by jlansber | Oct 3, 2018 | Features
Faculty members Harold Welsch and Helen LaVan found their callings to become professors while earning their DePaul MBAs.
DePaul business professors have long been known for incorporating the real world into their teaching and scholarship. In their classroom discussions and research, they explore emerging trends and what they mean for business and society. For management professors Helen LaVan (MBA ’69) and Harold Welsch (BUS ’66, MBA ’68), the seeds of this teaching philosophy were planted when they were DePaul MBA students themselves.
LaVan was taking night classes in the MBA program and working days in the human resources department of Montgomery Ward when executives at that Chicago-based retailer tapped her to work with a team on a special project. She and her colleagues were tasked with researching solutions for the violent unrest that had erupted in Chicago and other American cities in the wake of the 1967 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1968 Democratic Convention. “They wanted to be good corporate citizens, and they were trying to help prevent the riots from happening again,” she explains. The report advocated for better jobs and educational opportunities, among other remedies, to address the roots of violence.
“The fact that I was singled out to work on this was kind of amazing,” LaVan says. It solidified her interest in pursuing an academic career in business from the human resources perspective. One of only four women in her MBA class, LaVan became the first woman graduate assistant at the college. After she finished her DePaul MBA and earned a PhD in organizational behavior from Loyola University of Chicago, she returned to DePaul to teach human resources. This year, she celebrates her 49th year on the faculty.
It was the business school’s first computer class that led Welsch down a groundbreaking academic path. The use of computers in business “was new, innovative, something that appeared from nowhere,” he remembers. The college’s faculty “had the foresight to realize that we needed to harness this for creating some good, and that got me thinking, how do you harness innovations? If the computer is one of the new things happening, what other new things are just around the corner?”
Entrepreneurship was that next big thing, Welsch realized. He finished his MBA, joined DePaul’s management faculty and completed a PhD at Northwestern University. In 1973, he began working with small-business clients to test and apply some of the theories he taught in his classes. In the early 1980s, he founded DePaul’s entrepreneurship program, one of the first in the country. Since then, the nationally ranked program has produced hundreds of successful entrepreneurs who are harnessing innovations to address a wide range of business and societal challenges.
Earning an MBA was a rare accomplishment in the 1960s, Welsch says, and he treasures his degree. With an MBA, “you stood out as a candidate for the career fast track in your chosen endeavor for whatever organization you selected.”
By Robin Florzak
Read more about MBA grads from other decades:
More memories from a 1960s DePaul MBA graduate:
“After graduating from DePaul with a bachelor’s degree in business in February of 1965, I immediately entered the MBA program at DePaul. All classes were in the evenings. During the day I worked as a staff accountant at J.P. Varkala & Co., a small CPA firm on the South Side.
“Among the professors I remember best was Ed Cohen. He taught a graduate financial accounting class that was outstanding. His classes were interesting and very challenging. Between taking him as an undergraduate, the CPA Review and graduate accounting classes, I had Ed for five accounting classes. It provided an excellent background. Later, when I earned a doctorate in accounting from University of Kentucky, I was ahead of my classmates in accounting knowledge and understanding, all because of Ed.
The DePaulia student newspaper highlighted the impact of the Blizzard of ’67 on students.
“(I also remember) Helene Ramanauskas-Marconi. Helene taught the capstone accounting class…She required us to present the results of our research in front of class, which was unusual for the time.
“The two years in the MBA program went fast because I was working in public accounting at the same time. My last class was with Marketing Professor Jack Goldstucker. Getting to the final exam for this course was a chore because it was the night of the Blizzard of ‘67 and Chicago was shut down. I had to hitch hike to the final exam. Only about a third of the class was able to get to the exam.”
— John Ahern (BUS ’65, MBA ’67)
Associate Professor of Accountancy & MIS
Director, Richard H. Driehaus Center for International Business
DePaul University
by jlansber | Oct 3, 2018 | Features
Sebastian Cualoping (BUS ’77, MBA ’81), former CEO of Ampac International, a worldwide design and plastic packaging company,
Sebastian Cualoping’s short commute to DePaul’s MBA program in downtown Chicago was the first leg of a long adventure in global business. Cualoping (BUS ’77, MBA ’81), former CEO of Ampac International, a worldwide design and plastic packaging company, was a young professional fresh from earning his bachelor’s degree at DePaul when he entered the MBA program. His dream was to found his own international business.
