Jennifer Larson
Pursuing a career in the field of psychology or counseling did not dawn on me until my sophomore year in college when I was in limbo trying to figure out a major change. At that time, one of my college friends urged me to take Psychology 101 as he remarked how immersed I was in trying to understand human behavior and what contributes to people’s ways of existing. Read more>>
Ajay Pattani
In 2005, Ajay Pattani decided to optimize his family’s souvenir business website. Sales improved from 1 per week to 20 per day, peaking at 50 sales per day. As the Pattani family got quite busy packing Chicago Cubs gear in their living room, Ajay realized that he had a knack for search engine optimization. His parents were thrilled (even though they probably secretly wanted him to be a doctor or something). Read more>>
Jaci Ruben
My passion of art, photography, and talking to strangers started at a very young age. It all seemed to blend perfectly. My outgoing personality allows me to ‘get that shot’ and push the boundaries of fine art and portraiture photography. Along with loving my craft, I am completely and utterly obsessed with the relationships and friendships I am able to make while doing what I love. Read more>>
Timothy and Kitty Yon
I am originally from Toronto, Canada. I had no idea what chiropractic was, until I had a hip injury in high school. My friend’s Chiropractor saved me from a lot of pain and kept me from dropping out of varsity sports. I couldn’t believe how amazing his treatments were, and that they helped my body heal naturally! I was instantly inspired to pursue chiropractic. Read more>>
Jerry and Danny Ulaszek
When you visit the dentist, did you ever wonder where your dentist gets the products and materials to take proper care of your smile? Sports guards, mouth guards, veneers, crowns, removable appliances, dentures? Dentists throughout the Chicago area turn to Artistic Dental Laboratories, a full service Certified Dental Laboratory that has been making products in their downtown Chicago lab and their Bolingbrook lab since 1981. Read more>>
Jar’neen Towns and Krystal Jordan
Real Estate has always been a passion of mine. My first encounter was in 1998. I started as a Leasing Consultant, Leasing apartments for a 1900 unit building. I enjoyed working with potential renters. The passion was so strong that I decided to opened a Real Estate Company, Towns & Associates Real Estate, a boutique company that streamlines the process and believes in providing great service, dedication and results. Read more>>
Mitch Katkus
Born and raised in Saint Charles, Illinois, I began M.K Movers when I was just in high school. A few buddies and I needed money, and with my dad running a Penske leasing office, we decided to try and move people’s belongings for profit using the available Penske trucks. It ended up a success and grew with word of mouth marketing. I later graduated with a degree in business management from Western Illinois University in 2011 and went back to St. Charles to continue with M.K Movers. Read more>>
Kate Hendrickson
In a nut shell: Studied and traveled abroad, Received MFA in drawing and printmaking, Taught at SAIC and Barat College, Worked at a couple galleries, Became an international art dealer, Traveled a lot to France and Italy to buy neat old works on paper, Transitioned to working with local artistic talent, Rediscovered my own talent. Now working full-time as an artist. Recession, Recession, Recession and then Depression. Read more>>
Dan Klein and Patrick Tannous
Tiesta Tea was founded on March 12th, 2010 by college seniors and preschool best friends, Dan Klein and Patrick Tannous. Patrick and Dan both studied abroad during college and took a weekend trip to Prague together. Their adventures abroad took them to a tiny Czech tea house, where they had their first cup of loose leaf tea and they have been hooked ever since. It was in this wow-inspiring moment that made them wonder, “why don’t more Americans drink loose leaf tea?” Read more>>
Alice Wood
Financial Literacy is underfunded and undervalued but it’s so important. At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter how smart someone might be. If they can’t handle money they will be lost. But it’s hard for schools to find time in the day to teach such an important skill. And budgets have become so tight in the workplace that bringing financial wellness programs to employees hasn’t been as high a priority as it should be. Read more>>
Dave Mayer
I first became interested in Oriental Medicine during childhood and have been interested ever since. I read a fictional story in elementary school where one character went out to a field, gathered some plants and made medicine to heal another character. I had a variety of health problems as a child and that was the first time I realized medicine didn’t have to come from a shot or a pill. I went back to school at age 46 for my MSOM. Read more>>
Laura Sage
Chill was opened in response to the hurry! urgent! now! lifestyle we all lead. There’s so much scientific research to support adopting a consistent meditation practice. Having come from a background in finance and non-profit, I noticed many of my colleagues hesitated to experiment with meditation because they found it unapproachable. It was either too spiritually out of their comfort zone or existing studios had cumbersome schedules and/or were geographically undesirable. Read more>>
Denish Ghayal
I was born in India in 1984 and immigrated to the USA in 1991. I graduated in 2007 with a BS in Honors Marketing and a Minor in Finance and Accounting from DePaul University. I worked at MB Financial Bank as a Credit Analyst and then Cole Taylor Bank as a Commercial Lender. I quit my job in December of 2013 to pursue various ventures and have several products under patent pending. Read more>>
