Nestor Eliadis, senior director of real estate at Walgreens
I chose DePaul because it best combined a world-class education, alumni network and location that provides a gateway to the marketplace.
Residence: Orland Park, Ill.
Occupation: As senior director of real estate for Walgreens, I lead the real estate program in the Southern United States, which includes asset development and portfolio management, as well as direction of the surplus idle property program across the country through disposition and subleasing activity. Since joining the organization in 2011, I have held various roles and responsibilities within the real estate and finance divisions. I serve as the real estate conduit between business, operations, finance, accounting, treasury, law and tax divisions.
Education: I was raised in the southwest suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Brother Rice High School in 1995 with aspirations of becoming an architect. I attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a collegiate athlete in men’s soccer for two years prior to transferring to the University of Illinois at Chicago to focus on my architecture degree, which I earned in 2000. After an eight-year professional career in architecture, construction and real estate, I sought to enhance my business and financial acumen through additional education. I chose DePaul because it best combined a world-class education, alumni network and location that provides a gateway to the marketplace. I received an MBA with distinction in real estate finance and investment in 2010.
Vital stats: My formal real estate career began in 2003 when I earned a real estate brokerage license in order to become a more informed home buyer for my personal Chicago residence. I transitioned to corporate real estate in 2006 and joined Walgreens in 2011. Since joining, I’ve had the opportunity to drive real estate decisions for more than 10,000 retail and office properties, execute $2 billion of sale-leasebacks and manage annual budgets of $4 billion in operating expenses and $1 billion of capital expenditures.
What I like best about my job: My job offers me an amazing national real estate platform to identify opportunities, create solutions and implement strategies to deliver results at scale. Additionally, I thoroughly enjoy collaborating with people to develop systems that empower them to execute efficiently.
The biggest challenge I face in my job: Retailers strive to deliver relevant solutions for changing consumers. Flexibility and agility are paramount to our success. The greatest challenge exists in the continual effort to preserve operational flexibility while delivering the maximum real estate value for the lowest costs, which is a conflict in most negotiations.
How and why I stay connected to DePaul’s business college: I owe a lot in my career to the education I received at DePaul. It was a fantastic educational experience for me. I keep in touch with many of the professors who influenced my career and journey since my graduation. I guest-lecture in real estate classes by presenting a case study that connects financial and business theory with real practice. I also participate in two or three real estate department events annually. For me it’s a way of giving back, influencing and challenging students in different ways, and impacting the next generation of DePaul graduates.
My professors had tremendous business and tax experience from accounting firms, corporations and the IRS. They brought their experiences into the classroom, giving us a practical and impactful education.”
When John Mann (MST ’83, MBA ’01) was in high school, he accompanied his mother on an appointment to have her tax return prepared. The meeting would plant the seed for his successful career in the tax field. “For some reason, the experience left an impression on me,” Mann says. “I was intrigued by the questions the tax advisor asked and the calculations that were made. It made me think about finance in a new way.”
Most recently, Mann was vice president of global tax planning at Abbott Laboratories. He holds an MS in taxation and an MBA in finance from DePaul, which he says helped launch his career and connections in the field. “My professors had tremendous business and tax experience from accounting firms, corporations and the IRS,” Mann says. “They brought their experiences into the classroom, giving us a practical and impactful education.”
After completing his MS, Mann went on to lead the tax function at notable corporations, including Dean Foods, ServiceMaster and Walgreens. “A key mentor to me at the start of my career was Bill Zink (BUS ’70, MST ’77),” Mann recalls. “I later learned that Bill had started a scholarship fund at DePaul, so I began to contribute to it. It felt good to support a mentor who I admired and appreciated, while at the same time give back to a cause that I cared about.”
Giving back has always been an important part of Mann’s life, something his mother instilled in him. When he was a teenager, he volunteered with his church youth group to help families in need. “We would do simple things like plant flowers or put together a wagon full of toys for households that may have otherwise had a frugal Christmas.”
