GREENVILLE, PA – Richard D. Huether ’74, president and CEO of Independent Can Company (ICC), will receive the Thiel College 2007 Haller Enterprise Institute Entrepreneur of the Year Award at a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17, in the Sawhill-Georgian Room of the Howard Miller Student Center.

Given annually to a business owner who has demonstrated entrepreneurial leadership, the award will be presented to Huether by Dr. Robert C. Olson ’60, Thiel College president, and Professor David Miller ’61, executive director of the Haller Enterprise Institute.

After graduating from Thiel with a degree in business administration, Huether began pursuing his MBA at Bowling Green State University. In 1975, while attending graduate school, he received a job offer from Maryland-based ICC, which has been owned by his family since 1929. ICC is a manufacturer of specialty decorative and industrial tins with four manufacturing plants in the United States and is headquartered in Belcamp, Md.

He began working at ICC as a sales representative, a position he held for 13 years. Huether has worked at the company, not including his summer work as a student, for 32 years in various capacities in sales and marketing and currently as president and CEO.  He is the third generation of his family to hold that position.

He is the past president of International Packaging Association, a French-based association of 12 global can manufacturers. Huether also is an active member of Vistage, a professional organization of mid-sized company presidents and CEOs.

He has been a member of the Thiel College Board of Trustees since 2005 and serves on the Advancement Committee.

Huether and his wife of 28 years, Mary Ellen, have a son and two daughters. Their son, Ryan, also works at Independent Can Company in sales and marketing.

The Haller Enterprise Institute, originally named the Thiel College Enterprise Institute when it was organized in 1983, was renamed in 1996 when Pittsburgh residents Dr. Henry E. and Grace Mary Haller provided a $1 million-gift to develop entrepreneurial education at Thiel.      

Thiel College, located in Greenville, Pa., is a liberal arts, sciences and professional studies college, with enrollment of 1,200, related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

-30-