Leslie Corbett
I am a rarity in the legal aid field. I am not a lawyer, but rather a social worker. I have found having at least one person at the table who is not trained to argue can be helpful. I began my career in legal aid via a college (Northwestern University) internship with Chicago Legal Aid to Incarcerated Mothers. It was through this experience that I chose to pursue a Masters of Social Work (Jane Addams College of Social Work/UIC) vs a Juris Doctor degree. Read more>>
Marsha Cook
I’m a Chicago screenwriter, as well as an author and radio show personality on Blog Talk Radio. The World Of Ink Network was started by Virginia Grenier and myself over seven years ago. My shows are group discussions or individual interviews about writing and publishing screenplays and books. There are also times when my shows are about other subjects that I like to share with my audience. Read more>>
Patrick Flickinger
During a bad experience buying our first home in 2001, my wife, April, had to fire one of our real estate agents. He actually started yelling at her on the phone. I was appalled that somebody would treat a client that way. Another agent gave us listing sheets with coffee stains all over them. Yet another was too busy for us and we missed out on seeing homes that we might have loved. Read more>>
David Soria
GreenMan Theatre Troupe is a community theatre based in Elmhurst. We are entering our 14th season of productions. The group started in 2003, when former participants with Elmhurst Children’s Theatre initiated discussions about starting a community theatre in the Elmhurst area. These discussions led to GreenMan Theatre Troupe incorporating in 2004 as an Illinois Not-for-Profit. Later, the theatre would be recognized as a 501(c)3 organization. Read more>>
Philip Bradley
I have a passion for sharing stories through film. I was born and raised in Music City, and got my start in film production by making music videos for local Nashville artists. After that I headed to Chicago to work in advertising while earning degrees in digital cinema and design from DePaul University. I learned a lot during that time, and especially working for great Chicago video groups such as Optimus, The Colonie, and JBTV. Read more>>
Nadia Muradi and Samer Khwaiss
Add Chapter Design is a creative boutique advertising and design agency in Chicago’s River North district. It’s an agency with an edge and story to tell. Nadia Muradi and Samer Khwaiss are the co-founders and have been business partners for the last 10 years. Nadia: When I started my journey in the advertising and communications world, I never anticipated that I would one day establish a partnership and build an agency with the person that I disagreed with the most at work. Read more>>
Ann-Marie Bergman
30 + years ago I was in high school and was asked to come and work for this engineering firm as part of the work study program. My assignments have been many and vast. I started as a gopher, getting lunches, answering phones and running errands to pick up plans and contracts. After high school, I joined the administrative staff, answering phones, doing word processing, on a typewriter and learning how to integrate a computer into our work space. Read more>>
Andrew Mwangi
How I started has much to do with leveraging upon my leadership experiences and entrepreneurial spirit, I previously worked in e-commerce for 8 years, where I developed an ability to be cognizant and seize digital opportunities. In this decade lifespan, I developed and launched a number of digital business platforms, but Southbendtaxi.com was the more organically explosive platform growing through digital channels – web, social, word of mouth, and online user reviews and recommendations. Read more>>
Renee Bastermajian
One thing that I have always known about myself though, is that I love to help others and watch them succeed. Growing up, my father owned a photo processing business called “New Color West” in downtown Chicago. Watching him run this business since I was a kid, made me appreciate the hard work and dedication it took to own a business while supporting a family of seven. Fast forward to May of 2007, when I graduated from my undergrad at Roosevelt University in Business Administration. Read more>>
Michael Facchini
I entered the mortgage and real estate market in 2001. Since then, I have closed 100’s of millions of dollars in loans for my clients, I have invested in & managed property all over the country, I ran a private equity fund for 9 years, and developed a mortgage prequalification website/software. Currently at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, one of the country’s largest, privately held, residential mortgage lenders, I am focused on growing our footprint in downtown Chicago, while also streamlining our operating procedures and processing systems, as well as assisting the executive team with the creation of new lending and investor relationships for this marketplace. Read more>>
Ivan Kutlesa
It was my 2nd year of architectural study at the University of Illinois at Chicago, when I first me Manual (Manny) Hernandez in 1988. Collaborating on University projects, we became best friends and gained a mutual respect and admiration for each other’s talents. Being of Croatian decent, I appreciated Manny’s Mexican heritage, as this also contributed to how we looked at the world through more than one lens, which would prove fruitful in our future endeavors. At UIC, Manny excelled in architectural design studios and was awarded two faculty citations for excellence in design. Read more>>
Kevin Conway, AJ Roskam, and Stephen Kipp
