Academy of Distinguished Alumni welcomes four

BGSU recognizes Katherine Hatton, Mike McGuire, the Honorable C. Ray Mullins and John Prout

The Academy of Distinguished Alumni was created in 2011 by Bowling Green State University and its Alumni Association. The award is one of the highest honors bestowed by the University and was established to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of alumni who have made significant contributions to their chosen professional field and/or through their community involvement. 

The 2016 Academy of Distinguished Alumni ceremony was held Sept. 29 in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. 

Katherine Hatton ’74 is vice president, general counsel and secretary of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a $10 billion national foundation working to build a culture of health in the United States. She also serves as a member of the foundation’s senior management committee. Previously, she was vice president and general counsel of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com. She was a shareholder in the Philadelphia law firm now known as Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C.

Mike McGuire ’82 is the chief executive officer of Grant Thornton LLP. Grant Thornton is the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd., one of the world’s leading networks of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. Prior to his election as CEO, he served as national managing partner – operations. He also chairs the Grant Thornton Foundation and serves on the GTIL Global Board. Prior to joining the firm, he spent 20 years with Arthur Andersen.

The Honorable C. Ray Mullins ’74, ‘77 was appointed to the bench in Atlanta in 2000, becoming the first African-American bankruptcy judge in the Eleventh Circuit, which consists of all federal districts in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. In 2012, he became the Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. In 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court appointed Mullins to a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the Federal Judicial Center, which provides training and research for the federal judiciary. Judge Mullins has been married to his Falcon Flame, Beverly Mullins, for 40 years.

John Prout ’72 served as president and chief executive officer of TriHealth, Inc., from 1998 to 2015. Under his leadership, TriHealth transformed into the Cincinnati region’s largest and most comprehensive health care provider by guiding TriHealth through the challenges of health reform, while growing the organization. TriHealth earned recognition through Truven as one of the top 15 health systems in the country and also a U.S. News & World Report citation within America’s top 100 hospitals category.