Assistant Dean

Dr. Clarke became the Executive Director of the T&M Program in August 2004, returning to the University where he graduated from the School of Business with an MBA. He spent the last ten years with a management consulting firm working with leading organizations in several industries. He has significant experience leading the development and deployment of technology solutions in complex business environments. Dr. Clarke brings a multi-disciplinary background, broad industry knowledge, and management experience in the application of technology to the Program.

Darcy A. Sementi (MBA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; B.S. Communication Studies, Northern Illinois University)

Senior Associate Director

Darcy Sementi joined The Hoeft Technology & Management Program at the University of Illinois in March 2008 as the Senior Associate Director. Darcy began her career in 1991 with the Champaign based software development company, Amdocs. In 2001 she joined Personal Care, A Coventry Health Care Plan where she was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Darcy is a University of Illinois, College of Business alum. In 2000 she received an Executive MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Darcy's professional experience encompasses multiple industries and includes responsibilities spanning product management, operations, and sales & marketing.

Associate Director

Ellie has been employed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1988. Her most recent position before coming to The Hoeft Technology & Management Program was Associate Director of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership where she provided administrative and managerial support for the financial and human resources component of the center. Ellie also served as the Business Manager for the Illinois MBA Program for nine years and previously worked in both the College of Education and the College of Nursing. Prior to joining the University Ellie was employed by General Dynamics and Ebasco Engineering as a contract administrator.

Administrative Assistant

Cathy has been employed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for over 20 years. Prior to coming to The Hoeft Technology & Management Program, she worked at the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership where she served as office manager and events coordinator. Cathy has also served as the Program Administrative Assistant for the Master of Science in Policy Economics (MSPE) Program in the Department of Economics where she provided financial and managerial support.

Office Support Specialist

Rebecca is new to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to coming to The Hoeft Technology & Management Program, she worked as extra help in the business office for Mechanical Sciences and Engineering. Previously, Rebecca worked for a para-legal services company and an engineering consulting firm, both in Chicago, providing administrative support. Rebecca is also a volunteer 4-H leader, working with youth in Iroquois County.

Academic Co-Director
Interim Head of the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering
Decision Systems Laboratory
Professor of General Engineering

Professor Thurston’s research in engineering design integrates cost, quality, and environmental analyses. She is a registered professional engineer, has published dozens of technical papers, and her research has been funded by both government and industry. She received the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1989, two Xerox Awards for excellence in engineering research, three awards for excellence in undergraduate advising, and a Best Paper of the Year Award from The Engineering Economist. She has served as associate editor for the Journal of Mechanical Design and The Engineering Economist. Professor Thurston teaches courses in mathematical modeling, statistics, senior design projects and decision making.

Lecturer in Business Administration

Professor Alexandre's research interests focus on the interface between firm’s opportunities and technology management. In particular, the study of (i) how technological capabilities both shape and constrain a firm’s market opportunities; (ii) the co-evolution of demand and technological capabilities and its impact on the emergence of product markets; (iii) the application of cellular-automata to model various business phenomena; and (iv) managerial understanding of technologies’ attributes. Her interests lie at both firm level and industry level phenomena and models. In addition to carrying out empirical research, she is also interested in developing both conceptually based and computationally based theories. She teaches courses in International Marketing, Marketing Strategy, New Product Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

Professor Arends joined the faculty at UIUC in 1980, primarily teaching product design in the Industrial Design program, School of Art & Design, where he served as Chair for many years. His main research interest is in product development particularly in developing new product concepts that meet users' needs. His work in the field of design ranges from products to environments but has a primary focus on equipment design.

As a member of the Department of Accountancy at Illinois, Professor Finnegan has taught graduate and undergraduate financial, managerial, and tax accounting courses. He has worked for the public accounting firm, Arthur Andersen; the law firm, Winston & Strawn (Chicago); and the former Fortune 500 company, CBI Industries.

Lecturer, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Dr. Keane's research interests include thermal convection, experimental fluid flow measurement and undergraduate teaching lab development. Recently he has been involved in developing interest in engineering at high school level through Project Lead The Way. Prior to his position on the faculty in TAM, he held positions as a consultant civil engineer and a lecturer in pure mathematics.

Timothy Peck (Ph.D. January 1992, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Cofounder and President of Magnetic Resonance Microsensors (MRM)
Adjunct Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering

MRM is a division of Protasis Corporation. Headquartered in Marlboro, MA, Protasis manufactures analytical instrumentation workstations that are based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology and upon a variety of separations methods, including liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis. Chemists use these new workstation tools for drug discovery and development, natural products research, metabolic studies, trace contaminant analysis, and other areas of chemical inquiry. Dr. Peck is registered with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation as a licensed Professional Engineer.

Gerard Chee Lai Wong (Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley)

Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Physics

Professor Wong’s research focus is in the materials science and condensed matter physics of biology, with an emphasis on self-assembled biological and biomimetic systems. Prior to joining UIUC he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in the Netherlands and at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the recipient of a Beckman Young Investigator Award (2001) and was named the Donald Burnett Teacher of the Year (2003) and Sloan Foundation Fellow (2004).