“I decided to pursue my MBA at DePaul part time so I could work during the day,” he recalls. “DePaul being right in the Loop and offering most of its MBA classes at night gave me the opportunity to do that.”
When he began the part-time evening MBA program, Sebastian Cualoping’s dream was to found his own international business. He discovered the foundation he needed in the courses International Finance and Money & Banking.
Two courses, International Finance and Money & Banking, had a big impact on Cualoping. They were taught by James A. Hart, an economics professor for more than 40 years who also served two stints as dean of DePaul’s business college. Hart, who died in 2003, “recognized the importance of international business before ‘globalization’ became a household word,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Under his leadership, DePaul became one of the first business schools in the country to offer an MBA in international business in 1962, one year before Harvard University.
Cualoping remembers Hart as a supportive teacher whose lessons still resonate today: “His classes were outstanding. His method of teaching was empirical, and I was able to apply what I learned to my business.”
DePaul has a very strong network in Chicago. Pursuing an MBA is not just taking classes, but also building relationships and networking with your fellow students. – Sebastian Cualoping
Beyond the knowledge and skills he learned in the classroom, Cualoping, who serves on the business college’s advisory council, says being part of DePaul’s large alumni community has had a lasting impact on his career and life.
“DePaul has very strong networking in Chicago, especially in the business and finance sectors,” he says. “Pursuing an MBA is not just taking classes, but also building relationships and networking with your fellow students.”
By Robin Florzak
Read about DePaul MBA graduates from other decades:
More memories from a 1980’s DePaul MBA graduate:
“On my way to night classes, I would stop at the McDonalds on State Street between Adams and Jackson. One night,(civil rights leader) Jessie Jackson, in the midst of his unsuccessful presidential run, stopped in for a burger and, seeing my books and note pads, came by my table and chatted for a while. I just don’t think you get experiences like that outside a school that is not in the heart of the Chicago Loop.
Happy 70th anniversary, DePaul University MBA Program. Thank you so much for all you did for me, and here’s wishing you many, many more great years.”
— Bob Matia (MBA ’88)
President, Bob Matia Agency
by jlansber | Oct 3, 2018 | Features
Paul Gunning credits the DePaul MBA program for helping him develop skills to create a strong company culture and cultivate disciplined processes for turning revenue into profit.
In 1992, Paul Gunning (MBA ’99) was driving toward Vail, Colo., when his 1969 Volkswagen bus broke down in the middle of Chicago. Gunning, who had just finished an internship in Washington, D.C., was planning to move to Colorado with friends. That plan never came to fruition, and Gunning ended up calling Chicago home.
The Cleveland native now works in advertising as president and chief operating officer of DDB Advertising U.S., overseeing the agency’s offices throughout the United States. Founded in 1949, the global advertising agency is owned by Omnicom Group Inc. and serves major brands such as MillerCoors, Capital One and State Farm.
Gunning’s advertising career started when he began working as an account executive for Frankel & Co. in 1996. His employer offered to pay his MBA tuition. Since Gunning earned an undergraduate degree in history, he took night classes to earn math credits at Harold Washington College before enrolling at DePaul.
“It took a lot of drive to complete (my MBA) but I remember fondly working in groups with other people who had full-time jobs and learning about their jobs, their industries and their roles,” he says. “I liked meeting folks who were in banking, health care, finance and other industries.”
Gunning had a knack for sales and began working for Tribal Worldwide, an agency that is also owned by Omnicom, after completing his MBA in 1999. Thanks to his advanced degree and ability to win new business, Gunning was named CEO of Tribal and oversaw the agency’s financial, strategic and operational leadership globally.
“I was good at sales,” he recalls. “I landed a lot of accounts and, because I was bringing those in and using the skills from the MBA, (I was able) to run them quite profitably.”
Prior to becoming president and COO, Gunning served five years as president of DDB Chicago. Under his leadership, DDB Chicago brought in new accounts including MillerCoors, Symantec and Scotts Miracle-Gro, among others. Gunning credits the DePaul MBA program for giving him the skills necessary to lead.
