of. I have come to realize how needed UOG is and how underfunded it is. I am amazed at how it can keep running on the low funding it receives.”
