Albert Schweitzer once said, “If you love what you’re doing, you will be successful.” By that measure, and so many others, the College of Business’ 2022 Alumni Award recipients embody the definition of success.
Oleg Grachev, Terry Horan, Seema Pajula, NIU President Lisa Freeman, Noripah Kamso, Elois Sprolls-Joseph and Jason Barsema and Dean Balaji Rajagopalan
Held at The Renaissance Schaumburg on Friday, Oct. 21, and led by Dean Balaji Rajagopalan and NIU President Lisa Freeman, the college’s award ceremony paid tribute to seven extraordinary individuals who got their starts at NIU and went on to do incredible things in business and industry. During the event, the 20-year anniversary of Barsema Hall was also acknowledged. Each department head within the college was present at this annual event, and guests of the department attended to support the following recipients:
Seema Pajula, ’95, Accountancy – 2022 Distinguished Alumna
Seema Pajula is the clients, industries and insights leader, as well as the vice chairman for the Deloitte U.S. firm, where she is responsible for key components of the firm’s go-to-market approach around driving growth, innovation and client impact. She focuses on building and driving client programming for the firm’s largest accounts, industry differentiation and impact, and insights and perspectives, including all of Deloitte’s research and eminence. Through her leadership and the integration of these capabilities, Deloitte has been able to help shape and inform the dialogue executives use about the pressing challenges and opportunities they face today and into the future. Pajula also sits on the firm’s U.S. Management Committee and the Global Clients and Industries executive committee, bringing her expertise to Deloitte’s approach to serving global clients.
In addition to her leadership of these operations and programs, Pajula has served and continues to serve many of the firm’s largest clients providing accounting, due diligence, tax, information technology, internal control and other specialized consulting services. She brought her in-depth knowledge of the consumer industry, including manufacturing and supply chains, to bear as the U.S. Consumer Industry Leader from 2016-2020.
Pajula also sits on several nonprofit boards, allowing her to champion things she is passionate about, such as attracting and retaining the talent the industry needs to succeed, as well as bringing focus to local issues that can be solved by the partnership of business, government and the community leaders. Pajula is a member of both The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Illinois CPA Society.
When reflecting on her 25 years in the industry, Pajula is clear about the importance of her education at Northern.
“My education at NIU, specifically the Department of Accounting, was top-notch,” Pajula said. “The professors, the experiences, the internships they helped me obtain, it was an amazing experience. And I believe I was so well prepared—best-in-class prepared–for my career at Arthur Anderson in their audit practice. At the time, 1996, Anderson was the biggest of the Big Six firms, and my experience at NIU prepared me in the best way possible to always be at the top of my class.”
Jason Barsema, ’07, Economics – 2022 Honorary Alumnus
Jason Barsema is the president and co-founder of Halo Investing where he leads the team and product vision. With over a decade of experience managing structured notes, he built the Halo platform to provide all investors access to this incredible investment product. HALO built an innovative platform for investors to access to tools they needed for a much smaller cost, at a time when these tools would have otherwise been cost-prohibitive for smaller companies. Through his vision, Barsema was able to change the platform so that the common investor can afford, access and safeguard their investments.
“I want to change the world,” Barsema said. “Creating a positive impact in the world is really my legacy. My motives and my mission were really to help solve this really important problem by giving people equal opportunity to a product that can preserve their retirement.”
Barsema was previously a partner on a large private banking team at Credit Suisse where he managed portfolios for ultrahigh-net-worth individuals and institutions.
“NIU has helped me tremendously in my success. What I always tell students when I go back to campus is, ‘Don’t take what you learned from NIU for granted’ because the biggest thing that I learned is walking out with a chip on your shoulder. You have a strong work ethic. If NIU’s mantra is doing it ‘The Hard Way,’ then I owe everything I’ve done at Halo and my career at Credit Suisse to what I learned at NIU because of that chip on my shoulder.”
The Honorary Alumnus Award goes to an individual who is not an alumni of the College of Business but helps to support the college and its students. Barsema is a dedicated volunteer and mentor with the College of Business, always willing to help students on their career paths.
