NIU Education Helped Jeff Thompson, '88, M.S. '90, Navigate the Business World
By Tony Scott
(Photo from Jeff Thompson)
For Jeff Thompson, ’88, M.S. 90, the versatile education he experienced at NIU helped him navigate and excel in the business world for decades, most recently retiring as an executive in the legal cannabis industry.
With a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in statistics from NIU, Thompson was well-suited to join Nalco Chemical Company as a senior statistician at the beginning of his career.
“Since my liberal arts degree from NIU was so well-rounded I was able to transfer those skills over to other disciplines and departments – research and development, IT, marketing strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and so forth,” he said.
Thompson then moved to the food industry, serving as a vice president of continuous improvement for U.S. Foods.
“The skills transferred, but food and chemicals are very different from a safety and regulations point of view, as well as their direct impact to consumers,” he said. “Again, a great learning experience, and a well-rounded education from NIU helped me hit the ground running.”
It was during COVID, when the restaurant industry was taking a hit and the future of the industry was unclear, that Thompson had an opportunity to go into a new line of work.
“Out of the blue I got a call from an industry that would have never been on my radar: cannabis,” he said.
A new company called Pharmacann was recruiting executives from areas like food, chemicals and manufacturing.
“They said my background exactly filled their needs and asked me if I would take a tour and consider running their operations,” he said. “I was skeptical, but saw opportunity everywhere in the building. They didn’t know it, but they were craving formal process, people development, safety, metrics and better relationships with government compliance issues.”
Thompson took the job at Pharmacann leading operations and his role grew to include more areas like construction, cultivation, new product development, engineering and environmental health and safety.
“This is an everchanging industry that is evolving rapidly, especially through mergers and acquisitions, so I ended up taking similar roles as executive vice president of operations at Ascend Wellness Holdings and vice president of quality and safety at Ayr Wellness,” he said. “I have been very fortunate in my career, and this has allowed me to retire early and focus on giving back and sharing my experiences.”
Thompson grew up in the blue-collar south Chicago suburb of Harvey, Illinois. His father and grandfather both worked at the same manufacturing plant, and he was the first in his family to go to college. His younger sister, Laura Severino, ’90, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from NIU.
Thompson said his high school was focused on vocational training, but that he had older friends who attended NIU and he fell in love with the campus during visits.
“I visited other schools but kept comparing them to NIU, which instantly felt like home,” he said. "Huskies are inclusive and love their school and campus, but also embrace the town around them. That isn't true for a lot of universities."
He and his girlfriend, Kim (Jancaric) Thompson, ’89, attended NIU together, and have now been married for 34 years, making them Double Huskies. Kim received a bachelor’s degree in accountancy and is currently director of strategic sourcing for BMO. The couple have two children: son Kyle, 25, and daughter Harli, 28.
“Through NIU’s world class accountancy program, Kim passed her CPA on the first attempt with flying colors,” Thompson said.
During his time at NIU, Thompson enjoyed playing intramural basketball at the Rec Center and watching films in Cine Club. He also tutored math and statistics for extra money and was a grad assistant. He said the grad assistant job, along with working in the consulting lab for the math department, paid for his tuition and gave him a monthly stipend which helped him focus on his studies.
Thompson recalled being inspired by professors in the statistics program, now part of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science.
“The statistics department was full of rock star professors who were outstanding teachers, but also incredible publishers in their own specific emphasis fields,” he said.
Two professors stood out to Thompson: Stanley Trail and Mohsen Pourahmadi. He said they and the others in the department were always accessible one on one and had a genuine interest in all of the students’ success.
“Dr. Trail was a mentor who saw something in me and encouraged me to continue on with my master’s,” Thompson said. “Whenever we were discussing a new topic, instead of leaping into it and having us memorize formulas, he would spend time in what he called ‘motivation’: what is the need, why is this important, and what problem does this solve?”
He continued, “Dr. Pourahmadi was a brilliant teacher but also the first to call out the potential applications of our field. Again, these are the foundational techniques, but how can they be used in the real world? Predicting sunspots, filling in missing values for medical research, predicting defects in aeronautics, for example. I was also his research assistant for some analysis and software that we were doing for the military, which gave me a huge leg up when it came time talk about job experience for interviews.”
Thompson said he looks for fellow NIU alumni when hiring or networking.
"Huskies look out for other Huskies," he said. "An NIU degree puts you to the top of my pile when I'm hiring. As for networking, on LinkedIn I will look for NIU alumni working at a company that I'm interested in, and reach out to see if they can help open a door."
Thompson said he has helped current NIU students as an active alumnus.
“I have gone back since graduating and participated in career talks, what life after college looks like, conducted mock interviews and cut a video on ethics for BELIEF Week,” he said. “At this stage, I am now in a position to ramp up these activities and give back to the school that played such a huge role in my life and success.”