ND Business Briefings: May 2023 alumni news and updates

The Side Hustle of Side Street Golf

The culture of golf is changing, with the sport becoming more inclusive and relaxed. And for Bob Huguelet (BBA ‘10), those shifts have presented an opportunity for innovation.

Bob Huguelet

Living and working in Chicago, Huguelet uses his bike as his primary transportation to and from the golf course, which means transporting his hefty, awkwardly shaped bag via bike, too. In the city, biking to the course is fairly common, making Huguelet’s solution – the Back9 Golf Bag Backpack – an innovative product for not only himself but for a budding market of younger, urban golfers.

In 2021, Huguelet, whose day job is in software consulting, spent nights in his garage developing prototypes of a bag that was easily transportable. Eventually, that led to contacting manufacturers to bring the concept of the Back9 Golf Bag Backpack to life. In 2022, he created a Kickstarter campaign to launch his side hustle and the brand Side Street Golf was born. That initial campaign sold 150 units.

Although an entrepreneur today, Huguelet actually majored in IT Management while an undergraduate student at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. However, he believes his education provided the business fundamentals he needed to start his own business, and even just the atmosphere of innovation in the College had a significant impact.

“It wasn’t just about the classes I took or the coursework that helped me in starting Side Street Golf,” said Huguelet. “It was more about the people you get to be around on campus who think the same way you do and have the mindset that Mendoza fosters.”

In 2022, Huguelet made his way back to Notre Dame to compete in the IDEA Center’s annual McCloskey New Venture Competition. But his biggest breakthrough of the year occurred when the brand Cleveland Golf reached out about developing their own original design of the Back9 Golf Bag Backpack. Huguelet’s design fulfilled a need in Europe for a smaller, easily transportable bag that they customized with a pocket to fit wedge heads and golf shafts. Cleveland ordered 800 of this customized version, which was life-changing for the fledgling brand.

Today, the Back9 Golf Bag Backpack is available at the Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame and on Side Street Golf website. Huguelet hopes 2023 will be the year that Side Street Golf transitions from being his part-time passion to his full-time career.

“I want to develop more colors for the bag, since it only comes in one at the moment,” said Huguelet. “I also want to consider what other trends and needs there are for golfers in the city that Side Street Golf can fulfill.”

Career Updates:

• Rick Carrico (MBA ‘02) has been appointed the chief financial officer for Baptist Health, Kentucky’s largest health system.
• Angie Dvorak (MBA ‘22) has been appointed as the chief marketing + growth officer for Teachers Credit Union.
• Bill Fagan (MBA ‘17) has been named manager of wholesale region sales-Northeast for CITGO Petroleum Corp.
• Sarah Hohenberger (MBA ‘21) has been named the vice president of Zepponi & Company.
• Julie Kousen (MBA ’07) has been named chief of staff at INSIGEO Financial in Miami, FL.
• John Levitske (MBA ‘79) has joined HKA as a partner in the Chicago office.
• Ryan Peene (MNA ‘10) was named SVP/chief depository officer of Unity Bank.

• Thomas Prame (MBA ‘95) was named the next chief executive officer of Horizon Bancorp Inc. and Horizon Bank as of June 1.
• Brendon Scott (MBA ‘00) founded and is a managing member of the new premium cigar company Ferio Tego, LLC.
• Jeff Stewart (MBA ’04) will publish his first book, Living: Inspiration from a Father with Cancer, on May 15.
• Caroline Vérot Moore (MBA ‘99) has been appointed executive vice president – Houston market president of Amerant Bank.
• Andrea Voisard (MNA ’06) has been appointed as director of Goodwill Industries of Michiana Nurse-Family Partnership Operations.

Honors:

• Anmol Malhotra (BBA ‘11) was named to Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.

• Dev Sethi (BBA ‘06) was named to Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.

Featured:

• Rico Casares (MBA ‘02) was featured as an expert on the Gaining Perspective Podcast on the episode, “How to Position Your Practice for Growth in 2023.”

If you are a Mendoza alumnus and would like your accomplishments to be celebrated in our next business briefings story, please submit them to mendozabusiness@nd.edu.