Great experience, life-long friendships, and a husband – Heather McLindsay-Dean knew how to take advantage of everything the Northern Star offered.

Heather met her husband, Kevin Dean, because of the Star.

“I came to the Blackhawk Cafeteria so I could interview for the sales assistant position and remember thinking Kevin was quite handsome,” Heather says. “Later, Kevin began to flirt with me by doing really macho things like knocking the stack of newspapers off my desk”

As a sales assistant, Heather immediately impressed her co-workers.

“She arrived promptly the day after we hired her and was eager to learn her new role,” says Heather Westberg, who worked in the advertising department at the time. “She was professional in every aspect. I was extremely impressed with how she quickly learned and made an impact from day one in the advertising department.”

Besides the Star, Heather also was active in other school activities as well, including serving as president of the American Marketing Association her senior year.

After graduating in 1999 with a B.S. in marketing, Heather started working in pharmaceutical sales for Eli Lilly. After just five months on the job, she increased her Chicago sales territory’s productivity by 55 percent and improved its ranking from 417/510 to 137/510.

“All the experiences that I had while working as an adverting representative for the Star have gone unbelievably far in preparing me for many of my professional situations,” Heather says. “I learned a lot about knowing my product, learning how to position what I could offer, taking rejection, developing relationships, servicing accounts and everything else that goes along with the area.”

After two years in sales, Heather was promoted to a marketing role in the Insulin Brand Team. A year later she was transferred to the launch team for a new medication, Strattera. Heather played a critical role in introducing the new product, which is known as the most successful neuroscience product launch in history.

“Heather is this wonderful mix of being completely driven and focused, but at the same time she genuinely cares about others,” said Maria Krull, Star business adviser. “You can absolutely count on her.”

TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc. recruited Heather last November because of her sales and marketing experience. She is a senior product manager currently working on the launch of a new product for later this year.