Xavier Magazine

Finding a hotel with a Xavier connection isn’t as difficult as you might think. That’s because M.B.A. graduates John Sweetwood and Steve Porter oversee some of the largest chains in the country.

As president of the Americas Division of Bass Hotels & Resorts, Sweetwood, a 1979 graduate, is responsible for these chains: Inter-Continental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites.

Porter, who earned his degree in 1981, is executive vice president of the hotel division for Hilton, which includes the Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Red Lion and Hilton brands.

That both hotel executives graduated from a school without a hotel management major is only the beginning of the commonalties between Sweetwood and Porter. Both are from Ohio. Both earned bachelor’s degrees from Miami University. Sweetwood’s first son was born while he was an M.B.A. student at Xavier. Porter’s first son was born two months after he finished his M.B.A. at Xavier. Both children followed their father’s undergraduate footsteps and matriculated at Miami.

Porter joined Stouffer hotels in 1976 and quickly moved into management, running a 24-hour restaurant, a trendy cocktail lounge on the skywalk and room service for the 900-room hotel. Sweetwood, meanwhile, entered the hotel world from the back door, first developing an expertise in marketing at Kenner Toys and an advertising firm. It wasn’t until recently that he switched to hotels.

Both executives agree that hotels are a great industry. “What’s not to like?” says Porter. “It’s glamorous—we’re on stage, putting on a show every day, treating people to wonderful food and dining experiences, creating party events, helping people have a successful business meeting or launch a new product. People say all the time to find something you love to do, and that’s true. For both of us to end up where we have at this level in this industry with the opportunities we’ve been given—it’s incredible.”

Graduation day wouldn’t be complete without a compelling story. Here are two from this year’s commencement, the first held in the Cintas Center:

• Rickie Bell spent the last eight years attending Xavier during the day and working nights as a janitor at two Cincinnati public schools. He earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in May after student-teaching at a school, Kilgour, that he also cleaned. “He’s going to be a wonderful teacher. The students at Kilgour love him,” says principal Mary Ronan. “When he talks about teaching, you can tell it’s always been his lifelong dream to do this. He’s been an inspiration to us all.”

• Kim Nuesse is a police officer, single mother and full-time student. She’s also this year’s winner of the persistent student award in the weekend degree program. “I’m around a lot of adults in similar situations: working, raising families and going to school,” says Nuesse, who participated in commencement in May and should earn a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership in August. On a typical day, Nuesse drops off her kids and heads to the Loveland Police Department, where she’s a community resource officer. At night, after putting her kids to bed, she studies until midnight. She’s spent almost every Saturday for the past several years in classes. “Despite the obstacles, getting my degree has been so worthwhile.”

Strangely enough, it was a trip to the barber that inspired Steven Petty to become a fireman.

“I was driving home when I saw some firemen at a practice fire,” says Petty, a 1998 graduate of the weekend degree program. “The next week, I applied.”

Petty learned the trade in the Air Force, and is now a captain at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport’s fire department. There, he says, “We cover everything from hazardous spills to aircraft emergencies. If it happens at the airport, we get called. We go from one extreme to the other, but medical emergencies are our biggest runs, everything from heart attacks to cut fingers.”

As captain, Petty coordinates efforts from the ground when planes make emergency landings. “We get a lot of planes that have a passenger get sick and divert to Cincinnati,” says Petty, who is responsible for making sure that emergency medical personnel get on the plane quickly, provide assistance, and then get the passenger off the plane for further treatment.

The diversity of his day, he adds, is the best part of the job. “I have to wear many hats. I can be in a meeting at the firehouse, then 30 seconds later go on an EMS run or to an airplane with an engine out.”

Becoming a chief executive officer has given John Hammergren a taste of the celebrity life. But he insists that others deserve the glamour more than he does. “It’s important to surround yourself with people you believe in,” he says, “then trust them to do what they do best.”

Last year the 1987 M.B.A. graduate was named president and CEO of the San Francisco-based McKessonHBOC, a $40 billion supply management and health care information technology company with 25,000 worldwide employees. McKesson’s clients include hospitals, retail pharmacies, physicians, long-term care sites, home-care agencies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical surgical manu- facturers and health care payers.

The high-profile position landed Hammergren on Forbes magazine’s list of America’s Most Powerful People. His $4.3 million salary and stock options package also ranked him 234th on Forbes’ Top 800 CEOs list—and ahead of CEOs from Coca-Cola, Nike and Hewlett Packard. “The exposure is difficult to get used to,” says Hammergren. “Everyone starts calling and claiming to be a long-lost friend.”