Category Archives: Features

Anissa Patterson (seated fifth on the left) and DePaul sports business classmates review fan letters as part of a customer service consulting project for the Chicago Cubs baseball organization. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Anissa Patterson (BUS ’21) took her first sports management class at the Driehaus College of Business three summers ago. At the time, Patterson was earning a business administration degree and unsure of what field she wanted to pursue, but she had always been an avid sports fan. So when she learned about a business class that would allow her to work directly with the Chicago Cubs organization, she signed up immediately.

Anissa Patterson (BUS ’21) | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

During the eight-week class, Patterson gained a firsthand look at what it would mean to work as a consultant who provides expertise for a specific problem. Students in the undergraduate course, taught by Andy Clark, director of DePaul’s sports business program, partnered with the Chicago Cubs Service Excellence Program and became “secret shoppers” who tested the quality of all aspects of the professional baseball team’s customer service. The class showed Patterson not only what it would be like to work in the sports industry, but also how to identify and solve problems for organizations.

“It was really nice to be treated like a professional during my experiential learning classes with Professor Clark,” Patterson says. “It wasn’t just making a presentation in class—you’re presenting to real execs who work in the industry. That was a great experience to have and to put on a résumé, and it helped me get a job.”

Today, Patterson works as the client services coordinator in partnerships for the Chicago Wolves, a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League. She credits her classes not only for helping her gain marketable skills and experience but also for helping her learn how to communicate with multiple stakeholders who have different perspectives, a skill that consultants must utilize when taking on projects.

“When you are consulting with someone,” she says, “you have to make sure you’re communicating on a level that everyone understands.”

Growing Demand for Consulting Skills

Marketing Consulting Club faculty advisor James Mourey (second from left) with student members Timothy Tran, Julia Adams and Faith Ramos. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Since 2012, the number of management consultants working in the United States has continued to increase every year. According to Statista, which specializes in market and consumer data, 734,000 consultants worked in the U.S. in 2020. Although consultants can provide a range of expertise, graduates with business degrees offer a blend of teamwork skills and business acumen that employers often seek. According to a Graduate Management Admission Council survey, 95% of consulting sector recruiters said they expected to hire MBA graduates in 2021.

Given this demand, the Driehaus College of Business is actively preparing students to enter the workforce poised for consulting careers or to use consulting skills to increase their success within organizations. A recent college survey found that 76% of the faculty incorporate consulting, case studies and other real-world projects into classwork.

Associate Professor of Marketing James Mourey serves as faculty advisor of the student DePaul Marketing Consulting Club, which has taken on consulting projects for companies ranging from alumni-owned startups to national companies, such as Philz Coffee. He also teaches a marketing capstone course that challenges student teams to propose solutions to organizational problems outlined in business cases for well-known companies and brands.

Exposure to real-world client work through classroom and student organizations “transitions our students from passive students to active, prepared practitioners of our discipline,” Mourey says.

Mourey, who worked as a consultant in Los Angeles before completing his doctorate, says he believes business students bring a different, holistic perspective as a function of their education and training.

“Importantly, though, having experience lends credibility that is important for consultants,” he says. “Formal education is one thing, but getting your hands dirty in your discipline exposes you to myriad issues, challenges and problems people in your field face, as well as potential solutions that work or don’t work, all of which makes you an informed resource in a consulting role.”

Solving Human Resources Challenges

Rachel Collins (MBA ’21) worked on a student consulting project for United Airlines’ human resources division.

For Rachel Collins (MBA ’21), gaining hands-on experience meant learning more about the human resources industry through a consulting lens. For several years Collins worked in a variety of events and sales roles and eventually found her passion for working with people in human resources. She came to DePaul after hearing about the human resources graduate program and decided to pursue an MBA.

To gain more real-world experience, Collins decided to enroll in a consulting skills course, taught by Associate Professor Jaclyn Jensen, which allows students to work on quarter-long projects with real clients. In winter 2021, Collins worked with four other students to help United Airlines develop a hiring and retention framework for the Chicago-based airline’s human resources division. Collins worked closely with United Airlines HR professionals to identify their needs and then interviewed several of the organization’s employees. At the end of the class, Collins and her team presented their findings to United Airlines’ chief learning officer.

The project, although challenging at times, helped her become more comfortable with leading interviews and problem-solving. “Sometimes in consulting, the company you’re helping thinks they know what the issue is but in reality there may be a lot of underlying issues,” says Collins, who now works in talent acquisition for a Chicago-based trading firm. “I think that kind of came up in this project, and that was a big challenge for us. It made us learn to be flexible and be willing to [initially] fail. But sometimes that’s okay because it means you’re getting closer and closer to the end result.”

Consulting Expertise “A Big Differentiator”

A class project inspired Matt Almeranti (BUS ’18), now a LinkedIn regional account manager, to become a sales professional. | Photo by Mike Nowak

As a graduate of DePaul’s Sales Leadership Program, Matt Almeranti (BUS ’18) had an opportunity to utilize consulting skills early in his career. Almeranti credits his experience in an analytical sales course for preparing him for his current role as regional account manager for global clients at LinkedIn.

The undergraduate course challenged students to address a business case scenario in which they were consultants tasked with persuading 3M corporation to buy Salesforce software. While the case was hypothetical, the students had to make a presentation to actual Salesforce employees who came to their class. Almeranti says his experience with the class was “singlehandedly the biggest differentiator I had coming out of college,” igniting his passion for sales and teaching him to apply consulting skills in his career.

Although his current role at LinkedIn is in sales, Almeranti says it’s important to be seen as a collaborator with expertise that clients can rely on. “When you are working at a company like LinkedIn where you’re so strongly positioned in the market, coming off as a consultant and a trusted advisor and a problem-solver is much, much more impactful than someone who is trying to jam product down someone’s throat the entire time,” he says.

As a consultant, “if you build trust, you can earn responsibility and really scale your career, whether that be for internal projects or externally with customers,” he says.

By Jaclyn Lansbery

With the Museum of Science and Industry as an unconventional backdrop for his class, Associate Professor Jim Mourey introduces students to improvisation techniques designed to help them become better leaders. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Driehaus College of Business faculty members are known for bringing real-world experiences to the classroom, but perhaps lesser known are some of the innovative ways they are weaving those experiences into learning opportunities for students.

Take Associate Professor of Marketing Jim Mourey, for example, who integrates improvisation techniques into his classes. What does comedy improv have to do with business? According to Mourey, more than you might think.

Mourey’s expertise is in consumer behavior, but he has been involved in improv and comedy writing since the fourth grade and is a graduate of the conservatory at Chicago’s famous comedy club, The Second City. His two passions come together in his teaching methods that combine “a little bit of comedy and entertainment,” Mourey says.

Improv training can help students become better business leaders, and Mourey’s got the data to prove it. His recent study on the effects of improv on learning found that students familiar with improv techniques tend to be more creative, are more collaborative and have a higher level of self-efficacy.

There are 10 major tenets of improv, and the most important is to approach situations with a “yes, and” mentality, he says. By implementing “yes, and,” you agree to an idea presented to you and add something new to it. “Students who take my classes go on to seek people who share the same values they’ve learned in improv,” Mourey explains. “They begin to identify the ‘yes, and’ people from the naysayers. The ‘yes, and’ people are more likely to bring solutions to the table.”

One improv activity Mourey uses is called “Five Things.” “It’s a creative brainstorming exercise where I say the name of a brand and students have to say five things they think of as quickly as possible. It’s fun and it makes people laugh, but what you’re really doing is trying to break down this fear of putting ideas out there.”

