Donor Day 2024!

Donor Day 2024

From all of us at Chicago Booth on November 21, 2024, Happy Donor Day!

Today, we celebrate and recognize the incredible generosity of the more than 36,000 alumni who've made an impact on Chicago Booth through their giving. Support from alumni like you is critical to maintaining our top business school status—you are the reason the Chicago Booth community thrives.

We invite you to join the celebration by sharing some of your favorite Booth experiences. Below read through what your fellow alumni have already shared and complete this form to add your own story.

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I give to Chicago Booth because I am deeply grateful for the personal and professional growth the school enabled for me. Even though I feel that I only scratched the surface of what Chicago has to offer, it was an eye-opening and transformational experience. Supporting Booth also allows me to contribute to an institution where top-notch faculty produce world-class research, and where merit-based scholarships open doors for deserving students. Playing my small part in that feels great! —Eric Gross, ’08

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There are so many! Professors Linda Ginzel and George Wu. I took two classes with Professor Ginzel and met Professor Wu through his work with the IMPACT program, of which I'm a 2019 fellow. In regards to classmates....so many connections that I still maintain to this day. Alex Makhotin, Jennifer Sagan and Yasmeen Bano. Carolyn Brewer-Heyse and Baber Abbas are a couple of others. —Felicia Rauls, ’14

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I loved my Chicago Booth experience and am grateful for the education. In order to “pay it forward”, I give monthly. By setting up a recurring gift, I ensure that I support the institution that’s helped me, stay connected with the school, and make a significant gift over time. —Jerome Simmons, ’18

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Studying at Booth was both a career and life changing experience for me and I am forever grateful for the opportunity. The scholarship I received made the education affordable. As such, I wanted to pay it forward to help aspiring students to achieve their goals.—Min Fang, ’07

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As those of you who met him likely are too, I am thankful to have met Merton Miller, whose teaching methodology was to take brilliant concepts and make them fun and easy to understand. I especially remember him assigning the class a project to disprove his theories in the book he was writing. He has influenced our thinking and financial planning for 50 years.

I am also grateful to have met Charles Hogate, ’74 on my first days on campus. He became my husband, primary booster, financial planner, and best friend for 50 wonderful years. —Terry Hogate, ’79

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I have been fortunate to benefit from the invaluable support and mentorship of alumni who have played a pivotal role in shaping my educational and professional journey. Their guidance, insights, and strong sense of community they fostered have had a profound impact on my time here. I aspire to contribute to the vibrant culture of support and collaboration that defines Booth, ensuring that future generations of students can access the same wealth of knowledge, networking opportunities, and mentorship that I have enjoyed. —Nick Deering, ’24

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I cherish my encounter with Professor Harry Davis. Our interaction, brief as it was, took place in 1988 during my interview for the quarter-long London Business School Exchange program. His gentle demeanor and curiosity made me feel valued. His kindness has left an indelible mark on me, and for that, I am grateful. And I was accepted into the program! —Maura Mitchell, ’89

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I met Jeff Metcalf when he was Dean of Athletics (or something like that) and I worked part-time for the department. He made an introduction that led to my summer internship. He was a great guy and cared deeply about students. I'm sure my story about him is one of many. —Chuck Snavely, ’78

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I am deeply grateful for the personal and professional growth the school enabled for me, it was an eye-opening and transformational experience. Supporting Booth allows me to contribute to an institution where top-notch faculty produce world-class research, and where merit based scholarships open doors for deserving students. I hope more and more young generations can be enriched from Booth and someday in the future, they will be able to help more people in the world. Playing my small part in that feels great! —Hannah Yuxia Han, ’21

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As a joint Booth and Harris School of Public Policy grad, I support both schools. I was deeply influenced by Marvin Zonis' class of how nations developed (or "got rich" in Zonis' language). 25 years later, some of these same concepts were extended by Professor James Robinson (who just won the Nobel Prize in Economics) and written up in his collaborative book Why Nations Fail. Chicago's intersection of data driven research and improving social welfare is the "why" in my life. Happy to support these efforts. —David Wells, ’98

Being an Innovation Fund Associate at the Polsky Center and learning from Professor Scott Meadow were the highlight of my MBA experience and the start of my dream career. Thank you Booth!—Enrico Biasiolo, ’14

