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The February 24th talk is entitled "Every Innovation Matters: How Each Idea, Big or Small, Can Impact Corporate Success" and will be delivered by James F. "Jim" Dicke III

Jim Dicke III has served as the President of Crown Equipment Corporation since December of 2002. A global manufacturer and distributor of material handling equipment with operations in 19 countries. Crown has 19,600 employees and a sales volume of $5.2 billion. Jim joined Crown as the Vice President-Human Resources in June of 1996 after 3 years as a Personnel Officer at Frost National Bank in San Antonio, Texas. He then became Crown’s Executive Vice President in December of 2000. Other work experiences include positions at The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the Deloitte & Touche Boston office, and The Berry Company in Dayton, Ohio (now a part of AT&T). Jim received a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Finance in 1993 from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He also attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana from 1985-1989 and Linsly School from January 1984-May 1985. Jim and his wife Katy live in New Bremen, Ohio. They have two sons, Alex and Charlie. Jim currently serves as a Trustee and Vice Chair at Â鶹´«Ã½, a Trustee of the New Bremen Foundation, and a Trustee Emeritus for the Linsly School in Wheeling, West Virginia. He also served as a trustee of the Culver Education Foundation in Culver, Indiana, and as a trustee of the JTDM Hospital Foundation Board.

The Spotts Lecture Series was established in 1986 to bring distinguished speakers to Â鶹´«Ã½ on an annual basis. The original purpose was "to predict as nearly as possible the conditions under which present day engineering graduates will be working a generation from now," and the series continues to inform today's engineering and computer science students of the professional conditions, opportunities and challenges that they may face in their future careers. Dr. Merhyle F. Spotts, BSME '23, Hon. D. '81, sponsor of the lecture series, graduated from Ohio Northern's College of Engineering. After 10 years in heavy and light industry, he obtained a master's degree from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He taught at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University. Spotts wrote extensively for technical journals and was the author of four books, including Design of Machine Elements, which released eight editions and was used worldwide for decades. Spotts was the recipient of many awards and honors, among them an honorary doctorate of engineering from Â鶹´«Ã½.