We started years ago back in high school producing comedy sketches, short films, and working freelance jobs (those we could get as 18 year olds). Unlike most people our age, we were shooting on some high-end gear with large crews, on-location, with costumes, props, lighting – the whole production. A couple years later we ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to produce an indie feature film. Read more>>
Elizabeth Sweeney
I started in the business working the summers for my Father’s company CinemaVideo Center, it was a full-service Film Lab/Video post & production/audio recording/and a video/audio duplication business. I had started from the floor up working the first summer in the film lab the next summer moving up to the audio recording studio this is where I discovered I loved the business over those summer I went from being a very shy teenager to being able to deal with the many cranky customers who all needed to have something same day I enjoyed the rush of being able to complete the task at hand and doing so was able to increase business by 100% all while making new friends in the industry. Read more>>
Betty O’Leary
I won my first swimming race at age six. (I still hold the record at that pool!) I competed until my late teens. Since then, I’ve been part of a master’s swim group, competed in some triathlons, and taught friends and family to swim. I’ve always loved to swim. Fast forward to 2017. I started teaching swimming here and there on nights and weekends for another business. It was exhilarating. I knew that I had found my calling and I wished I could do it full time. My kids spent the holiday encouraging me to start my own business, and suddenly– fate was on my side. Read more>>
Jeff Whyte
I started drawing houses when I was 8 years old. So becoming an architect came naturally. I have always been fascinated with building. After driving my parents crazy building forts when I was young, I took all of the drafting and architecture classes in High School and was consistently the best in my class. After High School, I ended up going to the University of Illinois at Chicago, then ranked #3 in the nation behind Harvard and Yale. Read more>>
Coretta Shane
Some people paint, others write, I loved languages for as long as I remember. As I entered into my career and became a mother, I realized the importance of knowing more than one language. I have always helped others in Spanish and French, but at the time did not know how valuable the ability to speak with others of different language really was. Working part time as a substitute teacher, I found myself speaking Spanish all the time to students who were recent migrants or those whose English was not so great. It was a comfort to others that I knew their language. Read more>>
Marlene Leonard
My husband and I started the company in 1979. My father-in-law used to own Leonard Canvas Products and used to make and sew Awnings and yard party canopies. He passed away in 1973. We started sewing canvas tents and renting them and realized the market that was out there with only one other company around. We divorced in 1988 and I kept the name. It was like starting over again with 50% of the inventory. Read more>>
Julio Cano
A Toda Madre (ATM) was the second of five different concepts we’ve created so far under Bien Trucha Group (www.bientruchagroup.com); two of them opening in the first quarter of 2018. We approach each of our creations as a unique opportunity to learn, invent, evolve and have fun doing what we love and are passionate about, which is creating experiences in spaces where people can enjoy great food and drinks in a cool atmosphere. Read more>>
Kenneth Williams
Ken Williams met a gentleman on an airplane in 2004 while he was traveling for a business trip with his former company Discovery Card. Ken and this gentleman struck up a conversation. This gentleman was an owner of a shredding company in Chicago. This gentleman was intrigued by Ken’s business survey and communication style (and ability to build rapport easily). Before the end of the flight, this gentleman asked Ken to join him in his Chicago shredding and storage business. Read more>>
Craig Braham
We founded Advocate Commercial Real Estate Advisors in 2003 with the idea of focusing exclusively on tenants looking for Chicago office space. Our business has grown to serve clients nationwide and now includes a Detroit presence in addition to our offices here. From the beginning, we’ve been 100% employee owned. Read more>>
Benjamin Wessels
We began providing home based therapy for children with autism just after Illinois passed an insurance mandate (in 2008) that allowed an incredible number of children to access services that were previously unavailable to them. Overnight, families that previously had very few treatment options could now have a clinician come to their home and create an individualized, data-based therapeutic program. Read more>>
Marilyn Fettner
My career has evolved, as I’ve learned more about myself and what I care about most. I started college, thinking I’d be a teacher, as many young women did before increasing career choices were open to women. Although I began college taking several education classes, a charismatic teacher sparked an interest in biology, which I declared as my major. Unsure about my career path, I toyed with the idea of going to medical school. Read more>>
Tarek Fadel
I was studying for the bar exam after graduating from law school when I got the idea for AdaptiBar. Back then, you sat with thousands of students for lecture style learning. I thought there had to be something online that was an alternative to this traditional, cookie-cutter, method of studying. When I realized there was not, I knew it was an amazing opportunity. I withdrew from the bar exam and developed an entirely online program. Read more>>
