Who We
Are

Co-Founder & CEO, CancerIQ

In this role, Feyi is leading CancerIQ’s bold vision to end cancer as we know it by empowering providers and health systems to improve access to the latest innovations in early cancer detection and prevention. CancerIQ makes it easy to gather comprehensive patient data, automatically map it to the latest evidence-based guidelines, and expand access to cutting-edge care. Under Feyi’s leadership, CancerIQ has grown its provider network to over 200 locations across the county and established a robust ecosystem of leading diagnostic and genomics testing vendors. These efforts have enabled health systems to increase the use of preventive services, generate downstream revenue, improve quality and screening compliance, and shift cancer diagnoses to earlier stages. Concurrently, CancerIQ has helped its partners get their innovative, life-saving technologies into the hands of more providers. Feyi recently closed CancerIQ’s Series B funding round, led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Amgen Ventures, making her one of the most funded Black female founders of the year. A trusted expert in the field of precision prevention, Feyi is routinely featured by prominent industry outlets and organizations including Forbes, Modern Healthcare, Health Management Academy, the Association of Cancer Executives, and more. In recognition of her success, Feyi was named to Crain’s Chicago Business 40 under 40 list in 2019 and has won multiple honors including a Chicago Innovation Award, the Chicago Booth New Venture Challenge, a fellowship from Rock health, and Women Tech Founders Award. Feyi received both her bachelor’s and MBA from The Wharton School. Prior to CancerIQ, she worked as a management consultant, investor, and investment banker at McKinsey, Actis LLP, and Credit Suisse respectively.

Senior Partner, The Vistria Group

Philip Alphonse is a co-founder and senior partner for The Vistria Group (“Vistria”) a private equity investment firm with approximately $3.0 Billion in committed capital and a focus on building market leading companies in the education, healthcare, and financial services industries. Mr. Alphonse co-leads Vistria’s education practice for which investments and board positions include: Catapult Learning, Media Source Inc. (parent company for Junior Library Guild, School Library Journal, Library Journal and The Horn Book), and Penn Foster Inc. (exited in April 2018). ​ ​ He was formerly a Principal at Sterling Partners, a private equity firm with approximately $6.0 billion of capital under management. Mr. Alphonse spent approximately 10 years there where he primarily focused and invested in education companies. He has worked on the acquisition of and investments in Professional Career Development Institute, LLC; Infilaw Holding, LLC; Meritas, LLC; Educate, Inc. /Educate Online (Sylvan Learning); and Continental Case, LLC. He served previously on the board of directors for Educate, Inc., Educate Online, and Infilaw Holding, LLC. ​ ​ Mr. Alphonse held previous positions with Thomas Weisel Partners, McCown De Leeuw & Co., Musa Capital (a prior affiliate of Kingdom Holdings), and Morgan Stanley. He graduated with honors from Harvard University with a Bachelor’s Degree (Government concentration); and from Stanford University, where he received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. ​ ​ Mr. Alphonse serves as a board member to Window to the World Communications, Inc. (WTTW), College Possible Chicago, and the Illinois Venture Capital Association. Previously, he served as Commissioner (Mayoral appointee) with Chicago’s Community Development Commission, as a trustee and member of the Executive Committee for The Roxbury Latin School in Boston, and a Board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago. He is married and enjoys spending time with his wife, Rene, and three daughters, Zoe, Quincy, and Grace.

Founder & CEO, M1

Brian is the Founder and CEO of M1, a self-directed wealth-building platform that helps people maximize their money through automated tools, services, and topflight rates. With more than $6 billion in assets under management, M1 helps hundreds of thousands of people invest for the long run, borrow for less, spend strategically, and save for their future. Brian has a BA in Economics from Stanford University.

