Alumni Interview: Robert Doubek
The Washington Post’s architecture critic called the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund “a clipper ship of efficiency.” Part of it was the fact that we were all young. The effort was founded by former junior...
Alumni Interview: Kevin Jackson
When I arrived at Illinois in 1990, a kid out of a tough neighborhood south of Chicago, I had no idea I’d become a research scientist. I was a football player who felt blessed...
Alumni Interview: Karen Layng
The Seventh Circuit Bar Association was founded in 1951. But it had never had a woman president before me, in 2001. If you go up to the ceremonial courtroom in the Dirksen Center, there’s...
Alumni Interview: Dan Petrella
I report on state government and politics. My primary focus is covering the Pritzker administration, especially when the governor appears in public here in Chicago. I always wanted to work at the Tribune. I...
Alumni Interview: Newton Cheng
I believe in the power of health and well-being. Corporations have a special opportunity because healthier employees make the business more successful. I believe if we help people at Google, other companies may follow,...
Alumni Interview: Kerry Joels
Growing up as a child actor in New York, I won a role in the animated movie The Space Explorers. That hooked me on astronomy, so I soon retired from acting and wound up...
Alumni Interview: Bill Geist
I’m very much a Midwesterner, and I think of myself that way. Very practical. Standard. I’d say I’m normal, but I’m actually from Champaign, and Normal is about 50 miles further west. (That’s an...
Alumni Interview: Thomas M. Siebel
The information technology business has grown from virtual nonexistence in 1950 to a $50 billion industry in 1980 to a $3.5 trillion market today. In five to six years, that market will be $9...
Alumni Interview: Temple Grandin
I got my master’s degree in animal science at Arizona State University. I went there to study cows. I had come a long way in my development by then. I didn’t speak until I was...
Alumni Interview: Scott Altman
I always wanted to fly: It was my passion from the time I was 3 years old. I got an appointment to the Air Force Academy. Unfortunately, at the pre-induction physical, they measured my...
