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Navy Pier to Here | 2005 UIC City & Corporate Award Recipient Profiles

FEATURE STORY (continued) — January/February 2005


2005 Award Recipient Profiles

Corporate Partner LaSalle Bank Corporation

Ensuring Success
LaSalle Bank helps UIC by providing intellectual and financial resources

By Elyse Umlauf-Garneau

Often, when you read about partnerships between Corporate America and educational institutions, those relationships really exist only on paper.

However, LaSalle Bank's relationship with UIC is different. Over the years, LaSalle has supported a wide range of colleges and programs at UIC, including the College of Medicine's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease Annual Fall Event Fund and Digestive and Liver Disease Development Fund; the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs' Tenth Annual Great Cities Winter Forum and Great Cities Initiative Urban Developers Program; and the College of Architecture and the Arts' scholarship benefit.

But perhaps its biggest role has been in the College of Business Administration. LaSalle executives, for example, have helped shape CBA programs to ensure that graduates are educated in what matters in the real world, and that these students are able to march directly from their graduation ceremonies into the business world.

As Marnie Kamensky, interim director of development, CBA, points out, "College campuses tend to be insular, so it's important to look to industries and executives outside the university to ensure that what's being taught in the classroom is relevant and that we're on the right track."

Top LaSalle executives, including M. Hill Hammock, chief operating officer and chief information officer, and Lamont Change, senior vice president and senior banker, Wealth Management Group, have served on the CBA's Business Advisory Council and have helped developed curriculum to prepare students for careers. For instance, CBA's Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies has been ranked as high as third in the nation. Part of that success can be attributed to the vision and leadership of LaSalle executives.

"Hill and Lamont have been extremely important mentors to me in developing our program," comments Gerald Hills, Coleman Chair and executive director of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. "Their input has enabled us to reach loftier goals than we ever would have imagined."

LaSalle has also supported the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, providing it with financial resources and raising awareness of the university among other corporations and entrepreneurs. "Its support of the Hall of Fame puts us in good stead with extremely effective Chicago entrepreneurs who can provide internships and jobs to students," Hills adds.

An important goal of the college is to provide students with hands-on experience and help them find employment. LaSalle hires students for internships and UIC graduates for full-time positions. "Lamont has been totally committed to UIC," says Kamensky. "He has reached out to his colleagues on behalf of the College, and has opened doors for us to many new companies that now recruit our students."

It's equally important that students learn how the abstract business theories they learn in the classroom apply in the corporate arena. To that end, LaSalle executives and employees have served as lecturers and have spoken at UIC's Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization annual conference.

"It's inconceivable that you could have good business graduates without their having substantial prior contact with the business community," says Hills. "LaSalle has been an outstanding citizen in that regard."