Alumni Feature - Guy Thier '83

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Guy Thier '83 B.A. Computer Science, and his father, Charles '61, have made attending Lewis a family tradition.
Guy is currently the SVP, CIO, COO for Bally Total Fitness. He also serves on the Lewis University Computer Science Advisory Board and credits his education at Lewis with starting him on the path to success in his career. He gives back, he says, as a thank you for the education and experience Lewis provided him.
"I've been lucky to have had a good career, and it all started here," Guy said. "I just felt that it was time to start helping shape the people coming out of college, and if I can add in any way to the curriculum being offered to them, to make them more productive, that helps me in the long run because I get to hire them."
While Charles encouraged his son to attend his alma mater, it was something else that led Guy to pick Lewis for his education.
"The thing that sold me on Lewis was - the labs here were unlimited computer time," Guy said. "A lot of other schools I was looking at, at the time, only allowed so many hours. So if I really wanted to learn and deeply engage with computer science, unlimited time was a big selling point."
With the tremendous growth of Lewis University over the last 25 to 30 years, Guy is impressed with the improvements made on campus. As a computer science alumnus - and one of the founders of the Computer Science Club - he was especially impressed with the new Science Center, which opened for classes in January 2012.
"I was here for the Science Center dedication. When I attended here, there was one computer lab where 12 people could fit in," Guy remembered. "The professors cared and they wanted to challenge you."

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