Inside Our Program / Events / Industry NightIndustry Night 2026
MEM will host its 12th Annual Industry Night on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at the Louis Room in the Norris University Center on Northwestern's Evanston Campus. MEM students, alumni, faculty, and industry guests will hear from keynote speaker Donald McNeeley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Tube & Iron Company. Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from Ivana Marich (Vice President, Baird), Badri Narasimhan (Founder, Alarm), and Chris Iasielo (Business Development Divisional Manager, Victaulic) as they participate in a panel on career success.
If you would like to attend our Industry Night event, please click on our RSVP link.
RSVP For Industry Night '26 HERE
Speakers
Donald McNeeley, PH.D.
Keynote: Career Success: Like the Phoenix, We Rise
Donald McNeeley is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Tube & Iron Company, a steel distribution, fabrication and engineering company founded in 1914 and headquartered in Chicago. In addition to Chicago Tube & Iron, he is a Director of Saulsbury Industry, Odessa, TX and Vail Rubber Works, St. Joe, MI and Affiliated Distributors, Philadelphia, PA where he chairs the Investment Committee. He also holds an adjunct professorship at Northwestern University in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Mathematics.
Dr. McNeeley is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, George Williams College, University of Wisconsin, and Benedictine University. He holds a BA in Business, MBA, a Ph.D. in Economics, and a M.S. in Management and Organization Behavior. Dr. McNeeley is often quoted in the trade and business press and writes a quarterly column titled “The McNeeley View” where he addresses industry-relevant economic, social and political trends.
Ivana Marich, MBA
As a Vice President at Baird, Ivana Marich has 20 years of experience in the investment and financial planning industry. She helps build and execute income tax, estate planning, investment and charitable giving strategies for families and individuals of substantial wealth.
Prior to Baird, Ivana worked at Merrill Lynch Bank in Switzerland, where she served high net worth individuals and families across Europe and Asia.
Ivana received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Washington in Seattle. She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago.
As a mom of six, Ivana doesn’t have much spare time, but she loves traveling and exploring with her kids. She is a long-time supporter of the performing arts.
Badri Narasimhan, MBA
Badri Narasimhan is a successful serial entrepreneur who founded, grew and sold his first healthcare IT business to a PE-backed company in 2020 and is presently involved in multiple additional ventures. The IL-based company he founded out of his 3rd bedroom, Alarm (www.alertmd.com), was a highly profitable and fast-growing company with over 27,000 users across most of the United States, including many of the top 25 health systems, national physical therapy platforms and dozens of the largest physician groups in the country. He believes that helping the next generation understand the value of good citizenship is the key to long-term competitive advantage in the United States.
Badri is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds an MBA from Babson College.
Chris Iasielo, MEM
As Business Development Divisional Manager at Victaulic, Chris Iasielo leads engineering sales teams in forging strategic partnerships and driving sales objectives across energy, mining, hyperscaler, and global infrastructure projects ranging from $1B to $10B. At nearly a decade with the company, he has spearheaded strategic growth initiatives in frontier markets, aligned manufacturing with sales forecasts, advanced product innovation to enhance customer value, and identified acquisition opportunities to scale operations and meet long-term market demands. Building on this corporate foundation, Chris is at the initial stages of developing an investment portfolio where he is leveraging the tools and frameworks gained in Northwestern MEM Program, along with lessons from his 20-year career. He also holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University.
To hear from these guests, reserve your seat for Industry Night here!
Sponsorship Opportunities
Through your generosity, we can continue to provide a variety of extracurricular opportunities to enhance the classroom experience. Your donation helps to fund corporate site visits, guest lectures, professional seminars, and networking events, such as Industry Night! Your gift ensures that the MEM program not only educates, but exposes students to real-world experiences to reach their full potential
We greatly appreciate any gift amount. If you would like to donate, please click on the link button below.
PLEASE NOTE: You will need to specify the “Master of Engineering Management Industry Night Gift Fund” in the DESIGNATION box.
Sponsors:
Chicago Tube and Iron
