Early Career Achievement Awards 2019 - 2020 Award Recipients

Ita Adebayo 14' 15'

Bachelor of Science in Accounting | Master of Science in Accounting

Ita Adebayo grew up in Chicago, Illinois and attended Illinois State University where he received a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Accounting in 2014 and 2015 respectively. He is a Certified Public Accountant and Level III Chartered Financial Analyst Candidate.

Ita began his career with internships at Crowe Horwath prior to joining full-time as an audit associate. In November 2017, he joined CDW, a Fortune 200 technology sales company, where he held roles in corporate accounting, revenue accounting, and technical accounting. In pursuit of combining his passion for projects and technical accounting, he joined PwC in April, 2019 as part of their Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory (CMAAS) team. CMAAS is a team of professionals that advise clients on complex accounting and financial reporting issues around deals or other transformational events. Ita’s professional affiliations include memberships with the Illinois CPA Society and AICPA.

Outside of his professional career he enjoys movies, basketball, and spending time with friends and family.

Amanda Beers '07

Finance

Amanda Beers is a Relationship Manager at Northern Trust Asset Management in Chicago. She covers not-for-profit and corporate middle market segments across the United States. Prior to relationship management, Amanda was a senior product specialist on the defined contribution team responsible for the development and positioning of investment solutions designed for retirement plan sponsors globally. Previously, Amanda was a consultant with Hewitt Ennis Knupp working with a variety of institutional plan sponsors. She was also responsible for hedge fund manager due diligence and ultimately the positioning of such managers on behalf of her clients.

She is a member of the public policy committee with the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and an executive board member and chair of the Events Committee for the Women Investment Professionals organization of Chicago.

Kyle Burrows '12

Organizational Leadership

Kyle Burrows is a 2012 graduate of Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership. Upon graduation, Kyle began working with Perry Memorial Hospital in Princeton, Illinois, as the Patient Advocate/ Professional Recruiter. In this role, he served as a liaison between patients navigating the healthcare system and the hospital, working to resolve issues and improve the quality of the patient experience.

As Perry’s Professional Recruiter, Kyle successfully recruits physicians, surgeons and non-physician providers to Princeton, a federally-designated medically under-served community, ensuring that patients have access to care, close to home. Kyle’s commitment to ensuring the quality of professional medical services at Perry is evident with his achievement of Fellow of the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment in 2018.

Kyle became Clinic Operations Coordinator in May, 2018, while maintaining his role as Professional Recruiter. In this role, Kyle manages the operations of two Family Medicine clinics, as well as Perry Prompt Care, a certified Rural Health Clinic. He is responsible for recruitment, on-boarding, and retention of Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants for Perry Memorial. He also acts as the hospital’s liaison to, and oversees participation in Perry’s Accountable Care Organization, the Illinois Rural Community Care Organization.

Kyle lives in Princeton, Illinois, with his wife Jessica. He currently serves as the President of the Bureau County Fair Board, is a member of the Princeton Rotary, and frequently attends events of the Princeton Chamber of Commerce, previously serving as a Princeton Chamber of Commerce Ambassador.

Ryan Dunn '08

Finance

Ryan Dunn works at Allstate in the Data, Discovery and Decision Science organization. He is the Director overseeing the Sales Effectiveness team which is comprised of data scientists and business analytics consultants working to improve sale yield across Allstate’s distribution system using analytics.

Ryan is married to Alexa Dunn who he met his senior year at Illinois State University. They have two amazing children, Kendall, 3, and Taran, 1. When work and parenting are not fully taking up his time, he continues to be active playing in a number of recreational volleyball, softball and golf leagues.

Kasey Gandham '13

Professional Sales

Kasey Gandham is the co-founder of Packback. Packback is an education technology startup that enables professors to improve student curiosity through online discussion powered by A.I., all while making it fun, social, and addicting. Over 250,000 students across the United States use Packback as part of their coursework. Packback is an 80 person team in Chicago (up from 25 at the beginning of last year) with investors including Mark Cuban and University Ventures. Kasey founded Packback with his three other co-founders in his junior year of college while at Illinois State University, after starting and growing the professional business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi together. After airing on the ABC-TV show Shark Tank, Packback pivoted away from their initial launch as a textbook company to focus on their current mission of building a more curious generation through facilitating great discussion.

