Some of Milwaukee’s top business leaders gathered at the Dr. E. J. and Margaret O’Brien Hall one spring evening, eager for the opportunity to hear men’s head basketball coach Shaka Smart engage in a discussion on leadership and organizational culture.
Smart may have been the main draw that night, bringing a capacity crowd to the Michels Family Forum on the first floor. Another star attraction, however, was O’Brien Hall itself, as Marquette’s new home for the College of Business Administration, Graduate School of Management and leadership innovation programs demonstrated why it has emerged as a regional and statewide hub for campus and business engagement.
Event host Baird Advisors used the gathering to celebrate the opening of the Baird Applied Investment Management Lab, a glass-walled, high-tech center on the first floor displaying real-time stock and market news and other analytical tools for students to learn the business of asset management. Guests who came to meet Smart mingled in the lab and the nearby Michels Family Forum, which offers flexible space that can be divided or expanded for classroom instruction or events.
Baird Managing Director Jay Schwister, Bus Ad ’84, and Mary Ellen Stanek, Arts ’78, Baird Advisors’ founder and co-chief investment officer, president of Baird Funds and Marquette trustee emeritus, had been to O’Brien Hall before that evening, as both were heavily engaged in strategic planning for the facility. It was the first time CEO Steve Booth visited the location, and Schwister says Booth had plenty of praise for what he saw.
“Not a week goes by that we’re not responding to a request for space.”
Dean Tim Hanley
“Obviously he’s a person who’s seen many new buildings and facilities, but he was just impressed with how everything was laid out, the top-notch planning and the fact that Baird had the opportunity for name recognition and branding in such a prominent, attractive space for the Applied Investment Management Lab,” Schwister says.
With a prime location on Wisconsin Avenue and 16th Street, the four-story, 110,000-square-foot building is the largest fully donor-funded construction project in Marquette history at $60 million. In the months since opening, O’Brien Hall has delivered on the university’s vision for the facility to become a gathering place for the campus and business communities, as corporate partners, nonprofits and community organizations have visited for keynotes, networking events, offsite leadership retreats, regular meetings and more.
“One of our strategies was to build a space that would be a convening place for business in Wisconsin,” says acting James H. Keyes Dean of Business Administration Tim Hanley. “Not a week goes by that we’re not responding to a request for space.”
The Deloitte Foundation made a significant gift to name the Innovation Lab and Pitch Pit, a second-floor space capable of simulating a real-world experience for in-person and virtual presentations for small- to medium-sized groups. This spring, Deloitte used that space and others in O’Brien Hall to host an off-site leadership meeting and regional gatherings of America Makes, where attendees from around the region discussed strategies about growing the manufacturing base in the Midwest.
“Our leadership was just overwhelmed when they saw what our commitment to Marquette University and O’Brien Hall produced physically,” says P.J. DiStefano, Bus Ad ’96, managing partner of the Wisconsin practice at Deloitte LLP. “The new building just attracts interest. When you have executives from organizations — whether it’s Deloitte, Baird or Northwestern Mutual — in the building engaging with students, I think that creates an experience for those students they wouldn’t get otherwise.”
While Deloitte and Baird are among the largest corporations finding O’Brien Hall to be the perfect location for their events, it has attracted organizations as diverse as 3D printing groups holding weekend meetings in higher-level classrooms and community discussion groups.
Other past and upcoming events at O’Brien Hall include:
- A meeting for NAIOP, a commercial real estate development association
- An event for Clarios, a manufacturer of batteries for electric cars
- Elevating MU Venture, a venture capital networking event hosted by AIM, with colleagues from Baird, VC414, gener8tor and other organizations
- Milwaukee Tech Week
- A casual networking hour with local sales managers and students, hosted by the Center for Professional Selling
- A public discussion, Moving Milwaukee Forward, on a vision for downtown planning and real estate development minus I-794
The facility also hosted the June and Herman Loebl Women Business Leader Speaker Series, which featured Peggy Troy, Nurs ’74, president and CEO of Children’s Wisconsin, as keynote speaker.
“The new building just attracts interest. When you have executives from organizations — whether it’s Deloitte, Baird or Northwestern Mutual — in the building engaging with students, I think that creates an experience for those students they wouldn’t get otherwise.”
P.J. DiStefano, Managing Partner at Deloitte
“O’Brien Hall provided a wonderful space to host more than 250 community members, faculty, staff and students who took part in the event,” says Dr. Jennica Webster, professor of management and Institute for Women’s Leadership director. “It provided a professional and welcoming setting that really added to the event’s success.”
Recently, Deloitte hosted Wisconsin 75, which they have hosted for the past 21 years. On Sept. 26, business leaders across the state convened at O’Brien Hall to recognize their peers from the largest privately held companies in the state. It is another prime opportunity for students to engage with the business community and create connections for the university – just as Marquette leaders envisioned.
“You can just feel the energy level in the building,” Hanley says. “Our students can see this is where business happens.”
