Thursday, September 24

by Patti Poppe

7PM Presentation Begins
Listiak Auditorium
600 Elkenburg St, South Haven, Michigan 49090

Patti Poppe was elected President and CEO of CMS Energy and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest utility. Consumers Energy provides electricity and natural gas to 6.7 million of Michigan’s 10 million Lower Peninsula residents.

Poppe held a variety of automotive management positions and served as power plant director at Detroit, Michigan based DTE Energy before returning to her hometown of Jackson to join Consumers Energy in 2011. She earned a master’s degree in management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and received a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.

At a time of unprecedented change in the energy industry, Poppe has focused on connecting the company more closely with its customers and adapting lean operating system principles. She also has led the company’s commitment to a triple bottom line in service of people, the planet and prosperity.

Thursday, October 22

by Jim Butterfield

7PM Presentation Begins
Listiak Auditorium
600 Elkenburg St, South Haven, Michigan 49090

Jim Butterfield is a Professor of Political Science and Allied Faculty in Global and International Studies at Western Michigan University. He specializes in Russian history and the states of the former Soviet Union. He has done field research, given lectures, taught courses, and done consulting in Russia and nearby countries during more then forty visits. He is a Fulbright Scholar (twice in Russia, once in Vietnam) and has directed study abroad programs in Saratov, Russia, and in Istanbul, Turkey.

Butterfield, whose presentations are clear and accessible, will explore the various reasons Russia acts the way it does toward the US and the West, drawing on such significant factors as its culture, religious Orthodoxy, search for identity, and the breakup of the Soviet Union.