2022 - 2023 Gies Business Annual Report

Purposeful Experiences

Intentionally designed

We design everything with intention. The courses our learners take, the events they attend, the projects they complete – it’s all created with careful thought and collaboration.

We don’t innovate just to innovate. We do it “on purpose.”

We take intentional steps to ensure that the experience our learners gain is the experience they need to succeed as purpose-driven leaders and collaborators well beyond their years at Gies Business. And we’re committed to extending life-changing access to that experience to as many learners as possible.

You can see that intentionality in the four-course series our undergraduates take together as a cohort, in the business problems they solve through experiential learning, in our Signing Day festivities, and in the alumni who return to campus to interact with our undergraduate and graduate students each semester. And you can see it in the ways we’ve opened new doors to graduate degrees and certificates.

We strive to make sure the mindset of intentionality doesn’t end here. We want our learners to take that same focus on purpose to their careers, find a path that aligns with their passions, think about the consumer needs their work can solve and the impact they can make, and then pursue that path.

They’ll know it’s not about doing business just to do business. It’s about doing business with intention. And that’s business on purpose.

Jeffrey R. Brown

Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor in Business and Dean

“It’s really important to elevate people’s voices and make the people you’re trying to impact the center of the product, make them the center of everything you do, every decision you make. I want everything I do to have a positive impact on the people that this idea is for.”

Ariana Mizan, Sophomore Discussing innovating with intention

Students declared majors at Signing Day 2023 alongside Larry Gies (ACCY ’88).

Strengthening bonds while laying a purposeful foundation

All undergraduate students at Gies Business take a sequence of four courses with their cohort, one class each year. We intentionally design these courses to help students explore beyond the technical skills of their majors. We teach them how to think purposefully about the big picture of business while building deeper relationships with each other.

2022-2023 Cohort Courses

BUS 101: Professional Responsibility and Business

BUS 201: Business Dynamics

BUS 301: Business in Action

BUS 401: Global Business Perspectives

BUS 101

“Business 101 goes beyond traditional business education by considering the broader purpose and role of business in society. I hope that my students grow to appreciate how business creates value for society, explore how they might find their own unique purpose in a business vocation, and discover how to engage in ethical business that considers the needs of multiple stakeholders.”

Aimee Barbeau Teaching Assistant Professor of Business Administration

BUS 301

“The cohort courses are like a superstrong thread that stitches the undergraduate academic experience together regardless of the fabric or pattern of their major concentration. While students do deepen their capacity to work in a team, solve a complex problem, and tell a story, I also hope they gain a clearer sense of identity as a business professional. I hope they walk away realizing how managing uncertainty and developing resilience are key competencies for emerging leaders.”

Kari Keating Teaching Associate Professor of Business Administration

Growing our curriculum

BUS 201

“From taking Business 201, I hope students understand that businesses function like a complex system and how the different functions are interconnected. Additionally, I hope they gain confidence in how to work in a team to make business decisions under uncertainty. In my class, there are no lectures, no PowerPoint, no laptops, and no note-taking. Students learn through making decisions, taking actions, and reflecting on their experiences.”

Judith White Teaching Professor of Business Administration

BUS 401

“The cohort series provides students an opportunity to apply learned criticalthinking skills to different scenarios. Students can also reflect on themselves and their role in our business profession.

Business 401 is evolving so students can purposefully orient their career plans and professional life after college. The goal is for everyone to find a way to align their interests and how they can match and practice their purpose with an activity where they also contribute to the communities they’re part of.”

Sandra Corredor Teaching Assistant Professor of Business Administration

This past year, Business 101 added an important topic to its curriculum – unconscious bias. This content will help prepare students to work in an increasingly multicultural world. We plan to continue highlighting content that reflects the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion as we find more ways to improve our courses for students.

Preparing tomorrow’s business leaders through real-world learning

200+ clients yearly

300+ projects yearly

The Magelli Office of Experiential Learning gives students access to real-world, client-based projects built into the Gies Business curriculum. It coordinates projects for one of our cohort courses – Business 301: Business in Action – along with other courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Plus, it houses consulting programs outside the classroom, like Illinois Business Consulting (IBC).

