Alumni Leaders

Proven Marketing Leaders

Behind some of the top brands in business, Chicago Booth alumni have established themselves as the foremost strategists and leaders in a wide range of industries - proof that the Chicago approach creates remarkable value, well beyond the next great campaign.

Geoffroy van Raemdonck

Geoffroy van Raemdonck, '98 
President, Louis Vuitton South Europe

Van Raemdonck runs the Louis Vuitton brand in 19 countries, spanning from south and central Europe to north Africa, the Middle East, and India. Prior to moving to Milan in June 2011, van Raemdonck served as acting president of Louis Vuitton North America. He joined the French luxury brand in 2008 from Limited Brands, where he was Senior Vice President of the Commercialization and Creative team, in charge of incubating new ventures.

Van Raemdonck is credited for elevating customer experience and client relationships at Louis Vuitton. A strong supporter of the arts, he championed the partnership between Louis Vuitton and the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to promote art education in the United States.

Brian Niccol

Brian Hughes, '93
Former Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer,
HSBC Card and Retail Services

Hughes leads one of the largest, most profitable credit card businesses in the United States. By pursuing a strategy that combines analytic rigor with disciplined product and risk management, HSBC’s business remained profitable through the economic downturn and continues to deliver industry-leading returns.

Prior to joining HSBC in 2004, Hughes was a principal at Booz & Co., specializing in growth strategy. During his tenure at HSBC he led the turnaround of the retail partnerships business and the implementation of a new IT platform. Hughes credits Booth with providing the business theory and leadership training that comprises the foundation for his success. Hughes recently accepted the position of senior vice president, Cardmember Marketing at Discover Financial Services.

Peggy Dyer

M. Carl Johnson III, '72 
Executive Vice President of Brands, Del Monte Food

Johnson joined Del Monte Foods in November 2011 as Executive Vice President of Brands, with operating responsibility for the company’s pet brands and the majority of its consumer brands. Prior to Del Monte, Johnson served for a decade as senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Campbell’s Soup, responsible for corporate strategy, research and development, quality, corporate marketing services, licensing, and e-business.

Johnson currently serves as the nonexecutive chairman of Nautilus, Inc., a publicly held fitness equipment company, and as a director of Avedro, Inc., a privately held medical company. He is a member of the Kilts Center Steering Committee, which provides scholarships to top marketing students.

David Friedman

John Sauerland, '91
Group President, Progressive Insurance

Sauerland joined Progressive directly out of Booth as an assistant product manager. He now oversees Progressive’s Personal Lines group with revenues in excess of $13 billion and an advertising budget approaching $500 million. Under Sauerland’s leadership, Progressive introduced the Name Your Price option and the innovative Pay-As-You-Drive insurance rating under the Snapshot Discount moniker, which lets drivers get a customized rate based on how they actually drive.

Sauerland also led efforts to broaden Progressive’s product offerings and cross-sell efforts, and he oversaw the introduction of a customer loyalty program. As a result, in the course of four years, Progressive extended customer tenure by more than 20 percent.

Frits Seegers

Frits Seegers, '89
CEO, CT Corporation

Seegers joined CT Corp in 2010. He previously served in various executive positions in Citigroup's main markets, including the United States, Japan, and Asia Pacific. In 1998, Frits joined Citibank's operating committee. He was CEO of Consumer Banking for Asia Pacific, covering 11 consumer markets between 2001 and 2004. Under his leadership, this region was the fastest growing part of Citigroup.

In 2006, he moved to Barclays, where he served as a board member and Chief Executive of Global Retail and Commercial Banking of Barclays plc. He has a master's degree in engineering from Delft University of Technology, as well as an MBA from Chicago Booth.