Arlington entrepreneur aims to help
Cary Chessick, the former founder and CEO of Arlington Heights-based Restaurant.com, has continued his entrepreneurial spirit by co-creating a new online business — Arlington Heights-based PositivityU.com, an employee training program, along with its philanthropic arms, ScoreForward and Score it Forward, where they provide soccer balls, footballs or basketballs to children.
Such work combines his interests in helping people and feeds his entrepreneurial spirit, he said.
“When I went to University of Illinois, I was studying psychology, but I didn’t want to sit in a room and treat patients all day,” he said.
So he became a lawyer instead. He also earned a two-year certificate at the University of Chicago on emotional intelligence, he said.
So when he first launched Restaurant.com in 1999, he realized his dream of helping people, while being part of the dot.com era that offered a new online option for consumers.
However, he left Restaurant.com last year and decided to develop other ventures, and focused on the power of happiness. He firmly believed you should thank one person a day and train your brain to look for the positive in life and work.
He then visited South Africa and brought children there about 50 soccer balls. The experience changed him and led to the development of his newest online ventures to provide sports balls to kids.
“And here, everyone thought I was just a gift certificate salesman,” he joked.
Nicolas featured at L.A. program
Naperville resident Melanie Jane Nicolas, founder and chief executive officer of Kids Wealth International Club, will be a featured speaker at Mega Partnering Nov. 29 through Dec. 2 in Los Angeles, Calif. The event is a networking event for entrepreneurs and includes presentations by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, supermodel and retail business mogul Kathy Ireland and others.
Bear visits Aurora team
Chicago Bear Jonathan Scott recently surprised the Aurora-based Fox Valley Gators Youth Football and Cheerleading League. He congratulated the team and parents after they collected about 800 phones for the Verizon HopeLine program, in support of domestic violence prevention. That’s more than double their collection of 300 last year. In their honor, next Monday Verizon Wireless will make a $1,500 donation to Aurora-based Mutual Ground at a special event for the kids.
Society taps top officers
Naperville-based The Illinois Society of Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations approved its top officers, including Rich Matula, marketing manager of Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, as president. Tracy Simons, director of community relations/marketing at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, is immediate past president.
And Lisa Parro, manager of public affairs at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, is vice president and program chairwoman.
FastTrack
Lindsey Schilling, of Lombard, joins Lisle-based PACT Inc. in the capacity of service coordinator in the community services division. She was previously with Little Friends Inc. ... William Bradish joins Arlington Heights-based Capital Forensics Inc. on its team of experts supporting arbitration and compliance for the securities industry. Bradish complements the team’s expertise with more than 40 years in the insurance industry. ... Jeffrey C. Simon has joined the Arlington Heights branch of Wells Fargo Advisors as Vice President of investments and branch supervisor. Simon joins the firm with 18 years of experience in the industry, most recently with RBC Wealth Management in Chicago.
William Moffitt, president and chief executive officer Northbrook-based Nanosphere Inc. will do a presentation at the Piper Jaffray 24th Annual Healthcare Conference on Nov. 28 in New York. ... Robert X. Murphy Jr., assistant chief medical officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Penn., has been named president-elect of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the world’s largest organization of board-certified plastic surgeons and foremost authority on cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery based in Arlington Heights.
Glenn Mikell, CPA and comanaging member at Buffalo Grove-based Weltman Bernfield LLC has garnered the 2012 Chicago Five Star Wealth Manager award. Award winners are featured in the November issue of Chicago magazine. ... Nick Iodice has opened a new catering business, Vindice Recipes, in Lake in the Hills. ... Brian Wilson has been named sales manager of Volo-based Atom AMPD, which provides voice and data solutions for any application.
Stephen Ball, senior vice president and business banking manager of MB Financial Bank participated in the 10,000 Small Businesses initiative sponsored by Goldman Sachs last week in downtown Chicago. He was part of a panel discussing “Understanding Funding Sources — Which is Right for Your Business.”
ŸThere’s more to business than just the bottom line. We want to tell you about the people that make business work. Send news about people in business to akukec@dailyherald.com. Follow Anna Marie Kukec on LinkedIn and Facebook and as AMKukec on Twitter.