2021 Success Conference

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The Success Conference occurs annually, now in late May each year.  This conference brings alumni back to campus to talk to students about where their Milgard degree took them in their career so far. Below are pictures of the event held in August 2019 and a video from August 2018.

Students at the 2019 Success Conference on August 28

Thomas Bressler, 2019 Success Conference keynote speaker

Milgard Success Center logo

Accounting Student Association (ASA) at the 2019 Success Conference

Students in a classroom panel discussion at the 2019 Success Conference

Employers talking to a students at the 2019 Success Conference

 

SESSIONS

9:30am / Internships - How & Why / Classroom breakout sessions with BNY Mellon, GENSCO, NW Mutual, Milgard Windows & Doors

10:30am / Resumes - Opinions & Best Practice / Classroom breakout sessions with Columbia Bank, Tote Maritime, InfoBlox, City of Tacoma

11:30am / How to interview / Classroom breakout sessions with RSM, CED, InfoBlox, Sound Credit Union

12:30pm / Lunch & Keynote Speaker: Thomas Bressler / WPH / Microsoft Program Manager & Milgard Alumni

1:45pm / Accounting - Tax or Audit? Public or Private? / Classroom Breakout Sessions / KPMG, Deloitte, EY, RSM, Davita, Weyerhaueser, Rettig Flyte, State of WA

1:45pm / Management-Finance-Marketing Pathway Panels / Classroom Breakout Sessions / Amazon, Boeing, CBRE, Multicare, Pepsico, HD Supply, Microsoft, Brown & Brown, Laird Norton, Russell Investments, Slalom Consulting, Rainier Industries, Edward Jones

3:15-4:00pm / Network with Alumni / Jane Russell Commons / Get your professional photo taken

The Milgard Success Center holds a business career conference which is open to alumni, incoming new students and current business students.  

2019 Keynote Speaker

Thomas Bressler was born and raised in the Greater Seattle Area and graduated from Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma, where he was awarded the ‘Achiever Scholarship’ which granted him a full scholarship to any college in Washington state.
As a result, Thomas graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma, Milgard School of Business, with a bachelor’s degree in ‘Business Administration’. Recently, he was accepted to the University of Washington’s postgraduate program, ‘iSchool Master of Information Management’ (MSIM), which he will be attending this fall. Thomas’ professional experience has been focused on the technology industry, where he has worked for several consulting firms that specialize in resourcing talent with a technical discipline, and whose clients include multiple Fortune 500 companies. The consulting firms include industry leaders such as Capgemini and Liquid Hub, as well as locally based firms Annik Technology Services and Hanson Consulting. Currently he is a ‘Technical Program Manager’ at Microsoft, within the Commerce Engineering division, where he manages & oversee the launch of some of the company’s flagship products with direct impact to its largest revenue streams. As his knowledge and experiences progress, in combination with my academic pursuits, his future aspirations will be to apply data disciplines across a broader range of needs beyond business. Ultimately to drive a higher level of appreciation for how data and its derivatives increases effectives; with results that are fact based and without bias. Thomas has always been an entrepreneur at heart, but above all else is a dedicated father & family man.

2018 Video

Participating employers for 2019 included:

Amazon, BNY Mellon, Boeing, Brown & Brown, CBRE, City of Tacoma, Columbia Bank, Consolidated Electrical Distribution, Davita, Deloitte, Edward Jones, Ernst & Young, GENSCO, HD Supply InfoBlox, KPMG, Laird Norton, Microsoft, Milgard Windows & Doors, Multicare, Northwestern Mutual, Pepsico, Rainier Industries, Rettig Flyte, RSM, Slalom Consulting, Sound Credit Union, State of WA-Auditor, Tote Maritime, Weyerhauser