Robert Yadgir, '86, Receives Alumni Achievement in Public Service Award
By Tony Scott

Robert Yadgir is the 2024 Alumni Achievement in Public Service Award recipient. (Photo: Bob Yadgir)

Robert Yadgir, ’86, was raised in a family that believed strongly in volunteerism and public service. 
 

Yadgir served as director of communications and senior policy advisor to Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White from 1999 to 2023 and as director of public relations for the Office of the Cook County Recorder of Deeds while White held that position from 1993 to 1999. 
 

Yadgir has also served since 2012 as volunteer executive director of the Jesse White Foundation, which supports programs benefiting at-risk youth and provides educational opportunities for low-income students, including the famous Jesse White Tumblers.
 

This year, after decades of working in the public sector, Yadgir joined two friends, retired Secretary of State press secretaries Dave Druker and Henry Haupt, in founding their own media, advocacy, and public policy consulting firm: Druker, Yadgir & Haupt.

It is for his decades of dedication to public service that Yadgir is receiving the 2024 Alumni Achievement in Public Service Award.

Yadgir grew up in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side and moved with his family to the suburb of Glenview when he was 12. He has two older siblings, John and Vicky. His father was an executive at a carbide tool company, Metal Removal, and later owned his own company, while his mother was a small business owner and worked for A.C. Nielsen and Signode Corp.
 

Yadgir said his father had a strong influence on his life and that he learned early on the importance of helping those around him and in his community.

“My father was very active in the Assyrian community in Chicago,” he said. “He volunteered at the Chicago Assyrian-American Club, an organization my grandfather was a founding member of. He organized fundraisers, coordinated the annual picnics and supplied and cooked the food. He also served as a leader in our Assyrian church and for AMVETS Post 5, the Assyrian-American U.S. veterans organization in Chicago.” 

He continued, “He used his role as an executive at Metal Removal to hire hundreds of Assyrians and sponsored many Assyrian families to start new lives in the United States. My father set a standard of volunteerism that helped shape my desire to help others through public service and volunteering my time to uplift others.”
 

Yadgir took those inspirations with him when he moved to NIU as a freshman and lived in Douglas Hall.
 

“I was our D4 floor president, worked at the front desk, and conducted Douglas Hall tours for incoming freshmen and their families,” he said. “It was there that I gained confidence and learned that I liked to help those around me.”

He later moved off campus to the College Square Apartments, where he met his wife, Patricia “Patty” (Bakalis), ’85, M.S.Ed. ’88. The couple have been married for 37 years and have two sons: Mike, 33, and Paul, 30. Patty is a licensed counselor, manages a charter school, serves on the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission and once served on the NIUAA Board of Directors.

“I loved everything about my experiences at NIU, the good, the bad and the ugly; every part of it was a learning and growing experience for me,” Yadgir said. “I came to NIU as a shy freshman with no real direction or plan; when I graduated, I was confident, focused and determined to make my mark on society.”

Yadgir named three professors who had a special impact on him: Ging Smith, Albert Walker and Russ Eldridge.

“Each of them instilled in me a desire to learn and – perhaps more importantly – to apply what I learned on campus to real-life personal and professional settings,” Yadgir said. “Learning is important; knowing how to apply concepts to improve a policy, or streamline a message, or build an organization defined by key principles is priceless. This was an important impact these professors had on me, and I remain grateful to them."

Yadgir said it was shortly after graduating from NIU that he met Jesse White while the now-retired statesman was serving as a state representative in Springfield. 

“After earning my bachelor’s degree from NIU, I started my public service career as a staff member in the Illinois House of Representatives,” he said. “My three years there were comparable to earning a master’s degree. It’s there that I learned the legislative and political process, and it’s there where I learned how impactful state government can be on the lives of the people of Illinois.”

Yadgir describes White as one of the state’s most impactful political leaders.

“As his communications director/senior policy advisory, I was part of the team that executed Jesse White’s agenda for the office: restoring integrity to the office that had been plagued with public corruption and wrongdoing prior to our administration; improving customer service and modernizing the office; and making Illinois roads as safe as possible,” Yadgir said. “I’m proud of our work there, the positive impact we made on the lives of Illinoisans, and for accomplishing key goals that greatly improved the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State.”
 

Yadgir described the goal of his new consulting firm as "working with good people to accomplish good things." In addition to securing paid clients, the firm is committed to giving back by providing pro bono services to worthy causes. The firm will specialize in media relations, crisis communications, internal and external communication strategies, advocacy, and public policy development, implementation, and communication. Yadgir and Haupt are founding partners; Druker will serve as a senior adviser.

To Yadgir, public service is an honorable profession and can be a wonderful, fulfilling career.

“Too often we hear about those who use public service to line their own pockets, resulting in a common belief that public officials and those who work for the government are ‘crooks,’” he said. “This is a debilitating misconception that drives talented, well-meaning people away from public service. The vast majority of those working in the public sector are dedicated public servants who do amazing jobs every day to improve the lives of the public. It deserves to be emphasized that a career in public service empowers a person to accomplish more for the common good than many other career fields. A career in public service can be that powerful if executed correctly and with the right intentions.”

Yadgir said it’s a tremendous honor to be recognized by his alma mater for his career in public service.

“NIU played an outsized role in my life: it is, most importantly, where I met my wife, but it also gave me purpose and direction that have served me well in my life and professional endeavors,” he said. “I have spent most of my career working behind the scenes; to be recognized for my impact on our state is humbling.”