Copyright International Consultants and Associates 2008
O-H Community Partners, Chicago, ILL.
Ms. Onyeagoro already has a life like a movie script. Born in Boston to Nigerian parents who were there while her father attended Harvard University, she and her six older siblings stayed behind when he returned to Nigeria, leaving his wife, a nurse, to raise the kids.
Ms. Onyeagoro learned resourcefulness by watching her mother save enough for a house and secure scholarships for her children's education. After earning an economics degree from Harvard, Ms. Onyeagoro worked as a management consultant and then an investment analyst for Pritzker Realty Group L.P. in Chicago. But she always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur.
"She poured her heart and soul into what she did for us, but you could see that her ambition would carry her beyond these walls," says John Poe, the Pritzker Realty vice-president who hired her.
Today, Ms. Onyeagoro and partner Kim Hunt run a consulting firm that helps communities build sustainable economies. Founded in 2005, the firm expects revenue this year of $750,000 and is on the verge of merging with another consultancy, which would add $250,000 more.
One project, in Bronzeville, aims to stem an annual resident-spending outflow of $450 million by helping property owners rehab buildings to attract tenants selling the kinds of goods and services now found only outside the neighborhood.
Another, in Green Bay, Wis., supports housing revitalization. That work also could pave the way for Ms. Onyeagoro's ultimate dream: working on projects in Nigeria. "We're using our work outside Chicago to learn how we might run satellite operations around the world," she says.
O-H (Onyeagoro-Hunt) Community Partners combined their efforts with International Consultants and Associates (IC&A) in 2007 to explore ways to work in Africa.