Three engineering management professionals with ties to Missouri University of Science and Technology were inducted into the Missouri S&T Academy of Engineering Management on Thursday, April 19, at Di Trapani’s restaurant in Rolla.

The academy, established at Missouri S&T in 2004, is an advisory group to the university’s engineering management and systems engineering department. New members are selected based on input from department faculty and development officers and voted on by the academy membership.

The 2018 inductees are:

John R. “Jay” Ashcroft of Jefferson City, Missouri, Missouri secretary of state, earned bachelor of science and master of science degrees in engineering management from Missouri S&T in 1996 and 1998, respectively. Ashcroft began his career with a defense-based engineering company in West Plains, Missouri, then in 2000, moved to St. Louis where he began teaching engineering and technology courses at the Forest Park, Florissant Valley and Meramec campuses of Saint Louis Community College. After a decade in engineering, Ashcroft expanded into the practice of law and graduated from Saint Louis University School of Law. A member of the Missouri bar, Ashcroft has earned multiple certifications in the area of citizen privacy and data protection. He has practiced law for eight years in St. Louis County, counseling clients on legal issues ranging from regulatory compliance to patent prosecution and election law. In November 2016, Ashcroft was elected Missouri secretary of state. He took office Jan. 9, 2017.

David W. May of Eureka, Missouri, president of Roeslein and Associates Inc., earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering management from Missouri S&T in 1982. May has over 30 years of experience in the food, beverage, container and filling industry. During his career, he has held various positions including design engineer, systems application engineer, project manager, director of business development and vice president of business development before taking his current position as president of Roeslein and Associates. May oversees over 600 employees in offices based in St. Louis; Red Bud, Illinois; Denver; Hollister, California; Northampton, United Kingdom; and Shanghai, China. He not only serves on the ownership group and the board of directors, but also acts as project director in the packaging industry, working on major projects with specific clients.

Dr. Yildirim Omurtag of St. Louis, is former chair and professor emeritus of engineering management and systems engineering at Missouri S&T and professor emeritus of engineering at Robert Morris University (RMU) in Pennsylvania, where he served as founding dean of the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Science. A registered professional engineer, he holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Iowa State University, a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Middle East Technical University and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Iowa State. Under Omurtag’s leadership, RMU established several ABET-accredited courses in engineering and the sciences. Omurtag has also served on the faculty of Wichita State University, Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, University of Tennessee Space Institute, Istanbul Technical University, California State University-Sacramento School of Business, Iowa State University and the Middle East Technical University, where he was a co-founder of the first industrial engineering program in Turkey in 1968. A Fellow in the American Society for Engineering Management, Omurtag has received the Sarchet Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. He has also received three service medals from the U.S. Army Aviation Troop Command and the Association of U.S. Army Engineer. A recipient of many other awards and recognitions Omurtag continues to serve as an ABET accreditation visitor and member of university advisory boards.