Kenneth Canady

Kenneth S. Canady (BS NE ’63), PE, has been an engineer at Duke Power for 35 years and currently serves as vice president of nuclear engineering for Duke Power. In this capacity, he manages 160 nuclear engineers and technicians and an annual budget of approximately $200 million. He is a member of the American Nuclear Society and a registered professional engineer. Mr. Canady’s accomplishments are many, including leading the engineering for three major nuclear fuel design changes and transitions to reduce fuel costs and leading Duke Power’s team to obtain operating licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for seven reactors. His management position involves oversight of a variety of nuclear engineering tasks, from core design, to safety analysis, to fuel management, to special projects. Kenneth Canady’s steadfast commitment to providing reliable energy for North Carolina is exemplary of the public service devotion of our NC State achievers.

(Submitted photo)

Kevin Grayson

Kevin R. Grayson is both an alumnus and employee of NC State University. In 1983 he earned bachelor’s degrees in both electrical engineering and economics. Now he’s a manufacturing specialist and Six Sigma program coordinator for the NC State Industrial Extension Service (IES), where his job centers around helping manufacturing companies become more successful. “I like serving the manufacturing community,” he said. “I enjoy seeing our plants effect changes that make them more competitive and add stability to this sector of the North Carolina economy.”

Six Sigma is a business project in which researchers try to find and measure inefficiencies in a manufacturing system, then try to eliminate the defects for a more “perfect” process. The statistical term “sigma” is a measure of deviation from perfection. Six Sigma training is offered by IES for business leaders interested in directing Six Sigma projects. Grayson is himself a Six Sigma Black Belt. He is also a Malcolm Baldridge examiner for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Grayson’s professional activities make him an outstanding achiever and outreach representative of NC State.

(Submitted photo)

Terri Helmlinger

On July 12 Teresa A. (Terri) Helmlinger, assistant vice chancellor of extension and engagement and executive director of Industrial Extension Service (IES) at North Carolina State University, became the first woman president of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). An NC State alumna (BSEO ’78), Terri is a professional engineer who has held the offices of vice president of NSPE’s Southeast Region and president and national director of the Professional Engineers of North Carolina (PENC). On June 20 she was named Fellow of the PENC at their meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Her work in the engineering community and at NC State has been recognized on many levels. In 1999 she received PENC’s Distinguished Service Award, and last year Business Leader magazine named her to their seventh annual Impact 100 list, which recognizes exceptional individuals within the Triangle business community.

Recently Terri received the 2003 Equity for Women Award from the NC State University Council on the Status of Women for increasing the number of women managers in IES, working to rectify salary inequities for women and fostering leadership potential for women in engineering. Terri also serves on the NC State Alumni Association Board of Directors.

(Photo: Roger Winstead)

Nicole Holmes

Nicole Holmes (BSNE ’94) is a model of achievement, receiving many awards and honors during her time at NC State, including graduating summa cum laude. She received a John T. Caldwell scholarship, an Institute of Nuclear Power Operations scholarship and an American Nuclear Society scholarship. Nicole was a North Carolina Fellow, a Freshman Woman Engineering Student of the Year, a Senior Leadership Award winner and a member of several honor societies.

Nicole began her career at Duke Energy as a reactor engineering intern in 1992. Since graduation she has held progressively more responsible positions with Duke Energy and Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF). Since January 2003 she has been a quality manager for GNF, a joint venture of GE, Toshiba and Hitachi. Headquartered in Wilmington, where Nicole lives, GNF provides nuclear fuel and related engineering services to customers in North America, Europe and Asia.

An active volunteer with the GE Elfun group, Nicole tutors in math and reading at a local elementary school. She also recently completed her first half-marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Whether at school, at work or in her spare time, Nicole Holmes is an achiever and an outstanding alumna of the College of Engineering at NC State.

(Submitted photo)

Rudy Puryear

Alumnus Rudy Puryear (BSCSC ’74) has traveled a long road of achievement from a teenaged computer programmer to one of the top eCommerce consultants in the world. A Raleigh native, Mr. Puryear began working at age 17 at Synergetics, an architectural engineering firm. He was Stone’s School Supply’s first data processing manager in the early 1970s, and he designed and built the first computer system for the Administrative Office of the Courts for the North Carolina Judicial system, where he worked from 1976 to 1980. Other positions he has held include global managing partner for IT Strategy and for eCommerce for Anderson Consulting and president and CEO of Lante Corporation, which creates eMarkets. He is currently a director with the Chicago office of Bain & Company, where he heads the IT practice for the midwest.

The area of eCommerce has been Mr. Puryear’s focus for a number of years. Because we are in the middle of a transition from an industrial economy to an electronic economy, eCommerce will be an essential part of that transformation, Mr. Puryear believes.

Mr. Puryear is invited to give presentations regularly before businesses around the world. His articles on eCommerce have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes and Financial Times. In June 2000 he was recognized as one of Consulting magazine’s top 25 consultants. His achievements reflect highly on the Department of Computer Science and on NC State.