The Center of it All: Plaster Free Enterprise Center is now SIFE's flagship building

That optimistic message was uttered time and again at the Aug. 25 dedication of the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center – the newest addition to the Students in Free Enterprise world headquarters campus in northeast Springfield.

Plaster, the 77-year-old chairman of Lebanon-based Evergreen Investments LLC and the center’s namesake, crowned the high-powered cast of influential businessmen who turned out for the event. The former CEO of Empire Gas Corp. was the $6.5 million center’s lead benefactor.

“As we dedicate this new building today, I must emphasize that SIFE is much more than just a building,” Plaster said in a prepared speech. “… It is a solution. Indeed, it may well be the solution.”

The nonprofit organization teaches business principles, leadership skills and ethics to college students across the globe through various program competitions and business partnerships. Among its elite donors – $100,000 a year or more – is The Goldman Sachs Foundation, Best Buy, 3M, KPMG, General Electric and USA Today.

Plaster and other special guests, including former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive Jack Shewmaker and Campbell Soup Co. President and CEO Doug Conant, toured the 33,000-square-foot, three-story center last week following an official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The center brings the total space at SIFE’s world headquarters at 1959 E. Kerr St. – near Interstate 44 and North Glenstone Avenue – to about 50,000 square feet. General contractor Killian Construction Co. began work on the center in March 2007 and completed the building in February.

The Plaster Free Enterprise Center is home to SIFE’s domestic and international operations staff as well as four expandable conference rooms equipped with videoconferencing technology. There’s also a large meeting room with an adjacent kitchen that was funded by the Wal-Mart Foundation.

SIFE USA Regional Vice President Morgan Clevenger said the center’s space and amenities are much appreciated by some 60 full-time staff members who were virtually “on top of each other.” Previously, the campus consisted of a former Italian restaurant and wine cellar and the original Plaster center, an 11,200-square-foot annex opened in 1999.

“We used to have to go off-site quite a bit for meetings,” Clevenger said.

From Austin to Springfield

Plaster said he’s proud to be part of SIFE’s storied success, which began in the early 1980s when the fledgling group moved to Southwest Baptist University from the University of Texas – where he said “the organization was dying on the vine.”

Plaster and then-SBU chancellor Jim Sells also enlisted Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Shewmaker to assist with the transition, and Shewmaker agreed to serve as the first chairman of the SIFE Board of Directors.

In its first year, SIFE had revenues of $87,000 and a presence on 18 university campuses.

Today, the burgeoning organization has revenues of $19 million and reaches 38,000 students at more than 1,500 colleges and universities in 46 countries.

Plaster said one of the board’s first major decisions was to hire Alvin Rohrs as SIFE’s president and CEO – a position the Pleasant Hope High School graduate has held for 25 years. The new center houses Rohrs’ corner office, which looks out onto traffic rumbling along I-44.

Rohrs, who called the new center a “launching pad” for SIFE’s continued growth, said he’s traveled more than 200,000 miles and spent some 5,000 nights in hotels to promote the organization, but his regrets are few.

“I had one student say, ‘Thank you for all the sacrifices you made for SIFE,’” Rohrs recounted. “I thought, ‘Man, there’s no sacrifice here. It’s all privilege.’ It has been an amazing trip.”

Exporting free enterprise

Those who spoke at the center’s dedication said SIFE’s impact goes far beyond providing college students with real life business experiences.

They suggested the free enterprise system embraced by the United States is perhaps the best way to spread democracy throughout the world.

“People who participate in free enterprise can’t do so for very long without wanting more freedoms,” said southwest Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt, the U.S. House minority whip.

Ashcroft also championed the principles of free enterprise as America’s No. 1 export. Ashcroft is now chairman of The Ashcroft Group LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based security-consulting firm.

By exporting freedom, the United States is exporting the ability for others to reach their potential and enrich their culture, the former Missouri governor said. SIFE allows young people everywhere to embrace the global marketplace and work within it, Ashcroft added.

“This is not an American phenomenon,” he said. “This is a phenomenon of humanity.”

Keeping Springfield as the nucleus of SIFE’s worldwide influence was a priority for those who attended the center’s dedication. Throughout the years, Rohrs said there have been “healthy discussions” about whether SIFE headquarters should remain in southwest Missouri.

Given Springfield’s central location and the significant capital investment in the campus, Rohrs said the chances of SIFE leaving the Ozarks are slim.

Plaster agreed.

“I think it’s firmly rooted here, now,” he said. “I see no need for it to go anywhere else.”

The Guest List

The special guests who attended the Aug. 25 dedication of the $6.5 million Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center at SIFE's world headquarters was a virtual who's who of business and industry. Here's a look at the executives and their companies:

John Ashcroft, Former U.S. Attorney General (Springfield)

Guillaume Bastiaens, Vice Chairman, Cargill, Inc. (Wayzata, Minn.)

Roy Blunt, U.S. House of Representatives (Strafford)

Doug Conant, President & CEO, Campbell Soup Co. (Camden, N.J.)

Peter deSilva, Chairman of the Board, UMB Bank (Kansas City)

Bill Hickey, President, CEO, & Director, Sealed Air Corp. (Elmwood Park, N.J.)

Doug McMillon, President & CEO, Sam’s Club (Bentonville, Ark.)

Bob Noble, CEO, Noble World Communications (Springfield)

Robert Plaster, Chairman, Evergreen Investments LLC (Lebanon)

Sergey Plastinin, Member of the Board, Wimm-Bill-Dann Food OJSC (Moscow, Russia)

Paul Reilly, Chairman, Korn/Ferry International (Tampa, Fla.)

Shane Schoeller, Missouri State House of Representatives (Willard)

Jack Shewmaker, Executive Consultant, J-Comm Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.)[[In-content Ad]]