Life Experiences of Dr. Roderick “Rod” MacPherson

My wife and I have lived in Montevallo for 40+ years.

MILITARY SERVICE: After the FBI issued a security clearance to me, I joined an isolated battalion in Europe armed with 280 mm mobile cannons and nuclear warheads.

UNIVERSITY STUDIES: At the undergraduate level, I majored in management, and in graduate school (for my MBA & DBA degrees), I concentrated on marketing, management, economics, finance, & quantitative methods.

CORPORATE WORLD: I had various managerial roles at S.S. Kresge (parent company of K-Mart). In my six (6) years with the company, I advanced in management each year and became the distribution center manager and company mediator in my late twenties.

The VP of marketing at the General Instrument Corporation (electronics division) taught me the importance of using scientific market research studies to better understand the needs of customers, investigate competitors, and to monitor economic conditions in the U.S. and abroad (our manufacturing plants were in West Virginia, Nova Scotia, and South Korea).

UNIVERSITY WORLD: After teaching at Mississippi State University, I joined the faculty in the College of Business (COB) at the University of Montevallo (UM). With my management and financial background in corporations, the Dean of the COB asked me to help the President of UM understand the importance of sound financial practices. I also served on an executive committee as one of three advisors to the dean of the COB.

SMALL BUSINESS: While in graduate school, I was a partner in two small firms (a concrete paving company and one that sold motorcycles and muscle cars).

STATE GOVERNMENT: As a statistician for the state of Arizona, I helped submit monthly financial charges to the U.S. government for welfare services we rendered to the public.

BUSNESS CONSULTANT: In college, I was taught by professors who served as consultants to corporations, and I worked with consultants at S.S. Kresge. I was also privately employed as a consultant. On my last consulting assignment in Alabama, I trained nearly 100 managers to better utilize their critical thinking skills.

At UM, I took small groups of seniors into local businesses to show them exactly how consultants can help business owners improve their companies. The students and I analyzed the business operations of local companies and made recommendations to the owners for improvement. This collaborative approach was the best real-world experience that I could offer to students who were about to enter the business world.