John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises
Kate Hardwick has a diverse work experience spanning over the years. Kate started their career as a Baker, Catering Sales Associate, and Executive Assistant to the Vice President at Zingerman's in 2000. Kate then worked as an Executive Assistant at Kohler Co. in 2005 before joining Bon Appétit Management Company as an Account-Sales Manager at The Art Institute of Chicago, where they managed numerous contracts and increased sales significantly. Kate also worked as a Private Dining Director at The Chicago Firehouse, Mainstay Hospitality, where they directed marketing efforts and managed the private dining coordinator. In 2017, they became a Yoga Instructor at The Lab Yoga and later joined Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. At Kellogg, they held various roles, including Program Manager for Executive Education, Senior Program Manager & Business Development for Executive Education, and Assistant Director of Business Development for the Career Management Center. In 2019, Kate joined Big Shoulders Yoga as a Yoga Instructor before becoming Chief of Staff and Special Projects Consultant at The Paramount Group Chicago. Currently, they serve as the Administrative Director at the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises.
Kate Hardwick obtained their B.A in Psychology from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts from 1997 to 2001. Kate also has additional certifications including a 200 Hour cYoga Teacher Training from The School of cYoga in 2016 and Espanol Lengua Extranjero from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - Chicago.
John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises
The John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises is dedicated to rigorous and relevant research into the unique demands, strengths, and evolutionary paths of family enterprises and to disseminating those findings with impact. In addition to our focus on the complexities of family enterprise leadership, governance and strategy, we integrate Northwestern University's and The Kellogg School of Management's authoritative expertise into our curriculum to create a world-class, comprehensive, cross-discipline family enterprise resource. Our fusion of this deep academic capability with knowledge gleaned from our global community of high-impact business-owning families helps create the Center's unique theory-driven, evidence-based frameworks. CFE combines proven concepts with real-life context to create a one-of-a-kind resource for the study of family enterprises worldwide.