Bruce Koe
For his outstanding career in marketing and management, his loyal engagement with the University of Illinois, and his generous philanthropic support of students.
Community Philanthropist
- BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1966
During his corporate career, Bruce worked in the publishing industry. His roles included vice president of global operations at Reader’s Digest, executive vice president of operations at Golden Books Family
Entertainment, director of business development at Hallmark Cards and corporate vice president of Banta Corporation. Bruce then launched The Kirkwood Group, providing strategic marketing, management and operations consulting to the publishing, media and printing industries. As a consultant, he successfully helped his clients develop strategic imperatives to drive real growth and assisted them with restructuring their operations to improve profits and net worth.
After retiring, Bruce has focused on giving back to the University, his community and his church. He is a founding director and board member of Building One Community (The Center for Immigrant Opportunity) in Stamford, CT. Bruce also serves on the board of Food Rescue U.S., a not-for profit organization that serves the food insecure by employing technology and volunteers while also reducing food waste in more than 40 cities across the country.
Bruce served on the Grainger Engineering With Illinois campaign cabinet from 2017-2022. In 2001, Bruce and his wife Linda established the Kirkwood Scholarship for women in engineering and endowed it in 2018. Since its inception the scholarship has benefitted 55 women engineers, many of whom have gone on to have successful careers with several Fortune 500 corporations. Both he and Linda are life members of the University of Illinois Alumni Association.
Current as of February 2024