Double Demon Scholarship Offers Alumni New Opportunities

jlansber Professional Development
Jeanette Gerger
Alumna Jeanette Gerger used a Double Demon alumni scholarship to expand her skills.

Jeanette Gerger (BUS ’09) graduated from DePaul at the height of the recession that began in 2008. Even so, she was able to find a good job in market research due to her internships and the business skills she learned in class. Her father, a business owner and entrepreneur who inspired Gerger to study business, wanted her to join his company.

“I loved business, but my passion was in marketing,” says Gerger, explaining her decision to steer away from her family’s business and make her own career path.

After seven years working for market research and consumer packaged goods companies, progressing from account specialist and to account manager, Gerger decided she wanted to get into brand management. She noticed, however, that many of the job postings required an MBA.

While attending a career fair at DePaul, Gerger found out about the Double Demon scholarship available to DePaul alumni who return for graduate study at their alma mater.

The scholarship, plus a waiver of several courses and the GMAT require­ment because of her undergraduate performance and work experience, made it a “no brainer” decision to enroll in DePaul’s MBA program. “Returning to school was a smart move for me because it allowed me to understand how to run a business,” she says. “Graduate school also afforded me an opportunity to change my career track. I am now interested in concen­trating in entrepreneurship, in addition to brand management and exploring the family company.”

The Double Demon scholarship, which is open to alumni with under­graduate or graduate degrees from any DePaul college, covers 25 percent of the tuition for graduate study at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and other DePaul colleges and schools. The scholarship applies to alumni who enroll as part-time or full-time students. No separate applica­tion for the scholarship is necessary— all DePaul alumni admitted into a Kellstadt MBA or master’s degree program automatically qualify.

“The business landscape is constantly changing, and so our students find a lot of benefit in coming back to brush up on their skills to move up in their company or transition into a new career,” says Christa Hinton, assistant dean and director of the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. “We truly value our alumni and are happy to offer a great opportunity to make it afford­able for them to come back to DePaul.”

Learn more about the Double Demon Scholarship:

Visit go.depaul.edu/alumnischolarships to find out more about the Double Demon scholarship.

By Andrew Zamorski

Women in Leadership

vadinolf Features

Six Stories of Alumnae Success

Joanna M. Bauza (MBA ’01) (center), president of the Cervantes Group, teaches a course in leadership at DePaul.
Joanna M. Bauza (MBA ’01) (center), president of the Cervantes Group, teaches a course in leadership at DePaul.

Since 1917, women have been studying in DePaul’s business school and carving out challenging careers for themselves. To commemorate this historic 100th anniversary milestone, six highly successful alumnae reflect on their professional lives and share advice for the next generation of women leaders.

Traversing the world and making meaningful contributions in diverse industries, these remarkable women have broken barriers and advanced their careers with sure footing on uneven terrain. Indeed, a new national initiative among more than 30 influential corporate CEOs called Paradigm for Parity launched recently to close the gender gap in business and create a new normal that brings power, status and opportunity into balance for women and men.

Meanwhile, a new book by Joann Lublin, management news editor for the Wall Street Journal, explores the stories of 52 female executives, laying bare both the progress women in leadership have made and the obstacles that remain on their path to equality on the career ladder. In “Earning It: Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World,” Lublin found that resilience, persistence and confidence were among the most valuable traits of women executives.

The women profiled here possess these qualities and have powerful advice for women following in their footsteps:

Stories by Denise Mattson

College News

jlansber College News

Misty Johanson Appointed Interim Dean


Misty Johanson, PhD, an associate business college dean, professor and director of the School of Hospitality Leadership, has been named interim dean of the Driehaus College of Business. She is the first woman to serve as business college dean at DePaul.

“I’m delighted that Dr. Johanson has accepted the invitation to lead the Driehaus College of Business during this time of transition,” DePaul Provost Marten denBoer says. “Her nearly 20 years of experience in education, combined with her outstanding leadership skills, welcoming character and financial acumen will serve the college well.”

