PSU Magazine Fall 1996

By Melissa Steineger with one of the largest shakeups in the industry. His long list of employers– Bank of California, Oregon Bank, Rainier National Bank, Security Pacific Bank, Bank of America, and West One Bank-was mostly the result of one bank acquiring another. Along the way, Aalberg rose to senior vice president, but he still found time to do for career beginners what others did for him when he was start– ing out-informally mentoring three or four people a year on average. He also made sure to repay what he sees almost as a debt to PSU. Since gradu– ating, he's served on the boards of the Corporate Associates program, which brings together about 75 of Portland's top business executives for weekly briefings on topics of interest; the PSU Foundation, where he served six years, three on the executive committee as secretary; and the PSU Alumni Association. Aalberg's altruism has taken creative turns, too. While at Security Pacific Bank, he contacted all the PSU alums working there and suggested pooling their resources to create a scholarship. After raising money, he approached the bank with the idea, and it matched the funds for a total of $2,500 to create the first Security Pacific Bank Scholarship. There's been less time for volun– teering in the last year, however. After a sterling career in banking that survived the bumpy consolidations, downsizings, mergers, and buyouts of the past decade, Aalberg decided the continued uncertainties of the industry were not for him. He found an oppor– tunity he couldn't refuse when Fred Meyer went shopping for a new vice president and treasurer. After being tapped for the position, Aalberg faced the arduous task of learning a new career. "When I took the job," says Aalberg, "I thought it would be similar to banking, but retail is dramatically different, and within retail, Fred Meyer is unique. There's no other major company that offers the one-stop shopping concept." As treasurer, Aalberg is the first contact for all the company's banking needs-including short- and long-term loans, pension plans and letters of credit. (Fred's has a $500 million line– of-credit spread among 23 banks, to give one idea of the complexity of the job.) Among many other tasks, the treasurer issues all payables, manages the company's self-insured worker's compensation program, and handles all liability insurance matters. And each day Aalberg's department tracks every store's cash transactions, a daily total between $50 million and $60 million. Each of the company's financial systems is individually designed to meet Fred Meyer's particular needs. In addition to learning the retail industry, Aalberg had to learn these unique financial systems and how to ensure they worked smoothly and effectively. He met the challenge the way he always has-by working hard. "I did a lot of reading and asked a lot of questions," he says. His 10-hour– plus days at the office were comple– mented with weekend work and evenings spent reading trade publica– tions and the company's history and philosophy so he could understand why Fred's makes the decisions it does. A year after he took the job, Aalberg feels he still has much to learn, but he's managed to cut his hours down to about 55 a week. Tackling a demanding learning curve in a new career, heavy volunteer commitments-you might think Aalberg has no time for anything else. Family, however, has always come first. "Jim is real close to his family," says long-time friend Rick Hawkins '69, a partner in the Oregon office of Arthur Andersen. "We have a house close to Jim and Janet's cabin on the coast and we often have dinner with them or they come over. He's very sharp, extremely conscientious, and always pro-active in helping others. He's very good about referring people to oppor– tunities with no expectation of anything in return." Along with spending time on the coast, Aalberg enjoys gardening, bonsai, golf, and visiting historical cemeteries. A sixth-generation Oregonian, he's preparing an article on one of his forebears, John West, who arrived in Astoria in 1850 and founded the town of Westport. And unlike when he attended PSU, Aalberg actually has time now to enjoy what the University offers outside the classroom. "We never," he says, "miss a Portland State football game." D (Melissa Steineger, a Portland freelance writer, wrote the article "Mister History Tackles PSU," which appeared in the spring 1996 PSU Magazine.) FALL 1996 PSU MAGAZINE 15