Chairman, New Enterprise Associates

Peter joined NEA in 1992 and was the firm’s Managing General Partner from 1999-2017. During his 18 years at the helm, NEA’s assets under management grew from $1B to over $20B and the organization scaled its operations to become one of the world’s largest venture capital firms. Under Peter’s leadership, NEA invested in industry-transforming technology companies like CareerBuilder, Tableau, Diapers.com, Groupon, Jet.com, Juniper Networks, Macromedia, Salesforce.com, TiVo, and Workday.​ ​ He has been named several times to the Forbes Midas List of top technology investors, to Crain’s Chicago 50 Top Tech Stars, to Washington Tech Council’s Hall of Fame, and to the Washington Business Hall of Fame. Peter has personally led investments in over two dozen technology companies that have successfully completed public offerings or mergers. He serves on the board of public companies Groupon (GRPN) and Sprout Social (SPT) and is currently a director of several private companies including Berkshire Grey, Catalytic, NextNav, Tamr, Tempus, ThreatQuotient, Upskill, and ZeroFox. ​ ​ Prior to joining NEA, Peter was President and Chief Operating Officer of Legent Corporation (LGNT) and Senior Vice President of the Systems Software Division of UCCEL Corporation (UCE). Both companies were ultimately acquired at valuations that were record breaking for their time. Earlier, Peter spent almost a decade at General Electric Company in a variety of management positions, including Vice President and General Manager at GE Information Services. He is Vice-Chair of the Northwestern University Board of Trustees and serves on the boards of In-Q-Tel and The Brookings Institute. ​ ​ Peter previously served on the Executive Committee of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association and was also a founding member of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a philanthropic organization in the Washington D.C. area. Peter received his BSEE from Northwestern University and his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Dean of Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Rashid Bashir is Professor of Bioengineering, the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, and is currently the Dean of Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also been the Department Head of Bioengineering and the Director of the Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was member of the core founding team for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the world’s first engineering-based College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a faculty member at Purdue University he started his academic career. Prior to that he spent 6 years at National Semiconductor Corporation commercializing analog and RF chip manufacturing technologies. He has held a Visiting Scientist position at Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriner’s Hospital for Children and was Visiting Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA. He was the recipient of the Joel and Spira teaching Award, the NSF Faculty Early Career Award, and the IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement award. In 2018, he received the Pritzker Distinguished Lectureship Award from BMES. He also received the 2021 AIMBE Professional Impact Award for Education, Citation “For leadership in bioengineering education, diagnostic technology development, and a new engineering-based medical school curriculum”. He is member of the Executive Committee from UIUC on the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago (a partnership between UIUC, Northwestern University and University of Chicago). His research group is interested in micro-fluidics and nanotechnology based diagnostic technologies for precision and personalized medicine, and 3D bio-fabrication of multi-cellular engineered living systems for biological soft robotics and models for drug screening. He has authored or co-authored over 300 journal papers and has been granted over 50 patents. He is fellow of IEEE, BMES, AIMBE, APS, IAMBE, NAI, RSC, and AAAS. Technology from his group has been licensed to startups he has co-founded and to other companies. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University and his M.S and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.

President & CEO, Transunion

Chris Cartwright has served as the President & Chief Executive Officer of TransUnion and a member of the board of directors since May 2019. He joined the Company in August 2013, previously serving as Executive Vice President, U.S. Information Services, where he helped drive TransUnion’s transformation into a global information and insights company as the head of the largest business unit, including providing consumer reports, risk scores, analytical services and decision technology to customers in the U.S. across the financial services, insurance, tenant and employment screening and public sector industries. Prior to joining TransUnion, Mr. Cartwright was the Chief Executive Officer of Decision Insight Information Group, a portfolio of independent businesses providing real property information, software and services to insurance, finance, legal and real estate professionals in the United States, Canada and Europe. Mr. Cartwright also spent almost 14 years at Wolters Kluwer, a global information services and workflow solutions company, where he held a variety of executive positions of increasing responsibility. Prior to Wolters Kluwer, he was Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning & Operations for Christie’s Inc. and Strategy Consultant for Coopers and Lybrand. Mr. Cartwright earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in public accountancy from The University of Texas at Austin.

Managing Director, AbbVie Ventures

Margarita is Managing Director at Abbvie Ventures. Margarita has lead investments in over a dozen biotech companies in the US and Europe. She is responsible for AbbVie Ventures’ investments in Alector (NASDAQ: ALEC), Morphic Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MORF) and Jnana Therapeutics, among others, and serves on the Boards of Carisma Therapeutics, Magnolia Neurosicences, Rodeo Therapeutics andNitrome Biosciences. Margarita brings over 20 years of dealmaking leadership. As a Director with Abbott’s Global Pharmaceutical Licensing & Acquisitions, she was involved in the in-licensing of Elagolix, the acquisition of Solvay and Immuven, and the acquisition of the Lupron franchise. Before joining Abbott, Margarita practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer in Silicon Valley with the firm of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison. Beyond AbbVie Ventures, Margarita currently serves on the Boards of the New England Venture Capital Association, the MidAmerica Healthcare Investors Network and P33 Chicago. Margarita received her bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University and her juris doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law.