Johanson joined DePaul in 2009 to help establish the School of Hospitality Leadership, which she has directed since 2014. She has served as an associate dean since 2011, overseeing areas that include academic quality, accreditation and advisory council engagement.

Under her leadership, the hospitality school has earned accolades for its innovative teaching and faculty research, and forged strong ties to Chicago’s world-class hospitality industry. The Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education recognized DePaul’s hospitality and leadership program as the best in Illinois in 2015. The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation awarded a $1.8 million grant to the school in 2016 to create and endow a new Center for Student Development and Engagement. The center, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, provides students with professional development and mentoring opportunities with industry leaders. A new Executive in Residence program, funded by Hyatt and Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, brings execu­tives into the school to network with faculty, advise students and connect them with the hospitality industry.

In addition to receiving multiple excellence in teaching awards, Johanson has published more than 50 refereed scholarly articles and two textbooks. In 2015, she became executive editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, the hospitality field’s top research journal. Prior to joining DePaul, Johanson was a faculty member in the University of Hawaii’s and Georgia State University’s hospitality programs. She started her hospitality career with Marriott International after graduating from Michigan State University, where she later returned to complete her master’s and doctoral degrees in hospitality business and tourism.

There is nothing that drives me more than preparing highly qualified students to succeed in a wide array of business and management fields.

“As interim dean, I look forward to a continued collaboration with faculty and staff within the college, as well as our many industry partners in Chicago and our alumni.”

Johanson will continue to lead the School of Hospitality Leadership during her interim appointment, which begins July 1. The Office of the Provost expects the dean search for the Driehaus College of Business to begin in the 2017-18 academic year.

Alumnae Named to Kellstadt Leadership Roles


Christa Hinton (MBA ’98, EDD ’12) has been promoted to director of the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, where she oversees student recruitment, admission, academic advising and career management services. Hinton has worked at DePaul since 2001 and previously led the Kellstadt Career Management Center as director and later as assistant dean. She was president of Women in Business before joining DePaul.

Jennifer Kopczynski (MED ’08, BUS MS ’17) has replaced Hinton as director of the Kellstadt Career Management Center. She previously served as associate director of the center and is an adjunct professor. She held a similar role in MBA student career services at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business before coming to DePaul. Kopczynski and her DePaul team offer a wide range of career advice and services tailored to the needs of graduate business students and alumni.

Hinton and Kopczynski say their priorities include enhancing the cocurricular experience for students and staying connected with alumni. “We want alumni to know that our relationship with them doesn’t end at graduation,” Hinton says. “We are always there for them, whether they are looking to enhance their skills by returning to earn another MBA concentration or graduate degree, are seeking career support through our networking events and one-on-one career advising, or want to come on campus to speak and share their knowledge with students.”

DePaul Joins Chicago’s 1871 Business Incubator

1871
The Coleman Entrepreneurship Center has partnered with DePaul’s College of Law, College of Computing and Digital Media, and Office of Academic Affairs to join 1871, Chicago’s premier business incubator.

The collaboration gives DePaul students and faculty access to 1871’s events, workshops and lectures, as well as networking opportunities with industry thought leaders. The membership also has enabled professors to host classes, meetings and research presentations that showcase DePaul at the startup hub, which is located in the Merchandise Mart, about a mile north of DePaul’s Loop Campus.

DePaul’s membership includes dedicated office space in a prime spot on University Row, an area of 1871 where the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and other local universities are grouped. Last month, DePaul students mixed with students from other University Row institutions to participate in Campus 1871, a weekend-long challenge to brainstorm and pitch new business ideas. The event was a “tremendous opportunity for our students to work closely with students from the other 1871 universities to develop teamwork, creativity and innova­tion ideas,” says Bruce Leech (MBA’81), executive director of the Coleman Entrepre­neurship Center. “It was the highlight of the year for the university partners, students and faculty who participated.”

