Christina Hachikian

Biography

Christina Hachikian is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Strategic Management at Chicago Booth, and the Founder of Hatch Gemini.

Hachikian is a fractional executive working with both nonprofit and for-profit to deliver results and drive social change, as well as a professor at Chicago Booth translating her work in the field for the next generation of business leaders working in the social impact sector.

Hachikian specializes in working hand in hand with leadership teams in times of transition and growth, leveraging her background in finance, entrepreneurship, and academia. She launched her consultancy in 2021 drawing upon more than 25 years of experience working in dynamic social impact environments. As a recognized thought leader, she has presented to audiences across the globe, taught classes at a world-class business school, and was recognized in Crain's Chicago List of 40 under 40 in 2019.

Hachikian’s drive comes from a deep-seated belief in the power of social ventures to rectify the systems that negatively affect people’s lives. Her greatest professional fulfillment comes from engineering social impact ideas into viable business models. At the core, she is an operational leader who consistently moves ambiguous objectives to tangible results as evidenced during her career at the intersection of social entrepreneurship, academia, and commercial banking.

Past Experience

Prior to her current work as a fractional executive, board member, and professor, Hachikian was the founding executive director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In that role, Hachikian led the center’s global work as the hub for people solving complex social and environmental problems. Under her leadership, the center became an integral part of the university’s social impact ecosystem and was a force for embedding social impact at Booth. Operationally, she built an integrated team of more than 25 people in Chicago, Hong Kong, and London and was instrumental in building the center’s support base, including a more than $50 million endowment and expendable funding of $1M+ annually.

Prior to joining Booth, she was vice president and head of investor relations and corporate development for Cole Taylor Bank. Prior to Cole Taylor, Hachikian was an assistant vice president at ShoreBank (now Urban Partnership Bank), a triple-bottom line community development bank. There she was responsible for managing projects including growth strategy, capital raising initiatives, and operational efficiencies.

Hachikian speaks on social entrepreneurship and innovation globally, on topics including the evolution of the social sector with an eye towards global trends, as well as how social impact is evolving at business schools. She has contributed substantially to the education and workforce development sectors. She sits on the board of AutonomyWorks, a for-profit business services firm employing adults with autism, at which she serves as the company's social benefit director under benefit corporation status. In 2020, Hachikian was appointed to the Governor’s Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding, and was a 2017 McCormick Foundation Executive Fellow, the Erikson Institute’s leadership program for the advancement of access to quality early education. She has served on a variety of other committees and boards, including the City of Chicago Office of the Mayor’s Early Childhood Workforce Committee and UChicago Impact, the implementation arm of the Urban Education Institute at the University of Chicago.

Hachikian holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with a focus on strategic management and managerial and organizational behavior. She also earned an AB in public policy from the University of Chicago.

Academic Areas

• Entrepreneurship
• Strategy and Leadership