Research and Teaching Fellows
The Center for SEV Research and Teaching Fellowships
The SEV Fellowship programs provides a way for the Center to engage its constituents as proscribed by Tenet 9 of the Return Driven Strategy framework “Engage Others”. The SEV Research Fellows and Teaching Fellows are a select group of highly motivated SEV alumni volunteers who work with the professors in the Center on research and participate in our SEV courses, thereby continuing learning and participating in teaching and sharing of knowledge.
Center for SEV Research Fellows
Tim Manning
Research Fellow 2011-2012
Tim Manning is working on case study research with Dr. Frigo on high performance companies including USAA. He completed his studies in the Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation at DePaul and continues his work with the Center as a Research Fellow. Tim served for 5 years as an Officer in the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a Mechanized Combat Engineer. He served two year long deployments to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom conducting engineering related infrastructural analysis and security missions. Tim has also worked as an Engineering Supervisor for Covidien where he managed large scale facility infrastructural improvement projects for a 500,000 sq ft. injection molding facility. In addition, he has been a Buyer/Planner facilitating the operational planning of manufacturing operations and the procurement of commodity based raw materials. Tim is currently a Senior Planner at Covidien. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a MBA from DePaul University.
Russell Gottesman
Teaching Fellow Summer 2011
Russell Gottesman is founder of Commuter Advertising (www.commuter-advertising.com), the first and exclusive provider of location and timed based audio sponsorship messages that play on public transportation vehicles. Russ oversees new market development and building the Commuter Advertising sales teams in each market. Commuter Advertising operates nine advertising contracts in seven cities and is in the process of expanding domestically and internationally. The company has been featured in the NY Times, Mass Transit Magazine, Passenger Transport, the Dayton Business Journal and a number of online publications.
Prior to founding Commuter Advertising, Russ managed offices at Westwood One and CBS Radio in Chicago. He won the Soin Award for Innovation as well as two business plan competitions at DePaul University and the University of Dayton. He has an MBA at DePaul University with a double concentration in Strategy, Valuation and Execution and Entrepreneurship. Russ also sits on the advisory board of the University of Dayton's Crotty School of Entrepreneurship.
Amy Marie Frigo
Research Fellow - Summer 2011
Amy works on research relating to leading practices in Strategic Risk Managment and ERM. She received her Bachelor of Science in Finance (with Honors) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May 2011 and completed the Strategic Risk Management seminar course in the DePaul Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation at DePaul in June 2011. She joins Ernst & Young in August 2011 in Advisory Services.
John Wesley
Research Fellow 2011
John is a Research Fellow at the SEV center, assisting Dr.Mark L. Frigo and Professor Richard J. Anderson. Prior to starting his MBA program in 2011, John worked as an Instructional Designer with Acumen Business Processes, offering consulting services on Training & Development. Prior to joining Acumen, John worked as a Content Developer with Tata Interactive Systems in 2004, and was involved with content design and development for multinational companies in North America and Europe. He holds an Electronics Engineering degree from Bharathiar University, India. John is passionate about Corporate Social Responsibility programs and runs a charity called Helping Hands, which helps underprivileged kids in the South of India, with books and supplies.
Gergana Gencheva,
Research Fellow 2011
Gergana is working on several research projects in the Center. She is currently engaged in the upcoming DePaul University Forum on COSO with Dr. Mark L. Frigo and Richard J. Anderson. Gergana is working as a Graduate Research Assistant at the School of Accountancy and MIS at DePaul University and is serving on the Kellstadt Student Advisory Board. She holds a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Sofia in Bulgaria and is pursuing her MBA in Strategy, Execution and Valuation and Accounting from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University. In 2010 Gergana was the President of Graduate Women in Business at the KGSB at DePaul and was awarded with the Diversity MBA Magazine's Outstanding Graduate MBA Student Leaders Award.
Andrew H. Cubria Jr.
Research Fellow Summer/Fall 2010
Andrew Cubria began his professional career working as an analyst at Hutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co (HSE), an investment bank that specializes in municipal bonds. At HSE, Mr. Cubria priced, structured, researched and analyzed municipal bonds for state and local governments throughout Illinois. Mr. Cubria was then promoted to a Senior Analyst position at A.C. Advisory, Inc. (A.C. Advisory), a nationally ranked independent municipal financial advisory firm serving several of the most active municipal issuers including the City of New York and Chicago. At A.C. Advisory, Andrew executed over $11 billion of transactions, including fixed and floating rate tax-exempt and taxable debt, derivative products, bank credit facilities and tender offers. Andrew graduated with highest honors from the Barrett Honors College and the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University with an emphasis in Finance in 2006, and is pursuing his MBA in Finance and Strategy, Execution and Valuation from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University.
Michael N. Gardon
Research Fellow Winter/Spring 2010
Michael is working on several research projects in the Center. He has led research on risk reporting roles of Boards of Directors and on new SEC risk reporting requirements. His current project is research supporting an upcoming COSO Thought Paper on the topic of where to start when implementing ERM, written by Dr. Mark L. Frigo and Richard J. Anderson. Michael began his professional career as a commodity futures trader. He is currently using Return Driven Strategy in his consulting role to a startup technology company based in Chandler, AZ. Michael holds a bachelors degree in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is pursuing his MBA in Finance and Strategy, Execution and Valuation from DePaul University.
