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Stephen Mulligan, BJ '71

What do you do?
I am currently president of Mullicom, a strategic messaging consulting firm. I also career-coach executives. I retired at 53 and moved to Phoenix.

How did you get your job?
I started in public relations at Allstate in the Kansas City region for what was to be a summer job while back in grad school at Missouri. It lasted 31 years, 30 of which were in Chicago. In 1988, I moved to Sears Corporate (Allstate was a subsidiary of Sears). When Corporate dissolved, I went to work for the Sears Merchandising group.

What type of work did you do?
Prior to retiring from Sears, I directed all internal communications, consulted with Sears' senior leaders on culture change and organizational focus, led management in engaging associates and directed the Sears Annual Report and Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I also served on the Chairman's Crisis Management Team, a three-member team that steered the company through many difficult situations, in addition to serving on the Sears Human Resources Leadership Council, the Information Technology Leadership Team, the Chairman's Diversity Advisory Council and the Customer Care Network Leadership Team.

What is the best professional lesson you learned at the J-School?
I learned to focus on the goals at hand; ethical behavior is everything; creativity is a good thing; and relationships are critical to success.

What advice do you have for current students?
Business desperately needs good writers and communicators, and you can get paid very well for it.

What is your favorite J-School memory?
One of my favorite memories is being an Ad Principles lab instructor and working all night on a Christmas catalog. Also, the trials of the typography course stand out, as well as sessions with "Bing" Dobyns (a professor at the School).

Where do you want to travel?
I have been an international speaker on the subject of adding value to the organization, communicating change, organizational development and crisis management. I have been around the world many times and throughout the United States. I am done traveling.

What is your favorite business motivation?
Seeing a team come together and work well.

Final thought?
I had an absolutely amazing career, and I have my start at Mizzou to thank for it. At first, I thought it hard to believe that anyone would pay me for what I knew. I was wrong and did extremely well.