As an adult, Mann has continued to give back. He serves on the advisory board and volunteers for the nonprofit organization Ladder Up, which provides free tax and financial assistance to low-income families in Chicago. He leads a prison Bible study group, stays involved with the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure and donates to DePaul regularly.
“Giving back was modeled to me growing up, but it wasn’t until my 30s that I began to recognize the impact it can make and why it’s so important,” he says.
In 2017, Mann generously established, with his wife, the John and Sharon Mann Scholarship fund in the MST program, to which they recently renewed their commitment with a second significant gift.
“I’m impressed by the MST program, especially under [Faculty Director] Ron Marcuson’s leadership. The expanded online offerings and partnerships with MST programs across the country strengthen the program, which strengthens our tax community. I’ve seen firsthand many graduates go on to achieve major things,” he says. “I wanted to do something that would help students who might not otherwise be able to afford it obtain the same valuable education and mentorship that I did, so they, too, can have fulfilling careers.”
By Nadia Alfadel Coloma | Photo by Kathy Hillegonds
From right to left: Nawroz Pirani (BUS ’07) and Zeeshan Bhimji (BUS ’09)
Nawroz Pirani (BUS ’07) and Zeeshan Bhimji (BUS ’09) may not be coders, but they’re using their business smarts to teach kids how to code at their Code Ninjas learning center, which they opened last May in Long Grove, Ill. The center teaches children ages seven to 14 how to build video games using computer programming in a fun, interactive environment.
“We’re arming kids with foundational computer science skills, and the best part is, they have no idea how much they’re learning because for them it’s all fun and games,” shares Pirani.
“And it’s not just about coding,” adds Bhimji, “It teaches kids the value of persistence because when you code something, it rarely works the first time. You have to continually troubleshoot before you’re rewarded with something that works.”
One could say the friends are living the American dream. Both moved to the U.S. as teenagers—Pirani from Pakistan and Bhimji from Kenya—to pursue their education and build careers. Both graduated with bachelor’s degrees in finance from DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business.
“DePaul taught me the importance of constantly learning and constantly looking for the void in the market,” shares Bhimji, who started his first business, a residential property management company, after graduating from DePaul at age 24. “I would have not had the confidence to go out there and pursue my business interests were it not for my DePaul education.”
Bhimji has been running profitable franchises for more than 10 years, with Code Ninjas being his newest venture. He grew his property management company from one to two franchises before going on to start a software company, ShowingHero, which was recently nominated for the 2018 Chicago Innovation Award.
“I had to hire developers for my software company, and the experience made me realize how much I didn’t know about coding. I thought, if only I had had more exposure to this growing up,” says Bhimji. “Then when my wife and I had our first child a year ago, I starting looking into educational programs for kids related to coding, and I found Code Ninjas.”
Pirani’s motivations also stemmed from something personal: “I didn’t have good experiences with coding growing up, so I wanted to provide a positive experience for the next generation to learn and excel in this arena. Not everyone is going to be a coder, but no matter what you do in the future, technology is going to be a part of it, so learning these skills early on is critical.”
Prior to opening the center, Pirani spent 10 years building a successful career in the higher education industry. He managed finances and long-term strategy for a $150 million professional education business and worked in IT consulting for top research universities.
“It was through DePaul that I landed my first job after graduation, at Huron Consulting Group,” says Pirani. “DePaul prepared me to go out into the workforce and apply my knowledge with confidence. I learned how to analyze problems and situations from different perspectives, which is an essential skill to have when starting a business.”
The duo has plans to open two more Code Ninja center locations in 2020, one in Arlington Heights and one in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, and their business was recently featured on WGN-TV News.
“When it comes to business, you have to keep your eyes open to where the needs are,” says Bhimji. “Where there is a need, there is an opportunity for business. I’m grateful to DePaul for teaching me that.”