Kasey and his wife Jessica (a co-founder of Packback and 2013 ISU graphic design graduate) are founders of the Chicago-based art and music non-profit label “Play Together” where the profits of their releases benefit afterschool arts programs in Chicago. He also remains active as a musician himself playing across Chicago.

Zach Hazen '15

Business Information Systems

Zach Hazen graduated from ISU in 2015 with a degree in Business Information Systems (BIS). After graduation, he found his niche with iManage, where he is still working today. Zach serves as a Technical Consultant, where he is responsible for providing support for customers and implementation partners who are on-boarding to the iManage Cloud. Prior to this role, he was serving as a Senior Cloud Support Engineer. Zach is a fast rising individual within his company and his profession, and is making his mark in a growing BIS industry.

While at ISU, Zach was an involved student, participating in organizations including BIS Club, Disc Golf Club, and Student Accounting Society. His biggest takeaways from his time at ISU include being hungry for opportunities, trying new things and growing from mistakes, and learning as much as you can from each person or subject you interact with. Zach credits the faculty at the College of Business for helping him start his career with iManage and connecting him with alumni in his field. He continues to help recruit many other Redbirds to his organization after the help he received as a student.

Bernie Heine '08

BS/MPA Accountancy

Bernie Heine is an Assurance Director at PwC. He has 11 years of experience providing assurance services to public and private companies under US GAAP and IFRS, while serving clients primarily in manufacturing space, including clients in the industrial products, semi-conductor and consumer packaging sectors.

Areas of focus include internal controls over financial reporting, financial statement audits, SEC reporting, impairments and segments.

Bernie has specific experience with restatements, identification and remediation of significant deficiencies and material weaknesses and FCPA investigations, as well as providing assurance services supporting acquisitions, dispositions, reorganizations, debt offerings and other transactions. Bernie graduated Summa Cum Laude from ISU in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science/Master of Professional Accountancy. He is a Certified Public Accountant. He started his career at PwC Peoria in 2008 before moving to Singapore with PwC in 2015 on an international assignment. Bernie has been in the PwC Chicago office since 2018.

Outside of work, Bernie enjoys spending time with his wife Kaylee, Illinois State University 2009 graduate, their daughter Eliana and their son, Mason, who they welcomed to the family last month. They enjoy travelling and miss the brevity of international travel from Singapore compared to the United States.

Lisa Martin '10

Accountancy | Finance

Lisa Martin has been a CPA at Heinold Banwart, Ltd a mid-size CPA firm located in East Peoria, IL for nine years. She currently serves as the manager in Audit Services where she trains and supervises audit personnel, serves and supports her client base for accounting and business needs, and manages client attest engagements for a variety of construction and manufacturing businesses as well as non-profit organizations.

She is actively involved in her community and serves on a local board for the Midwest Food Bank nonprofit organization and a Christian high school girls camp. She also serves as a member on the Illinois State University Accounting Advisory Board.

In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family and adventuring in the great outdoors.

Curtis Schatz '08

Professional Sales

Curtis Schatz is a Business Development Specialist for Edward Don & Co. Foodservice, Equipment and Supplies Distribution. With nearly 12 years experience (he was hired out of college and credits the COB for his hiring), Curtis is responsible for foodservice layout design and development, equipment sales, nationwide smallwares distribution programs and overall key account development.

He married his beautiful wife Samantha in 2013, and Samantha is also a Redbird! (Class of 2009). They are the parents to their incredible two-year old Elliott Schatz (who is also a future Redbird)

Anastasia Sotiropoulos '13

Human Resources

Anastasia Sotiropoulos graduated summa cum laude from Illinois State University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Management and with a concentration in Human Resources. After completing her undergraduate career, Anastasia attended DePaul University College of Law where she graduated summa cum laude with a Juris Doctor. During law school, she served on the editorial board of the DePaul Law Review as an editor of Articles, Notes and Comments. Her comment was published in the DePaul Law Review in the summer of 2016.