I am grateful to have met my maid of honor Anu Johns, ’17.  We met in accounting class in the fall of 2015 and I am grateful for our friendship over the years. —Lisa Morocco, ’18

I am grateful for Chicago Booth launching my career in marketing and leadership—and for Harry Davis who selected me to be one of the first LEAD facilitators which was a huge growth opportunity. He modeled curiosity, creativity and kindness which inspired me then and still does now. I try to do my part to pay it forward. I love being part of this community of lifelong learners and participating in experiences as an alum each year. I also feel privileged to be working with Chicago Booth, having created my Mindful Leadership course for executives worldwide. I was inspired to help leaders embrace change, ignite potential and accelerate growth. I didn’t realize it would become such a vital source of continuous learning for me as well. —Stephanie Klein, ’91

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Chicago Booth was a deeply transformational experience for me. It made me realize the joy of digging deeper and being truth seeking in my approach. This has helped me in professional and personal success since graduation. I still apply learnings from Professors Schrager, Davis, Rajan, and Bertrand in my everyday work. Above all, I value the camaraderie I built with my fellow classmates who have become lifelong friends. I contribute to Booth so that others will get the same opportunities I got.—Subbu Palaniappan, ’10

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Booth has positively changed my life in so many ways, and I can genuinely say I would not be where I am today without Booth. In pursuing an international career post Booth, I can attest that Booth's pay-it-forward culture is both global and long-lasting past graduation.—Kallie Parchman, ’19

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My Booth experience enabled me to unlock opportunities I would never had dreamed of, both personal and professional. The quality of the training and relationships formed were amazing. A life changing journey to be passed down to my children and future generations.—Howard Lakougna, ’21

Booth opened my career to opportunities beyond my wildest dreams. But my favorite memory of Chicago Booth was the return of Milton Friedman for a guest lecture. A commemorative T-shirt was made with a picture of Dr. Friedman walking with George Stigler. We see them from behind with the taller Dr. Stigler towering over Dr. Friedman. But their gaze toward each other showed mutual respect and an open mind because what really mattered was their groundbreaking research and ideas.— Sherman Chao, ’79

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As I reflect on my journey, my time at the Chicago Booth School of Business stands out as a transformative chapter that has profoundly shaped my personal and professional growth. Booth's rigorous academic curriculum, emphasis on analytical thinking, coupled with its outstanding program in Finance, Private Equity, and Entrepreneurship provided me with an unparalleled foundation to navigate the complexities of global markets. Thank you, Chicago Booth, for being a cornerstone of my growth, for your enduring commitment to excellence, and for fostering a lifelong connection to a remarkable community of change makers. I carry the Booth spirit with pride and gratitude.—Tim Zhang, ’02

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I was in the Professional Option program which allowed undergrads to complete their BA and MBA in 5 years (my graduation years were '78 & '79). I had the opportunity to work with Professor Henri Theil as a research assistant and computer programmer, and he encouraged me to stay in the Ph.D program at the business school. This I did, and my job as an instructor in econometrics paid the bills. I passed my exams and wrote a thesis proposal, which involved Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the small sample properties of large sample statistical tests. Unfortunately, the small sample properties of the statistical method I proposed turned out to be pretty lousy, and I really didn't think I was cut out for a job in academia. On a lark I decided to apply for a job at the Chicago Board of Trade, and they actually offered me a job, working on the introduction of a newfangled product called options on bond futures! One thing led to another and I had a long and enjoyable career in financial markets, including my final stint at Commonfund in Connecticut. I'm now happily retired with my wife Marilyn of 43 years (we met on campus), three kids, and four grandchildren. Our oldest child Breyten graduated from the College in 2005, and our middle child Jordan lived in Hyde Park while his wife completed her MSW and M.Div at the UofC. Marilyn's dad was the pastor at University Church for many years and my wife and I were married there. He was a UofC grad as well, so we have had three generations go there. We were so happy that Jordan and his wife got married in the same place that we did. We have lots of fond memories of the UofC. The campus is more beautiful than ever and we enjoy visiting there.—Jim Meisner, ’79

Read about the impact of support from Chicago Booth’s donors in the 2023-24 Annual Fund and Alumni Engagement Impact Report.