College Hosts Fireside Chat on Diversifying Finance Industry

Diversity Event Malik Murray
Business professors joined finance industry leaders in a fireside chat hosted at DePaul to explore ways to increase diversity and inclusion in the financial services field.

The “Diversity at Driehaus” talk was co-sponsored by the Driehaus College of Business and the PhD Project, a nationwide initiative that seeks to diversify business school faculties and attract more students of color to study and enter business. Assistant Professor of Accountancy Stephani Mason, one of a dozen PhD Project alumni on DePaul’s faculty, organized the Nov. 15 program for a second year in conjunction with the project’s annual national conference in Chicago.

This year’s discussion focused on the Financial Service Pipeline Initiative, an effort spearheaded by a coalition of Chicago financial services institu­tions and the Chicago Community Trust to attract more people of color to careers in finance.

Nationwide, representation of minorities in finance has changed little in the last two decades, according to Jamica Quillin, manager of diversity and inclusion at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, who discussed the Pipeline’s goals. Industry leaders should see the issue as a long-term human capital imperative, she said, centered on recruitment, retention and mentoring of diverse finance professionals. “If we can work together, we can work significantly and with more impact,” she said.

The key to sparking change is to emphasize the positive bottom-line impact of diversity, said panelist Monica L. Walker, CEO of Holland Capital. Industry leaders need “to value diversity of thought and bring diversity of experiences to the table,” Walker advised, because it leads to better business decisions, including more effective strategies for marketing to diverse consumers.

The panelists also talked about mentors and other influences that led to their personal success. Alumnus Malik Murray (BUS ’96, MBA ’04), vice president at Ariel Capital, said money management was seldom discussed in his family and community during his upbringing. He didn’t envision a career in finance until he came to DePaul, where he encountered professors of color, as well as finance alumni who reached out to mentor him. “When you see someone who has been there, done that, it’s very powerful,” he said.

Murray said he now pays it forward by seeking to help other young minority professionals find their footing in finance. “I am passionate about getting more people of color into the business. If people don’t have access to you, sometimes they give up. So, if I can reduce the hurdle, I will.’’

A Leadership Transition

vadinolf Notes from the Dean

Dean Ray WhittingtonAfter serving for 11 years as dean of the Driehaus College of Business, I will return to my roots in the School of Accountancy this summer, resuming my previous role as director of the school. Misty Johanson will become interim dean of the college on July 1. I encourage you to read more in College News about Dr. Johanson, an accomplished academic and industry leader who is the first woman to serve as DePaul’s business college dean.

Reflecting on my tenure as dean, I am grateful for the tight-knit academic and business community that supports our college with a shared commitment to create a vibrant and innovative learning environment. Business students enter DePaul with an abundance of talent and drive, and they emerge as graduates ready to bring value to the business world. Along the way, their futures are shaped by a faculty passionate about teaching, a staff devoted to fostering student achievement, and you—our alumni and donors— who care deeply about their success.

Our alumni bring lessons to life by speaking on campus, sharing real-world case studies with our classes and opening their workplaces to student groups. With donor and alumni help, we are able to provide scholarship assistance to students with financial need, complement their classroom education with valuable mentoring and internships, and place our graduates in rewarding professional positions. I thank you for giving generously of your time and resources to support our mission.

As we transition to new leadership, our college faces both challenges and opportunities. Demographic changes and growing competition in the higher education market made recruitment of undergraduate students more challenging this academic year, and these trends are expected to continue. Uncertainty about state scholarship support for our low-income students also has budget implications for the university, which has increased its institutional financial aid to help fill the gap.

To address the changing higher education landscape, we are focusing on initiatives that enhance the value of a DePaul education for students and create new business education markets for the college. We’ve increased our combined degree offerings, which allow students to save time and tuition dollars by earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees together in as little as five years. We’ve expanded the Double Demon scholarship program that offers alumni a 25 percent tuition discount for graduate study. I’m also excited about the growth of DePaul’s Corporate Employer Outreach (CEO) initiative over the last three years. CEO has forged agreements with 25 companies and organizations to provide their employees with professional and graduate education, including corporate on-site DePaul MBA programs. Alumni have played a key role in many of these agreements, serving within their organizations as liaisons who attest to the power of a DePaul education.