JinJa Birkenbeuel, who serves on the advisory board of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, leads a discussion on entrepreneurial thinking with Linal Harris (left), founder and principal coach at Insights 4 Life Coaching, LLC.
DePaul University’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center (CEC) summarizes its mission in four words: do good, do well. It’s a message teenagers embraced last spring at the Gary Comer Youth Center on the South Side of Chicago, where the CEC taught them how to develop their entrepreneurial skills to do good and do well.
A series of CEC faculty and board members, including DePaul alumni, visited the youth center from February to May to share their experiences as start-up founders and facilitate hands-on learning about entrepreneurship. Part of the youth center’s High School Smarts program, the initiative aligns Comer’s mission to develop the full potential, talent and skills of young people and DePaul’s Vincentian mission to engage and empower people in underserved Chicago communities. Frances Comer, wife of the late Gary Comer, the founder of Lands’ End who launched the youth center, suggested the educational partnership to show teens how entrepreneurship can create opportunity.
Fredricka Holloway, youth employment manager at the Comer Youth Center, says the center pursued the partnership because it’s important for young people to learn about entrepreneurship as a potential path to success. “Entrepreneurship fosters creativity, the ability to address community and societal problems, and access to wealth and opportunities,” she says. “Our children must have a foundation and understanding of this to navigate the advances of today. Having the ability to create one’s own business is key for youth and for developing our future business leaders.”
The CEC speakers discussed economic opportunity and the community, developing an entrepreneurial mindset and the types of businesses that entrepreneurs found, among other topics. The teens also participated in hands-on activities that introduced them to the real world of financing, marketing and sales for start-ups. A field trip to Tastytrade, an online financial media company co-led by CEC board member Kristi Ross, allowed them to see these concepts up close.
Four DePaul alumni were among the volunteers who shared their experiences and knowledge with the teens. Bruce Leech (MBA ’81), executive director of the CEC, was among them.
“When we first heard about the Comer opportunity, we jumped at the chance to expand our community outreach and leverage our entrepreneurship programs at the CEC,” he says. “It was a tremendous experience for our board members and mentors, who were very impressed with the students.
“While our team was there to provide their insights to these students, I know we all received much more in return by appreciating their commitment to this program. I was also very inspired with the purpose-driven business ideas the Comer students developed, like addressing the food desert on the South Side of Chicago by starting a healthy grocery store in the neighborhood.”
The program taught teens valuable skills—brainstorming, decision-making and presenting business ideas—that can be applied to entrepreneurship or any career, Holloway says.
“They enjoyed the opportunity to work on a real-life business and be able to present it as a future opportunity,” she adds. “They also were very enthusiastic and excited about the guest speakers – they appreciated talking with them and the interest speakers took in their ideas.
“Not only do they express that they want to be entrepreneurs,” she adds, “some already are working on businesses of their own.”
The CEC and Comer plan to continue the program at the youth center this academic year.
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
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.”
Spring usually marks the end of the academic calendar at our college, but this year, it represents a new beginning. We recently finalized the Driehaus College of Business 2024 Strategic Plan: Connection, Culture & Commitment, and our community has sprung into action to start implementing its ambitious initiatives. The plan’s goals are grouped around strengthening these three pillars of our success:
CONNECTION to the Chicago business community and our global alumni network.
CULTURE of academic excellence within our faculty, staff and student community.
COMMITMENT to student success and the high-value experience.
As alumni, you play a vital role in helping our college achieve its strategic goals, especially those associated with our first pillar of success. Our city is home to many options for business education, but the Driehaus College of Business is distinctive among them. Founded in the heart of Chicago’s business district more than a century ago, our college has built its reputation on producing career-ready graduates who make business work in “The City That Works.” Today, more than 67 percent of our 66,888 business alumni live and work in the Chicago area.