“Improv training teaches skills that are useful in business, but also in life,” Mourey says. “I’m giving my students tools they can use whenever they need them. If they’re in a situation where one method isn’t working, maybe they’ll say, ‘Hey, let me try using this other method that Jim taught me.’”

Thinking Outside the Textbook

Associate Professor Kelly Richmond Pope created an e-learning game that immerses accounting students in a financial fraud “whodunit.”

Associate Professor of Accountancy Kelly Richmond Pope goes to great lengths to engage students and get them excited about forensic accounting. Last year, with DePaul Academic Growth and Innovation Fund support, she developed an innovative e-learning platform called “Red Flag Mania,” an immersive, online “whodunit” game that challenges students to use data to uncover financial fraud at a fictional organization.

Pope explains: “Textbooks are not engaging. It’s hard to get excited about a story you read about, but what if you are in the story? That was the inspiration behind ‘Red Flag Mania.’ I thought, what if I can give students the beginning and middle of the story and have them solve the end? Learning through immersion is impactful because it gives students an opportunity to apply what they learn and have fun doing it.”

Playing to the Strengths of the Virtual Space

Associate Professor Zafar Iqbal enlisted DePaul alumni working in 10 different countries to be live guest speakers for his online class. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

It’s not just about converting content to an online format; it’s about reimagining the delivery of that content in ways that are not possible face-to-face. That’s when you truly start to innovate.”

When the world moved online in 2020, Associate Professor of Marketing Zafar Iqbal had never taught virtually before. But it wasn’t long before he converted the challenges of online teaching into opportunities for his students.

“I experienced a mental shift when I realized that time and space were no longer constraints,” he says. “I could bring in speakers and have students work with clients from literally anywhere around the world.”

Iqbal is director of DePaul’s Integrated Marketing Honors Program, which enrolls a cohort of no more than 30 undergraduate students in an intensive, yearlong experience that involves three major consulting projects for real businesses. By the end of the program, students emerge with 30 weeks of real-world consulting experience.

“Because working together on projects in real time is important, I quickly decided that the program must be taught synchronously [live classes that meet at a specific day and time online],” says Iqbal, who over the past year has had his students work with businesses located from California to Japan.

Utilizing the newest of the business college’s technology-enhanced classrooms, Iqbal was able to expand his online teaching techniques. First, he maximized class time. “I could use the [electronic] whiteboard and discuss course content with one group while sending another group into an online breakout room to solve a problem,” he says, “and they wouldn’t miss anything because they could watch the discussion recording later.”

Second, he reimagined the alumni career panels that he incorporates into his classes. “For the first time, I was able to host a global alumni panel. I invited alumni who work in 10 different countries,” he says. “We just had to agree on a time zone, and the world was suddenly in our classroom.”

Another technique Iqbal uses involves structuring course content into a controlled sequence to build upon a narrative. He strives to create an integrated experience versus having his videos available all at once, like a playlist that could potentially be watched out of order.

“There are strengths to each teaching modality, so in order to be successful you need to learn and leverage those strengths,” Iqbal shares. “It’s not just about converting content to an online format; it’s about reimagining the delivery of that content in ways that are not possible face-to-face. That’s when you truly start to innovate.”

By Nadia Alfadel Coloma

The pandemic has accelerated the trend of remote and hybrid work and has created a values shift among employees in terms of what they want and need from an employer.

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally shifted traditional views of how and where we work, forging a new path toward increased remote and hybrid working environments. New challenges and opportunities are presenting themselves as organizations and their people adjust to changing workplace norms, with some teams staying fully or partially remote and others re-imagining what it means to work on-site at an office. Regardless of industry, DePaul alumni and faculty experts agree that one size does not fit all when it comes to determining the best way forward.

Remote work—a trend accelerated

Jaclyn Jensen, associate dean for student success at the Driehaus College of Business, says employees are looking for more flexibility and autonomy from their workplaces. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

“A significant percentage of people worldwide worked remotely pre-pandemic, so the idea of having a portion of your workforce remote is not a new concept,” explains Jaclyn Jensen, associate dean for student success, who teaches in DePaul’s human resource programs, including a new Executive Master of Science in Human Resource Management. “What has happened is that a much broader swath of employees has experienced the opportunity, so for them and for their managers, it is new.”

The pandemic has accelerated the trend of remote work and has created a values shift among employees in terms of what they want and need from an employer.

“We’ve been seeing significant turnover in the job market as people are seeking more flexibility and autonomy,” Jensen says. “Employees want to feel valued by their employer as a whole person and not feel like a faceless, nameless contributor lumped into a group. Organizations have to think about how to stay competitive in order to retain and attract talent.”

A new dynamic in the manager-employee relationship has also emerged as the pandemic forced organizations to let go of certain aspects of control over their workforce. Trust, autonomy and accountability have come to the forefront. “If communication was important before, it is even more pivotal now,” says Jensen, who advises managers and employees who are staying fully or partially remote to find innovative ways to create regular touchpoints, set boundaries and expectations, and establish a clear sense of goals and accountability.

“There are strategies to help teams build connections and a sense of trust, comradery and collaboration that can still be implemented in a remote or hybrid work situation,” Jensen says. “It just requires organizations to take a step back, think about lessons learned from working remotely through a pandemic and consider feedback from key stakeholders. They should also consider the nature of the work that needs to get done and allow teams to make the right choices for themselves.”

Employee engagement in the virtual/hybrid workplace

Mark Wattley (LAS ’88), chief people officer for Cooler Screens, recommends that organizations with virtual work environments create opportunities for employees to have nonbusiness conversations. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Expectations around getting work done have become far more important than where people are physically located. Employees are more open to the possibilities when considering an employer, and organizations are moving away from an era where recruiting and hiring were based solely on geographical location.

Early-phase tech company Cooler Screens doubled its workforce in 2021, hiring mostly remote employees after realizing the company could access a larger talent pool while working virtually throughout the pandemic. Headquartered in Chicago, the company has created new ways to onboard and engage its employees, almost half of whom are now located out of state (in 2019, only six out of the then small team of about 25 worked remotely). Team engagement and collaboration become more complex when a workforce is dispersed.

“We had an open concept floor plan with no private offices where everyone, including the CEO and senior leadership, was on the same floor,” shares Chief People Officer Mark Wattley (LAS ’88). “It had a real buzz about it, and that’s hard to replicate remotely. We’ve had to think differently about how we are getting the work done, but also, just as importantly, about how we are communicating and connecting.”

According to Wattley, creating time and space to have nonbusiness conversations is crucial for team rapport, bonding and engagement, especially in a remote or partially remote work environment. “We spend the first few minutes of our weekly team meetings chatting about photographs that we ask people to send that represent what they did over the weekend,” he shares, as an example. “It encourages those nonwork conversations and sidebars that can be a missed opportunity when you don’t see your co-workers on a daily basis.”

Cooler Screens officially reopened its Chicago office in the fall. However, with an increased emphasis on flexibility, the focus has been on using the office for collaboration, some meetings and socializing and as an option for individual work. And with a large workforce now outside of Chicago, the company plans to implement a framework for in-person meetings and events throughout the year to bring everyone in the company together to collaborate and connect.

“We have an extraordinary opportunity in HR to reshape how we work and how people think about work,” Wattley says. “The in-person component is still important, but in this new age, we need to think strategically about what it means to be in an office or not in an office. In my 30-year career, I can’t recall another opportunity like this for management and employees to have these conversations, and I think we should not waste it.”

