Driven ByPrinciples of InnovationThe goal of the Chicago Innovation Awards is to recognize, educate and inspire.Richard Strezo
Rick Strezo is a senior partner with Kuczmarski & Associates, specializing in new- product development for manufacturing, technology and consumer packaged goods companies. His professional achievements encompass a breadth of industries, including specialty and process chemicals, food, biopharmaceuticals, financial services, personal care, high-tech and telecommunications.
Beyond extensive work in the development of new products, Mr. Strezo's experience includes new-product and market assessments/feasibility studies, overall marketing strategies, market segmentation and stage-gate and portfolio-management processes. Strezo led an engagement to assist a major consumer packaged foods company in the creation of a new-product development process as well as in the actual development of new products. During this project, Strezo and his team generated a new-products strategic vision for the organization; conducted extensive customer and competitive primary and secondary research; created a predictive model of consumer behavior; led the generation of several hundred new product ideas; identified and developed the highest-potential product concepts; and authored new-product business cases for each concept.
The strength of these product concepts developed by Mr. Strezo's project team has led the company to move the most promising candidates into full product development and to recognize them as top corporate priorities. Previously, Mr. Strezo headed an engagement with a private investor and NASA to identify commercial investment opportunities that could derive the greatest benefit from R&D access to microgravity (i.e., Earth-orbiting) environments. In this very unique project, Strezo and his team determined the benefits of microgravity research; identified broad-based scientific disciplines most closely aligned with these benefits; conducted extensive primary and secondary research to explore specific areas and applications within each discipline relative to needs and potential problem/solution fit; identified the most viable applications; and translated them into actionable business opportunities with recommendations for execution.
As a direct result of this work, the client and NASA signed the latter's first major contract with the private sector to develop commercial and medical biotechnology products. In turn, this licensing agreement allowed the investor to enter a joint venture with a biotech organization, which was identified in the engagement's recommended business models, in order to pursue research of certain infectious diseases and the development of a liver-assist device for transplant patients. Prior to joining Kuczmarski & Associates, Mr. Strezo served as CFO for Arlington International Racecourse, Inc., a premier thoroughbred horse racing facility. Before that, he was a manager in the Strategic Services practice of Andersen Consulting, where he focused on strategic planning, marketing strategy, supply chain analysis and business process re-engineering. Additionally, Strezo worked as an organic research chemist at DeSoto, Inc. and The Stepan Company, specializing in new product development, applied research and hazardous waste management.
Strezo earned his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, where he was elected to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. His areas of concentration were marketing, finance and policy studies. He obtained his B.S. degree in chemistry from Loyola University of Chicago where he received the American Institute of Chemists' Award as "the outstanding undergraduate student majoring in chemistry."