Alum spotlight: Trevor Hadick

In his chemical engineering courses, Trevor Hadick ('17) designed manufacturing plants and processes to make the best use of resources. That focus on efficiency has stayed with him. It's one of several building blocks for his business career that came from his two majors: chemical engineering and engineering and public policy.

Compromise is another. "The right answer, the one that is the fastest or the cheapest, isn't always the answer that gets approved in public policy, and it can be the same thing with clients," Hadick says. Studying engineering and public policy also strengthened his communication skills. Hadick learned to translate a technical answer for a non-expert, like helping a patient understand medical terminology.

From math and computational training in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Hadick jumped into data analysis. Time and again, the business problems he encounters are more manageable because of his fluency in making assumptions based on what is known and what is unknown. "I rarely get a problem where I have 12 variables and 12 answers. I may only get six variables, and I have to assume the other six," he says.

He began his career doing analytics and process management, first in a management training program at Chewy and then on an internal consulting team at Spirit Airlines. Whether working with merchandising, customer service, or branding and marketing, Hadick's approach was data-informed. "If our metrics showed that people weren't opening emails, then I'd ask why. Is it the subject line? Is it because email is no longer a preferred method of communication? What does the data tell me?"

At Spirit, Hadick led a six-month study of their loyalty program, then proposed a redesign that customized the program to Spirit's brand and better met customer needs. He was mid-way into implementing the new loyalty program when the COVID-19 pandemic halted airline travel.

Hadick left Spirit to join the analytics department at advertising agency Merkle. He started working on healthcare analytics, drawing on pharmaceutical knowledge from his chemical engineering background. From healthcare analytics, he progressed to media strategy and then to leading consulting relationships with clients.

Hadick is now a senior vice president and managing director at iProspect, which is part of the global agency Dentsu. His portfolio includes large national hospitals and health systems. "I meet with executives as well as their leadership teams, and we look at what's going well with the hospital or system as a whole, what's not, and how we can address the problems," he says.

His record of proposing cutting-edge solutions to new and prospective clients speaks for itself: in 2024, he achieved a 100% win rate on new business pitches. Hadick's work primarily focuses on growing patient volume for his clients and improving their financial health. He takes a holistic view of the business and customer experience. "That may involve looking at call centers, physician capacity, and how easy it is for patients to make appointments," he explains. "We're strategic advisors. There's no problem we won't tackle to help our clients."

An industry-recognized subject matter expert, Hadick was named a "Leader of the Future" by the pharmaceutical marketing journal PM360. "We're creating the new future of advertising," he says of his roles on various industry advisory boards.

Dedicated to his job during the workweek, Hadick's focus turns to soccer on the weekends. He's currently a national match official for US Soccer. Each year, only about 200 officials are selected to represent their peers on the national stage and referee games in the professional leagues. In the 2025 season, Hadick refereed for the USL Championship, USL League One, MLS Next Pro, US Open Cup, and National Women's Soccer League exhibition games. He was also selected for international assignments with teams that would go on to play in the FIFA Club World Cup. Additionally, he's an active NCAA soccer referee.

Hadick got his start as a teenager looking for a part-time job. He spent so much time on the soccer field that refereeing was the natural choice. At Carnegie Mellon, he played on the men's club soccer team and continued refereeing when he was home on breaks. After graduation, he committed more seriously to refereeing.

Despite traveling for games every weekend during the season, Hadick makes time to support the growth and advancement of new referees locally in Pennsylvania and at development events across the country. As a referee coach, he's even trained a young referee who is also following in his academic footsteps: John Allen is a current chemical engineering student at CMU with an additional major in engineering and public policy.