Patricia E. Rogers ’79

Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement

A high school bookkeeping teacher who was an alumnus steered Patricia Rogers to apply to UW-Whitewater. The golf team sealed the deal. The Waukesha native, who chose the campus over UW-Madison partly on the strength of its accounting program, loved the combination of athletics, academics, and social activities she found. She was a founding member of Phi Gamma Nu, a national professional business, joined the accounting society, and worked at the campus radio station.

After graduating with a BBA in accounting, Rogers spent her 26-year career at Cargill, Inc., capping 19 years in various financial roles with the company with a stint as head of international business for its fertilizer division.

Rogers’ life after retiring at the age of 48 is a career most business majors would dream of. She moved to Tampa, Florida, where she could more actively pursue her passion for golf. She served as a board member and investor Geosys, SA, a world leader for agricultural information and decision support tools based in Toulouse, France, from 2007 to 2013, until the company was sold to Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes, Inc.

She also reached out to a local food bank to volunteer and was eventually offered the role of interim executive director, which turned into a four-year position. Under her leadership, the food bank doubled its annual food distribution to 30 million pounds and helped to form the Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger, where Rogers served as chair until 2014. Her latest investment is Uriah’s Urban Farms, an indoor “vertical farm” that services high-end restaurants.

Rogers keeps active ties to campus by serving as a member of the College of Business and Economics Advisory Board, citing the Innovation Center and the Institute for Water Business as strategic efforts that keep her involved.