Alumni Spotlight: Michael Quinlan, MBA ‘70

Whenever we do an alumni spotlight here at MetroMBA, we make sure to pick a prominent alumni to profile. In this instance the alumni is so prominent, that the graduate school he attended ultimately ended up re-naming their school after him. Sure, Michael Quinlan donated $40 million to Loyola University which undoubtedly played a part, but Quinlan’s impact on the school and each company he worked for revolves around more than just dollars and cents.

Quinlan is a native of Chicago, growing up on the city’s Far West Side. The son of a traveling salesman and a stay-at-home mother, Quinlan was the first member of his family to attend college. He attended Loyola University for undergraduate school thanks to a full-tuition scholarship provided by the school. Quinlan graduated from Loyola for the first time in 1967 after taking classes in the College of Arts & Sciences.

How did this Chicago native of humble beginnings end up running the world’s largest fast food chain and donating $40 million? The Chicago Tribune explains Quinlan’s “origin story” in a 2012 article titled “Loyal to Loyola”:

Michael Quinlan was 18 years old, a broke college student at Loyola University Chicago, when a fraternity brother suggested his mother might be able to help Quinlan get a job.

The mother was the secretary for Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, and Quinlan began working in the company’s mailroom so he could pay for books and living expenses.

“She hired me for $2 an hour and there you go, that took up the next 40 years of my life,” said Quinlan, who went on to become McDonald’s CEO and chairman of the Loyola board of trustees.

Though he wasn’t necessarily flipping burgers, Quinlan went on to work between 20 – 25 hours a week at McDonalds’ corporate office downtown while in school, before getting a job in the company’s purchasing department following his graduation. It was at this time that Quinlan enrolled in Loyola’s evening MBA program and got his master’s degree in 1970.

Quinlan worked his way up through the corporate ranks — including roles as a purchasing director, store manager, regional manager, vice president and president — for 35 years before being named McDonalds’ third CEO, a position he held for 11 years until 1998.

As CEO of the Golden Arches, Quinlan helped develop the Egg McMuffin, and once joked in an interview that he ate about 2,000 of them in order to perfect the sandwich. According to Fortune, Quinlan did not have a relationship with Wall Street and shunned analysts.

His primary achievement was the dramatic overseas growth of McDonald’s — after being named as chairman of the board in 1990, Quinlan pledged to spread the company to Eastern Europe and China, moves that worked to his favor. Company stock grew more than 400 percent during his time in charge. Quinlan retired from that post in 1999, at which point he took on his current role as chairman of the Board of Trustees at Loyola.

In 2012, Quinlan gifted $40 million to the Loyola University School of Business Administration, after which point the SBA and its affiliated Graduate School of Business became known as Loyola’s Michael R. Quinlan School of Business. The gift was the largest that the SBA had ever received and the largest gift ever to the University from an alumnus.

Following the endowment, Loyola President and CEO Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., issued a statement:

“This is a momentous occasion for Loyola and for our students. We are very grateful to Mike Quinlan for his continued generosity and for his enduring commitment to his alma mater. Mike’s leadership and service—in business, in the community, and as chairman of our Board of Trustees—exemplify the best of a Loyola University Chicago education. His support of Loyola’s mission, and this gift for our current and future business students in particular, will have a transformative impact on business education for years to come.”

Kathleen A. Getz, who was the school’s dean at the time of the gift, added:

“The power of a naming gift far exceeds its monetary value,” says. “This vote of confidence sends a clear message to our students and to the business community that our school is a sound investment with bold plans for the future. We are so grateful to Mike Quinlan for helping us write our next chapter.”

This wasn’t the only instance of Quinlan giving back to his alma mater. Quinlan and his wife, Marilyn, donated approximately one-third of the $40 million raised to construct the new Life Sciences Building at Loyola, completed in 2004. The building was dedicated as the Michael R. and Marilyn C. Quinlan Life Sciences Education and Research Center on December 3, 2004.

And the school has given back to Quinlan in return. In 2005, in recognition of a lifetime of humanitarian service, Quinlan was awarded the Sword of Loyola. He has also been awarded Honorary Doctors of Law Degrees from Loyola University Chicago (LUC), Elmhurst College and Illinois Benedictine College.

regions: Chicago

About the Author