Rediscovering the value of the office workspace

CBRE Tenant Representative Justin Hucek

Reimagining office workspaces to increase employee engagement and productivity among workers is another rising trend. Justin Hucek (BUS ’09, MBA ’18) is an office tenant representative at CBRE who helps companies find workspaces in downtown Chicago and around the country. The office real estate market took a hit during the pandemic, but Hucek says it’s starting to pick up again, albeit with different needs.

“One of the major things we’re seeing is companies trying to create an environment that feels safe and welcoming, but also, frankly, a really cool space to come back to,” he says. “There’s been a mindset shift in trying to use office spaces as a way to attract people back.”

The successful companies, Hucek says, are the ones rethinking and revamping their offices to create more modern, collaborative working spaces of the future. “How can we utilize this space to create engagement, collaboration and inspiration in a way that can’t be done when you’re at home working alone?” is a question many are seeking to address. There has also been an increase in satellite offices popping up around the country as more companies are hiring remotely and wanting to provide a space for those employees. So, while office spaces aren’t going anywhere, the way they’ll be leveraged will likely look different.

One of the major things we’re seeing is companies trying to create an environment that feels safe and welcoming.”
– Justin Hucek (BUS ’09, MBA ’18)

“One thing that will drive how companies decide on their hybrid models is what their industry peers are doing,” Hucek says. “Keeping an eye on that will be important for attracting and retaining talent. If you’re a large firm asking your employees to come back five days a week, and your competitor offers flex days twice per week, you may run into a problem.”

The future of work—tips for success

Leslie Lemenager (MBA ’89) consults with companies on strengthening employer-employee relations.

“Pre-pandemic, most leaders would have said ‘people are our most important asset,’ but I feel there was a bit of lip service paid to that,” says Leslie Lemenager (MBA ’89), president of Gallagher’s International Benefits & HR Consulting division. “But now I think employers truly believe that people really are important. Whether you’re an educational institution or manufacturer, you need people in order to achieve your goals.”

Lemenager works with companies to help strengthen employer-employee relationships. She has these tips for organizations to navigate the new workplace:

• Know your core mission and values. When you understand who you are and what you do, it becomes easier to achieve your goals in an evolving hybrid/remote workplace. Organizations with this strong foundation adapt more quickly and are better able to make decisions that blend an employee’s needs with the business goals and objectives.
• Be consistent with your messaging. Communicating your plan to employees will be a challenge. Overcoming the challenge starts with leaders believing in and sharing a unified plan. The more effectively you can communicate and model your vision, the easier it will be to get others on board. Strong messaging also will help managers gain trust and autonomy for making decisions on a local basis.
• Identify the external factors and barriers beyond your control. Make sure you understand your decision-making framework. Know your technology constraints, your budget limitations and your industry’s HR policies and practices that may make change difficult or unattainable.
• Support the manager-employee relationship. Equip managers and employees with the tools, training and professional development they need to be successful in their new working environments. Many managers will need assistance with managing performance and supervising remote team members.

Employees, Lemenager says, need to be more proactive in engaging with their managers and peers, as well as take more ownership of their professional development. “How you get noticed by the higher-ups, get added to the groups or projects you want and build your network is going to look different,” she says. “It can be easy to just focus on your work and not pay attention to opportunities that can aid your career progression if you’re not surrounded by work every day in the traditional sense.”

By Nadia Alfadel Coloma

Richard H. Driehaus enjoyed answering questions from students who competed in the simulated stock portfolio competition that he sponsored for DePaul finance students. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

My DePaul education, as both an undergraduate and through the graduate school of business, was an important factor in how my career and life have evolved. I commend the university for creating an environment that not only excels in education, but does so in a benevolent way.”
— Richard H. Driehaus

In 1970, Richard Driehaus was one assignment away from earning his MBA at DePaul. He had been taking some time off from business school when his DePaul economics professor, William A. Hayes, called to remind him that he was only one paper away from graduating. Driehaus submitted a paper about his ideas on growth investing—a philosophy that served as the driving force behind what would become his multibillion-dollar, Chicago-based investment firm Driehaus Capital Management.

Driehaus, an internationally recognized investment pioneer and prolific philanthropist who started his work life as a newspaper delivery boy on the South Side of Chicago, died on March 9. He was 78.

A DePaul Triple Demon and Life Trustee, Driehaus grew up in a bungalow in the Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago. He earned his undergraduate business degree in 1965 and his MBA in 1970. In 2002, the university bestowed an honorary doctoral degree upon him.

“Richard was an inspirational member of the DePaul University community who devoted so much of his life’s focus to the university and our students,” says DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban, PhD. “His pragmatic approach was forged in his Catholic values, education at neighborhood parochial schools and his strong family life. His inquisitive mind, relentless determination and unquenchable desire to learn led him to unparalleled levels of success in the investment management industry, which in turn spurred his outsized effect on countless individuals and organizations as a philanthropist.”

Driehaus’s devotion to DePaul and long-standing partnership with its business college led him to donate $30 million to the college, which was named in his honor
in 2012. The record gift supports the recruitment and retention of top business faculty members.

“My DePaul education, as both an undergraduate and through the graduate school of business, was an important factor in how my career and life have evolved,” Driehaus said at the college naming ceremony. “I commend the university for creating an environment that not only excels in education, but does so in a benevolent way.”

Driehaus shared his investment philosophy as a guest speaker at the college in 2014. | Photo by Jeff Carrion

Throughout his life, Driehaus generously dedicated his time and resources to support DePaul’s Catholic, Vincentian mission and the university’s business and arts programs. In 1993, he endowed the Driehaus Center for International Business, which oversees the college’s international business degrees and study abroad seminars. In 2002, he established the innovative Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance and endowed the Driehaus Chair in Behavioral Finance. He regularly supported the annual galas hosted by The Theatre School and the School of Music. In 2018, he contributed to the establishment of the Dennis H. Holtschneider Chair in Vincentian Studies.

Driehaus also made a difference in students’ lives by funding scholarships for MBA students and a yearlong simulated stock portfolio competition for finance majors. He relished inviting student competitors to Driehaus Capital Management’s historic, castle-like headquarters in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, where he answered their questions about the market and careers in finance.

“Students really enjoyed interacting with Richard,” says Lee Diamandakis (BUS ’01), who helped facilitate several of the annual investment competitions as a DePaul adjunct professor of finance and senior vice president of institutional sales at Driehaus Capital Management. “The competition is as real-world as it can get, and the students appreciated the opportunity to learn from Richard about the investing philosophy he first developed 40 years ago.” Several winners were offered internships at the firm, Diamandakis adds.

DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban, PhD, praised Driehaus as an inspiration to the DePaul community.

Recognized as one of the most influential investment managers of his time, Driehaus also was a major force in the cultural and civic life of Chicago. He supported a wide range of local, national and international initiatives, and cared deeply about creating and sustaining thriving urban environments, particularly in Chicago.

A dedicated preservationist, Driehaus bought and restored the Nickerson mansion in Chicago and opened it to the public as the Richard H. Driehaus Museum in 2008. He established the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design, which recognizes superior buildings in low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods in Chicago. His philanthropy also has advanced the missions of various arts organizations, created economic opportunity for low-wage earners and supported investigative journalism for government accountability.

