Four distinguished leaders to be inducted into Spears Business Hall of Fame
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Media Contact: Terry Tush | Director, Marketing and Communications | 405-744-2703 | terry.tush@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business will induct Vickie Carr, Eddy Ditzler, Dr. Ken Eastman and Carl Wiese into the school’s Hall of Fame on Oct. 4 at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center.
The annual Spears banquet recognizes outstanding alumni and individuals who have provided exemplary leadership within and beyond the business school. This year, the Spears Business Hall of Fame is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Established in 1964, Hall of Fame induction is the highest honor Spears Business can bestow.
The banquet will also feature the presentation of Outstanding Young Alumni awards to Bob Ault, Melinda Bell and Paul K. Heerwagen IV. Spears Business established the Outstanding Young Alumni award in 2001 to recognize the school’s recent graduates who have provided significant service and achievement early in their professional careers.
“It is a pleasure to honor four outstanding individuals in Vickie Carr, Eddy Ditzler, Dr. Ken Eastman and Carl Wiese, each of whom have distinguished themselves over their careers,” said Dr. Jim Payne, dean of Spears Business. “This year’s honorees have certainly brought distinction to Spears Business and OSU. In addition, we are also recognizing three outstanding young alumni and look forward to all they will accomplish in their careers.”
2024 Hall of Famers
Vickie Carr
Raised in Oklahoma City, Carr held various leadership positions throughout her career of nearly 40 years with Deloitte. The multinational accounting firm promoted Carr to partner in 1999. She also founded Deloitte’s National Tax Accounting Group and helped create its Global Tax Accounting Group, which she is leading until her September retirement.
The youngest of Leon and Dorothy Fletcher’s seven daughters, Carr was the first and only to attend college. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in accounting from OSU in 1985.
As an OSU senior, Carr interned in Tulsa with Touche Ross, which combined with Deloitte Haskins & Sells to form Big 4 firm Deloitte. Carr started full time upon graduation and spent the rest of her career with the firm. While working full time, she obtained her master’s degree in taxation from the University of Tulsa, attending class in the evening.
In 1996, Carr moved to Memphis, Tennessee, for an opportunity to become a partner. After she was admitted to the partnership, she served as the Office Tax Managing Partner. Carr participated in Leadership Memphis, and the Memphis Business Journal recognized her as a “40 under 40” achiever.
In 2010, Deloitte transferred Carr to Dallas, where she served large audit clients that included Kimberly-Clark, Dean Foods and Dr. Pepper/Snapple.
Deloitte provided many opportunities to travel internationally, and Carr was often a featured speaker at the firm’s conferences. Additionally, she has served with the YWCA Tulsa Board of Directors, the National Civil Rights Museum Education Committee in Memphis, American Heart Association (Memphis) and American Heart Association Circle of Red (Dallas).
Carr is a member of the OSU School of Accounting Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame. She enjoys attending Cowboy football games and traveling to her second home in Colorado with her husband, Jeff, a fellow OSU alumnus. The Dallas residents are active OSU donors who established the Jeff and Vickie Carr Endowed Scholarship in Accounting.
The Carrs have two adult children, Jenna and Mitchell, who graduated from OSU and work for Deloitte. Jenna and her husband, OSU alumnus Jeb Park, live in Dallas with their daughter, Palmer. Mitchell lives in New York City with his wife, OSU alumna Madison Weiss.
Eddy R. Ditzler
Eddy Ditzler is retired from public accounting and lives in Edmond, Oklahoma, with his wife of 39 years, Deniece. He remains active in business as a member of the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee Chair for The Reserve Petroleum Company. Ditzler is also a member of the audit committee of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. He was honored in 2004 as a School of Accounting Distinguished Alumnus and in 2014 in the “Spears School Tributes: 100 for 100.”
Ditzler is a native of Henryetta, Oklahoma. His parents, neither of whom were high school graduates, instilled in him a strong work ethic and high academic standards. He demonstrated that work ethic while working 10-hour days during summers at his aunt and uncle’s small-engine repair business from the seventh grade through his freshman year at OSU. Ditzler followed his sister, Syble, to OSU as first-generation college students. There, his professors introduced him to public accounting and related career opportunities.
