Paul Lubbers, Class of 2001, is the Senior Vice President for Aon’s Affinity Worldwide business in Chicago. Aon Affinity Worldwide is a division of Aon Corporation that serves people and businesses that have common interests and needs for specialized insurance protection. Using a combination of direct sales, direct marketing, and e-commerce, they strive to match customers and their culture with the right product.

During his two years a...

Many individuals who return to school to pursue a graduate degree will often mention that time management skills are one of the most important aspects that contributes to their success in academics. Soon-to-be second-year Illinois MBA student, Lauren Lee, embraced the challenge of balancing the school commitments along with other activities available to students in the Illinois MBA. 

Early in her first semester, Lauren joined ...

After spending all of her post-collegiate professional career in Illinois, MBA student Emily Thompson headed to sunny California for her summer internship with Cisco Systems, Inc., in San Jose. Emily had just completed her first year of the Illinois MBA, concentrating in Marketing and General Management.

Emily joined the MBA program after working in marketing for a global electric company near Chicago. She chose the Illinois ...

Recent MBA graduate Chaz Hinkle will soon join The TriZetto Group, Inc., as the Manager of Organizational Effectiveness. Hinkle is a United States Marine who completed two tours of duty in Iraq with the Marine Corps, serving with the 1st Marine Division during the initial invasion and with the 3rd Battalion 1st Marines and 3rd Battalion 4th Marines in Fallujah from 2004 to 2005. While completing his MBA, Hinkle continued to serve as a Platoon ...

Brooke Hartman has called South Carolina home since she graduated in 2006 with a joint MBA/ILIR (Labor and Industrial Relations) degree.  As a Human Resource Generalist for Eaton Corporation, she provides human resource support for approximately 800 employees. She spends most of her time making hiring recommendations, posting openings, screening résumés, and coordinating employee orientation. She also has responsibility for training, comp...

Second-year MBA student Bhavik Rathod has definitely made the most of his Illinois MBA experience. From his involvement in Illinois Business Consulting (IBC), case competitions, and MBA social events, he says it is hard to define his most worthwhile experience in the Illinois MBA because there have been so many.

Originally from Mumbai, India, Bhavik received a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from the University o...

Victoria Tamayo’s dream is to work at an organization in a finance position that will challenge her knowledge and skills every day. She is currently completing the first year of the full-time MBA program at the University of Illinois, which she sees as a major step toward realizing her dream.

Born in Colombia to a family of six children, Victoria learned at an early age the value of negotiation and teamwork. After completing both a B.S....

Five strangers representing five different countries meet in a classroom—South Korea, Turkey, United States, China, and Jamaica. It sounds like the beginning to a tremendous punch line, but for Chris Malabver, who is from Jamaica, it was the beginning of his greatest learning experience as an Illinois MBA student. “We were made to work in a cooperative environment irrespective of language, cultural, or personal differences,” said Chris. “We le...

When Brian Precious left his consulting position at James Martin & Associates in Chicago to pursue an Illinois MBA, he knew he wanted to make a difference. As an involved student, he took advantage of all the College of Business and the University of Illinois had to offer. This included an internship with the Chancellor’s Office, where he assisted small, start-up businesses located in the university’s Research Park. This experience led him...

Many Illinois MBA students have a global background, but first year MBA student, Sunil Rajan, truly personifies the global student and employee.  Spanning three continents, Sunil’s education and work experience have provided him with the know-how to adapt to new situations, and he is now applying those experiences in his pursuit of an Illinois MBA.

A native of Mumbai, India, Sunil moved to the UK in 2000 and completed a degree in ...

With over seven years of professional experience, including a one-year stint as Chief Financial Officer of a filtration company in China, Peter brought plenty of finance know-how and business savvy to the Illinois MBA when he enrolled in the fall of 2006. Since then, he has continued to improve himself – becoming Vice President of the Graduate Finance Association of the Illinois MBA, contributing as a student member of the CFA Society of Chica...

Germán Manrique, who has a unique and blended background as an architect and business partner, believes that his Illinois MBA experience helped him become a well-rounded business professional. Germán, a 2000 Illinois MBA graduate, is a partner at UrbanWorks, LTD, an architecture firm in Chicago. Germán’s ten years of experience in both the architecture and business administration fields have afforded him responsibilities in both the project ma...