Experiential learning, alumni engagement

Gies alum Sean Hesano learned so much in his own experiential learning courses that, after graduating in 2022, he came back to partner with us as a client while working for Ashley Furniture of Central Illinois.

“I was honestly blown away by how well the projects went. This spring, the team did work for us that we could not have otherwise accomplished in that short timeframe. The group of students researched whether we should open two new stores in two markets – from a completely third-person point of view.”

Hesano, who majored in management and marketing, completed two experiential learning courses as a student and attained a full-time job with Ashley Furniture of Central Illinois as a result of one of his projects.

100% of undergraduates take an experiential learning class

170,000+ hours of student work yearly

Introducing the Diverse Supplier Development Program

The Magelli Office took its mission a step further this past year, creating opportunities for students to make an impact for small businesses with owners from diverse backgrounds through the Diverse Supplier Development Program. Student teams from the Master of Science in Management (MSM) program and IBC participated in this new University of Illinois System initiative.

Student experience

“I learned a lot through this program. I learned how to work with other teams. I learned how to work with a professional client for the first time. I learned how to navigate tough situations. I learned how to do better research.”

Katie Julkowski (MSM ’23)

Worked on Caregiving Years Training Academy website improvement project

Client experience

“It was really quite inspiring to see the talent that the university really nurtures and nourishes, so much so that you feel like our world is in good hands with these students. They were so professional, so eager to learn about the business, and eager to make a difference. I would encourage all companies to consider working with a team of students.”

Denise Brown (LAS ’85)

Caregiving Years Training Academy website improvement project

“I think that it was an amazing program. The students were really in tune, and they took it like a real job. They were professional, and they did their due diligence and their research.”

Cathy LeSure-Harris EMED Medical Company marketing strategy project

Innovating to expand access to world-class business education

Over the past year, we focused on finding new ways to expand access for more learners from different backgrounds and different stages of life. Students were able to “stack” their Master of Science in Management (MSM) degrees into our iMBA program for the first time, and we launched an accounting certificate for learners in the Danville Correctional Center.

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We’re serving up the degree in manageable bits, creating certificates for core areas and opening multiple pathways into an MBA. This highly flexible appoach is proving to be incredibly attractive to people who may not be ready to commit to a graduate business degree but want the specialized knowledge that can advance their career, and it creates multiple convenient entryways into graduate education.”

Brooke Elliott, Executive Associate Dean of Academic Programs, EY Distinguished Professor in Accounting

Launching a new certificate for learners in prison

In 2022-2023, we partnered with the Education Justice Project (EJP) to help bring more business education to learners in prison through a new accounting certificate and business-related workshops. This new initiative is part of a grant program created by Chancellor Robert Jones to address racism and social injustice.

“In general, an education program is important for anyone at any stage in life, and it’s really important for our learners because it allows them to continue building skills. The accounting program in particular provides a useful skill for them that they can directly use when they are released from prison.”

Jessica Thornton

PhD Student in Accounting, Program Manager for EJP Accounting Certificate

Celebrating lifelong learning, putting certificate toward iMSM program

Steve Reeves recently earned a Gies Business graduate certificate and is now stacking that credit into a degree through our iMSM program.

“The graduate certificate program helped me make the decision to go to the next level. My entire life, I have wanted to get my master’s degree. I never thought I would be completing it next May on my 67th birthday. Who knows, when I am finished, I may start on the classes to complete my MBA. I may be 90 years old, but I would feel great about myself, and I never plan to stop learning.”

“We’re really talking about opening up to populations that have limited access. This definitely is a population that is frequently overlooked, a population where I think, unfortunately, opportunities for engagement and enhancement are scarcer than we would like for them to be.”

Denise Lewin Loyd, Associate Dean for Equity, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Vernon Zimmerman Faculty Fellow, EJP Workshop Instructor

Building an award-winning program that meets learners on their terms

Our iMBA program was named 2022 MBA Program of the Year by Poets&Quants, the preeminent source for information on undergraduate and graduate business education.

