Mid-Plains CEO graduates with MBA from Chadron State College

 Purdy completed his Master of Business Administration degree from CSC in December.

“I had planned to earn my MBA for several years, but had put it off. Once I made the decision to pursue it, I laid out a plan and tackled it,” Purdy said.

Prior to being named MPCC’s Chief Executive Officer, Purdy had served as the Chief Financial Officer there for 10 years. From January to October of 2012, he served double duty as both the college’s CEO and CFO.

He had also, in the meantime, started his graduate degree in March of 2012.  Four months later, he was selected to be MPCC’s permanent president. 

MPCC has two campuses in North Platte and a campus in McCook.

Facing the challenges of a new executive position while taking graduate courses actually became an advantage, according to Purdy.

“I could reference experiences from work situations to my classes and was also able to apply course concepts to back to my work. I think it would be harder to complete the coursework without having the work experience,” he said.

Purdy said it was convenient to take courses online rather than travel and he was pleased to have multiple terms open so he could register months ahead of time. He also appreciated course rotation information being available on the CSC website to aid with his planning.

“The graduate office was great to work with. That personal touch just wasn’t there in another program that I considered, making my decision to attend CSC much easier.” 

Purdy was also complimentary in his evaluation of the CSC Graduate faculty and fellow graduate students.

“All of the faculty members were very responsive. I don’t know when they sleep because I received email answers to my questions at all hours,” Purdy said.

On Nov. 12, Dr. Tim Donohue, Dr. Rick Koza, and Dr. August Bruehlman, three of Chadron State College’s graduate faculty, formed the committee which reviewed Purdy’s final case study. While Purdy had completed his MBA coursework on-line, he chose to come to campus for a face-to-face meeting with the committee so he could see those on the other side of the computer screen.   

He and his family returned to the CSC campus for a second time so he could personally receive his degree during the commencement exercises Dec. 13.

Purdy and his wife, Leah, have been married 14 years and have three children, Elliott, 12, Carly, 9 and Addisyn, 5.  Leah is the Director of Choirs at North Platte High School and earned her master’s degree from UNK in 2007.

“She knew what it was all about. I couldn’t have done it without her support. I also received a lot of encouragement and backing from the MPCC staff.  I appreciate all they did for me during a pretty crazy time,” he added.