Chicago Family Business Council: Tell us a little bit  about your department? 

Scott Young: The Management Department is 38 full-time faculty and over 30 part-time faculty teaching over 280 courses each year.  We have concentrations in Entrepreneurship, Sports Management, Leadership, Operations Management, Human Resource Management, health Sector Management, Managing Diversity, and Sustainable Management.

CFBC: Tell us why you chose to come to DePaul

SY: I was recruited from the University of Utah in 2003 to be the Department Chair.  I am originally from Chicago, and my wife is from Detroit, so a move here helped us get closer to family, in my favorite city. 

CFBC: What was your first impression of DePaul? 

SY: The urban setting offers a great opportunity for business education.  The Vincentian values of charity and care for the underprivileged are very important to the education throughout the University.

CFBC: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your work with DePaul, and why?

SY: I have enjoyed seeing my department bring in twelve new faculty since my arrival.  The culture has changed to have more of a focus upon research.

CFBC: What has been your greatest lesson you’ve learned through your work at DePaul?

SY: It helps to have worked at another university so you can compare. University decision-making is very slow.  It just comes with the territory.

CFBC: What do you wish CFBC members knew about DePaul or your department, and why?

SY: We are the department that is the main conduit on people issues.  If you can’t learn to direct people, your business can fail.

CFBC: How could you serve as a resource for the CFBC members, and how could they serve as a resource for you?

SY: We can offer students for team projects, some of our faculty are available for consulting on management problems, training, and speaking.  We also would love to have members of CFBC speak to our students.

CFBC: Tell me about someone who has influenced your decision to do the work you do?

SY: I had a professor in my MBA program who suggested I could be a good professor.  It had never occurred to me until then.

CFBC: What would you tell our members who are thinking about working with DePaul? 

SY: We have bright and hard-working students and an exceptional faculty.

CFBC: What do you do when you aren't working?  

SY: I am working on my fourth book, a biography of the Transcendentalists, and I am a distance runner.  I have run 34 marathons.

CFBC: What one book would you recommend to our members?

 SY: Walden by Henry David Thoreau. 

CFBC: What in your early work life had an impact or motivated for you?

SY: The first person I had to give an employee warning to attempted suicide that night.  Luckily, she did not succeed, but it made me think twice about employee warning sessions!

CFBC: How does your department celebrate successes? And can we be invited?

SY: We have several events throughout the year.  Last year we did a cruise on Lake Michigan and a Cubs rooftop (although I am a Sox fan).  We would enjoy having members of CFBC mingle with our motley crew!

CFBC: What are your plans for the future?

SY: More books to write, more marathons to run…I have two daughters aged 3 and 1, so it looks like I will be working for DePaul  until I am about 100 years old.

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