Faculty Directory
Mark Karasek

Adjunct Professor

Contact

2311 Campus Drive
Suite 1400
Evanston, IL 60208

Email Mark Karasek

Departments

Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences

Affiliations

Master of Engineering Management Program

Education

PhD, Polymer Science, The Pennsylvania State University

MSME, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

BS in Engineering Mechanics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Biography

Mark Karasek is Executive Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer of The Chamberlain Group, a privately held corporation with 5000+ employees worldwide and a global leader in the Access and Security markets. The company delivers innovative connected products and services in the residential and commercial garage door opener and vehicle access categories and is a recognized leader in the emerging IoT space. Mark has led innovation at Chamberlain for almost 20 years and has managed an active intellectual property portfolio. He has been a key part of the leadership team that has transformed the company from a consumer and commercial durables manufacturer into a connected ecosystem leader. He has extensive experience in the toolsets of innovation including stage-gate, agile and lean start-up.

Mark joined The Chamberlain Group as a Senior Project Engineer in 1994 and has held various technical leadership roles in the company. He was promoted to Vice President of Engineering in 1999, Executive Vice President in 2005, and added the CTO title in 2007. Prior to joining Chamberlain, he held engineering positions at Illinois Tool Works, The Applied Research Laboratory at The Pennsylvania State University, and Wilson Sporting Goods.

Mark is a Senior Fellow of The Kellogg Innovation Network, an industry group focused on innovation best practices. He is active in the Chicago startup community as a board member of mHUB, an innovation center focused on product-based startups and manufacturing technology. He is also on the advisory board of the Masters of Product Design and Development Program at Northwestern University. Mark is a Distinguished Fellow and past President of the National Knowledge and Intellectual Property Management Taskforce, a consortium of companies focused on intellectual property management. He has been active in the not-for-profit community, serving as an elected member of the local school board, participating in various church and community committees, and providing strategic planning consultation to several non-profit organizations. He has served on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at the University of Illinois.

Courses Taught

MEM 420 Organizing for Innovation