After attaining his bachelor’s degree in 1978, Ditzler joined Grant Thornton LLP (then Alexander Grant & Co.) in Oklahoma City and became a CPA in 1979. His career with Grant Thornton spanned more than 35 years until his retirement in August 2017. He was an audit partner, and from December 2012 until retirement, served as one of six National Professional Practice Directors.
At Grant Thornton, Ditzler was heavily involved in recruiting, especially at OSU. Several of the OSU students he recruited to Grant Thornton have since made partner, and many others have successful careers outside public accounting.
After retiring from Grant Thornton and until May 2022, Ditzler was a lecturer in the master’s program at OSU’s School of Accounting, where he instructed courses in accounting research, oil and gas accounting and advanced auditing.
Today, he and Deniece invest in OSU through their School of Accounting endowed scholarship and endowed professorship, their endowed football scholarship and other financial support to OSU Athletics. They are members of the POSSE, as well as the OSU Foundation’s Proud and Immortal Society and Heritage Society. The Ditzlers continue to grow their OSU friendships by attending sporting events and OSU Foundation and Alumni Association events.
Ken Eastman
Eastman is Dean Emeritus of the Spears School of Business, serving as dean from 2013-23. He wrapped up a 34-year career in higher education in July 2023 — all at OSU’s business school — retiring as the third longest-tenured dean in the business school’s history.
Eastman served as an assistant professor (1989-95), associate professor (1995-2013), director of the MBA program (1999-2003), acting department head (2002-03) and as the head of the Department of Management (2003-13). He was a member of the Academy of Management since 1985.
During his tenure as dean, Eastman also held the Norman and Suzanne Myers Endowed Chair for Excellence in Business Administration and the Richard W. Poole Professorship for Excellence. He was recognized with the Richard W. Poole Faculty Outreach Excellence Award by the school in 2009 and received the School of International Studies Faculty Excellence Award in 2011.
The list of accomplishments under Eastman’s leadership is long and varied. Spears Business revised its core curriculum to better respond to the needs of business and set students up for long-term success. Additionally, a new tracking system for tenured and tenure-track faculty was created to align their research interests and capabilities with their research responsibilities.
In 2018, Eastman saw the new $72 million Business Building come to fruition, changing the game for OSU’s business school. He presided over the school as it added multiple centers that greatly enhance the student experience, and in 2019, the OSU School of Hospitality and Tourism Management joined the Spears Business family.
A sought-after speaker, Eastman has presented more than 200 seminars on leadership and performance management. After growing up on a farm outside Callender, Iowa, he received an associate's degree in 1980 from Iowa Central Community College, a bachelor’s degree in management from Iowa State University in 1982, his master’s degree in management from Iowa State in 1985 and his doctorate in organizational behavior from the University of Nebraska in 1990.
Eastman and his wife, Laurie, reside in Des Moines, Iowa, and enjoy spending time with their sons and daughters-in-law. Zeke lives in Chicago; Sam lives in Des Moines with his wife, Cory; and Abe lives in Chicago with his wife, Cheshire.
Carl Wiese
Wiese grew up in Chandler, Oklahoma, as the youngest of four spirited boys. In 1983, he earned a bachelor’s degree in business from OSU. Upon graduation, he was selected to participate in a management trainee program with Texas Instruments, beginning his 30-year career in sales, marketing, services and product management for high-tech companies.
From 2020-24, Wiese was Executive Vice President and Global Head of Sales for Poly, a worldwide audio and video technology provider. There, he oversaw the global sales function and played a crucial role in setting a new strategy for Poly, leading to Poly’s acquisition by HP.
From 2015-19, Wiese was President of Global Sales and Services at BlackBerry. He was part of a new executive leadership team that brought BlackBerry back from the brink of failure and led it to become a prominent cybersecurity software company.
