Couples Find Their Soul Mates at Chicago Booth

How they met:
Drew and Lindsay Hoffman were in the same cohort—Harper. Drew recalls, “We had seen each other around, but we first hit it off on the cohort trolley ride early in the first quarter of first year. We got to know each other over our shared love of omelets before class and preparing for interviews at Kovler Café.”

 Favorite date spot:
“TNDC...just kidding! We loved exploring the city...so we didn’t have a go-to spot, per se, but some of our favorites were Green Street Smoked Meats, Purple Pig, and the West Loop in general,” said Drew.

Best shared Booth memory:
“We loved to go sailing on Lake Michigan while we were in school,” Lindsay said. “One weekend we organized a sailing outing with two boats of about 30 of our friends captained by two of our classmates. We were out there for hours, extended the time of our boat rentals twice. At one point we tied our two boats together to stop while Drew and a few other guys put on wetsuits they found on board and jumped into the water. The temperature was probably 50 degrees and they got out quickly—which was hilarious. We had an amazing time!”

How Booth impacted their lives:
Lindsay said, “We came away from Booth with a lot of shared friendships, so when we’re with our classmates reminiscing about times at Booth, it’s fantastic that we can share those memories together. Drew and I also joke that our baby, Quinn, is honing her inner Booth by questioning everything!”

How they support Booth:
Lindsay serves on the board of the Alumni Club of San Francisco and the class reunion committee. Drew is also a big supporter, “I advocate for the school when friends are asking where they should consider. I recommend candidates I think would make great students and members of the alumni network. I also make a point to build my Booth-based network at work and actively participate in recruiting current Booth students to my firm.”

Current employer and position:
Drew is project leader at BCG and Lindsay is business development senior manager at BlueVine.

How they met:
“We met during student orientation at Second City,” David said. “Groups from each of our dorms attended, and we happened to be sitting next to each other. That continues to be one of our favorite memories. Some of those we were with that night continue to be dear friends.  Also, all three of our adult children are big sketch comedy fans, and we frequently go to Second City as a now extended family when they visit Chicago.”

Favorite date spot:
Judy said, “Our first date was at the old Edwardo’s Pizza, but our favorite local spot was Medici on 57 Street.  A few years ago, we drove down to Hyde Park for Valentines’ Day, took a picture at Edwardo’s, and then had a great dinner at Medici.”

How Booth impacted their lives:
Both were co-chairs of their 30th Booth Reunion five years ago and had not been back on campus since graduation. “We found that many of the relationships we built back in school were still there, and were just as strong. This was particularly meaningful to me, as I was relaunching after taking some time off,” Judy said. “One of the great things about how Booth has evolved is its recognition and emphasis on how a Booth education and network can be applied to the non-profit world every bit as much as in business. We have both seen Booth change along with us.”

Current employer and position:
David is senior vice president and portfolio manager at Ariel Investments and Judy, along with Gayle Haller ’87, is the co-founder and director of Booth Alumni Nonprofit Consultants (BANC), where Booth alumni do pro bono consulting projects to help Chicago’s nonprofits fulfill their goals. 

How they support Booth:
The couple supports the school with both their time and dollars. In addition to BANC, Judy is on the advisory board of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. She also gives a talk, ‘What I Know Now', for women at Booth Reunions. David has spoken with students on campus about his investment strategy and careers in the industry. Most of their financial support in recent years has gone to the Rustandy Center.

How they met:
“We met on our Random Walk to Machu Picchu! Due to an odd number of men and women, we ended up sharing a tent on our first night of the hike…but not so fast, we actually didn’t start dating until just before graduation our second year,” said Leigh.

Favorite date spot:
"Since we met at the end of our time at Chicago Booth, we didn't really have a favorite date spot. But we started brewing our own beer a few years ago when our twins were born (we used to play a lot of golf; now we needed a homebound hobby). Our current favorite date spot is a place called State of Mind in Los Altos, CA. It has a great set of rotating taps and there is always something new and delish to try,” said Leigh.

Best shared Booth memory:
The couple agreed, “It’s hard to top Machu Picchu. In addition to meeting each other, we both made some of our best friends on that trip and had the majority of the Peru Crew at our wedding many years later.”

How Booth impacted their lives:
Their common Booth experience started before the couple even arrived on campus. Booth is in their family—Leigh’s mom, Alison Winter, is class of 1975, and Justin’s sister, Julia Murphy, is class of 2002. “Even now, out here in the Bay Area, our social circle is largely Chicago-based, as more and more friends have migrated out to the West Coast. We love the Booth community,” Leigh said.

Current employer and position:
Justin is senior director of financial planning and analysis at Bloom Energy and Leigh is director of product marketing and marketing programs at Liquid Robotics.

How they support the school:
“Supporting Chicago Booth (with both our time and money) is very important to us. Leigh is currently serving as president of the Chicago Booth Alumni Club of San Francisco, and we never miss a reunion,” Justin said.

How they met:
TK and Tiffany met at the University of Chicago, when Tiffany was a freshman and TK was a sophomore. “We were in Hutchinson Commons, and I was working on a math problem to identify a function that was nowhere continuous and nowhere differentiable. I had a hunch that it would have to be something around alternating points between rational and irrational numbers but didn't know how to specify it. TK happened to be sitting at the same table during lunch when I queried the table, and came up with the Dirichlet Function - and that is how we met,” Tiffany wrote.

Favorite date spot:
“We went to Home Bistro quite a bit for dinner. It was a place we discovered in college, cozy and with good food and in a super fun neighborhood. Walking around Belmont was always fun. We also really love classical music, so we went to the CSO frequently. At Booth, we would go to Eataly fairly often to pick up ingredients for home cooking, or get recommendations for a cheese and cold cuts platter to have some friends over for the evening,” Tiffany said.

Best shared Booth memory:
“We shared our honeymoon with 16 other people on our Random Walk in Turkey right before school started. This was the best way to dive right into the business school experience with our new best friends,” Tiffany said.

How Booth impacted their lives:
“We now have the same problem solving structure and language due to our common experience at Booth. It's not unusual to find us discussing issues we are trying to solve at work and drawing parallels with things we learned in school, or pointing each other to relevant people or resources. It's been very exciting to have shared an intellectually rigorous experience such that we are unafraid to take on new challenges even in completely unfamiliar territory (covering a new sector or solving problems with a lack of information or with ambiguous terms). Challenging ourselves at Chicago Booth has given us the confidence and planning skills required to do this in everyday life as well,” Tiffany said.

Current employer and position:
TK is vice president of investment banking at JPMorgan Chase and Tiffany is strategy and operations lead for South East Asia for Google Cloud. 

How they support Booth:
“We want other people in the school to have the same opportunities we had, so besides giving regularly, we also help with admissions interviews for the College and Booth, and often follow up with interviewees with any questions they have about the school experience or recruiting before graduation. We are also active participants in school initiatives (Chicago Booth Angel's Network in Singapore) and try to stay in touch with school alumni within our professional organizations,” Tiffany said.