Within minutes of speaking with Jim SchiefelbeinBaird & Warner's vice president, chief marketing officerone thing quickly becomes clear: He is a passionate guy who loves tackling new experiences and taking on challenges.
One of his newest challenges is his appointment as the chairman of the board of directors for the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust ( FLWPT ) . Schiefelbein has served on the FLWPT board since 2005, coming to the organization's attention through his work with Baird & Warner in the mid-2000s marketing the Heurtley House. "Frank Lloyd Wright has long been a design hero of mine and an iconoclastic hero of mine," he said.
Schiefelbein was born in Wisconsin, but is quick to point out that Chicago provided the backdrop for much of his growing up since his aunt and uncle lived in the city and his family visited often. "I summered a lot in Chicago with my aunt and uncle. They're kind of like my parents, if you will," he said.
Even after his family relocated to Florida, Schiefelbein still made trips back to Chicago and considered the city his home.
The road from journalism to real estate marketing began with an invitation from his aunt and uncle to join them in Chicago: "I was offered a number of internships where you could either eat or have a roof over your head, but not both." Instead, he took a position at a temp agency "because I am a writer and I like to explore new things I walked in and said I don't care send me anywhere," he said. One Friday, just as he was making plans to enjoy himself on a day off, the temp agency called with an assignment to fill in for a receptionist at Merrill Lynch Realty.
Schiefelbein has had a long and successful career in real estate marketing, pushing himself each day to come up with something fresh. Some of his accomplishments include, being recognized as one of the Nations Top 12 Real Estate Marketers, creating Chicago's first real estate website, and, most recently, he and his Baird & Warner team were awarded, "Best Overall Website," "Best Property Search" and "Best Property Advertising" at the 2010 Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.
He has also made significant contributions to the LGBT community over the years, both at Baird & Warner and through his involvement with The NAMES Project. He began volunteering with The Names Project in the mid-'90s.
"AIDS has affected our community and in the early days of the plague it was, you know, all the funerals that we were going to, it was absolutely overwhelming," he said. "I think that the quilt [ activist ] Cleve Jones' brilliant idea of the quiltwas a way that enabled people to grieve and memorialize all these lives that were being lost.
"I have so many friends and people who were more than friends that passed away. My late partner passed away in 2002 and we were together for 14 years, and he was taken from me. It was something that was personal and political at the same time and it was a way I think for us to do something, positive, creative, to take a stand against this enemy. We didn't have anything else. That's how I got involved, in memory of a lot of my friends and to keep their memories alive."
His involvement increased, first through public-relations work with the Chicago chapter, which led to crafting a media plan for them. Then, in 1996, he was asked to join the board of directors. In 2004, he became a regional representative. "I had oversight responsibility for NAMES Chapters throughout the Midwest and Northeast," he said. "I held that role until 2006, stepping down after successfully gathering together Quilt chapters from around the U.S. for a major conference in Atlanta, the current home of the Quilt," he explained.
With each endeavor, Schiefelbein is committed to taking a fresh approach: "One of the reasons that I've been doing this as long as I've been doing it is that it's always been fresh to me, and I've always approached it as something that was, every single day, brand new."
Find out more about Jim Schiefelbeinincluding the pivotal day that launched his real estate careeronline at www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com .