Never forgetting his roots, he loyally supported his high school, St. Ignatius College Preparatory School; his grammar school, St. Margaret of Scotland; and the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

The DePaul community plans to celebrate Richard Driehaus’s life and lasting legacy. More details will be shared when plans have been finalized.

By Elizabeth Clements and Robin Florzak

Paloma Mendoza (BUS ’20) (in beige sweater) got her foot in the door of advertising firm FCB during a class visit. (Photo courtesy Andy Clark)

DePaul helps business alumni stay career competitive

Like many Class of 2020 graduates, Michael J. Smith had to pivot his career plans last spring because of the pandemic-driven economic downturn. Smith was looking forward to joining KPMG as a tax data and analytics associate in June. But on the eve of earning his master’s in business analytics, Smith received word that KPMG was delaying start dates for new hires until January 2021.

Despite the setback, Smith remained confident because he knew he had a strong ally to help him navigate his next career step: DePaul. DePaul business students and alumni “have access to a tremendous amount of resources” that support career searches and advancement, says Smith, resources that include personalized career coaching.

Michael J. Smith (BUS MS ’20) received personalized career coaching to land an
analytics position in the spring.

Smith asked the Kellstadt Career Management Center (CMC), which helped him land the position with KPMG, for assistance in finding an interim data analytics role until his new start date. A CMC career coach helped Smith “identify the right opportunities for me and network with a purpose,” he says. “I broke my strategy into three steps: create an elevator pitch, analyze the market and identify my target companies and audiences.” Smith identified industries that would need data analysts, even in a tough economy. With election season in full swing, he added political parties to the list.

The strategy paid off. Smith was hired as deputy state data director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin in July. The position was a perfect fit for his need to deepen his data analytics experience before beginning his assignment at KPMG, which remains committed to bringing him on board in 2021. “I feel extremely honored and valued during such uncertain times.”

Since the pandemic hit in March, the CMC, which supports graduate business students and alumni, and the DePaul Career Center, which serves undergraduate business students and alumni, have been expanding their resources to help Blue Demons stay competitive in a dramatically altered labor market. The centers offer alumni remote career coaching, webinars on job search strategies and online networking, as well as a wealth of web-based resources, including Handshake, a comprehensive career services portal that provides job and internship listings, as well as information about career events.

One of the DePaul Career Center’s newest initiatives is a job search club for alumni and new graduates “to talk about challenges people are facing and share goals and questions,” says Karyn McCoy, the center’s assistant vice president. “It’s a way to let people know they are not alone.” McCoy also recommends the CMC’s new skills labs created to help graduates think about upskilling, as well as the Alumni Sharing Knowledge (ASK) Network as a nexus for alumni to share career insights.

Paloma Mendoza (BUS ’20) | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

At the business college, faculty, departments and centers are stepping up to connect students and new graduates to career leads through an extensive network of alumni and industry connections. Certificate and graduate degree programs are also available for alumni to build career resilience, especially if they have been out of school for a while. “We encourage alumni to return to refresh their skills and see our college as a resource for growth throughout their professional life,” says Interim Business Dean Thomas Donley.

Business faculty—and their contacts in Chicago’s business world—offer a fruitful networking resource. Paloma Mendoza (BUS ’20) got her foot in the door at the global advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) in July with the help of Andy Clark (MBA ’87), the sports business program director.

Mendoza became interested in advertising agency work as a student in Clark’s sports sponsorship marketing class, which visited FCB’s Chicago office to discuss Super Bowl ads with executives last winter. In the spring, when she learned that FCB was offering virtual account management internships, she applied. “Mentioning Professor Clark’s name and my class experience visiting FCB definitely helped,” she says. Mendoza landed the coveted internship, which pairs her with a FCB account director mentor and puts her into consideration for future job openings.

“She did a fantastic job of following up with FCB and secured a very tough-to-get internship, especially in this environment,” Clark says. “I think Paloma’s story represents the very best of what a DePaul education offers.”

Alumnus Omar Ortiz prepared for a promotion by earning a DePaul marketing strategy certificate.

For alumni who are midcareer professionals, DePaul certificates and graduate degrees have become an attractive option to advance their careers in a competitive market. “At least 35% to 40% of our students are DePaul alumni or family members of alumni,” says Jurate Murray (MBA ’02), associate director of the Kellstadt Marketing Center, which offers a wide range of advertising and marketing certificate programs for professionals to refresh their skills.

Omar Ortiz (BUS ’17), marketing manager for Neighborhoods.com, completed the center’s content marketing strategy certificate program online in March to prepare for a recent promotion. “I thought it’d be a great idea to further sharpen my skills and solidify myself as an expert,” he says.

Upskilling for Andrew Catanese (BUS ’14), club and theatre ticketing manager for C3 Presents, meant enrolling in DePaul’s MBA in hospitality program this fall. Offered entirely online, the program gives Catanese the flexibility to continue working remotely from Austin, Texas, for C3, a nationwide concert promoter. “I’ve been out of school six years, and I think that’s a big gap as far as new techniques,” says Catanese, who hopes to run his own music venue in the future. “I am excited to further my education in the hospitality program.”

By Robin Florzak

Emily Greenbaum (BUS ’16), at left, with Kenzie Mocogni (BUS ’19), at Verde Events in Chicago’s West Loop. | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Emily Greenbaum (BUS ’16) lives in Chicago, but her career over the last four years has taken her to places where she never thought she’d have the opportunity to work.

During one busy season, she traveled from Lisbon, Portugal, to Louisville, Kentucky, to Orange County, California, within a span of just three months. An event manager for Verde Events in Chicago, Greenbaum directs all aspects of event planning for clients around the world, from company meetings of 20 to conventions of 2,000 people.

“To think this all started with me submitting my résumé for an internship just four years ago,” she reflects. “I had never heard of Verde before interning there as a senior at DePaul, and I would have never been so confident about this being a career path for me if it weren’t for the other internships I had experienced prior to Verde.”

Approximately 60% of undergraduate students from the Class of 2018 reported completing at least one internship during their time at DePaul. In the business college, that number is 69%, according to data from the university’s Career Center. DePaul’s current strategic plan emphasizes the importance of increasing the number of students participating in internships. The aim is to have 85% of students complete an internship by 2025—an ambitious goal backed by the university’s unique experiential learning requirement for undergraduates.

Students can fulfill this requirement in a variety of ways—studying abroad, participating in service learning or working in leadership positions on campus—but an internship experience remains the most effective tool for career exploration, preparation and success. The ultimate goal: ensure students are equipped with the hands-on professional experiences they need to immediately contribute to and succeed in the workforce.

“Our business students in particular understand the importance of internships because there are career and internship courses built into the college’s curricula that don’t exist in the other programs,” says DePaul Career Center Assistant Vice President Karyn McCoy. “Internships are vital because they can help you expand your professional network, figure out what you do and don’t want to do, make connections between theory and practice, and even set you up for full-time employment. It’s a win for students and a win for organizations, who are constantly working to increase their internship to full-time conversion rate.”

Alumni Connect Business Interns to Careers

Kenzie Mocogni (BUS ’19) | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

When you look outside the windows of the DePaul Center on the Loop Campus, you see the heart of Chicago’s downtown and business community. There are major companies at every turn, and more than 100,000 DePaul alumni living and working in the metro area. This easy access to the hub of the city and a vast alumni network allow DePaul students to take advantage of internships year-round, and not just during summer months.

