DETROIT BROAD EXECUTIVE FORUM

Broad Executive Forum of Chicago

It’s a big city, and an enormous number of Spartans are doing business there. Chicago is the home of one of the Michigan State University Alumni Association’s (MSUAA) largest regional clubs, and its members say that networking is always on the agenda.

"We have a really active alumni club, and we had organized networking activities in the past... We found that when we had speakers, lots of people came, but when there were no speakers, no one came," says Chicago Broad Business Network Co-Chairman Phil Kuhn (BA Financial Administration ’77), who is also a former president of the MSU Alumni Club of Chicago and the president of Executive Risk Management LLC. Kuhn is also a member of the MSUAA National Board.

Because of the large Broad alumni presence and because of the strong Broad connection within the MSU Alumni Club of Chicago, staff from the Broad School approached a few alumni in 2004 about forming the college’s first Broad Business Network. Kuhn says he jumped at the chance. "We needed meaty topics... We needed to get people to attend that had never come before and add business focused events," he says. "I knew this would be a way to create value for Broad Spartans in Chicago."

So Kuhn, along with co-chair Rich Lytle (MBA Supply Chain Management ’01), started approaching other people to be on the network’s Founders’ Council to get the network off the ground.

Kenneth F. Sommer
2008 Keynote Speaker
"We started by developing a mission statement and a list of goals," Kuhn says. "We then held small information sessions at various places around Chicago and the suburbs. The initial turnout was not what we had hoped for, so we continued brainstorming with a core group and decided to start planning for a large, corporate-sponsored event."

The group hosted the Chicago Broad Executive Forum event in May 2006 with keynote speaker Greg Josefowicz (BA Marketing ’74), then Borders CEO and Broad alumnus. It was attended by nearly 300 Spartans and business leaders. They followed up successfully in 2007 with keynoter Bob Chapek (MBA Marketing '84), president of Walt Disney Studios Worldwide Home Entertainment. "Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and it really helped establish a Broad Business alumni presence in Chicago," Kuhn says.

"I’ve had people say to me, ‘I’ve been seeing events like this for years, but I finally decided to come,’" says Kuhn. "I think it’s great that we can finally give people that added value and touch them consistently."

The group’s next Chicago Broad Executive Forum event is set for May 15, 2008, at The University Club of Chicago. The group’s organizers and volunteers also host 5-6 networking/speaker events per year.