Robert Bernier - Inducted in 2003
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Bob Bernier is a native of Canton, Ohio. He earned a B.A. in journalism from Kent State University and worked as a reporter for the Daily Record in Wooster, Ohio. He came to UNO in 1974 to join the University Relations staff. He received his MBA from UNO in 1978.
As an MBA student, Bernier worked on small business cases and provided marketing assistance for the newly formed Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC).
He was appointed director of NBDC in 1979. By 2000, he had developed NBDC from a two-person shop into a multi-location program with 54 employees serving more than 1,800 small businesses annually. He helped organize the Association of Small Business Development Centers and was its national president in 1990.
In 1991, Bernier joined other CBA staff in working with Romania’s Alexandru Ioan Cuza University to develop its curriculum and services in free-market economics. In 2002, on his ninth visit to Romania, he was recognized by Cuza University with an honorary appointment to its faculty.
In 1997, Bernier returned to his own education and received his Ph.D. in public administration in 2000.