Richard Boals
(BS Accountancy ’79)

“All careers are going to have their ups and downs. I certainly had challenges over my career — economic cycles, changes in regulation. … If you have the right team, the right people on the bus, there won’t be anything you can’t overcome. You’re going to have failures, and you have to look at them as learning experiences, as well as with excitement, because they will stick with you for a lifetime. You’ll avoid bigger problems after having dealt with smaller ones,” says Richard Boals (BS Accountancy ’79), who served as CEO at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona from April 2003 to July 2017.

Boals joined BCBSAZ in 1971 and served in a variety of capacities, seeing it through numerous years of growth and success. Before beginning his career there, he served four years in the U.S. Air Force. Boals currently serves on the Arizona Biosciences Board, the board of Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and Northern Arizona University’s Innovations Advisory Board. He is a member of Arizona Tech Investors, the Arizona State University President’s Club, and the W. P. Carey School of Business Dean’s Council.

Larry Carter
(BS Accountancy ’74)

“Many successful people have had some adversity in their career and made mistakes. When you search for opportunity and take risks, there’s always going to be a chance of failure,” says Larry Carter (BS Accountancy ’74), who joined Cisco in January 1995 as vice president of finance and administration, chief financial officer (CFO), and secretary. “I recall a number of times through acquisitions — we did over 160 — where many of them failed. Sometimes we didn’t pick the right deal. A lot of them were home runs. There’s always a mixture of win and lose. Adversity is always there. It makes you stronger and gives you more confidence to do better after you come through it.”

In July 1997, Carter was promoted to senior vice president of finance and administration, CFO, and secretary, and was elected to the Cisco board of directors three years later. In May 2003, upon his retirement as CFO and secretary, he was appointed senior vice president, office of the chairman and CEO. He retired in November 2008. Carter was a member of Cisco’s board of directors until 2014, and is currently a trustee and founder of the Cisco Foundation and a member of the California Highway Patrol 11-99 Foundation board of directors.

Kevin Warren
(MBA ’88)

“Get rid of the word ‘failure.’ I don’t think there’s such a word as failure; I look at it as opportunities. Instead of overcoming failures, I challenge people to look at it as adversity and an opportunity to get stronger,” says Kevin Warren (MBA ’88), who is the new commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. He officially began duties Jan. 2 as the first African-American commissioner of a Power 5 conference. Before joining the Big Ten Conference, Warren was chief operating officer of the Minnesota Vikings. Warren and his wife, Greta, are active members of the Minneapolis-St. Paul community, where they support several local elementary schools, scholarships for first-generation college students, and the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital.

William Van Epps
(BS Marketing ’71)

“If you have a failure, you have to get back up and keep going,” says William Van Epps (BS Marketing ’71), CEO of New England Authentic Eats.

For 45 years, Van Epps has had an extraordinary record driving growth in food service, retail, and franchising, including 31 years in the international arena. His experience ranges across many household names in the restaurant industry, from Papa John’s to Long John Silver’s and Shake Shack. Van Epps currently serves on the board of advisors for New England Authentic Eats, Wahlburgers, and Locknet (a lock and security door manufacturer).

Matt Michalowski
(BS Finance ’09)

“Keep up a consistent winning mentality. Winning doesn’t necessarily mean winning all of the time; it could mean just winning a third of the time. You’re going to encounter a lot of failure in your career, no matter what you do. If you’re failing, it means you’re trying,” says Matt Michalowski (BS Finance ’09), the president and founder of PXL, a creative technology agency that works with the world’s largest blue-chip media brands, including NBCUniversal, 20th Century Fox Studios, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Sony.

In 2012, on his 25th birthday, Michalowski embarked on his own and founded PXL. Over the next seven years, PXL would work on the marketing campaigns for some of the biggest theatrical releases, including Bohemian Rhapsody, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and The Revenant, which won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2019, PXL was acquired by Studio City, an entertainment marketing agency specializing in television.