Kenneth Stricker was an accounting major during his time at Southeast in the 80s, and he turned that into a long career and eventually, a position as a CEO.

At first, Southeast was the easy choice.

“I didn’t really have any idea what I wanted to door where I wanted to go,” Stricker said. “Southeast was about an hour away from home, and it seemed like a good fit at the time.”

When he started diving into accounting classes, he hit his stride. He found a field that was interesting to him and that he excelled in. He graduated in 1987 with a BSBA in accounting and finance.

After graduation, Stricker worked at Kiefer, Onfanti and CO, LLP for seven years. In fact, he had an instructor at Southeast who had a friend at the accounting firm and helped him land his first job.

He was then assigned to the Jones Company account and began a long relationship with them. He worked for several years as their accountant and then was offered the position of operations manager with Jones in 1994.He was promoted to vice president and chief financial officer two years later,and became president in 2003.

Stricker has also won a number of awards and been a part of a number of volunteer boards and committees throughout his career.

“Now I run the company, and I’ve run the company for a long time,” Stricker said. “And if it wasn’t for Southeast, I would have never made that connection."