November 2005

Profiles of Success

Kent Shadley, B.S. 1983, Biological Sciences

Kent Shadley grew up in the town of Southport, Indiana, which he calls “a little burg surrounded by Indianapolis.” He came to Purdue with the intention of becoming a veterinarian. “There was a pre-vet program in the School of Agriculture, but being a suburban kid, a degree in agriculture wasn’t really what I wanted. I decided to major in biology in the College of Science because that was my favorite subject in high school. It also provided me with a more technical degree in case I changed my mind—which I did.”

Kent has clear memories of his faculty advisor, Dr. Jim McNair. “He sat in the back of every ecology class I had and asked some really tough, sometimes embarrassing questions,” Kent says. “I learned things like population dynamics equations, where you divided by the population size. It doesn’t work for extinct populations, but it yields an infinite result. While it wasn’t ‘book’ or ‘lecture’ learning, I use those principles every day.”

When he wasn’t in class, Kent says he spent “way too much time” at WMRH, the radio club in Owen Residence Hall, where he was the news director. “I have many fond memories of the friends I made at Purdue,” he says.

Kent founded Sagamore Environmental Services Company with a partner in 1994. “I had worked in Indianapolis for an out-of-state environmental consulting firm, and the genesis of Sagamore took place around the kitchen table at a family Christmas party in 1993,” Kent says. “We incorporated Sagamore on the first day of spring – March 21, 1994. In seven years, we grew from three employees to 29, and had grown from gross billings of $84,000 the first year to $2,700,000 in 2001. In 2001, we won a Growth 100 award from IU Kelley School of Business.”

Kent left Sagamore in 2001 and joined Alliance Environmental, which he and his wife later bought and renamed the Alliance Environmental Group. The company provides environmental and safety consulting services, primarily to public schools. The company’s major areas are asbestos, indoor air quality, environmental site assessments, and soil and groundwater investigations. Kent is a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager. “I could not have earned this certification without the foundation I was provided by my coursework at Purdue,” he says.

Kent has been a member of the Science Alumni Board for several years, and this year took over as the group’s president. “I had always wanted to stay connected with Purdue on a personal level, and I am especially proud of my Science degree,” Kent says. “When I first heard about the Alumni Board, it seemed like a good way to stay connected to Purdue University, the College of Science, and a way to do something for the university that has given me so much.”

Kent has set big goals for the Alumni Board. “We have thousands of alumni working all over the world who are ambassadors for Purdue and the College of Science,” he says. “Many people’s only association with Purdue is through alumni, so their impression of Purdue is what they see on a personal level. I want to involve our alumni in a personal way to benefit Purdue University and the College of Science. There are many alumni who want to do something for Purdue, and I think the Alumni Board can give them that opportunity. I think we should ask ourselves, everyday: ‘What have I done for Purdue today?’”

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