Climbing the corporate ladder
Loyola University Chicago is part of a select group of universities that supports businesses completely run by its students. Such businesses are an incredible laboratory for hands-on learning and skill building.
Senior economics major Jaime Orejuela has a prime view of this, as he currently serves as the CEO of Loyola Limited, which oversees Loyola’s four student-run businesses. Below, Orejuela delves into his CEO responsibilities, ongoing and upcoming projects, and his Quinlan experience.
Explain your journey to CEO of Loyola Limited.
I am the current chief executive officer of Loyola Limited and in collaboration with Loyola Limited’s Program Manager Jasmine Barnes, we oversee four entirely student-run businesses focused on creating experiential learning opportunities rooted in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Chainlinks is our bike shop, Ireland’s is our pub located below the Damen Student Center, InQbate is our in-house marketing agency, and The Flats is our boutique hotel.
I was promoted this past summer to CEO of Loyola Limited after spending 5 months as president of Chainlinks and rebuilding that business after COVID. We restarted Chainlinks from scratch and promoted successful in-person events, rehired for positions, and restructured our services.
What does Loyola Limited do?
Our main goal is to empower undergraduate students to start and manage businesses by dealing with finances, creating and implementing marketing strategies, developing managerial roles, and many other business-related operations. Students involved with Loyola Limited gain valuable and application-based opportunities pre-graduation to develop business skills.
Day-to-day, my role focuses on coordination, ensuring everything is going according to schedule and plan, and ensuring our core values of entrepreneurship, accountability, and leadership are being met. Another key function of my role is making sure our financials are in order by ensuring quarterly reports for Loyola Limited are updated, that our financial forecasts match up with our actuals, and deal with all revenue sources. Over the past four years, we have generated $4 million in revenue from our business, which we are very proud of.
What’s new at Loyola Limited?
At Loyola Limited, we are always looking for new and exciting ways to involve students in the business while providing fun services to the Loyola community. With Ireland’s Pub, we are very excited about our upcoming partnership with Loyola Athletics. With this current basketball season, students can come in and grab a drink while supporting our athletics teams and watching the games down there.
We just rebranded inQbate, hosted our first panel discussion of entrepreneurship and leadership, and opened a hospitality lounge at The Flats. We are also brainstorming a couple of new ventures that Loyola Limited could support, including possibly a bowling alley.
How has your Quinlan education helped?
We learn a lot of great theories and applications in my classes at Quinlan, but being truly present and having to use these skills is very interesting. Supply and demand, utility, and opportunity costs were all things something I dealt with in my education and now in my role with Loyola Limited.
Experienced members of the business world have been a great asset to me and Loyola Limited, including our council of advisors, which consists of alumni and professors. Specifically, Kevin Lee has been very present in my journey with Loyola Limited. I learned a lot of accounting skills in his class that have translated to my CEO position, and he also helps during our council of advisors meetings and guides us. Loyola Limited Program Manager Jasmine Barnes has shown us that managing a business is completely different than managing people and has provided us with valuable knowledge relating to managerial skills, helping us further our business.
What should students know about Loyola Limited?
I want students to know that roles at Loyola Limited are open to all majors and that roles vary greatly in the skills that are required. I would encourage students to look on our website and see if there are any roles they are interested in pursuing and gaining experience in.
I also want to highlight that we have a great and diverse community of international students. Loyola Limited’s current team has the most international students in its history, which provides a variety of mindsets and cultures.
What will you take from this role?
Experience. I have become a more well-rounded business professional because of this experience. So many things I’ve learned from Loyola Limited are beneficial and will help me so much in the long run. I want to manage people in the business world, and this was such a relevant and valuable experience for me.
Describe Quinlan in 10 words.
A place where learning and opportunity meet to create leaders.