We will continue to strengthen these relationships among students, faculty, the business community and our alumni and donors as we chart our path for the future. Your ongoing engagement with our college ensures a bright future for our students.

Ray Whittington

Dean
Driehaus College of Business

Women in Leadership: Carol Bramson

jlansber Features

Carol Bramson Entrepreneur, Private Equity, Investor and CEO (BUS ’89)
Carol Bramson
Entrepreneur, Private Equity,
Investor and CEO
(BUS ’89)

The style of culture I like to put in place is focused on transparency and employee empowerment.”

From her first job at a venture capital company that invested in health care to her latest challenge as CEO of a natural pet food business, Carol Bramson has made a career out of keeping others healthy.

Growing up in a health-focused household, she developed positive habits that she still maintains today. From clean eating to running, cycling and yoga, Bramson stays active in her personal life to help her stay sharp in her
profes­sional life. This health and wellness orientation made her a great match for her first job at a venture capital firm. “I just loved that we were investing in health-care-focused businesses that had a direct and positive impact on people’s lives.”

When First Chicago Equity Capital recruited her into a leadership-training program for her next job, she found fast success, impressing a supervisor who became a mentor. “He basically walked me over to the head of the private equity group and gave me a glowing reference,” recalls Bramson.

After returning from maternity leave a couple of years later, she became a partner in that group—the only woman in a practice of six. Although outnumbered by her male colleagues, Bramson remembers a supportive environment. “The culture of the group was about empowerment and teamwork. It felt like a family, and we were able to accomplish great things together.”

Bramson went on to build an exciting career by finding opportunities that matched her values and vision. Sometimes she found it in existing companies; other times she had to build opportunity by creating a culture of employee empowerment and innovation. “I consider myself a business builder, and for me, aligning a company’s culture with the vision and mission is an incredibly powerful experience.”

When she jumped from board member to CEO of a juvenile products company, she found some staff had lost their voice, and it was up to her to reinvigorate them. “To me, not having these brilliant engineers feel empowered enough to confidently speak their minds and share their personal and professional opinions was a great disservice to the business and their colleagues. We quickly moved to change that and it had a significant impact on the turnaround of the company.”

“The style of culture I like to put in place is focused on transparency and employee empowerment,” says Bramson. “We can talk about anything—and we should. Every environment I’m in represents an opportunity to seek out talent and to support those people to bring out their best.”

More success stories:

 

Women in Leadership: Diane Pearse

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Diane Pearse CEO Hickory Farms (MBA ’86)
Diane Pearse
CEO
Hickory Farms
(MBA ’86)

Good leaders need to be strong, smart, decisive and authentic.”

Was there a delicious basket of goodies from Hickory Farms shared at one of your holiday gatherings last year? Is there a Redbox DVD sitting on your counter? Do you get excited when you get a gift in the iconic black-and-white box from Crate & Barrel? Have you filled your tank with BP Amoco gas recently?

These are some of the omnipresent brands Diane Pearse has helped shape during her career. Currently the CEO and president of Hickory Farms, LLC, Pearse has witnessed a world of change for women employees and women leaders during her 35-plus years in business.

“Earlier in my career, I needed to fit the mold to show I was part of the team,” she explains. There were times she compromised who she was to fit in, she says, like the time in her late 20s, in the male-dominated world of oil and gas, when an offensive cartoon of a Playboy bunny was shown at a meeting to make a point.

“I had to laugh along, despite the fact that I was mortified,” she says. “I couldn’t go to HR and make a complaint. I had to be one of the boys and go along. It was a time when women were patiently gaining momentum in the workplace.”

