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UA's notable businesspeople
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UA's notable businesspeople

  • Jun 25, 2015
  • Jun 25, 2015 Updated Sep 18, 2017

Check out these notable achievers who went to the UA. 

Robert Eckert

Robert Eckert

Robert Eckert, chairman and CEO of Mattel, watches as a modern commercial for Barbie plays on a screen behind him while he presents during the Global Retailing Conference at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Ariz., April 12, 2007.

Greg Bryan / Arizona Daily Star

Graduated from UA in: 1976

Why he's famous: Business — CEO

Notable accomplishment: Eckert has held positions at many well-known American companies. For example, he's the former CEO of Mattel Inc. and the former president and CEO of Kraft Foods Inc.

Karl Eller

Karl Eller

Arizona businessman and University of Arizona benefactor Karl Eller. Courtesy Eller's family.

Submitted photo

Graduated from UA in: 1952

Why he's famous: Business — entrepreneur 

Notable accomplishment: The University of Arizona Eller College of Management is named after Karl Eller. He was also one of the founding investors of the NBA team the Phoenix Suns in 1968.

Years later, Eller transformed the convenience store chain Circle K into the second-largest convenience store chain in the U.S.

Eller was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame by the American Advertising Federation in 2004, making him the first Arizonan to be inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. 

Paul Giblin

Paul Giblin

Paul Giblin. 

Arizona Daily Star

Graduated from UA in: 1988

Why he's famous: Journalism 

Notable accomplishment: Giblin, an investigative journalist, won a Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2009 with fellow journalist Ryan Gabrielson while working at the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz. Pulitzer.org said the two were awarded "for their adroit use of limited resources to reveal, in print and online, how a popular sheriff’s (Joe Arpaio) focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigation of violent crime and other aspects of public safety." 

Savannah Guthrie

Savannah Guthrie

Savannah Guthrie, Amphitheater High School and UA grad and “Today” show host, born Dec. 27, 1971.

Charles Sykes / Invision

Graduated from UA in: 1993

Why she's famous: Journalism — TV personality 

Notable accomplishment: Guthrie is known for her role as a co-anchor on the TV news show "Today."

Woody Johnson

Woody Johnson

The new head coach of the New York Jets, Eric Mangini, and Chairman and CEO of the New York Jets, Woody Johnson, pose for photos after a press conference held at the Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, Tuesday, January 17, 2006. (Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday/KRT)

Thomas A. Ferrara

Graduated from UA in: 1972

Why he's famous: Business

Notable accomplishment: Johnson owns the New York Jets football team.

Tom Kalinske

Tom Kalinske

Tom Kalinske, Oct. 8, 1985. 

Arizona Daily Star file photo

Graduated from UA in: 1968

Why he's famous: Business — CEO 

Notable accomplishment: Kalinske has been the CEO of many well-known companies such as Mattel, Matchbox and Sega of America. Kalinske currently works as the executive chairman of Global Education Learning.  

Terry J. Lundgren

Terry Lundgren

Macy's Chairman, President and CEO Terry Lundgren arrives to court in New York, Feb. 25, 2013. Lundgren is scheduled to testify in New York State Supreme Court on Monday in a trial that pits the department store chain against rival J.C. Penney Co. over a partnership with home diva Martha Stewart. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Seth Wenig

Graduated from UA in: 1975

Why he's famous: Business

Notable accomplishment: Lundgren is the CEO of Macy's Inc. The UA Center for Retailing bears his name. 

Arturo Moreno

MORENO

Arturo Moreno talks to reporters after Major League Baseball owners approved the sale of Disney's Anaheim Angels to him, May 15, 2003, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Mary Altaffer

Graduated from UA in: 1973

Why he's famous: Business — entrepreneur 

Notable accomplishment: Moreno owns the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He is the first Mexican-American to own a major sports team in the U.S.

Robert Nugent

Robert Nugent

Robert Nugent pictured in the 1922 UA yearbook. Photo courtesy of University of Arizona yearbooks, University of Arizona Special Collections.

Photo courtesy of University of Arizona yearbooks, University of Arizona Special Collections

Graduated from UA in: 1923

Why he's famous: Education — administration 

Notable accomplishment: Chemist Robert Nugent won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1923. He was dean of two colleges at the UA — liberal arts and graduate studies — before becoming executive vice president for the university. A building on campus is named for him. He died in 1963. 

The University of Arizona Alumni Association also has an award named in memory of him — the Nugent Award. 

Robert Sarver

Robert Sarver

Suns owner Robert Sarver voices his opinion from his court-side seat during Phoenix's second game against Memphis' in their first round playoff series at America West Arena, April 27, 2005.

Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Graduated from UA in: 1982

Why he's famous: Business — sports

Notable accomplishment: Sarver is the majority owner of the Phoenix Suns (NBA) and the Phoenix Mercury (WNBA) and founded the National Bank of America. 

Frank Sotomayor

Frank Sotomayor

Frank Sotomayor and Cecilia Martinez Estrada, at Tucson High School's 50th reunion in November, 2012. The two were classmates from first grade through high school. 

Submitted photo / Desert Photo Booth

Graduated from UA in: 1966

Why he's famous: Arts — literature

Notable accomplishment: Sotomayor and a team of reporters at the Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1984.

Jeff A. Stevens

Jeff A. Stevens

University of Arizona donor Jeff Stevens, left, and football coach Rich Rodriguez, right, talk during a ceremony marking the reconstruction project and where Stevens received football memorabilia at the north end zone at Arizona Stadium on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, in Tucson, Ariz. 

A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

Graduated from UA in: 1986

Why he's famous: Business

Notable accomplishment: Stevens is the CEO, president and director of the oil refining company Western Refining, Inc.

In 2009, Jeff and his wife, Sharon Stevens, donated $10 million to University of Arizona Athletics. The relatively new Lowell-Stevens Football Facility on the UA campus is partially named after the Stevens family. 

Photos: Tucson's notable achievers

Now that you've browsed the UA's notable achievers, click the photo below to check out Tucson's notable achievers. 

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