When in Doubt, Trek It Out

And a Bottle of Rum

After a long day of classes at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Kimberley Charles ’24 JD, MBA and Kiyan Savar ’24 JD, MBA (above) would often decompress with a glass of rum. Charles’ parents hail from Guyana, a nation known for its rum production, and it became her drink of choice. Wanting to understand what makes for the perfect rum blend, Charles and Savar traveled to Guyana, Barbados and Martinique. “Rum is inextricably linked to the history of these nations,” says Charles, who is now developing her own rum brand, Cane Cutter’s Rum. During the trip, Charles discovered that her great-great-grandfather was an indentured servant at the very plantation where she plans to have her own rum distilled by Demerara Distillers. Charles hopes to launch Cane Cutter’s Rum in New York and New Jersey in 2025. She describes the blend as “perfect for a daiquiri while also designed to be sipped neat.” 

Motorbike Mayhem

Your order is “out for delivery.” But how long will it take to get to your door? That final stretch is known as “last-mile delivery” — and Cammie Merten ’23 MBA wanted to know how drivers in some countries, particularly in Asia, deliver packages so quickly, often within a few hours of an order being placed. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Merten found an impressive system of “organized chaos,” with 8 million motorbikes zipping through busy streets and narrow alleyways to make deliveries. “The city’s old infrastructure and traffic density make it almost impossible to efficiently navigate via car,” she says. “However, motorbikes can fit down the narrowest of alleys, and they can park on the sidewalk because of their size.” The trip sparked ideas for Merten, now a consultant at Deloitte. “Should the motorbike be reinvented to fit more passengers or carry more goods? Could you shave seconds or minutes off the delivery process by improving infrastructure? I am not sure, but the idea excites me.”   

Want Some Grub?

Growing up on his family’s farm in Australia, Jonny Vaux ’23 MBA saw the value of insects as a food source for livestock. Today scientists are exploring insects as a potential food source for humans too. Wanting to learn more, Vaux traveled to Tokyo and Tokushima, Japan, as well as southern Vietnam and Singapore to study how insects are produced and marketed and what might persuade a consumer to eat an insect. “Japanese businesses have done an exceptional job at being bold in their product development,” says Vaux. In Tokyo he met chef Yuta Shinohara at Antcicada, a restaurant serving 10-course insect meals. Shinohara explained how he uses beetles that crawl out of spoiled macadamias to produce a macadamia flavor in his jelly dessert. After his trip, Vaux completed a short-term consultant contract with the World Bank, examining startups across Africa that were launching new insect production models. 

Mushrooms for Mental Health

Jim Brazeal (left) and Christina Kappil (right) both have family histories of treatment-resistant depression. Seeking innovations in the mental health field, they visited clinics in Australia that offer psychedelic-assisted therapies. During these recently legalized, therapist-guided sessions, patients consume pharmaceutical-grade psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms. Clinical trials have seen promising results for patients, says Kappil ’24 MS, MBA, but “we see a lot of pushback on psychedelic medicines because the neural mechanics of how they produce healing experiences ... are not yet fully understood.” Brazeal ’24 MBA adds that the war on drugs, which began in the 1970s, has contributed to this stigma. “The [war on drugs] generation still has not fully embraced that some of these psychedelic substances could have therapeutic benefits,” he says. These treatments also remain logistically challenging and too expensive. “We need to continue generating clinical evidence on the effectiveness of these medicines and have more collaborative discussions with regulators, payers and key opinion leaders across the health care system,” Kappil says. She and Brazeal served as co-chairs for Kellogg’s 2024 Business of Psychedelic Therapies Conference. Kappil now works at Sunstone Therapies, which runs clinical trials to set best practices for safe and effective psychedelic medicine. Brazeal is director of operations at Curana Health, where he works on optimizing health care delivery to older adult populations. He hopes to eventually incorporate psychedelic-assisted therapy into that care system.

Any Way You Slice It

Noor Johal ’23 MBA grew up in Punjab, India, where her family owned a small dairy farm. But the farm failed as they lost customers to grocery stores. To find out what made other farms successful, Johal visited Unterseen, Switzerland, where a farmer had begun selling his cheese via a vending machine on his property. Rather than going through a retailer, which would take a cut of his profits, he invested in the quality of his cheese and priced it the way he wanted. “[Now] 85% of his cheese revenue is from that one vending machine,” says Johal in an episode of the Levy Inspiration Grant Program podcast. “The most successful people [are those who try] something new.” 

 

Learn more about the Levy Inspiration Grant Program and listen to the program’s podcast to learn more.