Louis (Lou) J. Furlo, Sr.
Saginaw, Michigan

Louis J. Furlo, Sr. was born in Saginaw and graduated from Arthur Hill High School. He attended Bay City Junior College while working in his family's retail hardware store.

Lou left the family business when he was 28 to start a career with Morley Brothers, at the time one of the largest wholesale hardware distributors in the United States. Soon he became a territory sales manager and formed the incentive division for Morley Brothers in 1964. He was named vice president and general manager of the new group at the age of 36 and the next year was elected to the corporate board of directors.

He received an honorary doctorate of Motivational Marketing degree in 1968 from the international premium industry. By 1975, Lou became executive vice president of sales and marketing for Morley Brothers and four years later was elected president and chief executive officer.

In 1981, he initiated the sale of Morley Brothers to S&T Industries and the following year he and a group of investors purchased Morley Brothers' incentive division and renamed it Morley Incentives, Incorporated. He was then named chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the company.

The Furlo family purchased all outstanding shares from the original investors of Morley Incentives, Inc. in 1991. The name of the company was changed in 1993 to Morley Companies, Inc. to more accurately reflect the character of the rapidly changing organization.

While Lou remains chairman of the board, his three sons now own Morley Companies, Inc. with Louis, Jr. serving as vice president of Morley's Eastern Region, Paul as president and chief executive officer, and Christopher as vice president.

Morley Companies, Inc., which has an impressive list of Fortune 500 and other major corporate clients, currently employs over 500 associates and comprises five operating divisions: Morley Travel, Morley Incentives, Morley Productions, Morley Interactive, and Morley Research. Morley is headquartered in Saginaw. The company has sales offices in Detroit; Norwalk, Connecticut; Zurich, Switzerland; and Singapore.

In his personal life, Lou is a charter member of Legatus, an international organization of Christian men and women dedicated to improve the moral and intellectual faculties of corporate leaders worldwide. He was instrumental in the founding of Drug Free America-Right Now, an organization dedicated to helping teenagers live productive, drug-free lives.

He served on the board of directors of Citizens Bank for many years and is currently on the board of directors of the Field Neurosciences Institute. In recognition of his entrepreneurial talents he was presented the Vision of Free Enterprise Award by the Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce in 1999.

In addition to serving on Northwood University's board of trustees, he was also elected chairman of the board of governors of Northwood's West Palm Beach Florida campus. The university honored Lou both in 1999 with its Outstanding Business Leader Award and in 2002 with an honorary doctor of laws degree.

Furlo and his wife, Veronica, reside in Palm Beach, Florida, and Saginaw.

“Northwood's website defines the school in its simplest terms as 'a private, tax-exempt, independent, co-educational, management-oriented college actively allied to both business and the arts.' I prefer to think of it simply as a 'great university'! I have joined Northwood's board because I feel there are no better educated, more learned and capably trained than those who have made the decision to achieve success by attending and graduating from such a great school—Northwood University.”