• Under $24,000

• Fully online

• No GMAT/GRE required

• Flexible (24–60 months)

Engaging experiences

“I found a really strong group of people, and we actually aligned our degree plan together so that we were taking all the same courses at the same time. We kept each other accountable; we had study sessions together; we were able to bounce ideas off each other. It was truly remarkable the way that we functioned.”

Vaishnavi Ganesh (MBA ’23) 2023 Convocation Speaker

“When I started looking at MBA programs, I knew with my work and family responsibilities that I would need an affordable and flexible program. I knew the iMBA would be an outstanding academic experience, but I hadn’t anticipated how connected and engaged I would feel learning from my living room. I was taught by exceptional faculty and surrounded by enthusiastic and amazing people who supported me.”

Condola King (MBA ’22)

“It’s a massive team effort. But with the scale at which we operate, we’re able to offer an MBA in a cost-effective manner, and we’ve made the decision to pass almost the entirety of that savings on to our learners themselves.”

Jeffrey R. Brown

Current online graduate students and alumni gathered on campus for iConverge 2022.

Creating meaningful knowledge and passing it on

Gies Business faculty members strive to bring excellence to both their research and their teaching. They explore topics with impactful relevance – everything from diversity and inclusion to artificial intelligence to healthcare.

103

Gies Business faculty members ranked “excellent” or “outstanding” by students*

Enhancing the student learning experience

“My role is to try to make sure that when we recruit new faculty, they really understand the Gies beliefs and commitments. That’s definitely excellence in teaching, but it is really a strong commitment to our students. If the faculty member emanates that they really care about student learning, students are much more likely to ask questions. And when students ask questions, they and their peers benefit.”

Mark Peecher Executive Associate Dean of Faculty and Research, Deloitte Professor of Accountancy

Innovating through research

Gies Business gives faculty members access to innovative tools that help them in their research. The Gies Business Research Lab (GBRL) is dedicated to supporting faculty in conducting groundbreaking research on business decisionmaking with human subjects. The Data Science Research Service (DSRS) assists students, faculty, and staff with their data science, machine learning, computational infrastructure, and data acquisition needs.

“It’s been so exciting to join the Gies community. Every day, I get to collaborate with creative fellow educators who care as deeply as I do about our students and their experience. We are united in purpose, and together we champion it, helping Gies students to identify their own purpose and enact it in the world.”

Heather Swenddal Teaching Assistant Professor of Business Administration Joined

Gies Business in 2022

“DSRS is a very unique initiative spanning departments. Given the importance of data analytics and large-scale quantitative modeling in many disciplines these days, DSRS can help faculty and PhD students borrow approaches from other fields and develop interesting interdisciplinary research. It also saves the faculty’s time by matching them to the right graduate students while providing students the necessary research experience they’re seeking.”

Unnati Narang Assistant Professor of Business Administration, John M. Jones Fellow of Marketing, RC Evans Data Analytics Scholar

Collaborating to make an impact in healthcare

Gies Business works closely with the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and The Grainger College of Engineering to transform healthcare. Gies faculty members teach important business knowledge to physician-innovators in the medical college, while iMBA students work alongside medical students to bring healthcare innovation to life.

Purposeful innovation

“The potential for progress in healthcare is vast. Collaboration and dedicated effort are key to unlocking that potential. Challenging students to innovate by identifying and addressing critical needs – and working together – helps prepare them to take on the challenges of innovating as they graduate and advance in their fields. As they do so, we hope that they will identify key problems, identify their root causes, and develop solutions. This benefits us all. It’s business to change things for the better.”

Sonali K. Shah Associate Professor of Business Administration, Robert and Karen May Faculty Fellow

Shah co-designed and co-coordinates a yearlong innovation course that’s required for all medical students. The course brings together a team of physicians, engineering faculty, social science faculty, and business faculty to educate budding physician-innovators. Students and faculty identify real-life needs in the hospital and develop conceptual solutions to those needs.

“When we talk about innovation, there’s technology that comes into play, which our strong engineering program brings in. But then innovation is not complete unless it serves a need and people adopt the product. Business finds that need, finds the niche, helps bring it to people who need that technology the most. And that is what innovation is. Without business, it’s just an invention. Business is what makes it innovation.”