Those skills include the ability to cultivate both people and profits, he says. “There’s a lot of competition for a qualified workforce, so you need to have a strong culture but also disciplined processes to make sure you can turn that revenue into profit. A lot of those skills were developed because of the DePaul program.”
By Jaclyn Lansbery
Read about DePaul MBA grads from other decades:
More memories from a 1990’s DePaul MBA graduate:
“Probably one of my fondest memories was going to France and Germany (on a study abroad seminar) with Professor (Ashok) Batavia from the Department of Economics. Professor Batavia was well known among the students for his ability to teach, especially the lessons that were being taught in the world, as they were unfolding in the news. He was a renaissance man and had so much charisma; he spoke five languages, he had multiple post-graduate degrees, he was an international traveler, yet he was so humble and generous with his knowledge. And I remember sitting on a Euro rail train on that trip, talking to him about how to optimize the game of black jack and just sitting there thinking, ‘Is there anything this guy cannot do?’ He was challenging me to use this skill that I really hadn’t used in a long time.
I just remember thinking, ‘He was living his life on his terms.’ I remember thinking to myself this is the way that I should carve out my path – to grow a set of skills and optimize them to the highest level that I possibly could and then use those tools not just to work in corporate America but to carve my path as to how I wanted to live my life. And that was really a distinct memory while I was studying for my MBA at DePaul.”
— Chris Mah (MBA ’96)
Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Product Manager
Xylem
by jlansber | Oct 3, 2018 | Features
Malik Murray (BUS ’96, MBA ’04) credits DePaul alumni mentors
with helping him find success.
When Malik Murray (BUS ’96, MBA ’04) graduated from DePaul’s undergraduate finance program, his mother, Linda Murray, a former high school principal with two master’s degrees, would not give Murray his diploma.
“When I saw my parents at the conclusion of the ceremony, my mom took my diploma and said, ‘You’re not done yet,’” Murray recalls. “So in her mind she was already thinking about me going to graduate school.”
Recruited by former DePaul Blue Demons basketball coach Joey Meyer (CSH ’71), Murray attended DePaul on a full basketball scholarship and, like his father, Leonard Murray, who is a judge, had a natural gift for athletics. Along with his fellow teammates, Murray had dreams of playing in the NBA.
As an undergraduate, Murray interned at First Chicago Futures after being introduced to the industry by Brett Burkholder (BUS ’83) and worked every summer in the eurodollar pits at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Burkholder, an eighth-round NBA draft pick, showed Murray he could earn an NBA salary working in investment finance.
“I have so many examples of experiences where people have shown me what was possible in life, in business, and personally,” says Murray. “I took it in like a sponge.” Murray had worked for eight years in finance when his employer, First Chicago Bank, now part of JPMorgan Chase, told him the company would subsidize his tuition. Most of his peers in the industry had MBA degrees, so Murray knew he would need a graduate degree to continue advancing in his career. Although he looked at other graduate programs, DePaul, a “city school,” felt like home.
“Ultimately, I decided to come here and it’s a decision that, hands down, is the best one I made at the time,” says Murray, who now works as senior vice president of institutional marketing and client services at Chicago-based Ariel Investments, which is the first African American-owned investment management firm in the country.
I’m in a stage of my life where I really want to think about the people behind me, because I think that’s very important. It’s not enough to just look back, you have to reach back. I’m a big believer in that.” – Malik Murray
True to the Vincentian values he learned at DePaul, Murray gives back to the community and helps others find their own path. He’s a graduate of the Greater Chicago Leadership Fellows Program and sits on the boards of St. Ignatius College Prep, where he attended high school, and Ariel Community Academy. He is also director of the National Association of Securities Professionals.
“I’m in a stage of my life where I really want to think about the people behind me, because I think that’s very important,” he says. “It’s not enough to just look back, you have to reach back. I’m a big believer in that. So while I’m kind of entering a window of having some professional success, I also realize that life is much bigger than me, and I welcome the responsibility to help future generations to have the opportunity to participate fully in the American economy.”
