{"id":84,"date":"2010-07-23T10:58:44","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T10:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2010\/07\/23\/prominent-delta-state-alum-returns-to-campus-speaks-with-college-of-business\/"},"modified":"2013-09-03T12:56:46","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T12:56:46","slug":"prominent-delta-state-alum-returns-to-campus-speaks-with-college-of-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2010\/07\/prominent-delta-state-alum-returns-to-campus-speaks-with-college-of-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Prominent Delta State alum returns to campus, speaks with College of Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P align=\"center\"><IMG height=\"216\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/images\/univ_relations\/MooreLongAbney.jpg\" width=\"288\" border=\"0\"><\/P><P align=\"left\">Dr. Billy C. Moore, Dean of Delta State\u2019s College of Business, and Jamye Long, DSU Instructor in International Management, pose with David Abney, President of UPS International and 1976 Delta State graduate.<\/P><P>It had been almost 29 years since Delta State University alumnus David Abney stepped foot into Broom Hall on the DSU campus. But Thursday, Oct. 27, Abney returned to the building that housed then and still continues to house many of the College of Business courses. <\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">While he has returned to campus several times since his 1976 graduation, Abney had not visited the building he, as a business administration undergraduate, spent so many hours preparing for his current post as President of UPS International. <\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">\u201cI\u2019m sure the administration would love for me to say that I was an ideal student, but I was not. I did exactly what was required of me, but nothing more,\u201d Abney joked as he addressed a crowd of over 350 Delta State faculty, staff and students inside the State Room of the H.L. Nowell Union Building. <\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">Abney delivered a riveting keynote address as part of the Delta State University\u2019s College of Business annual lecture series. <\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">\u201cWhat I do remember about Delta State University and what I see has not changed is the education with a personal touch,\u201d the Greenwood native continued. \u201cDelta State University gave me confidence and taught me how to learn.\u201d<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">Both assets he has used daily in his climb to the top of the business world. As President of UPS International, Abney is charged with the strategic development and management of UPS\u2019s international package division. As part of UPS\u2019s Management Committee, Abney is also responsible for overseeing UPS\u2019s international package services within the United States.<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">Abney spoke to the qualities it takes to become a successful leader in the market place, emphasizing the constant need for self-education and self-assessment. \u201cYou are good, but are not good enough,\u201d he maintained. \u201cThe business world is changing at 100 mph. While you may be fully-equipped today, you will not be fully-equipped tomorrow. It is your responsibility to constantly train yourself, to stay current.\u201d<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">To that end, Abney admitted to reading over three daily newspapers each morning and over 20 magazines a month, offering, \u201cIf I don\u2019t know, I would bet my competitor knows. I\u2019ve got to stay current and stay up to the minute.\u201d<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">A 30-plus year veteran of the UPS Corporation, Abney has never dreaded one day of work, offering, \u201cEach day is like the Super Bowl to me and I want to win everyday.\u201d<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">He shared his own philosophy of \u201cliving up to your potential, believing in yourself, and holding yourself accountable,\u201d counseling those in attendance to, \u201cAsk yourself, do you know? Should you know? Only you really know.\u201d<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">To close the lecture series, Dr. Billy C. Moore, Dean of Delta State\u2019s College of Business, and Jamye Long, Instructor in International Management, presented Abney with a small token of their appreciation for his visit. &nbsp;<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\">Earlier this year, Abney and his wife, Sherry, made a generous gift to the University, which will help to enhance the International Business and Development program, a new program introduced this fall under the Division of Management, Marketing and Business Administration. This program is designed to prepare students for the constantly expanding world of business.<\/FONT><\/P><P><FONT face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"3\"><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Billy C. Moore, Dean of Delta State\u2019s College of Business, and Jamye Long, DSU Instructor in International Management, pose with David Abney, President of UPS International and 1976 Delta&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40513,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/40513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}