Academic Degrees
- MBA, St. Mary's University, Texas
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BS, Economics, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Biography
Ron Hirasawa is an instructor, marketing consultant and executive coach.
He joined DePaul's Department of Marketing 2011. Hirasawa lectures on marketing, entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, ethics and strategic management. He has taught online courses for the last six years at DePaul. He believes passionately in hands-on practice of course concepts to maximize learning and performance.
Hirasawa structured the merger and acquisition of three food companies reaching nine figures in annual sales and was president and CEO of operations at General Products & Services Corporation. He has provided marketing services, strategic planning, promotion planning and marketing communications for PepsiCo, Union Carbide, Frito-Lay, Durkee-French, General Foods and Nutrasweet/Equal.
Prior to that, he directed marketing for the U.S. operations of Ragold Inc. (Velamints brand), He worked at Don Tennant Advertising, Leo Burnett Advertising, United Brands/John Morrell, S.C. Johnson and Procter & Gamble.
Hirasawa has written, casted, directed and edited TV commercials and print ads. He helped create an in-house TV production facility for the U.S. Army and S.C. Johnson. He created unique recipes and snack products for Ultima Foods. He has cooked and served his innovative Spanish Valencian-style paella recipe (using salsa) for thousands of Chicago consumers, including a private dinner for Mayor Richard M. Daley, Jr.
He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam conflict, reaching the rank of captain in the Medical Services Corp. He is a trained Synectics and focus group facilitator. He authored 20 hours of cybertext on "Marketing for Small Businesses" for Commerce Clearing House.