For Adam Robinson (MBA ’03), an MBA was key to launching his own business.
Hireology CEO Adam Robinson credits the real world perspectives and network he built through his DePaul MBA program with helping his business grow.
Robinson took management Professor Harold Welsch’s (BUS ’66, MBA ’68) new venture formation class; in it, he built the business plan for Illuma, a recruitment company that Robinson ran for six years. Robinson later co-founded Hireology, a software company that helps organizations improve and systemize their hiring processes. In addition to overseeing Hireology, Robinson is a nationally recognized keynote speaker, an author, a podcast host and an Inc. Magazine columnist.
Hireology was No. 4 on Crain’s Chicago Business 2018 Fast 50 list. In 2017, the company expanded from 111 to 129 employees. Robinson currently serves as CEO.
“The value (from DePaul) was in the network that I built,” Robinson says. “Some of my first connections to entrepreneurs were through the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and guest speakers Dr. Welsch brought in. Here were people who learned these things and accomplished things I aspired to accomplish.” He credits the network that he built through his DePaul MBA program with helping his business grow.
Robinson studied real estate finance at DePaul and learned the skills that allowed him to manage finance and accounting for the first four years of running Hireology. “I was a history major at (the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign),” he says. “I had never taken an accounting or business course in my life. Most first-time business owners struggle with accounting and finance, and I struggled less because I had that education.”
“What I liked most about the program were the people,” he says. “Most, if not everyone in the class, were working. They were in careers, and they were contributing real perspectives and calling on their own real-world experience, (and) that contributed to the class. That made a big difference.”
By Jaclyn Lansbery
Read more about DePaul MBA grads from other decades:
by jlansber | Oct 3, 2018 | Features
Elizabeth Stigler says her MBA in entrepreneurship helps her to think creatively and strategically, which is useful for succeeding in any role.
Chicago native Elizabeth Stigler (MBA ’13) originally aspired to a career in publishing when she graduated with an English degree from a small liberal arts college in 2005. For five years, Stigler held internships at the University of Chicago Press and Poetry magazine and later worked for the Poetry Foundation managing public events.
After moving to a small town in Colorado for a few years, she realized she missed Chicago. “I decided that I really wanted to go to business school and be more marketable,” Stigler says. “I thought that given where I want to take my career and what I want to do, I really needed an MBA.”
Currently Stigler serves as managing director of external relations at The Chicago Network, a nonprofit organization that unites leading professional women from a range of industries throughout the Chicago area. The role, she says, allows her to combine her English background and the business acumen she gained from her MBA coursework at DePaul.
A huge draw for Stigler in choosing to attend DePaul was the college’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, which launched in 2003. She also liked the college’s central location in the Chicago Loop.
“Another aspect that I really liked was the cohort structure, which offered an effective networking mix to me as a fulltime student,” she says. “I had the benefit of a close cohort during the first year, and from that solid foundation, my network grew as we took classes alongside part-time students who were new to us and who were already active in the workforce.”
Stigler pursued an MBA concentration in entrepreneurship. “We can all be entrepreneurs in some way, even if you’re not an ‘entrepreneur’ launching your own business,” she says. “Part of my role (at The Chicago Network) is thinking creatively and strategically about what partnerships we should be seeking in the community and making those connections. Just being innovative and thinking on my feet as far as what we could be doing differently is how DePaul informed how I think now in my role.”
In addition to meeting lifelong friends through her cohort, Stigler credits DePaul with giving her the confidence to speak knowledgeably with CEOs. She also recalls an operations class she took with Nezih Altay, a professor who specializes in supply chain management, for understanding how seemingly disparate elements, such as communications infrastructure and humanitarian relief logistics, are intertwined.
Stigler says, “There are all these surprising connections that my MBA background allows me to make on a daily basis as a result of the classes and exposure to all of the great professors I had at DePaul.”
By Jaclyn Lansbery
Read about DePaul MBA grads from other decades:
“After graduating from DePaul with a bachelor’s degree in business in February of 1965, I immediately entered the MBA program at DePaul. All classes were in the evenings. During the day I worked as a staff accountant at J.P. Varkala & Co., a small CPA firm on the South Side.
