Liz Schrenk
Ever since I was a little girl, I saw myself as an artist. I loved to draw and held a deep admiration for my high school art teachers. I attended the University of Illinois where I received a BFA in Art Education and a BFA in Graphic Design. As a graduation requirement, I took one photography class, and I was… terrible. Read More>>
Michael Choe
I grew up in a small town of Livingston, NJ and after graduating high school I attended Penn State University, State College. While at Penn State, I met a chiropractor that worked at Gold’s Gym and I was really fascinated with how he worked with athletes and his method of treating them. I was always interested in healthcare but chose to go the more natural route after meeting this chiropractor and also being exposed to Eastern Medicine growing up. Read More>>
Leonid Lakshtanov
Having 6 children and limited amount of living space inspired me to open a business that will help other people to save their room and maximize their living space. Read More>>
Beth Schneider
I’m a surface pattern designer based in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. With a college degree in Interior Architecture, I realized after about 8 years that drawing black and white floor plans and construction documents was just plain boring! A new job let me get my feet wet in the marketing/graphics industry and I fell in love. Read More>>
David Larkin
Launched in 1994 by David Larkin, DAL Builders started out as a company focused on new construction, building custom and semi-custom homes in Northern Illinois for several developers and architects. Since then, we’ve expanded into a full-service remodeling firm with offices in Chicago, serving both residential and commercial clients. We manage both small, thousand-dollar remodels and large, multimillion-dollar new construction projects. Read More>>
Vincent Gendusa
We started with a pick-up truck working out of the basement of our house with a vision to become a sought after contractor. We have now grown to a company with a full office staff in a 40,000 sq. ft. office/warehouse. Starting of as young business owner always has bumps in the road. Read More>>
Andrea Vollf
My passion for design started when I was a child. I remember, back in the day, staring at spaces and imagining how I could make it nicer, prettier, and more functional. At that age I didn’t know much about interior design nor architecture, but one thing was certain: I knew how to distinguish good from bad design. Read More>>
Dennis Gibson
I started my work life in a small town hands on hardware store. Shortly afterwards I became a helper installing aluminum siding and seamless aluminum gutters. This grew into an additional 30 years of progressing through advances in technology in exterior remodeling in sales, installation, management and now ownership. Read More>>
Matt Hermestroff
My father started the business when he was 18 years old with one manual screen printing press in a 1,000 sq. ft. store front. Ultimate Screen Printing has been a big part of our family over the years, and we’ve had many family members contribute to the success of our company. 40 years later, we now have multiple manual presses, and several automatic screen printing presses that allow us to print up to 1,500 shirts per hour. We have an amazing team that allows us to achieve our goals, and keep an eye on the future. Read More>>
Julie Abernathey, Anne Leahy, and Nancy Mokszycki
Tattered Tiques got started in antiques and vintage over 18 years ago. I lived in Iowa for a few years and going from fast pasted Chicago, to Iowa, I found myself needing a hobby. My husband started taking me to farm auctions on the weekends and I got hooked! As my mom and dad would come out to visit, we would spend all day at the farm auctions and started accumulating antiques. Read More>>
Marguerite Holland
Back in 2007 I was forced to make one of the best decisions of my life and leave behind my office job. Skin care and makeup had always been a passion of mine and so I decided to pursue a career in Esthetics. I finished esthetics school and became an Illinois State Licensed Esthetician in 2008. Read More>>
Brandon Loyfman, Oleg and Ilya Fedorovich
Our story starts about 2 years ago. I, (Oleg’s son) was just out of High School and started to attend the College of Lake County to study business. As I saw, the business was struggling and wanted to help as I thought my entrepreneurial traits and a sense of an “Americanized attitude” would sway the business in the right direction. Read More>>
Mark Sobecki
I simply got into powder coating because I always liked to my own stuff and I could not find a good place that did powder coating for small parts or one that would do a good job. When I was building my car there was a lot of time I spent driving around and became very unhappy with the money I was paying for crappy work. From those days I decided I will just spray paint every part and that’s what I did, with a rattle can I was able to get a decent job but not the durability of what powder coating offers. Read More>>
Vadim Dekhtyar
Before coming to the United States in 2001, I lived in a small Baltic country called Lithuania. While there, I attended Kaunas Medical Academy and graduated with an MD. After graduating, I began applying my psychiatry and medical acupuncture skills to a private practice. For those who don’t know, medical acupuncture is an approach that completely differs from Traditional Chinese Medicine. Read More>>
Ann Dieter
I became a part of Harmony House for Cats when I joined their staff in 1980 as a cat caregiver and adoption counselor. After 5 years as a staff member, I took a different day job, but have continued at HHC as a volunteer / board member ever since. The staff, volunteers and cats are like my second family. I currently serve as Board President, coordinating fundraisers, and assisting with social media. Read More>>
Spencer Hulbert
I had always had an interest in building and construction. When I was younger my parents bought a new construction home. I remember watching all the other homes get built around it, and playing in them on nights and weekends. In high school a friend of mine’s dad got him a job with a contractor that did some remodeling work on his home. Read More>>
