Celebrate the Best of Evanston Sept. 16 at MashUp

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Evanston's ultimate community networking event returns Sept. 16 to the Northwestern University beach, where the city’s fifth annual MashUp will honor entrepreneurial faculty at Northwestern who built businesses here and enhanced the local economy.

Suits and sandals are appropriate attire when entrepreneurs, executives, artists, professionals, city leaders and CEOs gather to celebrate at Evanston's MashUp hosted by Northwestern in coordination with the city of Evanston, the Evanston Chamber of Commerce and other business partners.

All are invited from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, to mingle and enjoy a late summer evening under a tent on the beach with great local food, music, friends and fellow networkers.

Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Northwestern President Morton Schapiro serve as MashUp co-captains. Each year they give special recognition through the Catalyst Award to a person or organization that embodies the spirit of community partnership and collaboration.

This year's Catalyst Award will be presented to five members of the Northwestern faculty -- Thomas Meade, Joseph Moskal, Gregory Olson, Andris Zoltners and Prabha Sinha -- who founded companies based in Evanston that make a positive impact on individuals or industry.

"These five individuals are representative of the diverse contributions to society made by Northwestern faculty," President Schapiro said. “We are proud of the work they have chosen to do here that has had a real and lasting impact on Evanston and its economy.”

"The Catalyst Award winners are helping to lead the way into what will be one of the most vibrant and exciting town-gown relationships in the country," Mayor Tisdahl said. "We are not there yet, but that's where we are headed."

A list of 31 local restaurants will dish their best gourmet food and beverages for a delicious "taste of Evanston."

First Night Evanston will be providing live music, and guests also will enjoy a lineup of other entertainers, including the Evanston Township High School cheerleading squad.

In addition to the Catalyst Award, the Corrine Passage Spirit of Evanston Award will be presented to an Evanstonian who has performed outstanding service in the past year. The award honors the memory of the late Corrine Passage of Pivot Point International who was one of the MashUp founders.

The 2014 spirit award recipient is Dick Peach, a graduate of ETHS who is general manager of Dempster Auto Rebuilders. Peach is past president of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Evanston, and currently he serves as vice president of the Evanston Environmental Association.

MashUp Information

Tickets are $95 if you pre-register and $125 at the door. Young professionals 35 and under pay $50.

The Northwestern beach is located at 2311 Campus Drive, just east of the sports pavilion and aquatics center. All campus parking lots in the area are free after 4 p.m.

For more information, visit MashUp online or contact Jessica Vandenbergh at 847-328-1500, extension 24 or via email.

More on Northwestern’s Catalyst Award Recipients

Thomas Meade, The Eileen M. Foell Professor in Cancer Research in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of chemistry, molecular biosciences, neurobiology and physiology, biomedical engineering and radiology, is founder and chairman of the board of Ohmx and two other biotech companies. His research has provided the basis for newer and easier ways to electronically detect a wide variety of targets such as bacteria, viruses and mold. Ohmx is focused on the development of portable, electrical detection devices for use in diagnostics, drug development and industrial applications.

Joseph Moskal, a research professor of biomedical engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and director of Northwestern’s Falk Center for Molecular Engineering, is the founder and chief scientific officer of Naurex, Inc. The company, under the direction of Moskal, developed an antidepressant drug that has succeeded where other remedies have failed, alleviates symptoms within hours and has produced positive effects that last for several days with a single dose.

Gregory Olson is a Northwestern researcher and is considered one of the founders of computational materials design. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Olson is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at McCormick. He has developed a systematic science-based approach for designing alloys that takes on the desired properties and calculates the optimum composition and processing route. He founded QuesTek Innovations LLC, a materials design company which was selected by Fortune magazine as one of 25 breakthrough companies in 2005. The company developed a stainless steel alloy for aircraft landing gears, replacing an environmentally hazardous material.

Andris Zoltners holds the Nemmers Professorship in Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, where he has been a member of the faculty for more than 30 years. Prior to this, he was a member of the business school faculty at the University of Massachusetts and received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. Zoltners has written more than 40 academic articles, edited two books on marketing models and has co-authored a series of books on sales force management. In 1983, Zoltners and former Kellogg colleague Prabhakant Sinha founded ZS Associates, a global management consulting firm specializing in sales and marketing strategy, operations and execution. ZS now serves clients worldwide and has more than 1,000 people across 17 offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

Prabhakant Sinha, co-founder of ZS Associates, was an associate professor of marketing at Kellogg until 1987. In 1983, Sinha and former Kellogg colleague, Andris Zoltners, founded ZS Associates and the firm’s global success was recognized by their induction into the Chicago Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2005. Sinha has assisted more than 250 firms with issues of sales force strategy and effectiveness. He continues to teach executives at Kellogg and at the India School of Business. He has published more than 30 academic articles in journals such as Management Science, Operations Research, Marketing Science and Mathematical Programming. In addition, he has co-authored a series of books on sales force management.