John
"Tiny" McLaughlin '02
earned his nickname as an aviator in the U.S. Navy, where
his 6 foot 8 inch frame disqualified him from aircraft with
ejection seats. He flew helicopters on aircraft carriers instead,
serving off the coasts of Iraq, Kuwait and North Korea throughout
the 1990s. He learned how influential a carrier's presence
could be, without ever having to fire a shot.
An
outgoing networker extraordinaire, McLaughlin found his way
to Aon Corp., a Chicago-based, Fortune 500 insurance brokerage
firm, through the not-for-profit Inner City Teaching Corps,
an organization akin to an urban Peace Corps.
After
12 years in the U.S. Navy and a lifetime of Catholic education,
McLaughlin said he wasn't emotionally prepared to work in
the for-profit sector because he felt he had "mission-driven"
work still to do. He worked in an executive role for the teaching
corps, which trained high-potential college graduates to teach
in under-served urban communities, and he ran a charter school
on Chicago's West Side.
McLaughlin,
38, used his networking skills to start a career in the for-profit
sector in Aon's financial services group, focusing on company
directors' and officers' liabilities at a time when Enron
and WorldCom were imploding. He quickly realized that his
strengths lay outside such technical work, and now he is a
"deal guy" who convinces companies to use Aon's
insurance and benefits brokerage services.
He
decided to leave the Navy and pursue an MBA degree at the
Kellogg School because it was more conducive to his wife's
work as a securities lawyer and, as he says, "Traveling
to the world's trouble spots for six months at a time each
year just didn't seem as fun as it once was when I was single."
He
said the 'round-the-clock carrier operations he experienced
in the Navy "were great preparations for working and
going to Kellogg at the same time."He selected Kellogg for his management education because
friends recommended it, and he liked the atmosphere when he
visited student-run events.
Today,
he credits his time in The Managers' Program at Kellogg for
helping him understand the way companies can change their
clients' economic situations. He says he knows how to speak
the language of business when he pitches innovative ways for
clients to use the insurance market to strengthen their balance
sheets.
"I
now consider myself a bit of an insurance geek," he says.
McLaughlin
established his networking credentials at Kellogg starting
on the first day of orientation, when he put together an initial
class directory for all to use.
He
actively maintains that network now as TMP 2002 class representative
and as the unofficial "networking matchmaker." He
has helped classmates from The Managers' Program land interviews
and find jobs, including a position at Northwestern's Prentiss
Hospital for one former peer. McLaughlin has also assisted
another alum in expanding his business network.
His
new mission, now that he helped his peers set a record-shattering
class gift program, is taking Kellogg Dean Dipak
C. Jain's advice and spreading the word among his fellow
alumni. The message? That each person's contribution counts,
and can significantly enhance Kellogg fundraising —
no small matter since in recent years the per capita giving
rate among the school's graduates has been slightly more than
$200. Some peer schools generate more than 10 times that figure.
"Frankly,
I view it as unacceptable that Kellogg lags significantly
behind its peers in alumni fundraising. We can do much better,"
says McLaughlin. "And I'm just the kind of big, loud-mouthed,
'rah-rah Kellogg' fan to help change that — at least
among my peers. I have no problem walking up to people and
asking them for money to support the school."
The
TMP grad's enthusiasm stems, in part, from his understanding
of the true benefit of alumni membership.
"We
all recognize that the value of our Kellogg education goes
well beyond the time we spent in the classroom," says
McLaughlin. The powerful professional networks and status
conferred by alumni membership are among the extracurricular
advantages he cites.
"As
alumni, it is in our interests to help make sure Kellogg remains
the No. 1 business school in the world. The only way this
will happen is if we each do our part to make it happen."