Event manager Greenbaum, who studied hospitality leadership, did her first internship as a freshman. “The experience made me realize that marketing, my original major, was not for me,” she says. “When I switched my major, I spent a lot of time exploring the hospitality industry through internships. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so I pursued as many opportunities as I could so I could decide.”

After six internships, Greenbaum found her niche in corporate events when she worked at Verde during the winter and spring of her senior year. She was offered a full-time job that spring, just before graduating.

The School of Hospitality Leadership requires its undergraduate majors to complete two internships in order to graduate. Students must also take the school’s internship course, which helps them make the most of their internship experience, and a career management course that covers topics like business etiquette, interviewing and résumé writing.

Internships are a crucial part of hospitality education at DePaul because the school works closely with industry professionals to find out what employers are seeking when they recruit graduates. The curriculum is designed around those needs, which turn out to be a solid business foundation and hands-on experience.

“In Chicago, we’re in a hospitality lab, so students can do internships anywhere,” says Shelley Gibbons, assistant director of student development at the School of Hospitality Leadership. “The industry is huge and spans the globe— you have hotels, restaurants, catering, travel, events—so we push students to do the things we are teaching them so they can understand the nature of the business and graduate with real experience.”

The school maintains close partnerships with employers to bring career-readiness programs to students year-round. From career and internship fairs to information sessions and speaker series, students receive regular exposure to the hospitality industry and are encouraged to engage with these opportunities.

We push students to do the things we are teaching them so they can understand the nature of the business and graduate with real experience.”
— Shelley Gibbons, assistant director of student development at the School of Hospitality Leadership.

Every week, for example, the school has brought in a different organization for an all-day event called “Branding Day,” which is an opportunity for companies to talk about their brand and get to know the students. Most importantly, it’s a chance for students to network, familiarize themselves with a variety of businesses and learn about job and internship opportunities.

“It’s a great way to meet people from different companies in the industry and learn about the various paths a hospitality career can take you,” shares Kenzie Mocogni (BUS ’19), who works at Verde Events with Greenbaum. “I also appreciated being able to build confidence in my networking skills.”

Mocogni was a freshman in the School of Hospitality Leadership when she met Greenbaum, then a senior, in the student Event Management Club.

“I saw something of myself in her,” Greenbaum says. “We ended up developing a friendship and keeping in touch after I graduated.”

Mocogni appreciated the support. “It was fantastic to have someone a few years ahead of me give me guidance and perspective as I was navigating my career path,” Mocogni shares. “When I was preparing to graduate, she told me Verde was expanding their team, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to apply.”

Both Mocogni and Greenbaum currently serve as mentors in the school’s mentoring program, which pairs industry professionals to current students to help facilitate career connections.

Forging Business Connections Beyond Chicago

Michael Berger (BUS ’18)

Another mentor in the business college is Michael Berger (BUS ’18), a graduate of the School of Accountancy & MIS and its Strobel Honors program for top accountancy students. When Berger was 14, he visited New York City for the first time with his family, and he remembers telling his mother, while looking up at the tall buildings, “I’m going to live here one day.”

Fast-forward to the present, and Berger is a senior audit assistant in the New York City headquarters of Deloitte, where he manages and performs audits for private equity and hedge fund clients. He got his foot in the door at Deloitte through an internship at the Chicago office during his junior year.

“I was a freshman when I realized how important networking is, especially in accounting,” Berger says. “I took the time to talk to my professors about career paths and opportunities, and listen to their insights and experiences. I even sought out DePaul’s Alumni Sharing Knowledge network.”

The summer of his sophomore year, Berger started a yearlong internship at a startup fitness company. “The hiring manager at the startup was a former Strobel Honors student from DePaul, so he had gone to the accounting department looking for interns.”

A year later, that same DePaul alumnus introduced Berger to a partner at Deloitte after Berger expressed his growing interest in audit. The connection led to an internship there, where he worked full time while taking the accounting internship course.

“The internship at Deloitte really solidified for me what I wanted to do,” Berger says. “I loved the work and what I was learning. It felt like technical training, while the internship course taught me a lot of soft skills and helped me understand what I was learning in the workplace through a wider lens. Doing both at the same time gave me the full experience of what it’s like to be a working professional in accounting.”

It feels very rewarding to help someone who’s in the position I was in just a few years ago.”
—  Michael Berger (BUS ’18), senior audit assistant at Deloitte

Berger was offered a full-time position at Deloitte after completing his internship, and, staying true to his dream of living in New York City, he asked if he could transfer to an office on the East Coast. Today, Berger mentors accounting students at DePaul by phone and email, and even helped one of his mentees join the Deloitte audit team in New York.

“It feels very rewarding to help someone who’s in the position I was in just a few years ago,” he says. “I definitely plan to mentor DePaul students for as long as I can.”

Recently, Berger found another way to stay connected to DePaul by joining the university’s New York Alumni Chapter, which has around 2,500 members.

“What makes accounting at DePaul unique is definitely the pipeline,” says Brian Maj (LAS ’13, MBA ’16), senior program administrator at the School of Accountancy & MIS. “We partner heavily with industry professionals to bring educational opportunities to students, and then when students graduate, they are eager to give back as alumni in the same way.”

The School of Accountancy & MIS offers a variety of career resources and events that involve connecting students directly with employers. The weekly executive-in-residence program, for instance, allows students to meet with an accounting manager or executive for a one on-one career conversation. The meetings are only 30 minutes long and are meant to be informal to encourage students to ask questions openly.

“Many students use the time to get insight about different firms or what employers are looking for in an ideal candidate. And sometimes they even get internship leads,” Maj says. “Creating those touch points is critical to helping students build their networks and understand the industry, and their options within it, on a deeper level.”

From Marketing Intern to Professional at PepsiCo

Crystal Hernandez (BUS ’18) | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

DePaul’s business college began engaging industry professionals to create internship opportunities for students more than 30 years ago, in the Department of Marketing.

“Back in the 1980s, I had so many marketing agencies coming to me asking if I could refer students to help them with their projects,” says Steve Kelly, associate professor of marketing and founder of DePaul’s marketing internship program. Kelly also helped kick-start the University Internship Program at DePaul’s Career Center, since his program in marketing was the only one at DePaul at that time.

“I realized that in order for students to secure jobs after graduating, they needed to get in the door first, while they were still students. Internships are the best way to do this,” he says. Today, Kelly manages a robust internship program for marketing students that encompasses more than 900 employer connections. He also designed a marketing-specific internship course that teaches students to apply what they’re learning to their internships.

“One of my biggest takeaways from the course was really understanding what skills and strengths I was bringing to the table,” shares Crystal Hernandez (BUS ’18). “It made me reevaluate my skill sets, identify knowledge gaps and come up with an action plan to close those gaps.”

Hernandez interned at PepsiCo the summer following her junior year. She was sent to Arkansas to work on e-commerce projects pertaining to one of PepsiCo’s biggest clients, Walmart. “Being in a relatively smaller office in Arkansas allowed me to understand on a more intimate level PepsiCo’s brick-and-mortar business and how they play within the e-commerce space,” she explains. “It gave me a well-rounded background and foundation for my full-time work afterwards.”

By the time school started again in September, Hernandez had received a full-time offer from PepsiCo to work on the e-commerce team in New York. “It was reassuring to know that my hard work was noticed during my internship,” Hernandez says. “However, I had personal reasons for wanting to stay in Chicago, so I discussed my options with PepsiCo’s HR, and they worked with me to find an opportunity here in the city.”