At times, she stifled her warm personality. “I hug people,” she confesses, but that was not acceptable in the business environment of the 1980s.

The business environment has evolved since then. “It is OK to show vulnerability and say that I don’t know how to do (this thing) or that I need someone’s help,” she notes, and she does these things without hesitation in her career today. This is a stark contrast to the business atmosphere three decades ago. Then, she recalls, “Leaders thought that strength came from a façade and that they couldn’t show weakness.”

That’s one reason why authenticity is so important to her. “Authenticity lets people know who you are, what they can expect from you and that you are being true to your word.” It’s the reason people she worked with at previous jobs followed her to Hickory Farms. “They say, ‘I’m here because of Diane. I’m doing this for you.’” Being genuine motivates staff to give something extra to get the job done right, she believes.

“Millennial women don’t realize how different it is now,” Pearse says. “Today, women are looked at for our work. We have an equal opportunity to rise in our careers, just as the man sitting next to us does. We share household and child responsibilities with our partner and don’t have to choose whose career will be put on hold. Millennial women can relish the fact that so many women before them made the opportunities of today possible.”

Yet, Pearse believed the traits of a good leader are the same no matter one’s gender. “Good leaders need to be strong, smart, decisive and authentic.

More success stories:

Women in Leadership: Joanna M. Bauza

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Joanna M. Bauza President and Co-Founder The Cervantes Group (MBA ’01)
Joanna M. Bauza
President and Co-Founder
The Cervantes Group
(MBA ’01)

You have to know how to work as a team. You have to lead people to one goal.”

Family businesses are in Joanna Bauza’s bloodline. This third-generation entrepreneur raised in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, learned about business from her grand-parents and parents. She recalls breaking a customer’s credit card by pressing too hard to make an impression on the manual card reader while working in her parents’ hardware store as a teen.

Today she doesn’t need to work so hard to make an impression.

The success of The Cervantes Group, a multinational, multi-million-dollar business she co-founded with her husband, speaks for itself. The technology talent acquisition and services company ranked No. 1,465 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States, as well as one of its top Hispanic companies.

Bauza is comfortable as a female executive on the international stage. She has traveled the world for both business and sport: the former as a business owner with offices in Puerto Rico, Spain and Mexico, the latter as the No. 1 ranked tennis player in Puerto Rico.

“I relate everything back to tennis,” she says. “Sports and business are very similar. You have to know how to work as a team. You have to lead people to one goal. You need mental toughness, and you cannot lose faith when things don’t look good. When you are losing 6-2, 4-2, it doesn’t mean that the game is over. You can stay strong and try to find your opponent’s weakness. You keep striving, keep pushing and never quit.”

Athletes excel at career transitions that require them to pivot, Bauza believes. “You go through different chapters in your life. You have to successfully close one chapter and start another, but you bring all that knowledge and experience to the next one.”

Bauza encourages students at DePaul, where she teaches a class in leadership, to emulate this practice. “I tell students, ‘Where you are right now will be very different from where you will be in five years.’” She advises them to bring their special experiences and accomplishments forward to apply them in a fresh context.

In Bauza’s iteration of the family business, responsibilities are split by professional strengths. Her husband focuses on business development functions for their organization, while her background as a programmer and web developer positions her as the technical expert on clients’ staffing needs.

Bauza is mother to a 12-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy. Her best advice for balancing family and business is to “have self-determination, be forward-looking and always be a great leader. You never stop learning or growing.”

More success stories:

Women in Leadership: Carrie Meghie

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Carrie Meghie Co-President, Becker Ventures Founder, Jackson Chance Foundation (BUS ’96)
Carrie Meghie
Co-President, Becker Ventures
Founder, Jackson Chance Foundation
(BUS ’96)

I never expect more from anyone than I expect from myself.”

