Episode 22: Mark Agnew
“And the neurosurgeon rotated the screen with the CAT scan, and I remember thinking, ‘that shouldn’t be there.’”
About Mark
Mark is an adjunct associate professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
After stints in finance and startups, Mark joined Lou Malnati’s in 2011 as CFO, and was quickly promoted to CEO after an investment from Byron Trott’s BDT capital. Under his watch, the company grew to over 4,000 people and 58 company-owned locations while, most importantly, retaining its family culture and being ranked as a top workplace by the Chicago Tribune nine years in a row.
In 2019, Mark was diagnosed with stage 2 brain cancer.
He was scared, but it was his children, specifically his 9-year old daughter, who lit his next spark, which grew into an inferno of passion that ultimately led to the founding of the Pickles Group, a nonprofit for kids affected by a parent’s cancer. The idea? These kids were going through unimaginable emotional trauma and often felt alone among their peers, who simply couldn’t relate. But – if they only had each other, if they could share their experience with other youth affected by a parent’s cancer, this support network would become a lifeline, a survival tool to navigate the darkness.
Since its first youth meeting in 2021, Pickles has enrolled almost 100 youth in the program, completed over 20 group sessions, distributed over 1,500 family support kits, and now counts 10 Chicagoland hospitals as referring partners.
