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Homi Patel
Homi Patel

MARKETING
Lecturer of Marketing

Print Overview
Homi B. Patel is former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Hartmarx Corporation. After obtaining an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University in New York, and spending four years at Corbin Ltd., Homi joined Hartmarx Corporation in 1979 as Vice President and General Manager for the company's Fashionaire Division. He held various marketing and divisional positions leading to his appointment as President of Hartmarx Corporation in 1992, Chief Operating Officer in 1993, Chief Executive Officer in 2002 and Chairman in 2004.

Homi serves the larger apparel industry as President of the Clothing Manufacturers Association of America, Chairman of its Union Negotiating Committee, and Chief Labor Negotiator for the industry. He is also a director of the Amalgamated Life Insurance Company and Trustee of the UNITE HERE Pension and Health Funds.

Homi's civic activities include serving as an advisory Board member of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the University of South Carolina School of Retailing. He is a Trustee of the Jane Addams Hull House in Chicago and the Lake Forest Country Day School. Homi also serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, the Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern Memorial Health Care. Among his various recognitions, Homi has received the Good Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America, the American Heritage Award from the Anti-Defamation League and was the keynote speaker and recipient of the Delta Pi Epsilon Distinguished Lecturer Award at the 1994 National Business Education Association Convention.

Homi lives in Lake Forest, Illinois, with his wife, Anne, and has two sons and a daughter.
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Full-Time / Part-Time MBA
Marketing Strategy in the C Suite and the Boardroom (MKTG-940-0)

This course counts toward the following majors: Marketing, Marketing Mangement

This course deals with a wide variety of subjects that are a top priority for CMOs, CEOs and Boards of Directors. Emphasis will be placed on leveraging marketing focus and activities to optimize corporate strategy so as to drive growth and earnings. Students will learn why marketers must become strategists if they want to join top leadership. Some of the topics covered very broadly include “Anatomy of a Board Room – A CEO’s Perspective.,” “Aligning marketing with corporate strategy,” “Developing Dashboards for Boards,” “Managing cannibalization and pricing decision-making,” “Activists in the Board Room,” “Challenges for Boards in industries undergoing major transformations -- health care, airlines.” This course deals with topics holistically at a very high level with emphasis on the practical realities. It is a particularly useful platform of learning for students who aspire to a CMO/CEO role. There will be a significant number of guest speakers. Past speakers have included Mary Dillon – CEO of US Cellular and former CMO of McDonald’s, Dean Harrison – CEO of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Rick Lenny – retired CEO of Hershey Brands, Joe Tripodi – CMO of Coca Cola and Joe Ricketts – Owner, Chicago Cubs. This course is required for the six-course major in marketing management; but not for the four-course marketing major. It is tied in with the Advanced Topics in the Marketing (922-0) course taught by Professor Calder in the winter quarter in that marketing problems of high-level strategic relevance raised by guest speakers and the instructor in this course could become projects for student groups in Marketing (922-0) to investigate in more detail.