A select group of accomplished business executives were the first to be inducted into the newly-created Dallas Hamilton Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame at an invitation-only black tie dinner. These highly successful business leaders were selected from an extensive list of possible candidates.

Those who are eligible to be considered for this prestigious honor are either a BGSU alum or honorary degree holder. The Hall of Fame inductees have achieved great distinction for founding, leading, or building a new business enterprise for five years or more and have demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit that inspires others.

The College of Business Administration’s Dallas-Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership is proud to announce the inaugural group of nine successful entrepreneurs. 

Robert K. Battaglia (’60)

Robert Battaglia is currently co-founder and CEO of One Legal, formerly known as Fax & File Legal Services, San Rafael, California. The company created the fax court filing business at a time when fax machines were still relatively new and courts and lawyers did not like to accept faxed documents. Back then, the widely held, yet incorrect, belief was that you needed to have an original signature to make the document legal....(More story)

William F. Carl (’63)

After graduating from BGSU and leaving his childhood home in Sylvania, Ohio, William Carl moved to Florida to work for Burroughs Corp.  He met James Maynard there  and the two teamed up and opened a family steakhouse in Fayetteville in 1972 called the Golden Steer, which later was renamed Golden Corral.....(More story)

William D. Dallas (’77)

William Dallas is an extraordinary entrepreneur with an extensive biography. Recently, Mr. Dallas, along with CIVC partners and a group of private investors, acquired the stock of Woodland Hills, California-based Oakmont Mortgage, now called Ownit Mortgage Solutions. Mr. Dallas serves as the Chairman and CEO of the company which is an industry leader in non-agency residential lending....(More story)

Steve Demos (’70)

Steve Demos is the founder and former president of WhiteWave Inc., later known as WhiteWave Foods in 2004.  It is the largest producer and marketer of soymilk products in the U.S. WhiteWave products are sold in over 96% of the nation's supermarkets and the Silk brand is the number one revenue-producing soymilk in America.  Mr. Demos later sold WhiteWave to Dean Foods in 2002 for a reported $194M. Mr. Demos remained as president of WhiteWave Foods until March 2005....(More story)

Scott Hamilton (’94)

Scott Hamilton is a world-renowned figure skater, sports analyst/commentator and businessman as well as an honorary degree holder from BGSU in 1994. At age 13 he left home to train for national competition. His mother, a grade school teacher, went back to school to become a college professor to help finance his expensive training, even as she was undergoing treatment for cancer. When his mother died, Mr. Hamilton resolved to become a world champion figure skater, and succeeded, despite the resistance of skating judges who believed he was too small to compete at the international level....(More story)

Cheryl Krueger  (’74)

Cheryl Krueger is the president and CEO of Cheryl&Co. in Westerville, Ohio. In 1981, equipped with an old-fashioned cookie recipe passed down from her grandmother, a degree in business and home economics, and high-profile business experience, Ms. Krueger started Cheryl's Cookies, a single-store cookie company that has evolved into the multimillion dollar corporation it is today....(More story) 

J. Robert Sebo (’58)

Bob Sebo is a retired senior vice president for Paychex Inc. of Rochester, New York, where he played a significant role in the evolution of the payroll service company.  From 1960 to 1974, he served as district sales manager of the Cadillac Motor Division of General Motors in western New York...(More story).

Robert M. Thompson (’55)

Bob Thompson is retired president & former sole-owner of the Thompson-McCully Company, in Belleville, Michigan.  Mr. Thompson was co-founder of Thompson-McCully (with his uncle, Wilfred McCully.)  He sold Michigan’s largest asphalt and paving contractor company for $422 million in July of 1999.  The Dublin, Ireland-based CRH, plc, paid $340 million in cash and agreed to pay an additional $82 million over five years for the privately held firm....(More story) 

Ronald R. Whitehouse (‘67)

Ron Whitehouse is past chairman of the board for HQ Network Systems Inc. in San Francisco, and is the former CEO and owner of HQ Chicago, HQ Florida, HQ Indianapolis, and HQ San Diego....(More story)