Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award
2013 Recipients
George Stroebel, Monte Johnson and Paul Stiller will receive the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes distinguished service to the community, state or nation in a manner that brings credit upon the recipient and the university.
Monte Johnson '80
Monte Johnson, originally from La Crosse, graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 1980 with a bachelor of business administration degree in accounting and is currently the vice president and chief financial officer at Cymbet Corp., a high-tech company that develops and manufactures eco-friendly rechargeable batteries for microelectronic applications.
As a student at UW-Eau Claire, Johnson was a member of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, was president of the freshman honorary Phi Eta Sigma and was involved in chartering the Society of Participating Honor Students in 1977, which recognizes sophomore students for academic excellence, as well as for outstanding campus and community involvement during their freshman year. Johnson also earned a master's degree in business administration from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota in 1997.
Before joining Cymbet Corporation, Johnson previously held senior management positions at other technology companies including Dascom Systems Group LLC, Ciprico Inc., General Electric and Honeywell.
For almost 25 years, Johnson has worked with youth in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, parks and recreation programs, church youth groups and after-school programs, as well as basketball, football and baseball programs. He has served and held positions on numerous boards, including those of the Roseville Youth Basketball Association, Minnesota Special Olympics, Saint Paul Winter Carnival, Saint Paul Jaycees, Roseville Central Park Foundation and the Roseville High School Boys Basketball Booster Club, for which he currently serves as president.
Paul Stiller '86
Paul Stiller, a 1986 UW-Eau Claire graduate in communication and theater arts, is a professional musician, album producer, pianist, vocalist and arranger with production credits on more than 50 albums and more than 25 years of experience in the music industry. He also is a music educator with 20 years of experience as a college professor, adjudicator and clinician at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has served as a guest speaker in the vocal jazz field, making appearances throughout the United States and Japan.
As a student at UW-Eau Claire, Stiller was a member of The Singing Statesmen and helped form the a cappella group The Innocent Men. As a sophomore, Stiller was asked to join a rhythm-and-blues band called J.D. and the Back-Alley Madmen as a singer and keyboardist. The group played throughout Eau Claire and the Midwest and opened for artists such as Greg Kihn, Dwight Yoakam and the late Stevie Ray Vaughn at Zorn Arena.
Stiller attended Berklee College of Music after graduating from UW-Eau Claire and earned his professional music diploma in 1992. In his second semester at Berklee, he helped form the a cappella group Vox One, of which he is still a member. Vox One has toured across the United States and Japan and has won numerous Contemporary A cappella Recording Awards, including Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best Jazz Arrangement and Best Original Song. Three of the five albums Vox One released received Album of the Year awards and were produced by Stiller. The group has opened for many famous musical greats, including Ray Charles and Chicago.
Stiller has worked as an album producer, arranger and studio musician since the early 1990s, producing albums, writing vocal arrangements and performing in several commercials including ads for State Farm Insurance, TCBY Yogurt and Sharp. He was in a rhythm ensemble called Rhythm Slam that performed in ads for Dr. Pepper, Pontiac and International Trucks. He also worked for the Boston Pops Orchestra, transcribing music from groups such as Take 6, Cyndi Lauper and Shawn Colvin, allowing them to perform along with the orchestra.
In January 2012, Stiller was awarded the Berklee Distinguished Faculty Award, which is awarded based on nominations from students, faculty and administrators at the college.
George Stroebel '74
Stroebel graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 1974 with a bachelor of business administration degree in finance. He received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota in 1979 and served as a partner in the Minneapolis office of Ernst & Young, working with domestic and multinational clients primarily in manufacturing, financial services and computer technology.
In 1994, Stroebel began an odyssey of service with a number of companies in various industries, culminating in service as chief operating officer of the broker-dealer Fahnestock & Co. (now Oppenheimer & Co.) in New York City.
Stroebel began working with the UW-Eau Claire Foundation in 2004, serving as chair of the investment and real estate committees and as a member of the executive committee. He has played an integral role in both the acquisition of The Priory (formerly St. Bede Monastery) by Blugold Real Estate LLC (a subsidiary of the UW-Eau Claire Foundation) and in Blugold Real Estate's involvement as a partner in the development of the Confluence Project in downtown Eau Claire.
The Priory now is the site of UW-Eau Claire's Children's Nature Academy (formerly the Children's Center), and a UW-Eau Claire task force is identifying additional best uses by the university and external partners for the 80,000-square-foot facility on 112 mostly wooded acres three miles south of the UW-Eau Claire main campus. The Confluence Project is a pubic-private partnership that seeks to build a community arts center and a commercial/retail complex and university student housing at the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers in downtown Eau Claire.
Stroebel also serves as a supervisor on both the Polk County (Wis.) and Town of Garfield boards.