Our strategic plan calls for our college to strengthen its bond with this extensive, local network by better engaging alumni in the life of our college. Our aim is to build a community of alumni leaders who inspire our students by guest-lecturing on campus, opening their organizations to experiential learning and job shadowing, and mentoring the future business leaders studying at our college. We plan to invite more of you to serve on our advisory boards to help guide our curriculum and programming. We also want to partner with you to host alumni networking, professional development, social and fundraising events, as well as connect you and your organizations to our centers and institutes in mutually beneficial ways. Together, we can firmly establish our college as a top choice for Chicago business education, talent recruitment, thought leadership and professional engagement.
The other pillars in our strategic plan challenge us to enhance the market-responsiveness of our programs, expand student services that support success, facilitate the recruitment and retention of top scholars, and create new cutting-edge business centers and institutes, among other goals. Our Vincentian values also commit us to providing students from diverse and financially disadvantaged backgrounds access to a high-quality, holistic, real world college education. Reaching our goals in a mission-focused way means that we will be seeking more resources to support our strategic initiatives.
What energizes me most about our new strategic plan is meeting students who embody our college’s mission. That mission pledges us to “develop socially responsible leaders and managers who are prepared to add immediate value in today’s diverse and globalized environment.” In our cover story, you’ll meet four of these young leaders who are using their DePaul business education to make a difference today on our campus, in business and in our community. These young leaders inspire us to embrace our role as Chicago’s business school.
The Driehaus College of Business celebrated the launch of a new digital marketing concentration in its undergraduate marketing major. From left to right: John Digles, Business Dean Misty Johanson, Jacqueline Kuehl (BUS ’87, MBA ’95) and Steve Koernig (MBA ’94). (Photo by Kathy Hillegonds)
Digital marketing talent is in high demand by organizations nationally. In fact, it is the most recruited role by marketing leaders, according to the McKinley Marketing Partners 2019 Hiring Trends Study. This trend won’t be ending anytime soon; 61 percent of the leaders surveyed said they are planning to expand their marketing teams.
To ensure that DePaul students are well prepared for these opportunities, the Driehaus College of Business has launched a digital marketing concentration in its undergraduate marketing major. DePaul announced the concentration to the business community during a Feb. 21 reception attended by more than 100 business professionals.
The program is led by faculty member and alumna Jacqueline Kuehl (BUS ’87, MBA ’95), who brings experience as a marketing consultant and executive to the role. Associate Professor of Marketing J. Steven Kelly and Marketing Chair Steve Koernig (MBA ’94) created the curriculum with input from the marketing department’s advisory board of alumni and industry leaders.
“We developed the courses based on conversations with these business leaders about the skill sets they are seeking from marketing graduates,” Kelly says. “The courses address fundamental needs in business today.”
The courses cover internet marketing and analytics, inbound and content marketing, and search engine, social media and mobile marketing, among other industry-relevant topics. Each student also is required to complete an internship in digital marketing. “With digital communications pervading every aspect of human engagement today, students with digital marketing skills have a wide range of career opportunities, from Fortune 500 companies to startups to nonprofits,” Kuehl says.
Department of Marketing advisory board member John Digles, executive vice president of the public relations firm MWWPR, attended the kickoff reception and says he supports the new concentration’s focus on digital marketing as an essential skill for marketers.
“The curriculum was developed to address social media, data analysis, audience targeting and even influencer marketing,” Digles says. “It’s an exciting start for DePaul and the students, as well as the hiring managers seeking candidates with this coveted background.”
Kuehl added: “We plan to host more events for the digital marketing community to ensure we continue to address the skill needs of businesses.”
Forty-four percent of the U.S. population listened to a podcast in 2018, according to Nielsen. Capitalizing on the popularity of this medium, two DePaul business professors are using podcasts not only to educate, but also to enlighten listeners about issues in their respective areas of expertise: hospitality leadership and accountancy.
