1992 AAB Recipients

The Award for Achievement in Business was created by the Society of Alumni and Friends of the College of Business Administration to honor graduates or friends of Ohio University whose outstanding professional achievements distinguished them as leaders in their fields of endeavor.

This year's honorees were a very select group of business professionals, each with a record of exemplary achievement.


Robert C. Hughes

Robert C Hughes is former vice president of U.S. Sales for Digital Equipment Corporation. In this position, Hughes had responsibility for U.S. sales, sales support, and sales training.

Hughes held several sales and marketing management positions for Digital since 1976. His past responsibilities have included vice president of National Accounts, vice president of Industry Marketing, vice president of the Office and Information Systems Product Group, the Telecommunications Group, and the Small Business Group. He has also held positions as regional sales manager and headquarters sales program manager.

Prior to joining Digital, Hughes spent nine years with IBM in sales and marketing management positions. A native of Ohio, Hughes received an undergraduate degree in business from Ohio University in 1965 and an M.B.A. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business in 1967. He is also a 1981 graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Programs. Hughes is an avid sailor and resides in New Hampshire with his family.


Thomas M. Nies

Thomas M. Nies is president and chief executive officer of Cincom Systems Inc. He earned a B.B.A. in marketing and an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Cincinnati. Mes held numerous technical and marketing positions at IBM between 1962 and 1968.

He founded Cincom in Cincinnati in 1968 after recognizing a need for quality software to complement hardware offerings and with the then-radical idea of selling computer software as a product. Software had been given away with hardware at the time. He is one of the pioneers of a multi-billion dollar software industry comprised of thousands of firms.

Nies was among the first to recognize the potential of international markets as a platform for industry expansion. He is responsible for innovations such as establishing the first international office by a U.S. firm and organizing the first national software user conference in the early 1970s. Cincom received the U.S. Department of Commerce's President's E-Star, the highest award given for continued export excellence.

Nies, in 1989, was selected to the Computer World Smithsonian Awards Committee and was honored as "Man of the Year" in Cincinnati in 1984.

Annual Report - 1991-92