Ravi Mehta

Associate Professor of Business Administration, Associate Head of Business Administration, Josef and Margot Lakonishok Faculty Fellow

Mehta coordinates a capstone project that gives iMBA students the opportunity to work directly with physician-innovators from the Carle Illinois program. Together, along with engineering students, these teams identify a need, develop a prototype, devise a business plan, and more. Other Gies students also consult through the Magelli Office of Experiential Learning.

Shah and Mehta both serve as associate professors of Biomedical and Translational Sciences in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine in addition to their Gies Business roles.

In the future, Gies Business will partner with others on campus to offer a Healthcare Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship certificate.

$50M+ donated by alumni and friends, including a generous naming gift from Steven S. Wymer

Growing and innovating for the future of business

On April 14, we broke ground on an exciting new building – Steven S. Wymer Hall. This state-of-the-art facility, set to open in 2025, will help us in our effort to shape purposeful leaders through life-changing access to education, research, and innovation.

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Supporting Gies and the University of Illinois is a team game. And much like in life, a lot more can be done when we work together. I’m investing in the vision that Dean Brown and the College’s leadership have laid out, and I hope it can be an example for others.”

Steven S. Wymer (ACCY ’85)

Building Features

~100,000 square feet

200 seat auditorium, plus other classrooms

5 studios for online learning

2 sound stages

6 control booths

18 meeting and collaborative spaces

84 office spaces

Celebrating 5 years as Gies College of Business

This past year was filled with celebrations. In the fall, we commemorated the fifth anniversary of Larry and Beth Gies’ generous $150 million naming gift for the College.

“The investment is, and always will be, about the students here and what we can become together – the greatest business school on earth, where purposeful leaders get the tools to pursue their passion to make the world a better place.”

Larry Gies (ACCY ’88)

©LMN Architects

Crafting unique opportunities for alumni to make a difference

There are so many ways for alumni to engage beyond monetary donations – experiential learning, speaking engagements, guest panels, employee recruiting, résumé reviews, and much more. Here are just a few of the many impactful examples from this past year.

Gies grad, entrepreneur gives back to students through experiential learning

Jennifer Chan earned a bachelor’s (2015) and master’s (2016) in accounting during her time with Gies Business, and in 2019, she launched a business selling banana sorbet pops as a healthier alternative to ice cream.

She not only credits the College for teaching her the business principles that helped her found her company, Banato, but she also returns to the College often to work with students through experiential learning as a way to give back.

Alumni can find more information about making an impact at

“I think it’s my responsibility to help the students who are trying to get the experiences they need. One philosophy that I always teach the students that I work with in the experiential learning program is that they always need to give back, and that’s just one of my philosophies as I grow my business, that no matter how small I am, I think there is something that we can do to help others.”

Jennifer Chan (ACCY ’15, MAS ’16) Banato Founder

65+ alumni speakers in classrooms*

100+

Alumni help host Mental Health Summit

In March, the Golder Academies in the Department of Finance hosted the It’s Time to Talk: Drew Miller Mental Health Summit to help prepare students for the stress they may face in their future careers. Alumni returned to campus to lead breakout sessions and offer advice they’ve learned early in their finance careers.

Gies juniors and seniors learned about job stress, building an identity outside of work, recognizing distress, and knowing where to turn for help.

The event was hosted in partnership with the DRM Foundation, an organization founded in memory of Drew R. Miller. The Indiana University graduate worked in finance and, sadly, died by suicide at age 25.

Find mental health resources on and off campus at wellness.illinois.edu.

Putting coursework into action – and returning to the classroom

This spring, Josh Kirby (FIN ’19) returned to the Entrepreneurship through Acquisition class four years after taking it himself to share how he lived out what he learned –acquiring a business in 2020.

The owner, president, and CEO of Guardian Wealth Management talked about what it meant to hear from alumni when he was a student.

“I feel very appreciative that there are a lot of people who go out and achieve success based on what they’ve learned here and their relationships that they’ve made here. And they don’t forget to give credit to where they launched from.”

Magelli Office projects sponsored by alumni

*Coordinated through the Offices of Advancement and Career & Professional Development. Faculty may coordinate additional speaking engagements.