Anastasia currently is an associate attorney at Holland & Knight and is a member of the firm’s Financial Services Group. She represents lenders, agents, and borrowers in senior secured credit facilities, cash-flow-based financings, first and second lien facilities, and broadly syndicated credit facilities. In addition to her debt finance practice, Anastasia represents privately-held companies in a wide range of industries in connection with mergers and acquisitions, by assisting in the due diligence and preparation of ancillary documentation. She was recently appointed to serve as one of four associates on the Associates Committee for the Chicago office, where she acts as a liaison between the associates and the executive partner of the office.

Due to her strong passion to help others in her community, she provides pro-bono legal services to victims of domestic violence by drafting emergency orders of protection and plenary orders of protection. Additionally, she serves as the secretary on the Associate Board for WINGS Metro, a nonprofit organization that provides temporary housing in the Chicagoland area and counseling to victims of domestic violence to assist them in escaping the cycle of abuse.

Anastasia currently resides in Chicago, Illinois and enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family.

Zak Shah '15

BS/MPA Accountancy

Zak Shah is a Manager at KPMG Chicago in Accounting Advisory Services within the Deal Advisory practice. He is a national subject matter professional for KLT, KPMG’s Leasing Tool for ASC 842 and IFRS 16. He also has experience in on-call technical services, accounting change, and finance integrations. In his time at KPMG he has led a national team based in Chicago, as well as cross-functional trainings and system configurations across the US, Europe, and China. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Illinois.

Outside of professional responsibilities, Zak has become involved in support of raising funds for Ann and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital via completing the Chicago Marathon and Aon Step up For Kids. He most recently ran the Chicago Spring-Half Marathon in May with his Fiancé - the wedding will be this December in Chicago. He currently resides on the North Side of Chicago and is an avid Bears fan who is once again hoping this year is the year. Zak is also the proud older brother of two other Redbird alumni, including one future CPA in attendance today.

Anthony Suggs '04

Marketing

Anthony Suggs is the Senior Vice President of the largest grocery retailer in the Chicagoland area. Anthony worked to create the “Local Is” brand campaign that has blanketed the region on billboards, public transportation and media outlets. During this campaign Anthony also orchestrated a local vendor summit and as a result, Jewel-0sco now carries more local brands than any competitor; thus, increasing sales and visibility for participating vendors. Additionally, with the growth of on-line shopping Anthony worked with his mentor, the late President of Jewel-Osco Doug Cygan, to launch the Jewel-Osco E-Commerce platform including Drive Up & Go and an enhanced partnership with Instacart. The online grocery option has worked to achieve the company’s long-term vision of delivering to customers without losing the brand that is Jewel-Osco.

In the summer of 2017 Jewel-Osco opened their flagship store in Chicago. Through Anthony’s guidance this store boasts an extraordinary food experience. Beyond the standard Jewel-Osco store expectations this store features a full made to order Mongolian Grill, destination cheese shop, expanded hot bar, prime meats, gourmet desserts and a full-service bar “Division on the Rocks.”

Andrew Uhe '10 '16

Entrepreneurship/Small Business Management

Andrew Uhe is a 2016 Graduate of Illinois State University with an MBA. He’s currently a Senior Research Analyst at Heartland Community College, a Professor of Quantitative Analysis for Business at Lincoln College, and Non-Commissioned Officer in charge of Radio Frequency Transmission Systems at the 182nd Airlift Wing in Peoria Illinois.

Since beginning studies at Illinois State University in 2008, Andrew has advanced his career at State Farm starting at the sales call center and moving to the Actuarial Research Analyst role before transitioning to Heartland Community College as a Senior Research Analyst in the Institutional Research department. In 2018, he began teaching Quantitative Analysis for Business at Lincoln College as an adjunct professor. He has been in the Air Force National Guard since 2004, deploying to Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008, and he will be commissioning as a Lieutenant in 2020.

Andrew lives in Bloomington with his wife Samantha and their three children, Maribelle, Calvin, CoraLee, and their dog Loki. He is serving on the Parent Teacher Council at Carlock Elementary as the Unit 5 Citizen’s Advisory Committee liaison between the district and the school.