The Collins College of Business honored three alumni and three graduating seniors during its annual Honors and Awards Banquet April 20 at TU’s Allen Chapman Student Union. Roberta Preston (BSBA ’83, MBA ’88), president and CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma and Dana Weber (BSBA ’79, JD ’83), president, CEO and vice chairman of the board of Webco Industries, Inc., were 2018 Outstanding Alumnae and Kenneth Knoll (BSIBL ’08, BSBA ’08), partner and COO of WeGoLook, was named the 2018 Fast Track Alumnus.
Roberta Preston
Roberta Preston, a North Dakota native, moved to Oklahoma when she was in high school. She attended The University of Tulsa, where she received both her undergraduate degree and her MBA. Preston spent more than 25 years in the corporate sector working for Amoco, BP, PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM. She began her “second career” in 2010 when she joined Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma as its chief executive officer.
Preston has remained active at The University of Tulsa through her service on the Alumni Board and the Collins College of Business Executive Advisory Board. She is currently a member of TU’s Friends of Finance Board of Directors and also mentors TU graduate business students. Preston is a member of the Rotary Club of Tulsa and chairs the Above and Beyond Committee, which recognizes the police officer and firefighter of the year. She is on the Advisory Committee for Food on the Move and also is active in her church, where she chairs the personnel committee.
In 2011, Roberta was named by the Tulsa World as “One of the Five Trailblazers to Watch.” In 2016, she was honored as one of Oklahoma’s Most Admired CEOs by the Journal Record.
She is married to Doug Napier and has two children: Preston, who is married and lives in Japan; and Nathan, who is attending the University of Oklahoma.
Dana Weber
Dana Weber began her full-time career at Webco Industries in 1977 and has held various positions in accounting, finance, production planning and systems design and implementation. She was appointed CFO in 1986, executive vice president and COO in 1989, president in 1995 and president and CEO in 2011.
Weber earned a B.S. and a J.D., both from The University of Tulsa, a PMD from Harvard Business School in 1986. Subsequently, she studied industrial engineering at Oklahoma State University.
Weber is currently chair of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Board as well as a member of the Tulsa Chamber Board, Oklahoma State Chamber Board, Board of the Oklahoma City Branch of the Kansas City Federal Reserve and TU’s Board of Trustees. Weber also currently serves on the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women. She has previously enjoyed serving many other Tulsa-area organizations, including the Young Presidents Organization, E Foundation, Tulsa Area Chi Omega Alumni Association, OCPA, Rotary Club, the Sand Springs Chamber, Oklahoma Business Round Table, Salvation Army, Tulsa Ballet Theater, the Summit Club, the Tulsa Library, Junior Achievement, American Heart Association, Junior League of Tulsa, DVIS and the Advisory Boards of WEN of Oklahoma and TYPROS.
Kenneth Knoll
Kenneth Knoll oversees the daily operations of Oklahoma City-based WeGoLook, a provider of on-demand field inspection and verification services. He’s responsible for product development and corporate strategy, customer implementation and overall fulfillment operations, both domestic and international. He provides substantial organizational direction for more than 150 full-time employees and more than 40,000 Lookers (independent contractors) and is instrumental in implementing end-to-end management of WeGoLook’s supply chain, sales activities and service and support in markets around the globe.
To provide the company’s direction and oversee day-to-day logistics, Knoll draws on previous entrepreneurial experience. As a technology investment fund manager, he provided business development consulting and capital planning to dozens of early-stage businesses, helping them progress from concepts to successful high-growth companies. As a finance and operations auditor for a Fortune 100 company, he engaged business units around the world to identify and recommend opportunities to improve operational efficiency and financial controls.
Knoll studied finance and international business at The University of Tulsa and is certified in Product Innovation and Development. He is married to Andrea Knoll, his high school sweetheart and a TU alumna. Both Knoll and Andrea are originally from Kansas and now live in Oklahoma City where they spend their free time enjoying everything OKC has to offer, traveling wherever new opportunities take them and living a healthy and active lifestyle with their rescue dog, Harden.
Three graduating seniors received the 2018 David R. Lawson Outstanding Senior award in recognition of their leadership and accomplishments while students at TU: Shelby Hackney, accounting and computer information systems; Matt Schmitz, computer information systems; and Kelly Scrivner, accounting and finance.
Faculty and staff award recipients, Beta Gamma Sigma initiates, honors graduates, certificate of merit recipients and college and department award recipients also were honored.