Today, Hernandez is a category management analyst at PepsiCo in Chicago. She says she continues to lean on her alumni network for career advice and support.

Leveraging Connections for Student Success

Students learn about internships and full-time career options from industry representatives at the School of Hospitality Leadership’s “Branding Days.” | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

To expand students’ internship and experiential learning opportunities, the business college’s 2024 strategic plan calls for strengthening the college’s connections to its alumni and the Chicago business community. Misty Johanson, dean of the Driehaus College of Business, says these links are essential for students to succeed in the business world, while also helping businesses succeed with DePaul talent.

“Alumni have always played a vital role in paving a path for the next generation of DePaul business graduates,” Johanson says. “Whether serving as mentors, engaging with them on campus or hiring DePaul students as interns or full time after graduation, alumni are a great resource for making connections with organizations, both in and outside of Chicago.”

Want to connect DePaul students with internships at your organization?

Contact the Career Center: recruitstudents@depaul.edu, go.depaul.edu/hiredepaul

By Nadia Alfadel Coloma 

Women business founders in the first WEI accelerator cohort celebrate completing the program (left to right): Jennifer Spraggins (MBA ’18), Melissa Ames, DePaul student Parker English, Margaret Bamgbose, Soumaya Yacoub, WEI director Abigail Ingram (LAS MA ’15, JD ’18), Elise Gelwicks, Nika Vaughn, Elizabeth Ames-Wollek (MBA ’15), Nora Wall and Michelle Frame. Not pictured: Ariana Lee (BA ’19)

It’s week seven of the new business accelerator program initiated by the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI) at DePaul. Eleven women business founders in the program’s inaugural cohort have gathered on this Friday morning in May to learn how to launch or grow their businesses. Their teachers and mentors are successful Chicago women entrepreneurs—including DePaul alumni—who support WEI, a newly established institute at the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center (CEC) on DePaul’s Loop Campus.

WEI Director Abigail Ingram (LAS MA ’15, JD ’18) begins the workshop session with the same question she asks each week of the nine-week program:

“What are your weekly wins?”

One by one, the women share their business achievements from the past week. Ingram writes each win on a whiteboard:

“Barnes & Noble is carrying my book.”
“We received three large orders!”
“I have a new logo.”
“I learned how to code my app.”

As the list grows longer, the women nod in approval and applaud.

These small weekly victories are part of a bigger battle that the WEI is waging—a battle to close the gender gap in entrepreneurship.

Seeking Equal Access

We started realizing that equal access to opportunity for women to start businesses was nearly nonexistent in the United States.”

The breadth of the entrepreneur gender gap is what led the Driehaus College of Business to establish WEI last year.

“We noticed that attrition for women going through [CEC] programming was high and found out that this is not unusual,” says Ingram, who was then the associate director of the CEC.

Ingram and CEC Executive Director Bruce Leech asked the center’s student intern to research this phenomenon and its causes. The data that emerged were disheartening.

“We discovered that women get only 2% of venture capital and only about 3% of angel investment, and for women of color, the investment is 0.2%, almost none,” Ingram says. “We started realizing that equal access to opportunity for women to start businesses was nearly nonexistent in the United States.”

In addition to gender disparity, the research indicated that women entrepreneurs often lack the training and confidence to bring their business ideas to fruition, and have limited access to mentor networks and other resources that could help them overcome barriers to success.

Ingram and Leech shared the findings with CEC board members, including Joan Hannant, founder and CEO of the Soma Institute, an alternative health and wellness training and staffing solutions company. In the data, Hannant recognized her own struggle to establish her venture 20 years ago.

“When I started my business and encountered issues with banks, landlords and even potential employees, I thought the problem was me,” Hannant says. “I never thought that the problem might be systematic discrimination. I don’t want any future female founders to go through what I experienced as I launched my business.”

WEI committee members Donna Van Eekeren, Barbara Best, Joan Hannant and Robin Ross.

Convinced that more could be done to empower women entrepreneurs, Hannant, Leech and Ingram approached Dean Misty Johanson with a bold idea. Their vision was to create an institute at DePaul that offers the nation’s most comprehensive array of programming for women entrepreneurs. The institute would encompass academic programs and workshops, faculty-led research, start-up incubation and funding, and public policy advocacy to support the success and sustainability of women-owned businesses.

Johanson embraced the idea and secured initial resources to invest in developing it. “It’s an innovative effort that provides another way for our college to address the needs of Chicago business professionals while also supporting DePaul’s mission to be a force for positive change in our community.”

Without an endowment to sustain the institute, however, Hannant says the initiative faced a challenge: “Can we find enough women founders who would all contribute a certain amount of money so that we could launch this?

Hannant, Leech and Ingram tapped into their business networks to identify potential allies for WEI. By the fall of 2018, they successfully recruited what became known as the Founding 40, a powerful committee of leading Chicago women business owners, leaders and influencers who pledged to support the launch of the institute.

Like Hannant, many of the Founding 40 were inspired to support WEI because they wanted to help other women overcome the obstacles they had faced as entrepreneurs.

Ambitious Goals

WEI committee member Diana Rodriguez led a session on company culture.

Ingram, an attorney and entrepreneur who founded a music management business, was appointed WEI director. She immediately got to work with the Founding 40 to prioritize the institute’s wide-ranging and ambitious goals.

“We decided to start with an accelerator program because it’s the best way to see immediate results in helping women scale their businesses,” she says.

WEI committee members and Ingram designed the accelerator curriculum to be taught by women entrepreneurs from their expertise and experiences. The program’s weekly half-day workshop classes cover practical aspects of launching and growing a business, from business models, market research and brand strategies to legal and financial management, capitalization and fundraising. The program also provides tools for start-up founders to enhance their leadership, executive presence and team-building capabilities. To supplement this learning, each participant is linked with one or more women entrepreneurs on WEI’s committee who provide one-on-one advice and resource connections. Committee members’ financial support allowed WEI to launch the program free of charge last May.

With the curriculum in place, WEI invited women entrepreneurs, including DePaul students and alumni, to apply. The response was enthusiastic: 198 applicants responded. After identifying and interviewing 16 finalists, WEI chose 11 women entrepreneurs who are founders or co-founders of nine companies for the program’s first cohort.

From Idea to Product

Cohort member Soumaya Yacoub, founder of PetitCalm.

It is really impressive how in just nine weeks I was able to go from an idea to a real product and business

The women selected for the inaugural cohort lead a wide range of businesses, from food manufacturing to phone apps. While some are founders of established ventures seeking to grow their businesses, others, including Soumaya Yacoub, entered the program with only an idea.

A Harvard University-educated bioengineer, Yacoub was inspired to become an entrepreneur by her past experience as a babysitter caring for fussy babies. Her business idea was to combine a phone app that produces vibrations and sounds, including recordings of a mother’s voice, with a portable mat to calm crying babies. She approached a manufacturing incubator with the idea, but without a business plan or connections, she encountered little interest. Her experience in the accelerator program was different.

“This program was so helpful because not only do they show you how to go from an idea to the launch of your business and how to market and grow a business, but they also provide you with all the resources and connections that you need,” she says.

Those resources included introductions to contacts at an idea realization lab and a manufacturing incubator, where Yacoub found a more receptive environment for developing her idea. Yacoub learned computer code to create her app and began creating a prototype of the mat. She also received legal advice to identify a name for her product: PetitCalm.

