College of Business honors Diane C. Creel as Hero of Business
Grace Mestad |
Lipscomb’s College of Business is committed to developing future business leaders who embrace Christian virtues and values. These values are defined as being purposeful, bold, credible, creative and servant-like in their professions.
Lipscomb also understands the significance of exposing students to business leaders that lead in such a way that their faith and values shine through their business careers.
Since 2009, Lipscomb’s College of Business has recognized individuals whose missions and faith have greatly impacted their industry as Heroes of Business.
The Heroes of Business program was developed to highlight business leaders who have achieved success in their business, but have also displayed their faith and character.
“Diane Creel has been very successful in business at multiple levels and has done business right and not compromised her faith, even now in her retirement continues to serve other through her foundation,” said Ray Eldridge, interim dean of Lipscomb’s College of Business. “Her work is what we want business students to be exposed to, to see that someone can be successful in business and still do business ethically to serve others.”
On Thursday, Oct. 29, Lipscomb’s College of Business recognized Diane C. Creel as its latest Heroes of Business recipient. 
Diane C. Creel is the retired chairman, chief executive officer and president of Ecovation Inc., a green technology company providing waste to energy treatment solutions to Fortune 1000 companies in the food and beverage industry.
She was the first woman to hold a chief position in a publicly owned engineer firm in the United States, a huge step forward for women in business.
Creel currently continues her passion for community betterment by filling the role of chairman of the Canyon Creek Foundation, her philanthropic foundation for betterment of communities locally as well as in Honduras.
She is also a founding member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services and serves on the boards of directors of Allegheny Technologies Inc., where she is the lead director; EnPro Industires; H.W. Lochner; and TimkenSteel.
Randy Bostic, director of development for Lipscomb’s College of Business, explained that Creel was chosen as a Hero of Business because of the way she has integrated her faith into her work.
“She is a Christian example that each of our students can follow to be successful in their own careers,” said Bostic. “She took calculated risks to better herself, her employees and her companies which lead to her extraordinary experience and success.”
Creel was honored at a special breakfast where she was able to speak and inspire other community business leaders, as well as students and faculty from the College of Business.
Creel was also given the opportunity to speak to current business students in Lipscomb’s business chapel where she was presented her Heroes of Business award.
During chapel, Creel participated in a Q&A session led by Linda Schacht, founding director of the Nelson & Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership, and spoke openly about breaking the glass ceiling for women in business, her leadership roles, implementing visions, taking risks and never being afraid to fail.
“There were days I didn’t know if we were going to make it or not and times I couldn’t take a salary,” explained Creel. “But you just move forward and keep 
going, and hope you reach the day that makes this all worthwhile.”
“It’s all about changing your mentality to accept that you may fail, but even if you do, you know you’ve failed doing the best that you could do.”
Creel continued by noting that hard work is everything in her book.
“There’s no substitute for hard work,” she said. “People will continue to give you more and more opportunities to expose you to new things and it is important to never settle for mediocrity.”
Ian Gardner, senior business management major, attended the chapel event and was inspired by Creel’s success and ability to integrate her faith into her career. Gardner spoke on how Creel’s stories motivated him to continue his pursuit of success in his future business endeavors.
“I learned so much about what it meant to be successful in the business world,” Gardner explained. “It was really motivating to hear her talk about the trials that she had to face in order to get to the top, and how she never let a challenge stop her, even when it seemed impossible.”