Steve Vanek:  

Life After high school, I attended University of Montana and played basketball for four years and received my degree in Business Administration/Human Resources. My first three years were under the guidance of Mike Montgomery (later went on to coach Stanford for 18 years followed by a two year stint as Head Coach of the Golden State Warriers) and my senior year with Stew Morrill (currently at Utah State). I did play basketball for a bit longer after that, two years in Germany (also worked on a US military base in Bindlach as a "Tourist Abroad") , a stint in Peru, a season in Australia, and Argentina. Then came back to the States and had a try-out with Seattle Supersonics. Retired from basketball in 1991, finished school and moved to Minnesota (Mall of America) to open an Australian toy store called "The Lost Forests" and later "Enchanted Tales". That ended in early 1996, but I was working at UPS part-time for the benefits and was able to make a bigger commitment in management. Eventually moved into Human Resources and have been in this field ever since. I had to leave UPS in 2004 because I was never able to see my family (Lindie and five boys) working 2pm-3am everyday. Started here at Rupp Industries as the Director of Human Resources (with NORMAL hours) in 2004 and have never looked back. Unfortunately, tragedy struck us in August of 2004. Our 14-year-old son was killed in a car accident and my 16 (at the time) year old was driving. They were coming home from the movies and due to construction were detoured to ...Expand for more