November 6, 2019

Board of Regents

Born: Chicago

College and major: Notre Dame, business and art philosophy, MSM from Purdue University, and executive MBA from Northwestern University.

Position: Global Brand President at Starcom Worldwide

“We take some of the world’s largest brands as clients and invest their dollars. A lot of our clients tend to have a broad global footprint, and so what I do is create the strategy in terms of how we build that network and where and how we invest to make sure we can help those clients grow.”

Passions outside of work:

“I’m usually doing something outdoors ranging from hunting, fishing, to golfing, to skiing, to boating, to tennis. You name it – if I can do it outdoors, I’ll be doing it there with my family and friends… I did my first marathon Back in 1990 when I first joined Leo Burnett. I started running and met a few guys that were doing a marathon, one of those guys was Jim Jenness, who was one of the key leaders at Leo Burnett at the time. Jim is one of the people who helped start the Mercy Home marathon in 2010. We’ve done marathons off and on now for 29 years and we just recently did Berlin and then Chicago.”

Favorite activities during high school:

“I was always a jack-of-all-trades, master of none in terms of sports. I lettered in all the sports – it was golf; I grew up in a golf club, baseball, and then wrestling. And then I pursued wrestling at Notre Dame where I walked on and became a varsity letter winner there.”

Most influential person growing up:

“It had to be mom and dad, grandpas and grandmas. We were always a very close family – immediate and also surrounding family. So just watching the values that they had and that they passed on. My dad had two things, he said, ‘I have to give you values and character and provide you an education.’ In a very humble way, I think that’s what I try to pass on to my kids.”

Finding Mercy Home:

“If I have an area where I like to give my time outside of this crazy work schedule, it’s in the area of helping kids or being around kids that need it. So my first foray in Chicago was Big Shoulders, where I mentored a student back when he was in 6th grade all the way through college. So, I was with Big Shoulders, and that evolved into Mercy Home and DePaul – I’m on the board at Mercy Home and on the board of trustees for DePaul.”

Favorite part about Mercy Home’s mission:

“I was blessed a million times over in my upbringing. Helping kids has a real calling for me, and so being able to do that for such a great organization that genuinely commits so much effort and passion – it’s not something that’s hard to give, it just feels like something you should be doing. I’m just fortunate to be able to come in and support all the great stuff that they have there.”