Timothy F. Sugrue, president & CEO of Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, Clarkson University, was named professor emeritus at Clarkson's 123rd Commencement on May 7. He was honored for 16 years of exemplary service to the University. Sugrue has had a distinguished, multifaceted career at Clarkson. He came to the University in 2000 as dean of the School of Business, serving for 13 years and implementing several new programs. In late 2011, Clarkson President Tony Collins appointed Sugrue to serve as chief executive officer of the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, a subsidiary of Clarkson University. Transition is nothing new to Sugrue, who began his academic career after the military. He says, “I fit well with Clarkson University. What I'm most proud of is that business was an afterthought when I first came to campus, but it certainly isn't now.”
As dean of the School of Business, he oversaw significant academic and administrative changes that resulted in national recognition and rankings for a number of programs, particularly supply chain management and entrepreneurship. “For small organizations, excellence comes through specialization. Both entrepreneurship and global supply chain management played well against engineering heritage of the university. It just made sense,” he says. “We did those two things well.” During his years at Clarkson, the University acquired a not-for-profit organization, the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. Upon joining Beacon Institute, Sugrue immediately conceived and launched an interdisciplinary summer program for undergraduates, along with initiating a graduate program in engineering management that takes advantage of Beacon Institute’s Hudson River location and environmental mission. As a non-advocacy environmental organization, the Institute “deals with data and facts and science,” Sugrue says. “Water quality is one of our major scientific initiatives.” Read More