President of the Civic Committee and the Commercial Club of Chicago

Derek Douglas is the President of the Civic Committee and the Commercial Club of Chicago. As President, Douglas works with the most senior executives from the business, education, cultural, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors to address the key issues facing the Chicago region. More specifically, Douglas works to develop and advance initiatives – on issues like education, public safety, transportation, economic development, inclusive innovation, business diversity, and state/city finances – that bolster economic opportunity and social mobility in Chicago, in an effort to make our region a better place for everyone to live, work and do business. Douglas served as Vice President for Civic Engagement and External Affairs with the University of Chicago where he led the University’s efforts with respect to civic engagement, corporate partnerships, and urban development. In this regard, Douglas spearheaded the University’s efforts to engage with, and have a direct impact on, the lives of people living in Chicago and in cities across the country and around the world. To that end, Douglas managed/co-managed a portfolio that included a number of the outward-facing units of the University, including Commercial Real Estate/Economic Development, Office of Business Diversity, Office of Civic Engagement, Office of Corporate Relations, and the Offices of Federal and State Government Relations. In addition, Douglas shared oversight responsibility for the civic/community engagement work of the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCM) through its Community Health Engagement/Urban Health Initiative. From 2009 through 2012, Douglas served on the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama for Urban Affairs, where he led the White House’s work on urban and metropolitan policy issues. Prior to his White House service, Douglas worked as Washington Counsel to New York Governor David A. Paterson and Director of New York State’s Washington, D.C. Office. In this capacity, Douglas acted as the Governor’s chief architect for federal policy and oversaw federal policy development and advocacy on domestic, economic, regulatory, and urban policy issues for the State of New York.  Douglas also has served as Associate Director of Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP) where he founded and served as Director of the Economic Mobility Program. Prior to joining the CAP, Douglas was a Counsel at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Douglas serves on the Boards of Argonne National Laboratory; University of Chicago Laboratory Schools; the Skadden Fellowship Foundation; Civic Consulting Alliance, Kids First Chicago, and the Western Golf Association/Evans Scholarship Foundation. Douglas graduated from the University of Michigan with Highest Honors in Economics and from the Yale Law School.

CEO, Edelman

Richard Edelman is the CEO of Edelman, a global communications firm. The firm was named to Advertising Age’s 2019 A-List and was honored as “PR Agency of the Decade” by both Advertising Age and The Holmes Report. Richard has extensive experience in marketing and reputation management, having led assignments with major corporations, NGOs and family businesses in over 25 industries around the world. He has counseled countries in every region of the world on economic development programs. As the creator of the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, Richard has become one of the foremost authorities on trust in business, government, media and NGOs.​ ​ In 2020, Richard was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Fame. In 2019, he was named the PR Agency Professional of the Past 20 Years by PRWeek and was inducted into the publication’s Hall of Fame; in 2014, he was inducted in the Arthur W. Page Society’s Hall of Fame. Richard is regarded as an industry thought leader and has posted weekly to his blog since 2004. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Ad Council, the Atlantic Council, the Children’s Aid Society, the Gettysburg Foundation, the 9/11 Museum and the National Committee on US China Relations. He is a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, World Economic Forum and PR Seminar. Richard earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1978 and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1976.

CEO, Relativity

Mike first joined the Relativity team in 2017 as a member of the advisory board. He got the unique opportunity to get to know the company’s business and team extremely well before stepping up to the role of CEO in 2019. Mike brings over 20 years of recruitment, sales, and product marketing experience to Relativity. In his former role at LinkedIn, Mike oversaw LinkedIn’s Global Solutions Organization (GSO) for its more than 30 offices worldwide, focusing on servicing corporate customers in three primary areas—talent solutions, marketing solutions, and sales solutions. Before LinkedIn, Mike was director of product marketing at Advent Software, a provider of enterprise software for investment managers, where he led the trading and order management business. Mike received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.

Executive VP, Human Resources & Labor Relations, United Airlines

Kate Gebo is the executive vice president of human resources and labor relations for United Airlines. Kate is responsible for leading a global team of more than 500 professionals in the transformation of United’s culture. In her role, Kate and her team are the principle drivers of delivering on commitments to employees to provide a great employee experience. This includes recruiting, developing and retaining top talent, and building effective teams to put customers at the center of everything United does while working closely with our labor partners. Kate previously served as senior vice president of customer service delivery and chief customer officer at United. She was responsible for delivering an integrated and industry-leading travel experience for customers from booking to landing. Kate also previously served as United’s vice president for the office of the CEO, where she worked with United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz, and the executive team to coordinate strategic company initiatives. Kate joined United in 1998 and also held roles leading the corporate real estate organization and in procurement. Prior to joining United, Kate worked at Continental Airlines. Kate is a board member of Youth Guidance and also a Leadership Greater Chicago Daniel Burnham Fellow. She received her bachelor’s degree in finance from Chicago’s DePaul University and earned a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Business at Loyola University of Chicago.

