About Us
Loveena Dookhony
Timothy Woods
Robbie Burda
NAMED ONE OF INC. MAGAZINE'S
COOLEST YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS UNDER 30 IN AMERICA
KATHRYN KERRIGAN, CLASS OF 2002
At six feet tall, Kathryn “Katie” Kerrigan was the ideal height to play basketball for Lake Forest College. But with her size 11 feet, she often had trouble finding fashionable shoes that fit, especially for formal occasions. She found that many of her basketball teammates experienced similar problems.
Meanwhile, as a politics and history double major, she was inspired by several professors who were passionate about the subjects that they taught. From them, she learned that if you truly believe in what you do chances are you will do it well, and it could be fun and rewarding. Professor of History Steven Rosswurm, in particular, also instilled life skills. “Anything rewarding requires sweat equity,” she says. “He taught me that I have to work for anything and everything.”
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Lake Forest College students forge close bonds with faculty who challenge and inspire.
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She put this into practice after graduation. While earning her MBA at Loyola University, where she focused on marketing and international business, she developed a business plan for a shoe company that catered to women with large feet. Katie combined her business skills with a longtime interest in design to start Libertyville, Ill.-based Kathryn Kerrigan, Inc. Launched in December 2005, the shoe company offers stylish footwear to women with shoe sizes 6 - 15. “It’s a true life experience that materialized into a business,” says the entrepreneur.
But making the business a success required her to learn the ins and outs of shoes — from how to make them to locating a production facility to marketing the shoes. Since then, she has sold shoes on her Web site and in boutiques and department stores around the country and plans to launch a couture clothing line, picking up awards for entrepreneurship along the way and continuing to draw on Professor Rosswurm’s advice.