The Entrepreneur-in-Residence program provides mentorship and coaching to University of Chicago Booth students. Successful Chicago-based entrepreneurs are available to meet throughout the academic year, and have provided key insight and mentorship to dozens of companies. We also host regular small group sessions and workshops with the EIRs over breakfast and lunch.
Mus Chagal has been involved in international trade acting as a bridge between American companies and suppliers from Turkey and Israel since 2002. He founded CWW/Kudox NA, a private label manufacturer and supplier of radiant heat and building products & materials to retailers like Home and wholesalers like Wolseley-Ferguson. Chagal started his entrepreneurial career at FastWeb, a technology start-up, as the senior vice president of sales and business development. FastWeb became the destination site and search engine for college bound students looking for scholarship, and the prominent one-to-one marketing & customer acquisition platform for companies targeting the youth market (acquiredby TMP Worldwide). After receiving his MBA from University of Chicago Booth, Chagal was recruited by Booz Allen & Hamilton and helped launch their office in Istanbul. Chagal joined Ameritech Executive Development Program after college and held several senior corporate and operating positions with increasing responsibilities for a decade.
Chagal is an Entrepreneur-In-Residence and Faculty Coach at University of Chicago Booth Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Chagal has been a judge-mentor for the New Venture Challenge for over a decade. Chagal is the chairman of the board of directors of UICO, a venture backed company with proprietary technology that enables touchscreens to work under direct exposure to water, liquids, and through gloves. He is active in the solar sector and is an operating advisor to CivicSolar, leading on-line solar equipment distributorin USA.
Mus Chagal was born and raised in Cyprus and came to the USA on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1984. Chagal was admitted to the Lincoln Academy in 1988 as a Student Laureate. The Lincoln Academy elects several Laureates each year to the Order of Lincoln, the highest award given by the State of Illinois. Chagal is passionate about soccer and has coached AYSO for 14 years. He lives in Lincoln Park with his wife and two sons.
As an Executive in Residence at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Ms. Harris advises startups on all aspects of marketing and communications. In addition she teaches seminars on the press, content, social media and television. Prior to joining Polsky, she was vice president of marketing at real estate private equity firm Origin Investments, where she helped the firm raise more than $70 million and launch its online investing platform. Prior to that she capped her 15-year journalism career as a Pulitzer Prize-nominated business columnist at the Chicago Tribune.
Alex Hodgkin, MBA ’14, has spent the bulk of his career in investment banking and entrepreneurship. He has worked at Salomon Smith Barney and Headwaters MB. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Intrinsic, a financial services firm providing valuation opinions and transaction advisory services to venture- and private equity-backed companies and high net worth individuals.
Chris has been a private equity investor for 23 years and is the general partner of CJM Ventures, a private equity firm focused on buyouts, growth equity and venture capital investments in companies located near Chicago. In 2011, Chris retired as a managing director from Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), where he co-headed their basic industries practice for the last five years of his 12-year career there.
Mark Tebbe is the founder of several start-ups, including two NASDAQ-listed companies: Lante and Answers Corp. He was also the former operating executive at Lake Capital. In addition to being an EIR at the Polsky Center, Mark teaches the Entrepreneurial Discovery and New Venture Challenge classes at Chicago Booth as well as serves as the Chairman of ChicagoNEXT, the City’s economic development organization for technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Guy Turner, MBA ’10, cofounded Hyde Park Venture Partners in 2011 from Boston Consulting Group, where he focused on corporate strategy across a variety of industries. He spent his early career as a mechanical engineer with Raytheon and General Electric.
Kim Vender Moffat has spent the majority of the past two decades as a private equity investor, board member and advisor to early-stage, small and middle market- growth companies. Most recently, she was a partner at Sterling Partners, a small-middle market firm based in Chicago, where she focused on healthcare and education services companies. During part of her time at Sterling, she led the Firm’s Investor Relations, Business Development and Firm Strategy functions. Kim also worked at McKinsey & Co. as a management consultant after graduate school prior to returning to Sterling.