Kellogg Alumnus Supports Future Students with a Bequest

Brad Kime '86 MBA Gives Back to School That Helped Him Launch Career As An Entrepreneur

In 2008, after 20-plus years in the corporate banking world, Brad Kime ’86 MBA decided to make a bold transition to the world of tech start-ups. In early 2019, he joined his fifth start-up venture since 2009—Alice Financial, which aims to simplify pre-tax spending plans for businesses and their employees. Kime now serves as senior vice president.

As an alumnus planning his move into a new field, Kime had returned to the Kellogg School of Management to work with executive coach Matthew Temple, director of Alumni Career & Professional Development. “The services Kellogg offers free to alumni were invaluable,” Kime says. The school‘s Career Management Center provided access to expertise and encouragement that were key to helping Kime reposition his career and reinvent himself.

Today, Kime is an entrepreneur, a mentor, and a strategic adviser who translates his years of experience into shrewd guidance for innovative emerging leaders. He assists his clients by channeling their energy and enthusiasm into practical, tactical action. Kime has found his work over the last decade game-changing and invigorating.

In addition to his leadership role in the start-up world, Kime also owns a bar called Tini in Indianapolis, not far from his hometown of Goshen, Indiana. He opened the bar on the city‘s Mass Ave, a revitalized district of art and entrepreneurship, and it has grown from a 31-seat space in 2011 to more than six times that size today.

One of the biggest lessons Kime learned as a student at Kellogg was how to work successfully on a team that he did not necessarily choose. “In the work world, it is rare that you can pick your colleagues—yet you have to produce a high-quality common product with people who may have very different experiences and temperaments from yours,” he says. Being at Kellogg taught Kime how to collaborate and how to be a constructive team member and leader. These lessons have been instrumental to his career success over time, across the fields of banking and start-ups, and on his own journey as an entrepreneur.

When considering the decision to make a bequest to Kellogg, Kime thought about giving back to an institution that helped him launch his own career and life. Bequests—often made through a will or trust—allow donors to retain control over their assets during their lifetime. These gifts also allow Kellogg to offer a transformative educational experience to the next generation of students and future alumni.

Kime‘s bequest will create the Bradley J. Kime Scholarship Fund to support students pursuing studies in entrepreneurship.

“If I can help others have the kind of experience that I have had—throughout the years as part of the Kellogg community—that feels like the right thing to do,” he says.

Help Transform Lives and Careers

To help others benefit from a transformative experience like the one you had, please contact Northwestern Gift Planning at 800-826-6709 or giftplanning@northwestern.edu to discuss making a bequest or other gift in your estate plan.