Oleg Grachev, ’17, Economics and Finance – 2022 Young Alumnus
Oleg Grachev is a senior private equity associate at GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm. He focuses on investments in the financial services and technology space and is a board observer for Allspring, CAPTRUST and Ultimus Fund Solutions. Prior to joining GTCR in 2020, Grachev spent several years at J.P. Morgan in New York City as an investment banking analyst in the Diversified Industries group executing on M&A, IPO and other transactions for companies in business services, aerospace and defense, multi-industrial and automotive sectors.
“I absolutely love this job. I don’t think that I could have found a job that would provide me with the same caliber of people to work with and the same latitude of learning new things as I do here. One day, I may be working as an accountant. The next day, I may work as a lawyer. As an advisor to a CEO/CFO.”
Throughout his time at NIU, Grachev was widely involved in the College of Business community working as a Finance Core tutor, being a Student Managed Portfolio Senior Analyst, and serving as President of the NIU Investment Association. He also worked for the NIU Division of International Affairs in various capacities and led the establishment of a University-wide, cross-cultural mentorship program. He continues to be involved with the educational missions of the NIU finance department and serves on the advisory board for the chair of the finance department, Gina Nicolosi. In addition, Grachev serves on the junior board of InReach, a tech-enabled nonprofit providing access to resources for LGBTQ+ youth, refugees and asylum seekers.
“Coming out of NIU, I couldn’t have been more prepared to start the career, as I have been,” he said. “NIU has a really, really special place in my heart, and I couldn’t be here today without the support that I gained there.”
Jeff Harvey, ’88, Operations Management – 2022 Innovation and Entrepreneurship
As chief revenue officer for Industry Cloud, Jeff Harvey engages with customers globally to help them realize business outcomes and accelerate innovation from SAP Software Solutions’ portfolio of Industry Cloud solutions. Harvey and his team act as advocates for SAP’s customers, advising them on how technology can help drive innovation, value creation and even accelerate their business strategies. This includes engaging with customers and partners to co-innovate new solutions to help extend and evolve their enterprise business processes to help maximize efficiency and value creation. Harvey has over 34 years of progressive experience in the technology industry. He was also the recipient of SAP’s Distinguished Leader Award in 2009.
“The most exciting aspect of my work is that it’s constantly changing and constantly evolving,” Harvey said. “What drives me most is the ability to help others.”
Prior to joining SAP, Harvey served as general manager of the national consulting practice for Systems and Computer Technology Corporation, which was later acquired by SunGard and Infor. He has also served in leadership positions with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and was chief information officer for Sandberg & Sikorski Corporation in New York City.
Harvey served eight years on the board of TechBridge, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that helps other nonprofits leverage technology to better serve the community, and currently serves as the national chair for Els for Autism at SAP. He is based in Atlanta.
“The College of Business has been pivotal in my success, both the curriculum and the people,” he said. “The NIU faculty and staff have also been pivotal in my success. I can’t thank them enough for all they did to help me and my fellow students during our college journeys and experiences. They weren’t always easy on us, but they made us better students in doing so.”
Elois Sprolls-Joseph, M.B.A. ’15 – 2022 Social Impact
Prior to co-founding the Greenwood Project, Elois Sprolls-Joseph worked on the trading floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). Her career spans more than 20 years as an accomplished financial service professional with an extensive background in brokerage operations, regulatory compliance and exchange registration services. As a financial professional, she attained several licenses and worked in the compliance examination division for an industry regulator.
“What I do is impact lives, introduce students from the South and West Sides of Chicago to opportunities within the Financial Services industry,” she said. “I’m a first-generation college student, so I didn’t have anyone to coach me through the transition from high school to college and early career. I am providing that for so many students. To date, actually, it’s over 500 students that I have personally worked with.”
Sprolls-Joseph grew up on the west side of Chicago and has worked as an instructional practitioner with the College of Business. She is proud to be the first in her family to create generational wealth and to have the opportunity to teach this process to others through the Greenwood Project.
“NIU’s College of Business has helped me tremendously,” she said. “While I was working as a compliance officer for a financial firm, I felt that my skills were stale. I knew compliance, but I didn’t know business, and I didn’t know how to apply a lot of theory. There’s something about having a business degree. So, I decided to go back to school. I did some research to find out who had the rigor, who had the accreditation and, also, who had a good price point, and I landed at Northern. I received so many skills from the College of Business that I was able to go back to work the next day and apply so many of the concepts and the theories that I was learning within school.”
