In early spring, Matthew Newberry spent his days helping homeowners work out problems with their mortgages; then he would go to class and learn more lessons about life in the real world.

School’s out for the summer, but Newberry believes he picked up valuable lessons about forging a career in the business world from two Greater Des Moines men who led a master’s degree-level class at Drake University’s College of Business and Public Administration.

Barry Pace and Terry Myers brought the idea for their class, titled “The Practical CEO,” to Drake officials, believing their experiences as finance officers and leaders of domestic and international companies would provide insights to business greenhorns.

Since 2008, Pace and Myers have been partners in Business Edge LLC, which offers turnaround consulting services to manufacturing, distribution and service companies with revenues of $5 million to $250 million.

Prior to teaming up at work and in the classroom, the men compiled resumes that include serving as corporate presidents, chief operating and financial officers and marketing directors.

Myers has been an adjunct professor at Drake since 1994, and Pace has taught at Drake since 2008, with both men leading courses for seniors and Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) candidates.

The Practical CEO attracted 13 graduate students who spent three hours in class every Monday during Drake’s spring session with the idea that they would gain some nuggets of information on how to advance their careers.

Most were in the early stages of their careers as public relations professionals and human resources managers, engineers and operations managers.

He wants to run a business

Newberry has worked for the last five years in the home preservation department at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. His days are spent talking to people who are behind on their mortgage payments and face the possibility of losing their homes.

He also is working toward an M.B.A. at Drake. He has his eye on the future, hoping to operate his own financial consulting business some day.

Pace and Myers forced the class to make tough decisions, just as though they were running their own companies. The men offered their experiences as guidance.

“They provide stuff that you don’t get in classrooms. They get it done. They’ve probably seen everything,” Newberry said.

Of particular interest were the differences between managing a large corporation as opposed to a small business, he said.

In addition, Pace, with an extensive background in marketing, including director of North American marketing operations for Bridgestone Americas Inc., stressed the importance of branding yourself.

“You have to differentiate yourself,” Newberry said. “You have to think of yourself as a product.”

She leans to nonprofits

Megan McLaughlin is working toward a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) after getting her undergraduate degree at Drake. Before enrolling in the university’s M.P.A. program, she spent four years teaching English in Hong Kong.

At some point, she would like to launch a nonprofit organization, something “international or educational,” she said.

The experience Pace and Myers have in the for-profit world attracted her to the class.

“I feel like they talk about all of the common-sense things that you are not taught in other classes,” McLaughlin said. “This class is an elective. When I found out it was being taught by business leaders and not professors, I got in right away.

“Professors teach theory, how things are supposed to work, not how they actually work.”

Danette Kenne, assistant dean of graduate and professional courses, pointed out that Pace and Myers are not the only instructors the university draws from the “real world.”

“As a college, we are focused on bringing the world into the classroom and the classroom into the world,” she said. “Courses such as the one taught by Barry and Terry this spring help us achieve this outcome by linking academic theory with the perspectives of accomplished executives. By complementing our full-time faculty with selected professionals as instructors, our students have the advantage of learning from both top-notch academics and successful practitioners.”

Other Greater Des Moines executives teach classes at Drake, and Pace and Myers brought in professionals for their class, including Jeff Rose, former president and CEO of First Bank, and marketing specialist Drew McLellan.

Lifelong learning

One member of the class, Richard Tucker of Winterset, was a little more seasoned, having spent the last 27 years working for Life Care Services LLC.

Tucker is working toward a master’s degree in the university’s School of Education.

“I did not need the class for the program I am in,” Tucker said. “It just looked interesting based on the description. To me, there is value in hearing from or interacting with people who are kind of working at a ground level.”

He enjoyed exercises in which the class would be presented with a challenge confronting a particular company – the names were omitted – and then come up with solutions.

Those challenges eventually focused on three issues, Tucker said.

First was deciding the real purpose of a company, especially a family business confronted with whether to operate as a way to keep the family occupied or to operate it as a concern with economic value.

Another was determining whether the company offered products or services that management had the skills to support.

Finally, Tucker said, businesses need to decide who’s in charge.

“You might have one person who is not qualified making more decisions than he should, or you might have no one who is willing to make a decision,” he said.

Tucker said he is not certain whether the class or his work in the School of Education will advance his career. For the most part, he is interested in learning, period, especially when he gains some insight into the 21st-century work force.

And as for real-world experiences versus those theories that some students find tiring, Tucker thought Pace and Myers brought a little of each to the classroom.

“In my opinion, there is nothing more practical than a good theory,” he said.