A Rotary Exchange Scholarship to South America when he was 16 changed Joe Lobbato's life. He has lived around the world and has given back to the Arthur Stonehill International Exchange Program.

Where are you from originally?

I grew up in Corvallis, Oregon. I had a paper route for the Gazette-Times that covered most of the frat houses.

How did you decide on Oregon State for your undergraduate and MBA degrees?

Many of my family members have attended OSU through 3 generations. I also met my future wife (who is Danish) at OSU and she was one year behind me. Therefore I decided to just take my MBA at OSU to be closer to her.

Can you summarize your career trajectory after Oregon State?

I started out working with Arthur Anderson & Co. in Copenhagen as a staff consultant, and was promoted continuously over the nearly 20 years I worked there. My last position with Anderson was Managing Partner, Retail for Southeast Asia. During this time I worked in Sweden and the U.K. as well, and coauthored a book with the Economist in London titled “Beyond the Bamboo Network,” which explored the complexities of Chinese Overseas family-owned businesses.

In 2001 I became a Founding Partner of the Accenture IPO. I was the COO of Central Retail Corporation in Bangkok from 2004-2007, and from 2007 to 2009 I was the Director and owner of Hygeia Healthcare Co. Ltd, a Web-based medical tourism business. Currently, I am a Professor of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

Can you talk a little about co-founding Accenture?

I was one of many partners who founded Accenture once we split from Arthur Andersen and transformed our company from Andersen Consulting to Accenture. I hired Kim Petersen, a consultant from Copenhagen who won the contest to name Accenture. "accent on the future."
 
Most of the partners were from Chicago of eastern US schools. I am the only one I know of from Oregon.

Did anything about your career or success surprise you?

Success is a combination of being prepared, being in the right place at the right time, getting to know the right people, doing the right things, taking risks and also sometimes trying new things...and last but not least, luck.
 
When I started at Arthur Andersen in 1982 we had an annual turnover of USD 300 million worldwide and about 4000 consultants. When I retired 22 years later we had an annual turnover of USD 15 billion and a headcount of 78,000. Since I retired just 5 years ago the headcount has increased to 140,000 and annual turnover is now around USD 25 billion. Growth for successful enterprises is amazing and nonlinear.
 
I know a lot of people who got ahead and were successful by job-hopping. I never did that. I just stayed with the same company all the way through.
 
Since I did consulting work it was never boring. Every project brought a new client with a new problem. A new country, a new culture, new politics, a different functional or industry/government sector - a new management and a different set of people.  It was fun. And you got paid to do it.

 
What motivated you to give back to Oregon State, particularly to the Stonehill program?

Arthur Stonehill never gave multiple choice exams. They were all essay and they were all difficult. I set the bar for his grading curve many times. Why? Because he created an interesting challenge. Not a typical professor presenting a rote memory exam process.  I think I took a total of three classes from him. He was a great coach of learning.

Also, I was selected to go on a Rotary Exchange Scholarship to South America when I was 16. That year in the Bolivian jungle change my life. I have lived outside the USA since I was 23. I still get back to the USA 2-3 time per year so I have never lost touch with my roots.
 
I hope that these scholarships will give others an opportunity to have a life-changing experience.

What are some of the things you learned here that you carried into your career?

How to study, how to focus.
 
I also was fortunate enough to be awarded a GTA position during my MBA year at OSU. That was a valuable experience.
 
Through the years I have interviewed thousands of prospective people who aspired to join Accenture. We looked at what people did in parallel with their studies. The ability to balance multiple activities with a GPA of 3.4-3.5 or better was key.
 

What are you doing now, and any interesting future plans?

I semi-retired at age 50. I now do some ad hoc consulting and teaching at the main university in Thailand in the International Business Programme. I also bought a large sailing yacht and have enjoyed it very much the past 4 years. I am writing a book about Burma and have created a charity for Burma in addition to the charity for OSU. I enjoy traveling around the world with family and friends and using one of my four houses on three different continents.