Since joining DePaul University more than 30 years ago, Accountancy Professor Mark L. Frigo has taught thousands of students how to create value. Students who take his courses gain a deep understanding of strategy, risk management, accounting and financial analysis, as well as how successful companies achieve sustainable high performance.
“Understanding the pattern of strategic activities of high-performance companies helps our students create value as business professionals, entrepreneurial managers and in managing their careers,” he says. Given his significant contributions to DePaul and its graduates, it’s fitting that the Chicago native has been named the Ezerski Endowed Chair in the School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems. Established by a 2010 gift from Ronald Ezerski (BUS ’68), former vice president of finance at Patterson Co., the endowed professorship recognizes accountancy faculty excellence.
“Being named the Ezerski Chair is a great honor,” Frigo says. “Reflecting on memorable accomplishments at DePaul, there are so many I can recall and most importantly there are many more yet to create in the future.”
Prior to joining DePaul, Frigo led a successful career in corporate financial analysis and management consulting at KPMG. He is the author of seven books and more than 100 articles that have been published in leading journals, including the Harvard Business Review. His research on high-performance companies is featured in “Driven: Business Strategy, Human Actions, and the Creation of Wealth,” a book he co-authored with Joel Litman (BUS ’93) to help leaders better analyze and prioritize value-creating strategies. It is the basis of courses he teaches as a professor and director of DePaul’s Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation.
Frigo has won numerous teaching awards at DePaul and also was named an Outstanding Educator by the Illinois CPA Society. A fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate, Frigo has been practicing and teaching martial arts for five decades and incorporates elements of it into his classroom and executive education presentations.
“I try to instill the wisdom, energy and philosophy from martial arts in my courses to reinforce a learning and creative mindset,” says Frigo. This includes creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust between teacher and student in the classroom, he says.
“DePaul is a great university with very motivated and driven students, a talented faculty and very successful and loyal alumni,” he says.
My ‘why’ is to help our students to achieve greater success professionally and personally by changing the way they think in a positive and powerful way.”
By Jaclyn Lansbery
