In the first week at Booth, when meeting people for the
first time, the norm is to mention where you come from and what you’re looking
to recruit into, just to build a base for conversations. Suffice it to say that
my introduction (which contained the key phrases “I plan to go back to India
after graduation” and “While at Booth, I’m looking to work on my own startup as
a full-time role”) attracted a few second looks of a particular kind. But then,
these were followed immediately by “Oh, you know what? I know a couple of
people who are doing something like that, let me introduce you to them.”
This feeling of community from the first week is what has defined my time at Booth as one of those hopeful entrepreneurs.
Last week, I heard from some of the heavy hitters in PE on just
that question at Booth’s 19th Annual Private Equity Conference. Hosted
by the Private Equity Group (PEG) and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship
and Innovation, Booth welcomed more than 400 industry professionals to the event,
including many alums in private equity. Taking place in downtown Chicago’s
Magnificent Mile, the conference, titled “Investment Thesis Evolution: Growth
to Buyout,” aimed to explore how firms are specializing and segmenting
themselves to differentiate within an increasingly competitive industry.
Chicago Booth is an institution that encourages its students to empirically explore hypotheses by taking a data-driven and multidisciplinary approach to marketing. As a career switcher and a Kilts Marketing Fellow, I was able to apply this culture to my first experiential learning opportunity as part of the 2019 Kilts Center for Marketing Case Competition.
The University of Chicago has been the home of groundbreaking economics research for decades. The school boasts several Nobel-prize winning professors, two of whom are currently active members of Chicago Booth faculty—Eugene Fama and Richard Thaler. In addition, the school has been a staunch advocate for free speech and has constantly empowered students to ask tough questions. Such a rich culture and history makes the school the center of active debate on pressing issues related to economics and beyond. To carry this tradition forward, the school hosted Professor Abhijit Banerjee, the 2019 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics to discuss whether or not “Economics Can Save the World.”
Christina Hachikian is the executive director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, Chicago Booth’s research center for people committed to helping solve complex social and environmental problems. The Rustandy Center helps students and alumni gain hands-on experience in the social sector. The center also jump-starts nonprofit and for-profit ventures with social missions, advances social sector research and partnerships worldwide, supports an innovative curriculum, and convenes the world’s leading business, nonprofit, and policy minds at events in Chicago, London, Hong Kong, and beyond. Christina was recently named one of Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 leaders for her work leading the Rustandy Center, and I got a chance to sit down with her to learn about the work she leads at Rustandy, and the growing role of social impact within the Booth community.
