2010 Chicago Financial Institutions Trip

Oh the places you'll go...

Up early in the morning on the Fourth of March, the EIU van headed north from the south Coleman parking lot at precisely 5:58 a.m. Gotta milk that per diem for all it's worth! Even Dr. Mason managed to be on time for the departure. (You 2009 Trip attendees need not comment!)

Our first visit was a Walgreen's Headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, a FAR northern suburb of Chicago – north of O'Hare. (We really DO need to leave Eastern that early in the morning). There we were met by EIU Econ alumnus (BA, MA 1993?) John Baronello. John heads a team within Walgreens that advises their top executives regarding new store location, advertising expenditures, product placement within stores, and so forth. He is doing well and continues to be generous supporter of the Chicago trip (he was on a trip during his years at Eastern).

From Deerfield, we headed to the Citigroup building in Elk Grove Village. Dr. Mason finally came to realize that there is traffic on the Chicago highways and by-ways, and that even though MapQuest says you can get from the northern suburbs to the Argonne Labs in Lemont in 45 minutes, in ain't necessarily so!! So rather than fight the traffic back into the city, we stayed north to visit another EIU Econ alumnus and Chicago trip attendee, Bob Buehler. Persons wishing to saucy stories of Bob's mis-spent youth in Charleston may approach Professor Nordin. Now a respected and respectable member of the financial market industry, Bob took his time to talk to the students about the do's and don'ts of interviewing, of finding a job in a down market. Bob went so far as to establish an informal network of EIU alums to mentor this year's set of students. An offer they will surely come to value highly in the coming months.

Early Friday morning found us at the Thompson Building, a.k.a., the State of Illinois Building, at Randolph and Clark, and in the office of Mr. Stanley Luboff. Mr. Luboff coordinates financing from the State of Illinois and the federal government to small businesses throughout the state in his duties for the Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. He had MANY interesting things to say about our former governor, and the recent past and current states of our national financial institutions. Mr. Luboff had been a high-level executive with the Bank of America when it was not yet too big to fail before Nation's Bank took over the San Francisco based bank.

And speaking of San Francisco, HOW ‘BOUT DEM GIANTS!!!! Best record in baseball!

A quick mid-day lunch and we found ourselves on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, hosted by Jim Brandolino and John Beguin. Misters Brandolino and Beguin will be guest speakers on campus next Thursday, 6:30 pm, in the Lumpkin Auditorium. We hope to pack the place for them. Students were told of the inner workings of the Board of Trade, given a quick lesson in the "open-outcry" method of buying and selling, and forced to participate in a mock trading session. I think SOMEBODY still owes me 50 contracts of Euro-bonds!

From the Board of Trade, we walked the long walk to the Chicago Federal Reserve. Okay, it's right across Jackson from the BOT. There, a newly hired associate economist, fresh out of the University of Santa Clara (Dr. Mason's alma mater!), spoke to us about what such a young person with a Bachelor's degree in Economics does for the Chicago Fed.

Later that evening, we had a successful alumni reception at Reza's Restaurant, at which several Chicago area alums and Charleston based faculty and emeriti were in attendance.

All in all, a highly successful trip. Dr. Mason wishes to express his thanks to the Dean for her support of this program and to the students, upon whom the success of any of these trips truly rests. Let's do it again next year!!

Last updated: Wednesday 05th of May 2010 03:21:54 PM