Elvira Galimova
Research Fellow Winter 2010 - Spring 2011
Elvira worked on several major research projects in the Center. She was engaged in research for an COSO Thought Paper "Embracing ERM: Practical Approaches for Getting Started" (2011) devoted to the topic of where to start when implementing ERM, written by Dr. Mark L. Frigo and Richard J. Anderson. Her additional research projects were dedicated to the developing a case studies using the strategic risk management framework. Elvira started her career as a consultant of information and accounting systems moving later to the commercial credit analyst position in the 5th biggest Russian bank. She worked as a graduate assistant at the School of Accountancy and MIS, DePaul University. She received the 2010 DePaul Helene Ramanauskas-Marconi Prize for outstanding performance. Elvira holds a masters degree in Finance from the Kazan State University (Russia), and completed her MBA in Managerial Accounting and Finance from DePaul University. She joins PricewaterhouseCoopers in July 2011 in Advisory Services.
Michael L. Frigo
Research Fellow (Fall 2009 Strategic Risk Management Lab)
Michael Frigo is working on a stream of research projects in the Strategic Risk Management Lab in the Center for Strategy, Execution, and Valuation. The research led by Richard J. Anderson, Clinical Professor in the Center, focuses on describing leading practices in Strategic Risk Management which is a foundation for effective ERM, GRC and governance. Michael received his Bachelor of Science degree in the Finance Honors program at DePaul University, and his MBA in Finance, Accounting and Strategy, Execution, and Valuation in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. He has professional experience at Deloitte in assurance services; Dresner Companies (where he worked as an intern in investor relations); and Ziegler Companies (a boutique investment bank where he worked with the CEO and executive on corporate strategy using the Return Driven Strategy framework). Michael is an avid weight lifter and holds the rank of 1st Degree Brown Belt in Shotokan Karate.
Fiyaz A Khan
Research Fellow (Fall 2009 Strategic Risk Management Lab)
Fiyaz is a manager at The Northern Trust Company in Corporate & Institutional Services focusing on Private Equity funds and is completing his Masters of Science in Finance (MSF) at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University. He received his Bachelors of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago during which time he served as President of Delta Sigma Pi. Fiyaz began his career with RGL Forensics, gaining exposure to securities litigation against top tier investment banks, retail bankruptcy as well as business valuations and income loss calculations. Fiyaz is currently active with the Golden Key Honors Society, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chicago and has been selected by senior management at Northern Trust to participate in the exclusive Career Vision program, a talent management initiative. Fiyaz and his wife currently reside in Chicago.
Center Teaching Fellows Fall 2009
Thomas M. Walker
Teaching Fellow (Fall 2009 GSB 611 Return Driven Strategy)
Tom Walker is a Section Manager at Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Inc. based in Northbrook, IL. He came to DePaul for advanced studies in the Center for SEV after completing his MBA at Marquette University. Tom’s background is in engineering with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a MBA from Marquette University. He was the first recipient of an Executive Certification in Strategy, Execution, and Valuation from the DePaul Kellstadt MBA program in Chicago. At UL, his team is focused on evaluating and certifying products to comply with UL Safety Standards so that UL is the fastest, highest quality and most customer friendly safety certification organization in the world. A certified Green Belt in Lean Sigma he pioneered an approach utilizing Attribute Agreement Analysis in evaluating the repeatability and reproducibility of technical decisions. His career experience includes project management, quality engineering, teaching classes at UL University, ISO auditing, Lean Sigma DMAIC execution and training, sales, and leading a team of engineers. Tom is the recipient of the 2008 Helene Ramanauskas-Marconi Award for distinguished achievement in Advanced Managerial Accounting Education through the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. Tom is married with two daughters, enjoys reading, personal financial management, fishing and is an avid amateur photographer. He studies Akidio at the Lake County Aikikai and holds the rank of Yonkyu (4th Kyu).
Michael Kohnen
Teaching Fellow (Fall 2009 GSB 611 Return Driven Strategy)
Michael Kohnen is the Team Leader at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). In this capacity, he is responsible for managing and coordinating the strategic direction of the Midwest banking team who is engaged in providing business and consulting services to technology, life science and private equity firms in the Midwest region from its office in Chicago. Previously, he served as First Vice President in the commercial banking group at LaSalle Bank where he managed a portfolio of public and private middle-market companies. He was also an active member of LaSalle Bank’s Commercial Banking Strategic Initiatives Committee from 2002-2005. Prior to his position at LaSalle, Michael served as a senior associate at the Bank of Nova Scotia’s Wholesale Banking group. In this position, he gained fundamental experience dealing in large corporate transactions to Fortune 500 companies located primarily in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He has been involved with several external boards and committees, including his membership with the Finance Oversight Committee at El Valor (a not-for-profit organization located on the southwest side of Chicago). He is also the founding Chairman of the Strategy, Execution, & Valuation Alumni Association at DePaul University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance with a minor in Communication Studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa and completed his M.B.A. at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in autumn 2005 with concentrations in Strategy, Execution, and Valuation and Corporate Finance. Michael was honored as the 2005-2006 recipient of DePaul’s Helene Ramanauskas-Marconi Prize. This recognition is awarded annually to the top student in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. Michael resides in Chicago, Il.