Jason Dumo is a 1996 graduate of the Illinois MBA and a graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Immediately following his undergraduate years he worked for the Laborer’s Union in Chicago as a translator and interpreter on construction and demolition sites.

Upon completion of business school, Jason became an assistant brand manager and was later promoted to brand manager a...

After working in the banking industry for six years, Mirela Muresan decided to pursue an MBA to diversify her experiences and become a more balanced businesswoman. She chose to pursue her MBA at Illinois because of the small class size: “I felt that I could make more of an impact and get more one-on-one attention from faculty to further hone my professional business skills.”

With a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Il...

Clara Spaanstra’s future looked bright as she walked across the stage last month during the Illinois MBA commencement ceremony. Clara completed her MBA degree, concentrating in Marketing, and will start working for Whirlpool Corporation as Category Manager in the Marketing Division.

Clara joined the MBA program after working as a Marketing Analyst in Lima, Peru. Her prior experience proved to be an excellent foundation for her MBA expe...

For Ben Lester, Class of 2006, nothing makes his profession more satisfying than working on a team in pursuing an important goal. Throughout his various experiences—from working on a U.S. Senate campaign to serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve to his current position as a debt analyst at William Blair and Company—Ben finds motivation in the creative exchange that occurs between talented and devoted individuals. Ben states, “The public finance worl...

Ed Austin returned to the Midwest in the fall of 2006 to enroll in the Illinois MBA. Originally from Effingham, Illinois, Ed graduated from high school in 1993 and immediately entered into the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.  Ed studied Mechanical Engineering while at West Point, and was a key contributor to the school’s SunRayce ’97 project.  Upon graduating in 1997, Ed was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant...

Making the most of an opportunity is not something new for Arhant Rawal. Since joining the Illinois MBA in 2006, he has immersed himself in a variety of student organizations and activities and has enjoyed every minute of it. “The group dynamics are really an enriching experience. There is so much to learn from the varied backgrounds that people come from,” says Arhant, who is currently president of the Operations & Technology Managem...

From the moment Martin Lauw came to Urbana-Champaign from Asunción, Paraguay, he has been making sure that he and his classmates make the most of their experience at the University of Illinois. During the first week of the Preparatory English Program, he spread his passion for fútbol (i.e. soccer) by overseeing and refereeing a friendly match between his international classmates.

Now he’s into his second semester at the Illinois MBA an...

As the top sales representative in Taiwan’s first system integration company, Mei-Ling (Nikita) Tsai was elected the most outstanding sales personnel for three consecutive years. Sensing the lack of globalization in the market of her native home of Taiwan, Nikita decided to pursue her MBA at the University of Illinois with the goal of establishing her own consulting group to assist businesses in Asia with ambitions in global marketing.

Adjusting to a totally different climate and moving thousands of miles from home were just the beginning of the excitement for Marsha Silvera as she accepted an admission invitation to begin her studies at the Illinois MBA.  She left her family and friends in Kingston, Jamaica, with a vision and goal of completing an MBA degree and gaining the necessary preparation to eventually launch her career in management consulting.

Marsha p...

Reese Reynolds graduated from the Illinois MBA in 2002 with a joint degree in Human Resources. The dual degrees have served Reese well in advancing his career at Microsoft Corporation where he is a human resources manager. His primary responsibility is managing initiatives that provide field sales employees with technical and professional skills they need to sell and service Microsoft products. In four-plus years at Microsoft, Reese has done e...

After graduating from Penn State University in May 2002 with a degree in mechanical engineering, Chris began his career as a design engineer with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., headquartered in Akron, Ohio.  He worked in the Advanced Product and Process Design department, developing machinery and robotics to be used in future tire-building machines.
 
In May 2003, Chris accepted a job with FirstEnergy Corp., also headquartered...

Illinois MBA student Omer Ozgozukara of Turkey completed an internship at Scotia Capital in Chicago this past summer where he worked as an Associate in the diversified industries group. According to Omer, “Just through the core curriculum, Illinois prepared me for this internship, and this year I anticipate learning even more through my finance electives.”

In regard to the Illinois MBA, Omer states, “I came here to grow, and that is exa...

