Sherman Avenue in Evanston, the street where Pivot Point's offices are located. Photo: Awkwafaba / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Evanston’s largest employers are easy to list: Northwestern University, the hospitals, Rotary International. A less obvious entry is Pivot Point International, a company that writes and publishes the textbooks, videos and online courses used by beauty schools around the world, and does much of that work from an office at 1560 Sherman Ave.
A hairdresser from Rotterdam
The company grew out of Leo Passage, who was born in the Netherlands and arrived in the United States in 1958, shortly after marrying his wife, Lenie. He had won prizes at European hair competitions and found work in a North Shore salon. He kept competing, and other stylists asked to learn how he cut hair. In 1962 he opened Pivot Point Beauty School in Chicago, which later became Pivot Point International. The company’s own account is that the first academy was a modest operation on Howard Street that enrolled five students.
Passage built his teaching around geometric forms and color theory, treating cutting as something closer to sculpture than routine grooming. The curriculum he developed for other schools became the foundation of the publishing business. He died May 11, 2011. His son, Robert Passage, became chairman and chief executive.
Moving to Evanston
The company vacated its old Howard Street building in 2003 and relocated its offices to Evanston. The company marked its 50th anniversary in 2012.
By the company’s own figures in 2013, about 50,000 students graduated each year from member schools and advanced centers using its curriculum, which had been translated into 13 languages. Editorial staff in Evanston, including writers, designers and programmers, produced the print, video and interactive material. The company also said it imported more than two tons of human hair a month for training and competition mannequins, which it described as the largest volume of any importer in the country. Between staff and students, it said, roughly 400 people came to the Evanston headquarters and academy on a typical day.
Its Cut-a-Thon program, a fundraiser for The Center for Missing and Exploited Children, had raised more than $1 million, according to the company. Students continued to enter national and international hair competitions, a tradition Passage himself kept alive.
Leadership
In spring 2013 the company had a new president, Melanie Kopeikin, who joined in the fall of 2012 from the consumer products industry, according to the company.
The Chicago Tribune has described Pivot Point as an Evanston-based company.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
