IMSE Hall of Fame Spotlight: Alumni as Technology Leaders

November 24, 2021

The Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Hall of Fame inducted six new members in October 2021. Three of these distinguished alumni — Monica Khurana, Mickey Miller and Allan Samson — were recognized for their significant career achievements in technology leadership.mas

Established in 2008, the IMSE Hall of Fame honors distinguished industrial engineering graduates who have made an impact within their field and recognizes those who have supported the IMSE Department.

Monica Kurana portrait

Monica Khurana MS IE ’98, MS CS ‘99

Monica Khurana MS IE ’98, MS CS ‘99

Monica Khurana is a technology executive, advisor and board member with more than 25 years of leadership experience gained from growing, scaling and transforming large global businesses. Monica received her BS (Gold Medalist) in industrial engineering at the Guru Nanak Dev University, an MS in industrial engineering and an MS in computer science — both from Mizzou.

Khurana is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Dodge & Cox. Before that, she served as Chief Information Officer at Guardian Life Insurance-RS Investments/Victory Capital Management, Cornerstone Research and Union Bank – Highmark Capital. She has more than 20 years of experience in technology leadership including roles at Barclays Global Investors (now Blackrock), Varian Medical Systems/CareCore and Hewlett Packard.

Khurana has been on the board of organizations that support youth development, women in technology and finance, and promoting health care and education in underserved communities. She is a thought leader and a frequent speaker in industry forums and has presented on topics ranging from digital transformation to diversity. She is an active executive advisor and coach to the CTO and CIO community and continues to promote women in technology.

Hall of Fame Inductee C. Mickey Miller

C. Mickey Miller BS IE ‘85

C. Mickey Miller BS IE ‘85

Carleton “Mickey” Miller has more than 25 years of experience in creating and building growth technology businesses, three of which resulted in value creation and strategic exits. He has a proven track record in delivering results, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, in both growth and turnaround situations.

Miller is currently CEO, President and Board Member of Vislink Technologies. Vislink is a global technology business specializing in the collection, delivery and management of high quality, live video and associated data from the scene of the action to the viewing screen.

Prior to Vislink, Miller was co-founder, CEO and President of BLiNQ Networks, where he created a new product category of wireless connectivity to address the rapid growth in mobile data traffic. Before leading BLiNQ, Miller was President, Wireless Network Solutions Group of Andrew Corporation. Prior to Andrew, Miller was part of the team that built and sold Lucent Power Systems to Tyco for $2.5 billion. He also held various roles of increasing responsibility sales at General Signal and AT&T. He began his career as a quality engineer with AT&T Microelectronics.

He holds an MBA in finance and marketing from Rockhurst College, completed the Corporate Finance Program at the London Business School and holds a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Missouri.

Hall of Fame Inductee Allan Samson

V. Allan Samson BS IE ‘92

V. Allan Samson BS IE ‘92

Allan Samson presently serves as Senior Vice President – Marketing at T-Mobile. He leads all aspects of marketing for the B2B line of business for T-Mobile including the integration of the Sprint and T-Mobile customer bases, acquisition marketing, promotions, pricing and advertising.

Prior to the merger in 2020, Samson served as Senior Vice President – Marketing at Sprint. He led Sprint’s consumer and business acquisition efforts, including product and pricing strategies, direct marketing and database, marketing operations and multi-cultural marketing.

Prior to joining Sprint, Samson was Senior Vice President – Marketing at Charter Communications (2010-2016), the second-largest cable operator in the United States. Before Charter, Allan served for several years as the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Birch Communications (a $500M telecom firm) and held director-level roles in sales, marketing and network operations for eight years at AT&T.

Samson holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Missouri and an MBA in product marketing from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas.