Purdue Research Foundation is robustly engaged with established companies and newly launched startups to attract them to Purdue, namely the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette and the Discovery Park District at Purdue, which is adjacent to Purdue University’s campus.
The Alliance Management team is the part of the PRF Placemaking team responsible for attracting businesses and ensuring they have the physical environment they need to succeed. Alliance Management also helps businesses integrate and thrive in the community.
Who is Alliance Management?
Gregory W. Deason, senior vice president of alliances and placemaking, leads the Alliance Management team. He said the team is keenly focused on ensuring that businesses that locate to Purdue thrive.
“Partners can expect Alliances to perform two distinct responsibilities: Keeping all promises made as the partner was being recruited and seeking holistic growth opportunities for the partner within the Purdue and Greater Lafayette ecosystem,” he said.
Engaging with Wabash
One of those businesses Alliance Management engages with is Wabash, a world-class manufacturer of solutions and services for the transportation, logistics and distribution industries. Wabash is the only publicly traded company that is headquartered in Greater Lafayette.
Wabash had recently refreshed its brand and was looking to show potential interns and employees how innovation was at the core of its company culture. Deason and the Alliance Management team supported those efforts.
“A key component of all partners’ success is their ability to attract and retain world-class talent,” Deason said. “Facilitating Wabash and their activities like job fairs and their physical space at the Convergence Center in the Discovery Park District at Purdue created opportunities for Wabash to get talent at an early stage.
“This early exposure to the talent is also critical to shape the thinking of the intern as they get exposed to real-world opportunities with Wabash. For a student who may not be from the Greater Lafayette area, this exposure provides a mutually beneficial opportunity for both the intern and Wabash and results in student success and community success as they stay and integrate. The impact the student can make at Wabash, when hired as a full-time employee, is significant as they help Wabash succeed.”
Deason and his team introduced Wabash to several faculty and student groups within Purdue with the goal of demonstrating the company’s fresh vision in logistics.
“We made connections between Wabash and the Center for Career Opportunities. This relationship had existed in the past, but this was an opportunity to refresh it. CCO’s involvement with Wabash has been very positive as they assisted Wabash with hiring talent,” Deason said.
“We also supported Wabash’s informal job fairs at Convergence and helped to spread the word to Purdue departments and faculty who had relevant talent.”
Results and key takeaways
The support provided by Alliance Management strengthened Wabash’s ability to find a cohort of interns. Deason said listening to partners to understand what success looks like plays a role in helping them succeed.
“Based on its product lines, Wabash has obvious connections to areas like mechanical engineering, and those are solid,” Deason said. “What became more obvious as we listened to them were connections to disciplines like management, industrial management, logistics and data. By listening to them, we were able to expose Wabash to many of these other relevant disciplines at Purdue.”