“It is really impressive how in just nine weeks I was able to go from an idea to a real product and business,” she says. “Now I have a fully written business plan and a good marketing strategy. My future steps will be testing my product, then going into manufacturing.”

Other Founders to Rely On

Cohort member Jennifer Spraggins (MBA ’18), founder of Tease Lush Accessories.

The most important outcome of the program is the incredible network I now have of founders like me,”

Accelerator cohort member Jennifer Spraggins (MBA ’18) didn’t study entrepreneurship at DePaul, but her conversations with entrepreneur students about their ventures inspired her to become a business founder. Following graduation, she researched entrepreneurial opportunities that combined her past retail experience, marketing education and personal interests. “I really love fashion, so I decided I wanted to sell fashion accessories. What I found after researching my competitors was that they didn’t use any models of color. They didn’t have any [marketing] stories geared to women of color. I was looking for a gap in the market, and this seemed to come naturally.” The research led Spraggins to found TeaseLush Accessories in 2016. The online retail jewelry business offers more than 200 products and features women of color as the face of the brand.

WEI committee members Carolyn Leonard (BUS ’64) and Monika Black (CSH PhD ’12).

Spraggins entered the accelerator program seeking strategies to distinguish her brand as well as legal guidance. “As a result of the program I developed a strategy for marketing more efficiently to my niche,” she says. She also obtained free legal advice on logo and web content usage from DePaul’s Legal Clinic. Spraggins has begun revamping her website and implementing a targeted marketing plan.

Spraggins says the cohort’s spirit of mutual support also has given her more confidence. She helped others in the cohort understand how to manage inventory, while they have been generous in sharing their varied expertise with her.

“I feel the most important outcome of the program is the incredible network I now have of founders like me,” she says. “I now have a network that I can ask questions instead of just struggling so much. It took a weight off my shoulders.”

Taking Your Foot off the Brake

Cohort member Michelle Frame, founder of Victus Ars.

Carolyn [Leonard] told me, ‘Get your foot off the brake.Put your foot on the gas. It’s time to go.’”

Candy scientist Michelle Frame entered the accelerator program with a good problem: her business was growing. Five years ago, she founded Victus Ars, a confectionery lab that formulates sweets for candy companies and products such as gummy vitamins for pharmaceutical firms. Now she and the six food scientists she employs are juggling as many as 20 projects simultaneously in the lab’s cramped storefront in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. To continue to grow, Frame faced the challenges of finding a larger facility and hiring more staff.

“I felt like I was floating in an ocean alone, making my business decisions,” Frame says. “I’m in the middle of growth, need to find a new building and trying to sort out all of those pieces that I don’t understand in terms of the business side of things. I knew I needed help, and I started looking for options, especially for women.”

Michelle Frame, founder of Victus Ars, and Carolyn Leonard (BUS ’64), CEO and founder of the financial consultancy DyMynd.

Frame found that help in the accelerator program. The workshops provided “concrete tools, books and information to look at businesses in a new light,” she says. The program’s mentors inspired her to turn this knowledge into action, generating “impact on both the company’s growth and my ability to breathe and think.”

Particularly influential was Carolyn Leonard (BUS ’64), CEO and founder of the financial consultancy DyMynd. A serial entrepreneur and one of the first women to trade options in Chicago, Leonard taught an accelerator session on start-up fundraising. Leonard visited the candy lab and offered Frame personal guidance on her expansion plans.

“What she wanted to understand was risk, which is something that I really have a great deal of knowledge and experience with,” says Leonard. Frame told Leonard that she was wary of risk because of her upbringing on an Indiana farm, where risk was a constant threat to the family’s livelihood. “But she knew that in order to become successful and to move to the next step with her business, she would have to become comfortable with assuming greater risk,” Leonard says. “My conversation with her was that you can’t make business decisions based on unknowns, you have to make them on knowns and what you know about your business.”

The advice was an epiphany for Frame. “I was letting fear cloud my judgment,” she says. “Carolyn told me, ‘Get your foot off the brake. Put your foot on the gas. It’s time to go.’”

Frame is now working with real estate professionals to find a new building that will accommodate her business for the next five to 20 years.

Mentor advice also gave her the confidence to begin hiring. DePaul alumna Adriana Tarasiewicz (BUS ’13) joined the lab in the spring and is learning the business from the ground up from Frame.

“The connections I made with mentors have been amazing,” Frame says. “I’m in a position to move forward faster because of their insights, support and positive feedback. Having like-minded women who have gone through the same trials and tribulations share their hard-won wisdom is a huge benefit as I maneuver the business landscape.”

An Enduring Network

Committee member Valarie King-Bailey (left) with Abigail Ingram, director of the Women in Entrepreneurship Program.

“The nine weeks were over quickly,” says Ingram, “but the program and the connections we are building with these growing companies is not over at all.” Monthly programming now continues for the first cohort, and the women entrepreneurs are providing WEI with quarterly updates on their progress.

The preliminary outcomes have been promising. The nine companies are collectively on track to make 54 percent more revenue this year than the year before, and together they have created six new jobs so far. “If we see any red flags in this tracking,” Ingram says, “we have 40 expert entrepreneurs who are ready to step in and help fix whatever the issues might be.”

WEI is seeking an endowment and sustained funding to offer the accelerator program every quarter. Entrepreneurs are being recruited for the next cohort, which begins in January. “We hope in five years to have enough research done to show what strategies are most effective for helping women get that access to equal opportunity,” Ingram says. “We’d like to see the needle starting to move on figures involving investment, and to see more than 1.6% of women who own businesses reach a million dollars in revenue.

“Within 20 years, we hope we can shut the accelerator down because the work will be done,” she says. “That’s the real goal.”

Learn more about WEI and its accelerator program at go.depaul.edu/WEI

Read about the Women Entrepreneurs class taught by committee member and Associate Professor of Management Alyssa Westring

View an ABC7 Newsviews interview with Abigail Ingram and Joan Hannant about WEI and its accelerator program.

By Robin Florzak | Photos by Kathy Hillegonds

Shelley Rosen (seated in center) with DePaul students celebrating their completion of the Women Entrepreneurs special topics course.

We’re going through the academic research that focuses on gender and entrepreneurship and trying to understand the key drivers of gender disparities in entrepreneurship. We are trying to use research evidence to uncover opportunities to level the playing field.”
– Alyssa Westring

Last spring Shelley Rosen, one of the 40 founding committee members of the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI), welcomed a mix of DePaul graduate and undergraduate students to her West Side Chicago office, where she and several employees run her luxury flower business Luxe Bloom. The students were celebrating their completion of Women Entrepreneurs, a new special topics course taught by Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship Alyssa Westring. Rosen was among the class’s guest speakers, providing an inside look at the real world of women in entrepreneurship.

The class—created by Westring, who serves on the WEI committee— required students to examine research surrounding the challenges and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs. Several of the students in the class were aspiring entrepreneurs, while others just wanted to learn more about women’s roles in entrepreneurship directly from women business founders.

“As a female in a male-dominated, industry there are a number of challenges that I face on a daily basis,” says class member Lesley Kraft (MBA ’19), senior manager of digital experiences at Life Fitness, a Chicago-based organization and brand that creates fitness equipment. “This class seemed like it would provide me with an opportunity to learn from other female business leaders’ failures and successes—something I believe is invaluable.”

Each week, Westring invited women entrepreneurs and leaders to talk about their personal stories of working as entrepreneurs.

