Derrick Collins

Pitch Coach

Dean for the College of Business at Chicago State University

Derrick Collins serves as the Dean for the College of Business at Chicago State University. Under Mr. Collins’ stewardship, the College of Business has expanded its curriculum offerings to enhance students’ industry-specific and technical proficiencies, including entrepreneurship, provide international business training and exposure via global internships, in addition to positioning the College to offer an MBA program that began in Fall 2019.

Previous to CSU, Mr. Collins was Assistant Clinical Professor of Finance at Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg School of Management where he developed and taught the course, Venture Capital and Private Equity Investing, as well as serve as lecturer for the course, Entrepreneurial Finance . Mr. Collins taught in Kellogg’s full-time and part-time MBA programs as well as its Executive Managers’ Program .

Mr. Collins began his academic career while serving as a General Partner of Polestar Capital Partners, an early- to growth-stage venture capital partnership focused on investing in minority-controlled technology companies. It was this experience in the venture capital community that served as the platform for Mr. Collins to successfully teach private equity in a higher education environment.

Prior to Polestar, Mr. Collins served as President of Shorebank Capital Corporation, the venture capital subsidiary of Shorebank Corporation, an Illinois bank holding company. Mr. Collins began his finance career as a Commercial Loan Officer in Shorebank’s banking subsidiary, South Shore Bank.

Mr. Collins has lectured extensively on the topic of private equity, venture capital, and minority entrepreneurship and has received accolades for his ability to convey complex financial and business concepts to financially-sophisticated and novice audiences, alike. Some of the venues include the Credit Suisse International Business School, the National Minority Supplier Development Council’s Advanced Management Education Program , the National Football League’s Player Development Program , the National Basketball Players Association’s High Growth Entrepreneurship Program , the Chicago Urban League’s NextOne Program , the Wall Street Journal’s Black Entrepreneurship in America Conference , and guest appearances on Chicago’s WGN-TV Minority Business Report , WVON Radio’s Urban Business Roundtable , as well as numerous other private and public conferences and meetings.

Mr. Collins currently serves on the board of Cinnaire (formerly known as Great Lakes Capital Fund), a full-service community development finance institution principally serving the Midwestern United States, Delaware, and New York in the areas of affordable housing and community economic development.

Derrick Collins earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Prairie View A&M University and his M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.