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Monogram Club
Former Notre Dame All-America football player Dave Duerson is in the midst of his two-year term as president of the Monogram Club, after four previous years on the board as a member of the presidential rotation. He will serve as the Club's president until June of 2005, when Julie Doyle will begin her own two-year presidential term. Duerson has been a tremendous success story on several levels, playing for two Super Bowl championship teams in 11 NFL seasons before embarking on an impressive business career. He currently is president, CEO and founder of Duerson Foods, LCC, which opened in 2002 and provides sausage production for 40% of the Burger King system (among others). The high-volume operation recently moved into a state-of-the-art facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. - with 2003 revenues in the $50 million range. A graduate of the owner/president management program in the Harvard Business School's executive education program, Duerson previously served as majority owner, president and CEO of Fair Oaks Farms ('95-'02), the breakfast sausage supplier for McDonald's. Under his leadership, FOF nearly tripled its profitability in a seven-year span, with sales growing from $24 to $63 million. His company Duerson Capital Holdings sold its majority interest in Fair Oaks Farms in February, 2002. To diversify its product offering, a partnership with Johnsonville Sausage, LLC, was forged in September, 2002, and the new Duerson Foods plant officially was opened by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in April, 2003. He first was given the opportunity as majority owner of Fair Oaks Farms in April 1995, through his affiliation as a McDonald's Hamburger University graduate and as an owner/operator of McDonald's Restaurants in Louisville, Ky.
Duerson - the 2001 recipient of the prestigious Sorin Award from the Notre Dame Alumni Association - sserves his alma mater on the highest level as a University trustee and formerly was a member of on the College of Business executive board. He also is chairman of the Dave Duerson Foundation, which caters to students pursuing entrepreneurial studies, and has served as a leading member of the athletic department's mentoring program. He also was president and founder of a marketing and research company and was the president and founder of two statewide substance abuse prevention networks. He has served as an advisor to several schools and educational clubs, is also a member of the Board of Directors of Carthage College (located in Kenosha, Wis.) and is a shareholder and director of the United Community Bank of Lisle (Ill.). The two-time All-America defensive back and tri-captain for the '82 Irish football team set a still-standing Notre Dame record for career interception yardage (256) before graduating with a degree in economics. He played for the NFL's Chicago Bears, New York Giants and Phoenix Cardinals, earning four all-Pro honors and winning Super Bowl titles with the '85 Bears and '90 Giants.
In recognition of his charitable work with substance abuse prevention and Special Olympics, Duerson was named the 1987 NFL Man of the Year, the '88 NFL Humanitarian of the Year and the '90 Monogram Club Member of the Year. For 20 years, he has sponsored free football camps in Chicago and his hometown of Muncie, Ind., with the camps teaching football fundamentals and stressing the value of education while alerting participants to the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. Also a sports radio personality in the Chicago area, Duerson resides in Highland Park, Ill., with his wife Alicia and their four children. His son Tregg is a defensive back on the Notre Dame football team, playing his first season for the Irish as a freshman in 2004. |
      
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