Joe Laux
Marketing alumnus gives back in multiple ways
Joe Laux knows a thing or two about hard work. Before becoming the CEO of River States Truck & Trailer, he started in the workforce with long hours at a meat-packing plant, entry-level work at Dole Foods Company and odd jobs for the New Orleans Saints.
“I had glamorous jobs like taking cut players to the airport and telling overweight players they couldn’t eat,” remembers Laux,’89.
Now the successful businessman shares his message and experiences with students every chance he gets — especially those at UWL. During fall semester, he spoke at the Silver Eagles Take an Eagle to Dinner event. He shared his journey and passion for business and mentoring the future.
Anna Ostrowski, a senior majoring in marketing, says Laux’s message of ‘I was you’ stuck with her. “He made himself one of the students and put himself in a place to be very relatable,” she says. “And it was not just his success stories, but also failures and struggles he encountered.”
Along with sharing his time with UWL students, Laux, who majored in marketing and management, is also sharing his wealth. He is providing a pair of scholarships to fund full, in-state tuition for students. One is for a marketing student. The other will support the top performing junior in the CBA.
The scholarships are the two largest at UWL. Laux is hopeful others will be inspired to follow suit. “UWL gave me a great basis for my future,” he says. “It gave me a great background to understand who I was, and I want to be able to provide opportunities for others to explore and find their path to success.”
That’s a message students like Ostrowski are taking to heart. “He made me believe in myself, my education and my future,” she says.
Lessons learned as a student-athlete
Joe Laux was also a student-athlete during his time at UWL. He shares what he learned when he wasn’t the fastest runner on the team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=wzLfcj4eSY4
Impact
Senior Dayna Ball, of Hudson, Wisconsin, received Alumnus Joe Laux’s Top CBA Junior Scholarship for 2018-19. Ball says she has had an overall very positive experience at UWL, including professors who are responsive, take time to connect with students and are supportive of helping students plan their career. She also appreciated the CBA’s Integrated Core Program, which gave her team work experience solving a problem for a business client.
Ball’s successful undergrad years add up to receiving of one of the largest scholarships available at UWL
Dayna Ball wasn’t very much a fan of Mondays — until Monday, April 9.
She was studying for a microeconomics exam early in the morning when she received an email with subject line, “scholarship.” The note congratulated her on receiving Alumnus Joe Laux’s Top CBA Junior Scholarship for 2018-19 — to cover full in-state tuition for the year.
Her day finished with a job offer for an internship and acing that microeconomics exam.
“It was a good day,” Ball says. “I look at Mondays a little differently now.”
But success doesn’t just come on Mondays for Ball. It has been a consistent theme as a UWL undergraduate. She’s been named to the Dean’s List every semester and finished her junior year with a 4.0. — at the top of her class.
“From day one I’ve viewed attending college as a privilege and four years of my life that I really have access to opportunities and resources,” says Ball. “That pushed me to get as much as I can out of it and truly understand what I’m supposed to be learning, so I can apply that to my career.”
Society likes to complain about each subsequent generation — including the Millennials — defining them by set characteristics from lazy to self-involved.
Image of Joe Laux talking in a crowd of people.
Joe Laux is funding a year’s worth of in-state tuition for a marketing student and a year of tuition for the top overall junior in the CBA. They are the two single largest scholarships available in the College of Business Administration.
Laux, ’89, doesn’t see younger generations that way.
“After you meet and interview these students, you are not concerned about the future at all,” he says. “They are incredibly intelligent, so worldly, well-spoken and balanced.”
Laux started the scholarship because he believes in giving back to the community and university where he received a strong foundation for his successful career as CEO of River States Truck & Trailer. He likes to know that through scholarships, his dollars will go to a specific, hard-working individual. And the funds also raise the overall profile of UWL’s College of Business Administration.
“I think UWL is one of the finest business schools in Wisconsin, yet it doesn’t get as much recognition as a UW-Madison,” notes Laux. “I want to show how some of the best and brightest are from UWL. Dayna is one of those.”
Ball works toward a future in economic research, communication
Ball, who has a major in economics and minors in communication studies and sustainable business, envisions herself in a future career conducting economic research related to environmental issues, crunching and analyzing the numbers and then effectively communicating these issues to the general public.