“We’re talking about a variety of topics including bias, negotiation, access to mentoring and self-efficacy,” Westring says. “We’re going through the academic research that focuses on gender and entrepreneurship and trying to understand the key drivers of gender disparities in entrepreneurship. We are trying to use research evidence to uncover opportunities to level the playing field.”

Ensuring research is at the forefront of WEI’s mission is one of Westring’s goals as a committee member. Westring, who frequently delivers talks on women’s careers and work/life balance, has historically studied women’s careers in medicine and science. When she discovered that WEI was forming at DePaul, she knew she wanted to get involved.

“The barriers that women face in entrepreneurship are similar to those that they face in most male-dominated industries, such as reduced access to resources and opportunities. In science, that might mean grant funding, whereas in entrepreneurship that might mean venture capital,” Westring says.

To shed light on these issues and help WEI measure the effectiveness of its programming for women, Westring helped create a survey for women business owners in the first cohort in WEI’s accelerator program. The survey assesses the cohort members’ “entrepreneurial self-efficacy”—the belief in their capacity to be effective entrepreneurs. It was administered before and after participants completed the program to measure differences in their self-efficacy.

Rosen, who began her career in advertising for major global brands, agrees that research is important for women to understand their value, whether as entrepreneurs or in their quest to achieve equal pay for equal work.

“When I started working it was 69 cents on the dollar,” says Rosen, who opened her business Luxe Bloom five years ago. “Now it’s only 79 cents in 40 years. Ten cents? I’m not complaining, it’s progress, but it’s really slow. I just hope to make a small difference in those numbers.”

Read about the Business Accelerator Program at the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute business.

By Jaclyn Lansbery | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds

Bevon Joseph

The whole motto of Greenwood is you can’t be what you can’t see. These kids come to us with almost no social capital.”

An immigrant from Trinidad, graduate business student Bevon Joseph has forged his own path in tech, finance and nonprofit management since coming to the United States at 18 years old.

Joseph is founder and CEO of Greenwood Project, a nonprofit he launched three years ago to help academically talented youth from underresourced Chicago communities gain access to the finance industry. Thanks to Joseph’s connections with firms in New York and Chicago, the Greenwood Project has collaborated with about 30 financial and tech companies, including Goldman Sachs, NASDAQ, Google and LinkedIn.

Joseph joined the world of finance in 1996 when he began working as an IT services provider on a New York trading floor, and later worked for some of the city’s largest Wall Street exchanges and financial services firms. He moved to Chicago, eventually working his way up to be a chief technology officer for a hedge fund—all with just an associate’s degree in computer electronic technology and a high school diploma from Trinidad.

Fascinated by the passion he witnessed on trading floors, Joseph noticed the lack of diversity among employees. “Most of the time I would be one of (a few) or the only person of color at a firm,” says Joseph, who runs the Greenwood Project with his wife, Elois. “I was always curious why other students who look like me weren’t given that opportunity.”

In 2014, Joseph enrolled in DePaul’s School for New Learning and became the first in his family to earn a bachelor’s degree. Joseph developed the idea for the Greenwood Project through a class assignment that challenged him to create a social media campaign around a social cause. After his professor encouraged him to pursue the idea, Joseph approached top-level financial executives he knew to gauge their interest in funding internships for students from low-income communities. His nonprofit began taking shape as interest from companies grew.

“They (students) are smart, they’re doing well in school, staying out of trouble, getting good grades, but they don’t know anyone who works in finance,” says Joseph, who now is enrolled in the Driehaus College of Business’s combined bachelor’s and master’s in entrepreneurship program. “The whole motto of Greenwood is you can’t be what you can’t see. These kids come to us with almost no social capital.”

The nonprofit works with high school juniors through recent college graduates. High school students attend, free of charge, the Summer Financial Institute, a six-week program that helps them build soft skills and financial literacy. The students also visit a different company each day of the program, in both New York and Chicago. In addition, Greenwood hosts Women in Wall Street student networking events in Chicago that feature panel discussions by female executives at top firms.

To help fund the nonprofit, Joseph manages a for-profit arm of Greenwood that charges companies to have access to recruit students who have been involved with the Greenwood Project.

“Running your own business, whether it’s nonprofit or for-profit, is a 24/7 job,” Joseph says. “But for me it doesn’t feel like work, just because we see the results and the impact that it’s having. And it’s changing the lives not just of the students, but their family and community. So I think that’s my motivation to keep doing this.”

More student leader profiles:

• Olena Cruz: A Leader on Campus
• Kevin Felisme: A Leader in the Community
• Rebeca Mitrea: A Leader on the Court

Olena Cruz (Photo by Kathy Hillegonds)

I love building excitement among people and bringing them together to do more than they would have been able to do individually. I am a big believer that together we can succeed even more than on our own.”

Marketing, chess and salsa dancing are disparate talents Olena Cruz pursues with the diligence and boundless curiosity that has made her a force to be reckoned with.

Cruz, who graduates in June with an MBA in marketing, has been instrumental in turning the Kellstadt Marketing Group (KMG) into one of the most active student organizations in DePaul’s business school. During her one-year tenure as KMG president, the organization sponsored 16 events that collectively attracted participation from more than 1,000 students, faculty members and Chicago marketing professionals.

She is most proud of convincing Microsoft to work with KMG to create a new case competition at DePaul. “Our idea was to get a real-world business scenario that would allow students to pitch their strategic recommendations and apply business concepts they have learned in class,” she says. “We had such great engagement. Microsoft came to campus, and students, professors and the president of the university all came together to support this event, which showcased the talent of students here at DePaul.”

Cruz says her drive comes from her mother, Lubov, an immigrant from Ukraine. “She helped build my work ethic. She started her own cleaning business in Chicago, not knowing the language or many people. She’s not only an entrepreneur; she put me and my brother through college as first-generation graduates in the family. I am very proud of my mom.” Cruz’s father died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis when Cruz was 20, and every year since she has participated in fundraising walks to find a cure for the neurodegenerative disease.

Olena Cruz served as president of the Kellstadt Marketing Group, one of the most active student business groups on campus. Cruz helped organize the annual 2018 KMG Symposium, which was also attended by Associate Professor of Marketing Zafar Iqbal (right). (Photo by Kathy Hillegonds)

During her undergraduate years at Northwestern University, Cruz, who speaks four languages, studied international relations. “Originally, I thought I would go into diplomacy. But I soon realized that I can apply those skills to business, because now every company has a global presence.” After graduating, she worked as a sales strategy coordinator at Beam Suntory, a premium spirits company. At DePaul, her curiosity led her to the field of big data analytics. She now works as a solutions analyst at IRI, which uses predictive analytics to help clients develop customer strategies.

Cruz knows how to make the right moves not only in her career, but also on the chessboard and the dance floor. She played chess competitively in high school and won the National Girls Chess Championship in 2006. A semiprofessional salsa dancer, Cruz won first place with her partner at the Chicago International Salsa Congress two years ago.

Cruz uses her dancing talent to empower others as a founding member of Inspiración Dance Chicago, a Latin dance organization that seeks to enrich the lives of young people through dance. “We teach youth to express themselves in a healthy way, to collaborate in teams, and to find creative outlets for mentorship and development.”

Of her wide-ranging success as a leader, Cruz says, “I love building excitement among people and bringing them together to do more than they would have been able to do individually. I am a big believer that together we can succeed even more than on our own.”

More student leader profiles:

• Bevon Joseph: A Leader for Career Access
• Kevin Felisme: A Leader in the Community
• Rebeca Mitrea: A Leader on the Court