Terry Horan, ’86, Marketing – 2022 Student Engagement
As president and CEO of STIHL Incorporated, Terrence “Terry” Horan is responsible for leading overall management of the U.S. operations for STIHL Group’s largest market and brand subsidiary, headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia. An integral part of STIHL Group’s manufacturing and sales network, STIHL Inc. supplies components and products for more than 100 markets worldwide. Horan has demonstrated proven leadership of major companies and global brands, with an emphasis on creating winning cultures focused on innovation and leveraging a deep understanding of the end-customer.
“The most exciting aspect of the work that I do every day is really building teams and helping our teams succeed. A lot of what I do every day is removing barriers and solving problems that help our company move faster and go further,” Horan said.
An internationally successful leader with 35 years of experience in the power tools, DIY and consumer goods industry, Horan joined STIHL Inc. after a successful career as RPM Consumer Group president at RPM International Inc. Before that, Horan held various senior leadership roles, including president and CEO of DAP Products Inc., president of The Master Lock Company, president and CEO of the Robert Bosch Tool Corporation North America and president of Dremel Power Tools. In addition, he currently volunteers as a Start-Up Advisor at the IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame.
“I’m always grateful for getting my first job through NIU, but it’s really what I learned at NIU that carried me into my career and helped me become successful,” he said. “The sales skills and the marketing skills, which I developed at NIU, really have carried me through every job that I’ve had.”
Noripah Kamso, ’80, Management – 2022 Global Alumna
Datuk Noripah is chairman (designate) of Arabesque Malaysia. Arabesque Holding PLC is a London-based sustainability FinTech company. She was a banker for 30 years and previously served as chairman of Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia, as advisor to CIMB Islamic Wholesale Banking, and CEO of CIMB Futures. She was the founding CEO of CIMB Principal Islamic Asset Management and pioneered the listing of the world’s first regional ASEAN ETF. Datuk Noripah’s holds several universal values close to her heart, including working toward the common good and upholding shared values in finance that apply to the principles of Islam, ethics, responsibility and sustainability. It is with this passion that Datuk Noripah and her husband cotaught Islamic finance at Drake University, and they currently lecture at Saint Joseph University (Beirut, Lebanon). Alongside her position as a member of the Global Advisory Board of Islamic Finance News, she was also a visiting fellow in Islamic Finance at Oxford Center for Islamic Studies (OCIS), University of Oxford from 2016-2017.
Datuk Noripah wrote the globally acclaimed book “Investing in Islamic Funds. A Practitioner’s Perspective,” and she was recognized as the most influential woman in Islamic Business and Finance by Cambridge International Financial Advisory in 2019.
“When I was a kid, I watched Donny Osmond and Little House on the Prairie, and I created the American Dream. I am forever grateful to NIU and to everyone around the world who has helped make the dream of a remote, poor village girl come true,” she said.
President Lisa Freeman welcomes guests to the awards reception.
“Since 1969, NIU’s College of Business has been continuously accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, or AACSB, as we call them in the trade,” President Freeman said during her introductory comments. “Our professors are world-renowned in the fields of accounting and finance, and nationally recognized in marketing, management and operations. Their commitments to NIU students are reflected in our students’ amazing accomplishments, as well as the loyalty and the generosity of our alumni. And it really makes my heart warm to look out and see our faculty, our current students and our alumni sitting together and trading stories and networking to help everybody enhance their ties to the Huskie family.”
“The alumni recipients this evening represent the hard work and success of hundreds of thousands of Huskie alumni,” she said, going on to thank all attendees for their support and dedication, especially those who made the event possible, including the reception’s generous sponsors—NIU Scooters, HARIBO, Paragon Biosciences, David Hass, Joan Bottarini, Joe Vrankin, CRESA, FV & FMV, Valuation, Inc., NxtTeam, HALO, KPMG, the Executive Club and the NIU Young Executive Club. Thanks to these organizations for their support and dedication to the NIU College of Business.
