College of Business Administration Award Recipients

ENTREPRENEURIAL AWARD

Daniel Weinfurter, Bus Ad '79, Grad '85

Chicago

Dan has spent his entire career in sales, and his philosophy is rooted in his Jesuit business education. "Selling done correctly is an act of service," he says

Dan launched his career at General Electric, hired into their sales training program after graduation. He has spent the past 25 years as a serial entrepreneur, having started and built to scale four private equity-backed companies, including Parson Group, his first startup that landed in the No. 1 spot on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies.

Today Dan is focused on helping organizations drive growth by improving the skill and execution of sales professionals through GrowthPlay, a Chicago-based, private equity-backed business he founded in 2014.

Dan has also channeled his passion for elevating the sales profession into writing and teaching. He is the author of Second Stage Entrepreneurship: Ten Proven Strategies to Drive Aggressive Growth, and for the past two years, he was an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Dan and his wife Martha Brennan, Nurs ’79, live in downtown Chicago and have two children, Amy, 30, and Andrea, 28.

Fun Facts:
Dream dinner guest: Winston Churchill — a true statesman.
Favorite Marquette memory: Marquette basketball — playing the Soviet Union in a midnight game, and then winning the NCAA Championship during my sophomore year.
Marquette legacy: My parents Betty and Joe, and my siblings John, Mary, Anne, Jane and David.