The Darla Moore School of Business was a sea of pinstripes and pocket squares Wednesday, as students rubbed elbows with top tire executives during the school's first-ever Michelin Day.
If you ask Peter Brews, dean of the business school, he'll say Michelin CEO Pete Sellek was the ideal company head to bring to students, as the corporation is an international entity with deep South Carolinian roots.
Plus, Selleck heads up the company that put tires on Brews' 1998 BMW 528i.
"[Michelin] is a global company, and the Moore school is focused on training students for global careers," Brews said. "It's a very important business in the world and a very important business here."
Michelin has 7,711 employees throughout South Carolina, totaling to the highest number of workers in any state and nearly 45 percent of the company's domestic workforce. Alabama has the second-highest number with 1,950. South Carolina is also home to several Michelin plants, located in Greenville, Spartanburg, Lexington, Sandy Springs, Starr and Duncan. The company has invested approximately $251 million in those plants.
Lauren Davis interned with Michelin after graduating from the Moore school in 2012. Shortly after, she was hired to work with the company's public relations, and she's been there ever since. For her, it's been a "dream job," and recruiting more USC graduates has been her favorite project she's tackled in her two and a half years with the company.
"We want the best students from the best programs," Davis said. "We want to be where they are."
Michelin Director of Recruiting Janet Krupka is a Moore school alumna herself — that's where she said she said her business opportunities began. When she's looking to hire, Krupka looks for adaptability, curiosity, collaboration and leadership from potential employees. Michelin recruits students from a number of schools, she said, but the company focuses a lot of its efforts and resources in South Carolina.
"It's an opportunity to engage with students and share not only our business but our company culture and why students would want to have a career with us," Krupka said.
Michelin returns to Columbia to recruit USC students year after year, something Selleck said only makes sense.
"We've been very successful with alumni from both the university and the business school," Selleck said. "When you've been so successful, the probability of continued success is very high."
And by the end of the day, business students weren't the only ones talking job opportunities.
"If I weren't having so much fun at the University of South Carolina, I'd come and apply," Brews said.
"I don't know," Selleck said. "We're pretty selective nowadays."
But Brews didn't seem threatened.
"Well, I'd at least apply."