A conversation with Mark Torline

Mark Torline left Wichita in 1979 with a marketing degree from Wichita State University. He returned last month as director of WSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship.

Along the way, Torline started and led Allegiance Capital, a Southern California-based fixed income investment firm that over 20 years grew into an enterprise with $15 million in revenue, 60 employees and $5.5 billion in assets under management.

“We started in the mid ’80s … with what we thought was a good idea,” Torline, 58, said. “It’s no different than the concepts of what we see here (at WSU). You have an idea, your ideas go through the evolutionary process, you revise, you evolve, you raise capital. This was just a natural fit for me. I like creating businesses, and even after selling Allegiance I got involved in a few others.”

From WSU, Torline attended Northwestern University in Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree in finance. After graduation he moved to California to work at the former Security Pacific Bank (later acquired by Bank of America).

“Growing up in a banking environment, it was kind of a natural extension,” he said.

Torline’s father helped establish the former Suburban West State Bank in Goddard. Torline graduated from Goddard High School.

“I ended up for a period of time at the fixed income desk at (Security Pacific), and I loved it,” he said.

What does your job at the Center for Entrepreneurship entail?

From a 30,000-foot perspective, it’s really making sure that … we identify the needs of our key constituencies, and making sure the programs and resources we have here at the center derive a value for our customers, our key constituents.

Who are the center’s constituents?

We certainly have the academic/student customer base, if you will, and making sure the educational focus matches the needs of the students. That’s the first aspect. The second for me … is then the WSU community and making sure that what we’re doing here delivers value to the innovation campus. So we certainly have a set of outreach programs that we have been delivering for a long time. And then the third is just the business community itself, outreach programs, growing the Kansas Family Business Forum. Wichita has certainly been an entrepreneurial place for a number of years but there is an effort to make sure technology is added into (that). So we need to make sure we have the resources available to help entrepreneurs in that area of business as well.

Can Wichita develop into a full-fledged technology industry cluster?

I think there’s a good skill set that exists in Wichita, a good manufacturing skill set that exists in the aviation industry. To the extent that all of the efforts are successful figuring out how to transform that and how to adapt that skill set and transfer that into technology … it will attract entrepreneurs into the fold. So I think there’s a very good chance for success, based on that.

What was the attraction in the Center for Entrepreneurship job?

The ability for the center to play a key role in the development of the innovation campus. I’ve been on the university’s national advisory council for a number of years and I remember two years ago seeing the early stages of that plan. I remember telling my wife, you should see what’s going on at that campus. Just seeing how this is coming to fruition, I just got more and more excited about coming here.

What has the transition been like for you, going from the private sector into academia?

There’s certainly exposure to academic work with students and professors here. But so far the experience and what we’re looking at doing, it’s much more closely aligned to what you’d be doing in the private sector as well. In three weeks here I haven’t really noticed any difference between the two. This is not a classroom position that I have. I think a lot of the principles you would apply in the private sector are applicable here.

In what ways can you leverage your professional experiences into what you are doing/trying to do at the Center for Entrepreneurship?

I think, again, employing the same skill sets I used in developing my own business are going to be applicable here. I don’t view the position of the director of the center any differently than the role of CEO in my businesses.

Are you going to miss living in California?

Probably on 11-degree days, yes. Wichita to us, it didn’t feel like a new move. It was like returning home. My wife grew up here. I grew up here … and we maintained a lot of friendships here. If we were moving to an unknown place, I probably would have missed California more. We’ve got three boys (Tim, Craig and Pete) and their families living in California. We will still from time to time be (traveling to) California. We’ll maintain a connection with friends and family (there).

Tell me about Lori Leigh Designs and your involvement in that business.

(Torline’s wife, Lori) was frustrated because she continually misplaced or lost her earrings. My wife is a speech therapist … but she is an extremely creative individual so … she created what she termed an earring organizer out of materials in the house (using) mesh, balsa wood. … She would show her friends and from time to time they would ask, “Would you make me one?” … She decided she could sell them commercially and hired … a design firm to help transform what was a crafts material product into a commercially viable product. As it started to become more of a business and a user of capital, I got more interested. They developed a prototype and we arranged for manufacturing. We could not find a way to manufacture them close to economically in the United States. We tried. So we literally went to China … and from there she developed sales and distribution. It’s a going business today. She is not an entrepreneur by trade … so I thought she did a tremendous job as an entrepreneur, taking literally a product from idea through commercialization.

Why did you continue to serve WSU while living in California through your time on the national advisory council and the WSU Foundation’s investment committee?

I was always brought up to make sure you give back. The university always held a soft spot for me. My parents never went to college, but from the day I remember it they told me, “You will go to college.” I was the first in my family to go to college and I wouldn’t say I necessarily knew why I was in college when I got here. But I knew why I was in college when I got out because of a number of different people here. So I felt like I grew up while I was here. And it helped me focus a lot on what I wanted to do in life. So I always felt like I owed the university a lot. That just helped strengthen the connection (to WSU). You have to make sure when people help you in life that you give back.

This story was originally published November 28, 2014 at 12:15 PM with the headline "A conversation with Mark Torline."