In our latest issue ofKaizen we feature an interview with Chan Luu, CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles.
Also featured in Kaizen are: student essay contest winners Farzaneh Farhangi, Kelly Foster, and Rebecca Robinson; Extreme Entrepreneurship Day; filmmaker Jeffrey Van Davis‘s discussion panel for his film Only A God Can Save Us; and guest speakers Douglas Den Uyl, who visited us from Indianapolis, and Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, who visited us from Argentina.
A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Ms. Chan Luu.
If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.
Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s Executive Director, talks with Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, co-founders of Bases Foundation, on the political and economic climate in Argentina.
The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship welcomes Phyllis Johnson to Rockford College this Thursday, October 6, from 11 am to 12:15 pm, in Scarborough 208. Ms. Johnson will give a talk entitled “Making a Living While Making a Difference.”
Phyllis Johnson is co-founder and president of the Rockford-based BD Imports, a supplier of exceptional quality specialty grade coffees and owner of Evolution Coffee. The company imports un-roasted coffee from sustainable sources in coffee producing countries and markets to roaster retailers and wholesalers located in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan. BD Imports has helped to propel Phyllis as a champion of women and women in coffee.
All members of the campus community are welcome to attend.
Francesco Clark is founder and CEO of Clark’s Botanicals, based in Bronxville, New York. At age 24, he became paralyzed from the neck down after a swimming pool accident. Some physicians thought he would never move or breathe without assistance again. But with great effort over several years, Mr. Clark made strong progress and, given his physical-therapy experiences, developed an award-winning line of skin-care products that became Clark’s Botanicals, now sold in Europe, Asia, and the United States. We met with Mr. Clark in New York to discuss coming back from tragedy, what it takes to fight against overwhelming odds, and entrepreneurship as an option for people with disabilities and special challenges.
Kaizen: Where did you grow up?
Clark: I grew up in Italy — in Bologna — for seven years and then we moved to New York. Since sixth grade, I grew up just outside of New York City in Westchester.
Kaizen: When you were a teenager, what were you thinking your likely career would be?
Clark: My original career path was to be become a diplomat. So I went to Baltimore and studied at Johns Hopkins. I double majored in International Relations and Romance Languages. I liked that because it gave me kind of a wide funnel, a wide array of options to go into. I took the Foreign Service Exam and I passed, and it gave me the option in going into that aspect, or business, or law. But in reality, I didn’t really know what I wanted; I was just curious. I love learning and I’m still just as curious as I was before about that. And then I just kind of started working after I graduated.
THE APPLE PUSHERS, narrated by actor Edward Norton and underwritten by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, is the latest film from writer/director and Kaizen interviewee Mary Mazzio. The film follows immigrant street cart vendors who are rolling fresh fruits and vegetables into the inner cities of New York (where finding a fresh ripe red apple can be a serious challenge.) These pushcart vendors (who all have immigrated here from all parts of the world for different reasons and who have sacrificed so much to come to this country (near death crossing the Mexican border, as an example) — are now part of a new experiment in New York to help solve the obesity crisis in the inner city. COMING SOON
McGill Original Films, a local video production company, created a short video about the recent Extreme Entrepreneurship event at Rock Valley College. CEE’s Executive Director, Dr. Stephen Hicks, was on a discussion panel at the event, and makes an appearance in the video below.
Jack Stack is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of SRC Holdings Corporation, an award-winning, employee-owned organization based in Springfield, Missouri. Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation and its 22 subsidiaries provide a wide range of products and services, including engine remanufacturing, packing and distribution, business consulting and banking. SRC employs 1,600 people and generates annual revenues of about $400 million.
Kaizen: Where did you grow up?
Stack: I was born in Chicago in 1948. My father bought a house in Elmhurst, Illinois, and I lived in Elmhurst from the time that I was about three years old to about 30. Then I was transferred to Springfield, Missouri, where I’ve spent the last 31 years of my life.
Kaizen: It sounds like you were a wild card as a youth—you were kicked out of college and seminary and fired from a job at General Motors?
Professor Donna Matias of the University of San Diego School of Law describes some of the regulatory obstacles that entrepreneurs — especially those with low income —face:
Eduardo Marty is the Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina, an educational outreach program. Students in JA are taught how to prepare a business plan and raise funds. Approximately 50,000 students per year across Argentina participate. Marty has also held academic posts as professor at the University Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, and the University of Buenos Aires. He was the host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics. We met with Mr. Marty in Buenos Aires to talk about his business education programs for young people and the state of entrepreneurship in South America.
. Kaizen:Where did you grow up in Argentina?
Marty: In Buenos Aires. I went to elementary and high school here and the University too.
Kaizen: Before university, what was your education like?
Marty: Well, I went to school called National Buenos Aires. That’s the oldest high school in Buenos Aires, created in 1770. It’s a public school, but it’s a very prestigious one. It was the first school in Buenos Aires. To enter, you need to pass a very tough test once you finish elementary school. From five students submitting and applying—they accept just one. Our education is divided into elementary school and then secondary school. When I was in sixth grade I tried to pass the exam and I did it, so I was one year younger than the rest.
The Jewish community attends that school a lot. It is a very intellectual community here in Buenos Aires. By the way, you know that after New York Buenos Aires has the second largest Jewish community in the hemisphere.
In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Eduardo Marty, Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina and former host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics.
Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Kathleen Simmert, Nathaniel Branch, and Amelia Franceso, and guest speaker Nimish Adhia.
A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. Marty.
If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.
In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Chan Luu, CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles.
