Xerox Ceo to Address UB Engineering School

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Paul A. Allaire, chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox Corp., will deliver the keynote address at the second annual Industry-University Day luncheon, to be held at noon on June 2 in the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

Industry-University Day is sponsored by the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In a talk entitled "American Competitiveness: A Matter of Partnership," Allaire will argue that a healthy America depends on a thriving partnership between business, academia, labor and government.

Allaire became CEO of Xerox in 1990 and chairman in 1991, after serving as senior vice president, chief staff officer and president.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Business Council and the Business Roundtable, Allaire also is a member of the boards of the Council on Competitiveness, the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York City Ballet and Catalyst.

He also serves on the boards of directors of the Ford Foundation; J.P. Morgan & Co., Inc.; Lucent Technologies; Sara Lee Corp., and SmithKline Beecham p.l.c.

Xerox is a global document-management and services company with about $18 billion in annual revenue and about 90,000 employees worldwide.

Last year, UB and Xerox Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in areas including research, information technology, education and training.

Co-sponsored by the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and the Business Council of New York State, Industry-University Day is held to recognize cooperative efforts between the UB engineering school and its industrial partners.

More than 150 representatives from major firms, including IBM, AT&T, Veridian, Praxair, Sun Microsystems and Niagara-Mohawk, as well as Xerox Corp., will attend the luncheon, the theme of which is "Vital Partners."

Mark Karwan, Ph.D., dean of the UB engineering school, noted that the event marks a period in the school's history when its connections with industry -- and the mutual benefits those connections create -- are stronger than ever.

"Last year, engineering-school faculty, staff and students were involved in 357 projects serving more than 175 companies in the region," he said.

Such projects run the gamut from summer internships and full-time cooperative work arrangements for students to major research-and-development projects headed by faculty/industry teams and supported by joint industry-and-government funding.

"Together, Xerox Corp. and the school of engineering, as well as the university as a whole, are continuing to build a more substantive, mutually beneficial partnership," Karwan said.

Also attending the June 2 luncheon will be approximately 100 engineering students, currently enrolled in UB's Engineering Career Institute, which provides intensive training and preparation for the work world, as well as summer internships with industry.

Planning for Industry-University Day was coordinated by Kenneth Manning, an alumnus of the UB engineering and law schools, now a partner in Phillips, Lytle, Hitchcock, Blaine & Huber, L.L.P.

Representatives of firms who would like to attend the luncheon should contact Robert Barnes at the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at 645-2768.