Meet Gregory Cooney, Owner and Partner CMO of Educational Environments
Get to know Gregory, a new member of the EFBC.
Educational Environments
Founded: 1967
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL
Tell us about your career leading up to where you are now:
Well I’ve been at Educational Environments much longer than I care to admit! I worked in menswear as a buyer for a time before starting here, but I basically grew up in this business. My father owned the company, but my brother, my sister and myself have run it for 40 years now. The company itself has been in business for 56 years. I joined thinking it would be something transitional but ended up liking the work, so I made a career out of it. My focus is in sales, marketing, and design.
What do you like most about what you do?
Having the focus of providing furniture solutions that encourage new learning models and ways of teaching that are more relevant to students today makes it very engaging to be doing this work.
How did you hear about the EFBC?
Interestingly enough I heard about it from a “friendly competitor” also in this field! They had been involved in EFBC for a number of years, and I was speaking to him at a conference where he mentioned EFBC to myself and my daughter as something that may benefit our company.
Why did you join, and what do you hope to gain from your membership?
Looking for resources around succession planning or a transition to a new generation of the family was important to me. Learning more about Forum and doing my first Forum session, now my team and my daughter’s are more interested in joining Forum too. It’s really nice to have those outside resources, especially when you’re a family business, because it’s easy to get tunnel vision. Having these outside influences helps us to avoid that tunnel vision and the different perspectives are something I really appreciate and can learn a lot from.
Join us in welcoming Gregory to the EFBC community.