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“While I was working at Quaker, I always found it a challenge to find space that was comfortable and interesting …space that was fun and would fuel people’s imagination,” she says. Her total investment was $115,000 but after 15 months, the business is profitable. Randolph St., the 9,000-square-foot loft is separated into three meeting spaces splashed with color and stocked with toys, antique furniture, even a large hammock. Her year-old company, Catalyst Ranch, is positioned to be an antidote to mind-numbing meeting space. I was ready to go and start something new.”īut what the CPA-turned-product development executive did next is something few furloughed workers would consider in the midst of a recession: She put every dime of her severance and a second mortgage on her house into launching her own business. marketing executive Eva Niewiadomski got the news: After surviving waves of layoffs since PepsiCo’s 2001 acquisition of Quaker, she was out. Right before Labor Day 2002, Quaker Oats Co. Eva is also deeply passionate about the positive effects of art and environment on youth, working with LYDIA Home, on the Capital Campaign for the Griffin Arts Center, as a Board Member of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and the Advisory Committee for Big Draw Chicago.Įntrepreneur taps severance for meeting space. She’s traveled extensively bringing home lots of goodies which adorn both her home and the Ranch. It’s easier to work hard knowing that you’re having a positive impact.” Eva’s interests are vast and varied, drawing her to explore the wonders of Chicago’s theaters, music, art exhibits, restaurants and neighborhoods. “It warms my heart to hear clients embrace what I’ve created here at the Ranch and testify how it’s helped them be innovative in the truest sense of the word. Let alone what crazy new marketing idea will be generated over lunch. You never know what interesting person you’ll get to meet that day or riveting story that you’ll be told. Eva particularly enjoys coming to work on the dreariest of Chicago days knowing she’ll be surrounded by all shapes and sizes and personalities of Ranch Hands and clients. She has the best job of all – buying all (and making some of) the furnishings, artwork and tchotchkes which create the Ranch’s unique environment. Which explains all the doting that goes on. Catalyst Ranch is Eva’s brainchild and her only child.