DETROIT - The Wayne State University School of Business Administration will hold its annual Awards and Recognition Program on Saturday, April 28, 2001, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Cobo Center's Riverview Ballroom. During the program, the school will honor students and faculty; Peter A. Schweitzer, president and chief executive officer of J. Walter Thompson Co.; and Osman R. Minkara, managing principal of Capital Investment Group LLC.

Schweitzer will be the third recipient of the school's Michigan Executive of the Year award. School administrators developed the award to honor the state's business leaders who have achieved extraordinary success and serve as role models to business students. The previous winners are Michael and Marian Ilitch and family (1999), founders of Little Caesar Enterprises, and Matty and Nora Moroun and family (2000), president and chief executive officer of CenTra Inc., and vice president of Ammex Duty Free Stores, respectively.

Minkara, who will receive the Distinguished Alumnus award, earned his bachelor's degree in finance and business economics from Wayne State in 1993. Following graduation, he worked as a district manager at American Express before leaving in 1997 to begin his own company, Capital Investment Group LLC. In just a few short years, it has become one of the area's leading asset management firms.

At the awards program, the school also will honor faculty members Richard F. Beltramini and William H. Volz. Beltramini, professor of marketing, will receive the Distinguished Research Award. Volz, professor of accounting and business law, will receive the Distinguished Teacher Award. In addition, school administrators will present more than $300,000 in scholarships to business students.

This year's event marks the 21st anniversary of the Awards and Recognition Program.