Carrie Meghie takes family matters to a new level. She and her sister Jill Mast are co-presidents of Becker Ventures, the real estate investment holding company their father started. The company now owns the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago and a 41-story luxury apartment building at 200 N. Michigan Ave. Meghie and her husband, Terry, extended the family business connections by co-founding the offshoot Becker Entertainment group, which has developed three brands, one of which—the Jamaican restaurant Mr. Brown’s Lounge—is embedded in Terry’s Caribbean roots and features his brother as executive chef.

Yet the family matter dearest to her heart is the Jackson Chance Foundation, a nonprofit she and Terry launched to provide free parking at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago for the families of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. Their late son, Jackson, spent 10 months fighting a devastating lung condition at the hospital, where nearby parking can cost more than $50 a day. Meghie chairs the board of the foundation, carving out time she would have spent with Jackson “to care for his memory” by helping other families facing similar hardships.

For her leadership of the foundation she earned honors as a CNN Hero and a Chicago Magazine Chicagoan of the Year in 2016. In 2017, the program will expand to Northwest­ern Medicine/Prentice Women’s Hospital.

Meghie is a decisive woman who knows how to lead, from managing 200 employees at the Hard Rock Hotel to performing the ownership representative role at her new residential development. “I lead by example,” she says. “I never expect more from anyone than I expect from myself. I believe people are the most important asset in any company and in every industry,” she notes, adding that they must be valued, appreciated and recognized.

Because her entry into the business came as the owner’s daughter, she found some people underestimated her abilities. “It was challenging, and I felt like I had more to prove. It gave me greater determination to do a good job.”

Twenty years later, after netting their own business successes, Meghie and her sister work on balancing their families and careers. “There’s a lot of talk about doing it all or having it all. I don’t think that’s possible. Something has to give, and it’s going to change over time,” Meghie says.

Due to their young families, Meghie and her sister are in a business mainte­nance stage, foregoing certain opportunities now and scheduling growth in the future when they anticipate a better work-life balance.

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Women in Leadership: Monique Nelson

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Monique Nelson CEO, UWG (MBA ’03)
Monique Nelson
CEO, UWG
(MBA ’03)

Women need to ask for what they want, and if they don’t get it, they can go build it themselves.”

Monique Nelson has parlayed an early interest in the entertainment industry, which gave her an opportunity to work with artists John Legend, Common and Madonna, into a career as the influential CEO of one of the oldest black-owned marketing and advertising agencies in America.

Nelson, a classically trained singer and dancer who grew up in Brooklyn, assumed the helm of UWG in 2012. Today, companies like Ford, Colgate and Pfizer seek UWG’s expertise when they need a cultural navigator to reach a diverse customer base.

Nelson’s proving grounds were at International Paper in Chicago during the mid-1990s. In their quest to help the company sell more paper, her sales and marketing team recommended expanding the basic line of yellow Post-it notes to include the brightly colored options available today.

UWG (or UniWorld Group, Inc.) was founded in 1969 as African-American, Latino, Asian and LGBT communities began to emerge as consumer markets, according to Nelson. “We believe in talking to somebody, not every­body,” Nelson says. “Understanding diverse consumers is not just giving them a canned message, but talking to them in the right place, in the right space and in the right context.”

As a woman leader in business today, Nelson finds herself more the exception than the rule.

“There are a lot of women in our industry, but not at the top of the house,” Nelson recognizes. “That concerns me because most consumers are women, and we add dimension to a room.”

Nelson had many mentors and sponsors who supported her rise in business. “They were oftentimes my tie-breaker or the truth that I wasn’t prepared to tell myself. They see things in you that you may not want to see, or, when you are down on yourself, you should have seen,”

Nelson explains. “One of my mentors told me, ‘You’re enough, stop worrying about what everybody thinks.’ That was huge to me. Stop worrying about being a girl, stop worrying that they are all guys, stop worrying that they are all white. You’re enough.”

More women will reach the top ranks of business when they understand that they are enough, Nelson believes. “Women need to ask for what they want, and if they don’t get it, they can go build it themselves,” she urges. “You create your own destiny.”

More success stories: