Inspiration

Innovation DuPage is excited to announce that four of its affiliates have won 2022 Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards from The Daily Herald Suburban Business

Olivia Heine, or Oli, as she prefers to be called, is in a word, striking. All angular cheekbones, with an unapologetic, edgy undercut interrupting her inky black hair, and three symmetrical, painted black dots adorning the right side of her forehead.

De Vega Concrete was built with the tireless work and steady hands of Fidel Vega, a Marines veteran whose belief in the importance of hard work and collaboration helped his company grow from the ground up.

Urban Roots is a snow removal and landscaping company run by husband and wife duo, Jimmie and Tiffany Willams. Urban Roots has grown from having only two clients to serving the entire Western suburbs, and has been featured in the Chicago Sun Times, CBS News, and iHeart Media as a startup business to watch.

From a career at a household-name luxury tech company to carpentry, you could say that Jaime Villagran’s path to the construction industry was unconventional. Eight years as a high-level recruiter there taught him to identify and nurture the best talent but left him wanting more for himself and his future employees. Jaime combined his hobby of carpentry, empathetic nature and HR expertise to launch Construo Construction, a company that is setting a new precedent for customer service in the industry.

Lauren Barron received an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management; she is also the founder and co-owner of Gray Matters Games (GMG). GMG is a company that creates lively and cognitively challenging board game experiences for people with active minds. Through its games, Gray Matters promotes community, encourages fun and gives back to Alzheimer’s research. She shares her advice on how to tackle the challenging times ahead.