Rico Lu joined the Illinois MBA family in August 2005. He came to the program with a B.A. in Finance and Taxation. Prior to joining the Illinois MBA, Rico worked for an outstanding securities broker company in Taiwan and was a star financial representative. Through diligent study of stocks and derivatives, while simultaneously expanding his network with professional investors, he increased his top ten clients’ assets by 20% in two years. Furth...

Daryl Wilkerson is a May 2006 graduate of the Illinois MBA program.  He came to the program with a BS in industrial technology and an MS in manufacturing technology.  Daryl also had 10 years of personnel and project management experience as a naval officer and manufacturing engineer in private industry.  He learned key leadership and management skills during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom while deployed abroad.&nb...

Kapil Rajurkar is a first-year student of the Illinois MBA. He worked in the IT industry for four years as a business analyst and business development manager. Apart from being a program assistant with Illinois MBA admissions and a member of the Academic Council, Kapil is a senior consultant with Illinois Business Consulting (IBC). He also serves as the Vice President of Finance for the MBA Service Association.

A native Spanish speaker from Cali, Colombia, Monica Belalcazar is a first-year student in the Illinois MBA concentrating in Marketing and Operations Management.  The MBA program came as a blessing to her life, and it has been an incredible experience from the first day.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm in a dream," says Chia-Huei Lin, a second-year student in the Illinois MBA program focusing on finance and marketing.

Lin, a 25-year-old native of Taiwan, had planned on getting her master's degree since studying as an undergraduate at the National Taiwan University, even before she took two years to gain real-world experience in the banking industry.

"I learned how to communicate and deal with peopl...

Robert Penington always knew that he wanted to earn an MBA, but he came to the program by an unusual path.

Before coming to the Illinois MBA, Rob spent nearly ten years in biomedical research. Rob has co-authored three original scientific papers that were published in Gastroenterology, Clinical Cancer Research, and Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, all esteemed journals in the field. He holds an undergraduate d...

Charlotte Han has completed her first year of study in the Illinois MBA Program and expects to graduate in May 2006 with concentrations in marketing and general management.

When first year student Tammy Stern was asked about her decision to attend the Illinois MBA, her story begins…

While climbing mountains for some may be an analogy, it is both an analogy and reality for me.  I started at the base of my “career mountain” equipped only with an associate's degree in computer programming and lots of determination.  In order to obtain my first position in a small insurance company, I had to outperf...

Serkan Sener was recently awarded the Kent Monroe scholarship. Serkan expects to receive his MBA degree in 2006 with a concentration in General Management and Finance. Originally from Turkey, Serkan received his undergraduate degree in business from Bilkent University where he had a full academic scholarship, owing to his 79th rank out of 1.5 million students on the National University Exam in Turkey.

Before coming to Illinois to pursu...

Meet the newest summer intern for International Truck & Engine’s Logistics department!  Pedro Castaneda Ibarra is a first-year Illinois MBA student from Guadalajara, Mexico.  This summer, his internship will deal with the operational aspects of all the plants in both North and South America, including Mexico. 

With an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering, Pedro began his career at Cerraduras Tesa, a Swedis...

A million-dollar question changed the direction of Aleksandrs Kalnins' life and led him to the Illinois MBA Program.  After asking a friend what she would do if she had a million dollars, she surprised him by turning the question on him:  Aleks realized if he could do anything he wanted to, he would become a doctor and apply his background in economics to help make medical systems more efficient and productive, particularly in h...

Brian Precious is currently in his first year of study in the MBA program and expects to graduate in 2006 with concentrations in general management and marketing. He has a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from the University of Illinois. Before joining the MBA program at the University of Illinois, Brian worked for Aprimo as a management consultant focusing on Fortune 500 companies, primarily in the financial services sector...

Chris Hoefke has completed his first year of study with the MBA Program and expects to graduate in 2005 with a concentration in Finance. Before entering the program, Chris received a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University and worked for Anixter International, Inc. as a Business Analyst and Project Leader in the Information Systems department. While studying for his MBA, Chris worked for W.W. Grainger in the Tre...

Yuliya Pokhodnya expects to receive her MBA in 2005 with a concentration in Marketing. She began her career with several internships during college in various functions, including product promotion, event planning, and assisting with market research. She received a BS in Economics from the University of Utah in 2001 and worked as a Market Researcher for State Street Consultants, Inc. Throughout her studies and professional career, she has been...