“The Hospitality Spirit”
Nicholas “Nick” Thomas, director of the School of Hospitality Leadership, listens as his guest Ryan Arnold, wine director for Lettuce Entertain You, talks about his career during a production of the podcast “The Hospitality Spirit,” Tuesday, July 3, 2018. (Photo by Jamie Moncrief)
Thomas created his podcast, “The Hospitality Spirit,” to drive awareness of the industry, act as a teaching tool and draw attention to programming at the School of Hospitality Leadership. Thomas has interviewed leaders from various segments of the hospitality and tourism industry, discussing with his guests their personal experiences, insights, industry trends and advice for those looking to make a career in hospitality.
“What makes this podcast so interesting is that the topics are wildly varied and unique,” says Thomas. “Whether our guests are entrepreneurs or work in food and beverage, hotel management or meeting and event planning, they bring a huge range of life experiences. As long as we are having fun and producing great content, we will keep on sharing the hospitality spirit.”
Listen to the podcast at SoundCloud (below) or Spotify and iTunes.
“Dupe of the Week”
Associate Professor of Accountancy Kelly Richmond Pope
“A ‘dupe’ occurs when you unexpectedly fall victim to something that seems natural,” says Associate Professor of Accountancy Kelly Richmond Pope, “like when you bury your loved one and the funeral home puts extra charges on your bill, or when you return an item for a gift card and it is empty because the cashier put the return on their own gift card.”
In “Dupe of the Week,” Pope and her cohost, Bill “Professor Fraud” Kresse, a Governors State University assistant professor, provide weekly stories about deception in business, politics, education, nonprofits and even love. Some of the topics are timely, like the failed Fyre Festival that resulted in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, while others are timeless, cautionary tales.
“There are so many different types of dupes out there that our weekly short segments can be very helpful,” says Pope. “I use the podcasts to educate my students about forensic accounting, and I hope professionals can use them in the classroom, at brown-bag meetings or in training sessions.”
Pope and Kresse interview fraud experts, people who have been duped and, in some cases, the people who perpetrated the fraud. “We provide a one-of a-kind look at every aspect of a fraud,” says Pope. “This podcast not only entertains, but helps protect you from becoming a victim.”
“Dupe of the Week” is available on iTunes. Follow @dupeoftheweek on Twitter.
Finance Lab Named for Alumnus Christopher L. Keeley
Members of the Keeley family (left to right)—John Keeley III, Kevin Keeley, Barbara Keeley and Mark Keeley—join Martin Essenburg, executive director of the John L. Keeley Jr. Center for Financial Services, and Elijah Brewer, department of finance chair, following the dedication of the Christopher L. Keeley Finance Lab. Photo: Jamie Moncrief
DePaul’s Finance Lab, where students can learn how to research and manage stock portfolios, was dedicated as the Christopher L. Keeley Finance Lab in a Feb. 7 ceremony at the business college. The lab was named in honor of the 1987 DePaul finance alumnus who died of a pulmonary embolism at age 29 in 2002. Finance Chair Elijah Brewer says the lab truly “honors the entire Keeley family for their continuing support for excellence in finance education at DePaul.” The Keeley family, who have been generous DePaul supporters for more than a decade, and the Keeley Family Foundation donated funds last fall to found the John L. Keeley Jr. Center for Financial Services, named for Christopher’s late father, a finance executive. In 2006 John L. Keeley Jr. and his wife, Barbara, endowed the Christopher L. Keeley Chair in Investment Management.
In Memoriam
Three distinguished, long-serving DePaul business professors passed away this year.
David E. Drehmer, 69, who died Feb. 5, taught at DePaul for 40 years as an associate professor of management. He also was a licensed clinical psychologist. Among his survivors is his son, Charles Drehmer, who teaches at the business college.
Phil Kemp, 73, died May 28. He served the business college in both administrative and faculty positions from 1968 until his retirement in 2007. Kemp taught courses in marketing, management and business administration, and previously directed the graduate business program.
Curtis Verschoor, 87, passed away Jan. 17. A prolific author on business ethics topics, Verschoor served as the Ledger & Quill Professor of Accountancy. He transitioned to emeritus status in 1994 after teaching at DePaul for20 years.
