Jaguar Land Rover executive Sharon Corrigan will address Wartburg College’s Opening Convocation Tuesday, Sept. 4.

A 1980 Wartburg graduate, Corrigan is national sales operations manager for Jaguar Land Rover North America. She will talk about the value of a Wartburg education at the annual kickoff to the academic year. The program begins at 10:15 a.m. in Levick Arena at the Wartburg-Waverly Sports and Wellness Center.

Kent Hawley, a former Wartburg administrator, and O. Jay and Patricia Tomson, longtime supporters of the college, will receive Wartburg Medals at the event.                                              

Automotive News named Corrigan as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry in 2010. She leads a corporate team that oversees various aspects of sales and marketing for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in the U.S.  

Corrigan majored in business administration and German at Wartburg. She earned her master’s degree from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz. She began her career with Ford in 1983 as a Lincoln Mercury trainee in its college graduate program before climbing the regional leadership ranks.

In 2001, she joined Jaguar Cars North America — a Ford division from 1990 to 2008 — as strategy manager and became vice president of retail operations and vice president of marketing.

The Frederika native is the daughter of retired Wartburg controller Rosie Hoffman.

During Hawley’s 16-year Wartburg career, he was instrumental in boosting international enrollment while serving as vice president for student affairs, director of international programs and director of international admissions.

He and his wife, Earlene, lived in Afghanistan from 1962 to 1966. He was part of a Columbia University consultant team, under contract to the U.S. Agency for International Development, that advised Kabul University administrators on establishing the country’s only modern university.

Hawley received the Distinguished Service Award of the Iowa Student Personnel Association in 1985 and serves on Wartburg’s National Diversity Advisory Board. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science and economics from the University of Wisconsin and Master of Arts and Ed.D. in student personnel administration from Columbia University.

Jay Tomson, chair of First Citizen’s National Bank in Mason City, and Pat, a retired family therapist and active community volunteer, have given their time, talents and gifts to numerous Wartburg initiatives.

Jay served on the Wartburg Board of Regents, 1989-98, and the Commission Wartburg Task Force on Academic Programs in 1999. Pat was a member of Wartburg’s National Social Work Advisory Board, 2001-04.

The Tomsons played a leadership role in establishing the James Leach Chair in Economics and Banking and an endowed professorship in social work. They have actively supported social world experiential-learning opportunities.
Their daughter, Sara Tomson-Hooper, is a 1989 Wartburg graduate and received an Alumni Citation from the college in 2010.