College of Business Hall of Fame 2024 Alumni Inductees

Robert Roche  '85

President - Roche Enterprises

Robert Roche is a serial entrepreneur, civic leader, and philanthropist. As founder and President of Roche Enterprises, he has launched, managed, and invested in more than 100 successful global businesses, including Oak Lawn Marketing (Japan), Acorn International (China), IS Seafood (China/US), and Cachet Hotels & Resorts (China). In the United States, his businesses and real estate interests include Sand Hollow Resort, Gallup Land Partners, and Redhorse Performance.

Roche is a dedicated civic leader who has served as a civic and business representative for the U.S. in Japan and China, and participated as a donor and advisor to many non-profit organizations. He is a senior advisor to The Quad Investors Network, a non-profit that facilitates the development of emerging technologies across the Indo-Pacific. He also serves on the Board of the Center for New American Security and founded the Business Forward Foundation. In 2010, President Obama named him to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, a committee he served on until 2014.

Roche is also a passionate philanthropist who is involved extensively in nonprofit organizations focused on enhancing education, improving international relations, and building strong, sustainable communities. Endowments from Roche established a Chair for Interreligious Research at Nanzan University in Japan, and a Master of Laws in International Business Transactions at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law.

Roche received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics/Japanese studies at Illinois State University and earned his J.D. at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He also participated in two study abroad opportunities at Nanzan University in Japan. Roche is married with three children and spends time in China, Japan, and the United States. He is fluent in Japanese and proficient in Mandarin Chinese.

Erica Brumleve '85

Consultant/Director, Commerical Consulting - BioPharma Services
Cencora

Erica Brumleve is currently a Market Access and Strategic Account Director in the Commercial Consulting - BioPharma Services group of Cencora.  As a global healthcare company, Cencora partners with pharmaceutical innovators to provide industry leading solutions and to facilitate and optimize market access for ground breaking therapies.

Erica has 35+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical/biopharmaceutical industry in Sales, Product Marketing,  Sales Management,  State Government Affairs, and Managed Market Access roles. Prior to joining Cencora, Erica had a long and successful tenure with GlaxoSmithKline, a global biopharmaceutical company. Her specialty product knowledge and managed care experience is broad and diverse, as she has helped to successfully launch over 35 specialty and rare disease products into the marketplace over the course of her career.  Erica possesses a thorough understanding of the complexities involved in the launch of a new product and possesses exceptionally strong communication, networking and business acumen skills.

Erica grew up in the small town of Teutopolis, Illinois in a family of educators and school administrators, where the importance of an education was instilled from an early age.  Erica started working in high school to earn money for college.   She continued working on-campus during the school year at ISU, during each summer,  and over holiday breaks in order to finance the majority of her college education.  Throughout her life, Erica was encouraged by her parents to strive for success not only by pursuing educational opportunities, but by also becoming a more well-rounded individual through participation in extra-curricular activities.  During her four-years on campus at ISU, Erica learned valuable time-management skills by balancing a full class schedule, an on-campus job and involvement in several ISU organizations.  Erica was a very proud member of the Big Red Marching Machine, an Officer with the ISU Collegiate Chapter of the American Marketing Association and had the privilege of serving as a Preview ISU Guide during Freshmen Orientation. She is extremely proud that she graduated in four years with a B.S. in Marketing with two minors in Business Administration and Communications, while also balancing her extracurricular commitments at ISU.  Erica credits the combination of  the exceptional education she received, the acquisition of the many valuable skills she obtained and the influence of several mentors and professors while a student at ISU as contributing factors which allowed her to build a successful career in the pharmaceutical/biosciences industry. 

In 2015, Erica established the The EMBolden Endowed Scholarship for Women in Marketing within the College of Business at ISU.   The first scholarship was awarded in 2018 and is awarded annually to assist a current Marketing major who, while also focusing on their studies, participates in campus or community-based organizations, and who has actively contributed to paying for their own education.

Erica has resided in Austin, Texas for the past 25 years with her husband, Jon Matousek. They are the proud parents of two daughters, Cassidy Matousek who resides and works in Woodinville, Washington and Rylee Matousek, who resides and works in Austin.  In her spare time, Erica is a certified PADI MSDT SCUBA Instructor and enjoys sharing the wonders of the underwater world with new divers.   She and Jon also love to travel and experience new cultures and new foods.  To date, Erica has visited over thirty countries and all fifty states.  She volunteers with several non-profit organizations in the greater Austin area and especially enjoys volunteering with Chariot.org, an organization that offers rideshare services to Seniors who are no longer are able to drive.

Erica is a very proud alumna of ISU, and recently participated as a member of the ISU Department of Marketing Advisory Board for 5 years.  She is extremely honored and humbled to be inducted into the ISU College of Business Hall of Fame this year, alongside so many esteemed alumni and members with such impressive backgrounds and resumes. 

Jere Eyer, '83

CPA, Entrepreneur

Jere graduated from ISU in May 1983 with a degree in accounting and business administration along with passing the CPA exam.  That same year he also married Ally (Harlan) Eyer an ISU Fine Arts alum ‘84.   After graduation, Jere immediately went to work as an audit and tax accountant with the public accounting firm Clifton Gunderson now known as CliftonLarsonAllen.  Within a few years he left for a senior auditor position with the public accounting firm BDO.

At BDO, Jere quickly rose through the ranks and was able to develop extensive expertise in the technical aspects of a variety of privately owned mid-sized businesses.  During his tenure with BDO, he was able to work in many of the mid-west and Texas offices of BDO along with becoming a national instructor for the firm’s auditor training curriculum designed to further develop the firm’s large audit staff.

In 1994, Jere had the urge to transition from advising clients on how to successfully operate their businesses to actually owning and operating private companies.  He left the comfort of public accounting to become an equity partner and Chief Financial Officer of a large Midwestern transporter of bulk liquid commodities.  By 1999, Jere was the President of the holding company and helped transition the company to profitable growth before it was ultimately sold to a national public company in 2002. 

After briefly trying retirement for a few months, he quickly started a similar transport company concentrating on the Chicago metro market and specializing in the more specific petroleum and jet fuel liquid commodities markets.   Along this same time period he also founded several other companies in other industries including a company that concentrated on the ownership of pipeline and tank farm commercial properties, a company specializing in transport equipment repair facilities, an entity designed to build and own commercial manufacturing facilities within enterprise zones, and a firm that specialized in providing temporary high level accounting and financial services to companies that may have lost their financial officer.  In his spare time, Jere also worked with one of his old partners at BDO to develop a new local public accounting firm that was ultimately sold to CliftonLarsonAllen.

In 2009, Jere started to exit his other businesses to concentrate his efforts on growing and developing a mid-sized plastic manufacturer he helped as a start-up during his tenure with BDO.  Jere immediately became the Managing Director and with his business partner grew and expanded the plastic manufacturing business by concentrating on refining the manufacturing processes to compete in a global marketplace.  This business was a dominant plastic manufacturer in the gaming markets including slot machines, video arcade games and pinball machines.  After more than a decade, the business was sold to a Midwest private equity firm.

Jere now concentrates his time on working in a volunteer role with other small and medium sized companies that are unable to afford the internal costs of a financial officer.  He also still has a small accounting and tax practice working with past clients and business partners to assist them with their tax needs along with their trust and estate planning administration.

When not working, Jere and his wife Ally spend their summers at their lake home in Wisconsin and are transitioning to winter life in Florida along with enjoying boating, swimming, golf and friends.