Last week in Professor Andy Clark’s Sports Management class, we were given the amazing opportunity to travel to the newly remodeled Sullivan Athletic Center on DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus to meet with various members from DePaul Athletics.
We gained an inside look at multiple aspects of the college athletics business, through our amazing and insightful speakers, as well as a tour of the remodeled facility from DePaul Vice President and Director of Athletics DeWayne Peevy.
Our visit began in the main conference room where Peevy spoke to us about his journey, and told us a little bit more about his job, and the business of sports. He spoke on DePaul Athletics’ mission statement, and their Dream Big plan, which is in its fourth year.
We were then joined by Taylor Stapleton, the Executive Associate Athletics Director for Revenue Generation & Strategic Initiatives, who was able to give great insights regarding the revenue side of the sports business. He talked extensively regarding the current state of NIL within college athletics, along with points about strategic planning and brand building.
Before our break to tour the facility, Jill Hollembeak, Executive Associate Athletics Director for Sports Administration, along with DePaul’s Senior Woman Administrator (SWA), spoke to us. She gave great insights into her caring nature for the student-athletes, as well as her role as SWA. She emphasized to us that, “effort counts twice.”
Following our tour, we also had the pleasure of hearing from the ticketing office on their side of the business, and that they see themselves as the “front porch” of the athletics department.
To wrap up, we spoke to our final panel led by Kassidy Ellenby, Executive Associate Athletics Director, Marketing and Communications in addition to five staffers and graduate assistants who are former Sports Business students including Paul Stromberg, Tamas Zador, Nina Goodhue, Collin Feaster and Alex Kupfer-Weinstein. They gave us the advice that there is space for us in this industry, and to be direct and reach out.
Thank you to all our amazing guest speakers for their insights, and to DePaul Athletics as a whole for hosting us for this amazing opportunity to look into the business of college athletics!
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.
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 Paloma Mendoza (BUS ’20) (in beige sweater) got her foot in the door of advertising firm FCB during a class visit. (Photo courtesy of Andy Clark) 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.
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.”
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.”
Emma Reilly (left) and Maggie Specht (right) both took Andy Clark’s Introduction to Sports Management course during the spring 2020 quarter. (Photos courtesy of Emma Reilly and Maggie Specht)
By Russell Dorn
Most of Andy Clark’s students are big sports fans, so when his Introduction to Sports Management class transitioned online this past spring quarter due to the pandemic, he knew he needed to find ways to provide memorable learning opportunities to make up for the lack of in-person opportunities like touring Wrigley Field and meeting with Chicago sports industry leaders. Clark wasn’t sidelined for long, however, as he was determined to find inspiring ways to teach his students about careers in the sports industry by connecting them with successful DePaul grads.
Clark reached out to DePaul alumni coast-to-coast working in organizations including the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and Adidas with an invitation to record Zoom messages and lectures for his students.
Andy Clark is a senior instructor in the Driehaus College of Business and director of the university’s sports business program. (DePaul University/Jamie Moncrief)
“My goal with this course is to give students an inside look at the sports business industry,” says Clark, a senior instructor in the Driehaus College of Business and director of the university’s sports business program. “Many young DePaul alumni were willing to offer their time to help our students learn a bit more about the variety of opportunities available in the sports industry. Students were also able to connect with these alumni following the class, which can be an important step in the process of finding that first job following graduation.”
One of the students who made the most of the opportunity was Maggie Specht, a junior management major. After she listened to a talk by Kevin Magnuson, a DePaul College of Law graduate and current partner with KO Sports Inc. where he serves as an agent for NHL players and prospects, Specht connected with him for a conversation about his job and steps he’s taken in life to reach his goals.
“Kevin definitely piqued my interest in being a sports agent,” Specht says. “The connections with all the alumni alone were extremely valuable to me, and it was helpful to see all the different areas these alumni ended up in. I enjoyed seeing the variety of their career paths, and this reassured me that I could do a lot with my degree upon graduation.”
While many students have a passion for sports, being a fan will not get a graduate a job, Clark notes.
“What makes students and graduates attractive to prospective employers is how their business skills relate to that specific sports industry position,” Clark says. “A major goal of our program is to teach students how their business skills are relatable in a wide range of sports industry careers.”
For Emma Reilly, who graduated from DePaul in June with a degree in sports communication and a concentration in sports promotion and publicity, the three courses she took with Clark during her DePaul career were transformative.
“Before taking Professor Clark’s classes I didn’t know anything about what life would be like after graduation,” Reilly says. “He really helped me prepare for that. He’s one of the most genuine professors I have ever had because his curriculum goes beyond the course subjects. He makes us challenge ourselves to become better people.”
For Reilly, the alumni speakers were “the best part of the class.” One speaker who stood out to her was Tom Lubinski, a “triple demon” who is a product manager for Adidas.
“He oversees the process of getting shoes from concept to store, which I didn’t even realize you could do as a career,” Reilly says.
Lubinski, who earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting, a master’s degree in taxation and an MBA, all from DePaul, spoke to the class from his home base in Portland, Oregon. He shared his path from DePaul to Adidas and his role in the 18-month journey shoes take from a sketch to the shelves.
It doesn’t surprise Clark that a DePaul grad landed such a creative job.
“The industry continues to grow in size and complexity. DePaul students are getting sports industry roles in sales, marketing, analytics, operations, hospitality, communication and media,” Clark says.
Other speakers talked about their careers in diverse fields including business analytics, partnership activation, suite services, catering sales, group sales, ticket sales, sponsorships, events, communications, and revenue planning and analytics. Some of the alumni who shared their stories included Yami Garza (B.S., 2018), account manager for Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo; Steve Polheber (B.S., 2012), director of ticket sales at the University of Arizona; Wahaj Tariq (B.S., 2011), director of revenue planning and analytics for the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders; and Kelsey Horvath (B.S., 2018), suite operations coordinator for MLB’s San Diego Padres.
Clark is set to teach Introduction to Sports Management during the fall quarter. The course can be taken as either part of the Sports Management concentration in the Driehaus College of Business, as part of the two-year-old sports communications major housed in the College of Communication, or as an elective.
For Specht, the class is a must for anyone interested in working in the sports industry.
“I was so appreciative of how involved Professor Clark was with the transition to remote learning,” Specht says. “He took the time to create meaningful lectures, helped our class interact with each other through discussions, and gave us so many opportunities to build meaningful connections with individuals in the sports industry.”
By Robin Florzak
