Economics & Strategy Podcast

For a lucky few, purpose and work can come together. Steve Raetzman is one of those lucky few and he earned that privilege through a healthy mix of hard knocks and education. Steve is a 2020 DePaul MBA graduate with a Business Strategy and Decision Making program concentration. He currently serves as a Director of Business Intelligence at Alliant Credit Union and has had long career in finance, leading to this very interesting role. His story arc begins as a baseball player in college, extends through an exhilarating but tumultuous period as a trader on the Chicago Board of Trade, and now is settled into a role where he does work he loves for an organization that serves a purpose he feels good about. Nice work if you can get it!

Meet Madelyn Hawkins, a Double Demon working at the global consulting firm FTI handling cybersecurity crisis communications. This role requires competency and coordination amongst a wide group of internal teams at a time when their client may be navigating the most difficult period ever. Madelyn has a deep well of experience to draw on and is acutely aware of the important role communications plays in a crisis response and the impact on people within the organization itself. She knows that communications should rely only on known facts and that sometimes the context only a consultant can provide can help ease someone's burden. A good day's work, I'd say.

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Dan Clark is a rare triple demon and the very embodiment of DePaul's values. With his Doctorate in Education, he now serves as both Director of Career Services at Driehaus College of Business and faculty member in the Economics Department. Dan is intelligent and curious, kind and considerate, service oriented and genuinely interested in a better world for all. His life reflects our Vincentian mission, and his academic credentials and real-world experience is proof he means it. For example, his doctoral project, called Navigating Knowledge, is a software application that relationally maps subjects and concepts to serve as an interactive learning ecosystem and personalized guide to learning. It's pretty cool and you should listen in.

Betsy Paraszczak has an impressive range of abilities, experience, and interests. She currently serves as a Director at Silverman Consulting where she uses every ounce of her DePaul MBA to help distressed companies rediscover their strengths and thrive. Betsy has worked in healthcare & consulting, is a finance expert and improv enthusiast, and still daydreams of becoming a lawyer. She joins us this month to explain this interesting mix and how it created a very happy and successful woman. Silverman Consulting, it turns out, is the perfect landing spot for someone like Betsy. It provides an environment where she can apply all her abilities to help others when they need it most. My head is still spinning.

You should give it a listen.

Hussain Kazmi is a 2025 DePaul MBA graduate and is as humble as he is determined. He currently serves as Principal Solutions Consultant at Eightfold AI where he has a front row seat at seeing the impact AI is having in today's business operations. He joins us this month to discuss how he got here and deliver some fascinating stories about how his firm is helping usher in a paradigm shift in employment services. He describes how Eightfold's bleeding edge technology transforms the hiring process by tossing aside things like job titles, and keyword matching in favor of innate abilities, hidden skills, and true potential. Eightfold's unique, AI based software gives employers divining rod in their quest for the best candidates.

Listen in to hear how.

Yvonne Renard is an environmental economist with a gift for empirical research and a graduate of DePaul's MS‑EPA program. She specializes in climate risk and resilience at the global environmental services firm Anthesis Group. Yvonne helps clients identify and quantify their material exposure to risks emerging from today's rapidly changing environmental conditions. While the topic can be controversial, she explains how the realities of climate risk are already moving markets and reshaping firm behavior in ways that will keep her work in high demand. In this conversation, Yvonne breaks down her work and why companies are seeking this insight for financial disclosures and mitigation efforts alike. Controversy fades, but markets always win.

Listen in to hear how.

Pablo Martin is an engineer through and through who, after a few career years, decided he needed an MBA to know more about the business side of his work. A well-worn path for career advancement. After a short search, he found DePaul and the Business Strategy & Decision Making Program and hasn't looked back since. Since completing his MBA, he's been fortunate enough to find the perfect role, at the perfect company, and at the exact right time! He works at the very interesting firm, Packsize as Sr. Manager - Solutions Engineering. Packsize has a great business model and an even better story behind them. Pablo's good fortune is the result deciding to better himself, a good decision by a manager and really great timing for the company itself. Give it a listen.

Alicia Hickey is an unapologetically smart, confident, and skilled women from DePaul's Department of Economics MS-EPA program. She joins us this month to talk about how she built a successful career and to give thanks to those who helped her fully embrace her abilities and intelligence. Alicia is currently Director of Commercial Operations, North America, at the European energy giant Uniper and oversees a team charged with managing complex trade operations in the energy markets. Her current position and responsibilities are the result of her choices in education, work experience and the strong women that helped guide her forward.

You have to listen to this one.

This month we welcome Dr Brian Thompson, Clinical Professor of Economics at DePaul, and faculty member in the business strategy and decision making program. As the son of educators, he takes his role seriously and is very focused and intentional in his preparation and classroom goals. In this episode, we discuss the intersection of economics, business, and strategy and how he uses real-world experiences to connect those areas in ways that engage and enlighten his students. He explains how economics, and its study of choices in the face of scarcity, provides tools to consistently make the best available decisions with the resources at hand. It's a masterclass you should not miss.

What can a business strategy education do for your career? Dhruv Kavi is Manager of Client Delivery at the AI consulting firm Quantum Rise and he joins us on the Economics & Strategy Podcast to tell us what it's done for him. He tells us how he went from a task-oriented mindset to thinking three steps ahead. He describes how he applies strategy frameworks to analyze and understand the interactions he encounters at work. Giving him an ability to frame the impact of his projects as part of a larger whole. With that understanding he can now make each project more fruitful, each client engagement more impactful, and his firm more successful. It really does work!

Give it a listen.