Wiese spent 2002-15 as Cisco’s Senior Vice President of Advanced Technologies. His team took four emerging technology categories and grew them into billion-dollar markets, each of which earned the No. 1 market share position. While at Cisco, Wiese co-authored “The Collaboration Imperative: Executive Strategies for Unlocking Your Organization’s True Potential,” a business book that predicted the mass adoption of videoconferencing and other collaborative work trends.
Earlier in his career, Wiese held leadership positions at Avaya, Lucent Technologies, Apple and Texas Instruments. Upon retiring from business in 2024, he moved to Edmond to be close to his brothers and expand his ability to make a difference at OSU. His involvement at OSU includes serving as a member of the Board of Governors, founding board member for the Center for Sales and Service Excellence, member of the Dean’s Council for Spears Business and member of the Investment Committee for the OSU Foundation.
Wiese can also be found cheering from the sidelines of numerous Cowboy and Cowgirl sporting events. He credits much of his professional motto to his formative years at OSU: work hard, stay humble, treat people with respect and keep score.
Wiese is devoted to his three adult children — Brett, Katelyn and Abby — and two grandsons. He is enjoying his next chapter of life with his wife, Amber.
2O24 Outstanding Young Alumni
Bob Ault
Ault is a founding member and the CEO of Redbud Partners, a boutique oil and gas service company headquartered in Oklahoma City.
Previously, he worked in education as the director of compliance for the Princeton Review in New York City. After returning to Oklahoma, Ault worked in administration and taught at the University of Central Oklahoma before wrapping up his tenure in education as the executive director of the Edmond Public Schools Foundation. Passionate about professional and civic engagement, Ault has served multiple terms on the Spears Business Alumni Society Board and the President’s Advisory Council for OSU-Oklahoma City. He has also served several terms as president of the Natural Gas and Energy Association of Oklahoma.
Ault’s awards include The Journal Record’s “Top 40 Under 40,” the Edmond Business Times “Top 20 Under 40” and Leadership Edmond’s “Top Class Member.” He received his Doctor of Education in higher administration from OSU, his MBA from UCO and his bachelor’s degree in business administration from OSU.
Ault resides in Edmond with his wife, Lindsey, and their two boys, Everett and Jax.
Melinda Bell
Bell is an accomplished advisor at Cochran Bell Wealth and Tax Strategy, where she began her journey in 2010 and acquired the practice in 2020 from her father. With multiple professional licenses and the prestigious Enrolled Agent credential from the IRS, Bell offers comprehensive financial planning and tax strategies to families, professionals, retirees and business owners.
Bell graduated from OSU with a degree in finance and minors in accounting and economics. Under her leadership, Cochran Bell has achieved growth of 43%, earning national recognition from Avantax as an Elite practice. Bell is the only female owner/advisor under 40 to achieve Elite status, a testament to her commitment to the industry.
Her awards also include Young Professionals of Stillwater Leader Under 40 and recognition from the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce for International Women’s Month. Bell devotes her time to various causes, including Stillwater Junior Service League, Homeroom Parent and University Heights Baptist Church. She is also a Life Member of the OSU Alumni Association.
Bell and her husband, Kevin, an OSU alumnus, live in Stillwater with their two children, Merritt and Charlie.
Paul K. Heerwagen IV
Heerwagen is Managing Partner and CEO of Selenite Energy Partners, an Oklahoma City-based company he founded in 2019 to pursue structured capital opportunities across the energy sector.
Prior to Selenite, Heerwagen served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Gulfport Energy Corporation, where he began his career in 2007 as a financial analyst. Heerwagen also founded Stingray Energy Services, an oilfield services franchise that was merged into Mammoth Energy Services and ultimately taken public. Additionally, he served as a director for Strike Force Midstream, a joint venture with Rice Energy that was ultimately purchased by EQT.
Heerwagen earned his degree in finance in 2007 from Spears Business. In the Oklahoma City community, he has dedicated considerable resources to Keaton’s Kindness Foundation, an organization that supports local pediatric cancer research and provides support services for children undergoing cancer treatment.
Heerwagen lives in Edmond with his wife, Julie, an OSU graduate. He enjoys coaching youth sports and supporting his two children, Paul V (also known as L.P.) and Hannah.