Each semester, Clinical Assistant Professor Steve Raquel’s marketing courses at Gies Business draw hundreds of students with their blend of real-world assignments, candid feedback, and a dash of engaging theatrics.

“You quickly realize this class is going to be different,” said Marco Aranda, a marketing and information systems major who graduated in May 2025. “He connects with us by sharing stories from his personal life and career, creating an environment where you’re receptive because you know his insights come from relevant experiences.”

Aranda’s final project for BADM 323: Marketing Communications illustrates how Raquel’s syllabi keep pace with the velocity of change in the field of marketing. Students created a promotional ad for a local business, using generative AI at every stage, from voice emulation for celebrity endorsements to script refinement and sourcing b-roll stock footage.

Another project taught Nik Johnson (AHS ’24) about the power of collaboration and practical marketing skills.

“There we were – this big, diverse group of students -- in the pouring rain at the mall, interviewing random shoppers on what they thought about Burlington,” said Johnson, who earned a business minor from Gies. “It taught me the importance of field work in understanding consumer perspectives on a brand.”

“My primary goal has always been to prepare students for success in their first job,” said Raquel. “While the core principles of positioning, brand equity, and the 4Ps remain constant, the methods of content creation and distribution are constantly evolving.”

"Professor Raquel really expanded my horizon into more long-term thinking,” said Dan Sargeant (BA ’22), a corporate development analyst at data insights provider DTN. “When you're in a leadership position, you need a plan that looks beyond the next quarter to long-term strategies.” 

These are just a few of the many ways Raquel has impacted his students since joining Gies Business as a full-time clinical assistant professor in 2020. He currently teaches a range of courses, including BADM 360: Digital Marketing, BADM 420: Advanced Marketing Management, BADM 520: Marketing Management, and the popular MBA 545: Marketing in a Digital World.  

Coming full circle

Raquel’s journey to a marketing career included a few unexpected turns. He grew up in Champaign, the son of a physician who migrated from the Philippines and chose a college town to raise his family after his residency in New York City. He initially enrolled at the University of Illinois as a pre-med student.

Realizing his passion laid elsewhere, Raquel explored architecture and communications before earning his undergraduate and master’s degrees in advertising. During this time, he worked as a teaching assistant for longtime Gies marketing professor Cele Otnes.

“My early career path gave me a broad understanding of the different ways companies market themselves,” said Raquel, who has witnessed the evolution of digital and social media marketing firsthand – from the initial rise of the internet in the 1990s to the emergence of social media platforms like Facebook and X – as well as Google and the Metaverse.

Raquel’s industry experience is extensive. He began as a senior account executive on the McDonald’s account at Frankel & Co. and when they became a lead sponsor of the 1996 Olympics, Raquel was recruited by the US Olympic Committee to manage 75+ sponsorships across categories. Ultimately, this expertise led him to a marketing manager role at McDonald’s.

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Raquel switched gears to work for a rapidly growing airport security firm that had secured large Department of Homeland Security contracts. He later returned to sports marketing with Allstate, worked at ad agency DDB Chicago, and then joined Masterplan Group Advisors, an NFL agent, as its Director of Marketing. During this period, he helped found a sports social media network and launched his own social media agency, IOV Media.

Raquel returned to the University of Illinois campus in 2014 as a guest lecturer for the College of Media. In 2015, he was given the opportunity to teach digital marketing at Gies Business and continued to teach in both colleges.

One of Raquel’s signature moments came in 2019. He was teaching a class that was three hours long, and one of his students – a single mother with a 6-month-old baby – said she wouldn’t be able to come to class because she couldn’t find a babysitter.

“I told her, ‘Just come. It’s ok. I’ll take care of the baby,’” Raquel recalled. “It was fine. I held the baby for the whole three-hour class, but it wrecked my shoulder. About a month later, the same situation happened again. I told her, ‘That’s fine, just bring a baby carrier next time. And I don’t care if you sleep. I don’t care what you do. I’m going to take care of this baby for the next three hours.’ My mom was an incredible, caring person, and I think that’s what motivated me to be empathetic to people’s situations.”

It's a mindset that has carried into his teaching – and has continued since he became a full-time specialized faculty member in 2020.

“As a specialized faculty, I bring real-world challenges directly into the classroom and design assignments that mirror the kind of content and deadlines students will likely encounter in their first job,” said Raquel, who has been named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students each year since 2020. “So, if a boss asks them for a report by the end of the day with minimal guidance, they’ll be prepared to handle it.”

Class assignments often take the form of business briefs, requiring students to develop an audit of the current situation, identify opportunities, and formulate recommendations based on their findings.

“His bullet-after-bullet feedback after my first presentation initially threw me off guard, and I was worried about my grade,” said Aranda. “But we’ve all come to understand that his critiques come from a place of genuine care about our professional development.”

"He really gives you the latitude to figure it out,” said Sargeant. “He'll give you the space to take another stab at it rather than just telling you how to fix it directly.”

Raquel also strategically uses assignments to teach students how to develop their personal brands.

“Throughout life, you’re always looking to make your own brand stand out,” said Raquel. “Lessons on differentiation, likeability, understanding your target audience, and crafting effective messaging apply to everything from getting that next promotion to finding a spouse.” 

“He taught me a personal brand framework that I use every day,” said Riley McNulty (MEDIA ’19), a national account manager at Belkin, who took several courses with Raquel while earning her media sales certificate. “Your image is not limited to your LinkedIn profile; it’s how you show up every day to your boss as someone who’s reliable, a quick responder, and collaborative.”

For Johnson, his most lasting impression of Raquel is the way he invests in his students.

“When I had a job fall through right before graduation, he went out of his way to help me find a new one, opening up his extensive sports marketing connections to me,” he said. “He’s a true advocate for his students in every sense of the word.”