BENJAMIN J. CIRILL

O, MBA

VISUAL RESUME

ABOUT

I’m a recent MBA graduate with a focus on branding, innovation management and new product development.

I have experience in building relationships, managing people and the overal l structure of business, as you’ll see from the following slides.

Born here

Now I live here

WHILE IN SCHOOL

Loyola Quinlan Net Impact is one of more than 300 chapters globally committed to making positive change through business.

Association of Loyola Entrepreneurs

I like to keep busy

This year-long project reformatted the annual business plan competition to focus squarely on social enterprise: for-profit ventures dedicated to social good. Three student leaders (myself included) set the guidelines, arranged the event and launched the marketing campaign.

Not all who wa nder are l os t

2000-2003

• Downers Grove Reporter

• Liberty Suburban News• Plainfield Enterprise

Out of college, I knew I wanted to write. So I went to work for the local paper, transferred to a different paper after a buyout, then kept on writing for yet another paper.

I spent my days in city council meetings, police stations, school board functions and courtrooms. It was a ground-level view of how the world runs, and a good place to practice relationship-building skills.

2003-2009Journalism was fun, but not my passion. So I left to follow another interest: Music. In December 2003 I joined Guitar Center as a sales associate. I was promoted to department manager, then assistant manager. In 2006 I changed locations and continued on in pure sales for three more years.

Guitar Center is based on an old-style relationship oriented sales strategy. As a result, sales associates end up working with marketing, inventory, and supply chain issues. As a manager, I also dealt with basic HR issues like hiring and scheduling. I went there to learn about the music industry, and ended up learning how to run a business.

2009-2010

I led 4 operations as a crew leader, running teams of 5-20 people. We completed our tasks in a fraction of the expected t ime, despite the challenges of working in a high density area where most people live behind locked gates.

As a recruiter, I administered the Census Exam to hundreds of applicants. I was then chosen as part of an elite team sent to help out another district that was having trouble filling quotas.

2011-PRESENT

After all that, I had management experience from the Census, relationship skil ls from the papers and a top-down business view from Guitar Center. It was time to put that together in a graduate degree, focusing on Entrepreneurship and Marketing.

But mostly I focused on finishing school while

raising this one

In school I had an internship at Plumtree, and I wrote marketing plans for real world clients Gibson’s Steakhouse and Tanzanian Children’s Fund

And then these two

NEXT STEPS

Now that school is over, it’s time to move in a new direction.

I’m focused on brand management and new product development, using the relationship, management and business skil ls I’ve developed over a career.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

CONTACT

Linkedin.com/in/bencirillo

ben.cirillo@gmail.com

773.297.3579

Portfolio/blog at: engineofideas.wordpress.com