Kelley School of Business Indianapolis Commencement Speakers Set

An attorney to the stars and a respected media executive will be the featured speakers at the May 10 commencement ceremonies for students at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis.

The school announced Jeff Smulyan, chairman of the Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp., will deliver the keynote address to the undergraduate students. Mark Roesler, an attorney with expertise in trademarks and image licensing, will address the graduate students at the event.

The commencement is set for May 10, 2009, at the Indiana Convention Center. Graduate ceremonies begin at 11:45 a.m. and undergraduate ceremonies begin at 5 p.m.

Roesler grew up in Alexandria, Ind., and attended DePauw University before graduating with his M.B.A./J.D. from the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, part of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. He currently runs CMG Worldwide, an Indianapolis company that represents some of the best known names from the 20th Century.

Roesler began his career with Indianapolis-based Curtis Management, where he was responsible for protecting against copyright infringement. The legal work was rare during that time, allowing Roesler to grow his business substantially.

Over the next two decades, he represented the estates of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Babe Ruth and countless other media icons, both living and dead. He testified in 1997 in the wrongful death civil suit filed against football great O.J. Simpson, which resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement to the family of his now deceased wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

Despite having homes in Indianapolis and Beverly Hills, Roesler continues to give back to the university by hiring graduates of the law school to work at CMG’s offices in Fishers, Ind., and Los Angeles. He also serves on the law school’s Board of Visitors.

Smulyan’s company, Emmis, owns and operates media outlets in 10 major U.S. markets as well as abroad. He got his start by owning radio stations in Indianapolis (WNTS) and Omaha, Neb., which he then forged into Emmis in 1980. The company went public in 1994 and now owns 21 radio stations as well as magazines and one television station. Emmis was the first media company to simultaneously own top-rated radio stations in New York and Los Angeles (1995).

Emmis was honored in 2005 as Fortune magazine’s “Top 100 Companies to Work For,” and has been named among the top companies to work for in Indiana. Smulyan has held countless committee leadership positions in the broadcasting industry and is the past chairman of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, an economic-development consortium of CEOs from Indiana’s largest corporations.

For additional biographical information on Smulyan, go to  http://www.emmis.com/executives/smulyan.aspx

For additional information on Roesler, go to http://www.markroesler.com/pdf/articles/lawcover2.pdf  .

For additional information, please visit www.kelley.iupui.edu or contact Dave Hosick, coordinator of communications and media relations with the IU Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, at 317-274-6856 or dhosick@iupui.edu.

About Kelley School of Business at Indianapolis
The IU Kelley School of Business has been a leader in American business education for more than 80 years. With an enrollment of more than 4,800 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students, it is among the premier business schools in the country. Kelley’s Indianapolis campus, based at IUPUI, is home to the school’s Evening MBA, Master of Science in Accounting, and Master of Science in Taxation programs and a full-time undergraduate program.