Catherine S. Brune

USC's Moore School of Business held its 2006 Business Leadership Dinner Awards Program April 28, 2006, in The Zone at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Zone accommodated close to a thousand guests at the Moore School's 11th annual Business Leadership Dinner.

After early cocktails and conversation, the crowd took their seats and listened to Ellen Moore, the school's director of business relations. She identified some of the previous alumni award winners in the room: stockbroker Jack Graybill ('49), real estate executive Bob Selman ('59), banker Mack Whittle ('75), CPA/lawyer Crawford Clarkson ('41), and hotelier Bert Pooser ('60), among others.

Moore School Dean Joel Smith, formerly with Bank of America, welcomed the diners and congratulated the award recipients.

USC President Andrew Sorensen reminded everyone of the Moore School's rising rankings, particularly its international program's national placement as first or second every year for the past 16 in the US News and World Report survey.

Dean Smith recognized the three distinguished alumni for the night's awards, and each was invited to the lectern.

Harry S. Dent Jr. Catherine S. Brune, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Allstate Insurance Company, graduated in 1974 with a BS degree in management. She joined Allstate in 1976, where she moved up through positions as regional operations vice president in both Illinois and Florida, regional vice president of sales and claims in New York, as well as data center vice president in Ohio.

As part of the Allstate senior management team, she is responsible for enterprise- wide technology strategy, network infrastructure, enterprise applications, and technology- related governance, security, privacy and compliance activities.

Harry S. Dent, Jr., President & Founder, H. S. Dent Foundation, grew up in Columbia and graduated in 1975 with a degree in business administration. He graduated from the Harvard Business School with an MBA in 1979. In his book The Great Boom Ahead , published in 1992, Dent accurately forecasted economic trends of the 1990s. With similar success he published The Roaring 2000s and the Roaring 2000s Investor . His latest book, The Next Great Bubble Boom , looks ahead to the next 20 years as expansive followed by a longer-term economic contraction.

Charles E. Zeigler Jr. Charles E. Zeigler Jr., President and CEO, Cook and Boardman, Inc., took his 1971 USC degree in banking and finance with him to the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania), where he graduated with an MBA in 1973. From 1986 until 2000, he was with the Public Service Company of North Carolina (PSNC), which was acquired by SCANA in 2000. Zeigler became president and COO of PSNC Energy Corporation and a member of the board of directors at SCANA. In 2005, he re-capitalized Cook and Boardman, a 50-year-old distributor of commercial doors, doorframes, and architectural hardware and accessories. The company has more than $25 million in annual revenues.