CEO, Jellyvision

Amanda Lannert is CEO of Jellyvision and has been a key figure in driving the company since its founding in 2001. Her focus at Jellyvision is on the company’s strategy, improving processes to better scale operations, partnership development, and customer acquisition to continue fueling the company’s growth. Under Amanda’s leadership, Jellyvision has grown to serve more than 1500 mostly Fortune 1000 clients with ALEX, the most helpful employee decision support platform on the planet. In 2022, 12 million employees and $120 billion dollar’s worth of premium decisions were entrusted to ALEX. Meanwhile, the company has been recognized as the Best Software Company and Best Culture by the Moxies, the Lighthouse winner by the ITA, a top 10 best place to work in Chicago by The Chicago Tribune and the #1 place for millennials to work in Chicago according to Crain’s. Prior to joining Jellyvision, Amanda managed global brands for Kellogg’s while at Leo Burnett, in addition to spending two years in a new business and new brand development think tank. She attended Haverford College and Edinburgh University. Amanda was named CEO of the Year at the Moxie Awards twice, Woman of the Year for the Chicago Rotary Club, and was recognized as Industry Champion by the Illinois Technology Association. She has been profiled in the Chicago Tribune and Crain’s. Amanda is also active in Chicago’s startup community, serving as a board member of Hyde Park Angels, 1871, SpotHero, Equilibria, Packed with Purpose, and publicly traded verticalized SaaS company SpringBig. She is very committed to diversifying who plays and wins in technology, particularly in Chicago. To that end, she serves as a trustee for Illinois Tech, as a member of the Tech Council for OneGoal, and as Advisor to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana iSchool. She co-chairs the Tech Leadership Counsel for Chicago Public Media and is deeply involved as “Super Mentor” for Chicago incubator TechStars, where she was also named Mentor of the Year. In 2021, she was inducted into Chicago Innovation’s Hall of Fame. Amanda is quick to laugh, enjoys a good cupcake, and will like your dog.

CEO, Purpose Brand

Diane Primo is the CEO of Purpose Brand Agency, an award-winning, Chicago-based public relations, branding and digital marketing firm. She is the only African American female CEO of a purpose-driven communications agency. Diane’s focus on impact marketing stems from the belief that brands must be relevant, purpose-driven and committed to consumers to be successful today. Consumers’ demand for meaning, transparency and authenticity has changed the nature and raised the stakes in all communications. As founder of Purpose Brand, Diane builds on a groundbreaking 30-year career leading some of the top marketing organizations in the country. She served as general manager at Quaker Oats, president of product management at Ameritech and SBC (currently AT&T), chief marketing officer of CDW and CEO of a Kleiner Perkins-backed e-commerce startup in the home services sector. A communications innovator, Diane was recognized as such with Ragan Communications’ 2020 Top Women in Communications Trailblazer Award. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Smith College. Diane is currently a board member for Call One, a telecommunications company, and P33, the private sector initiative to promote Chicago’s standing as a technology center. She is also a committee member of World Business Chicago’s ChicagoNEXT, the Economic Club of Chicago, the Chicago Network and the Business Leadership Council. She is a national influencer on purpose-focused issues, now as a member of the Forbes Agency Council and previously as a contributing columnist for Huffington Post. Diane’s personal public service record reflects her personal commitments to eradicating homelessness, helping underserved populations and furthering gender equality. She is a recipient of the Hassenfeld Family Humanitarian Award and was a presenter at the G8 UK Deauville Partnership Summit. She is currently co-chairman of the nationally recognized Primo Center, Chicago’s largest center for homeless families, an organization she also co-founded. Most recently she co-founded SOAR, an organization that focuses on empowering, connecting and growing the number of women of color in media.

Board Chair, Lever for Change

Julia Stasch is former President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest philanthropies with offices in Chicago, Mexico City, New Delhi, and Abuja, Nigeria. With a broad background of leadership in the business, government, and philanthropic sectors, she served as the Foundation’s president from 2014 through 2019. Before joining the Foundation in 2001 as vice president for US Programs, Stasch served as chief of staff to then-Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, commissioner of housing for the City of Chicago, president of Shorebank Chicago Companies, deputy administrator of the 20,000-person U.S. General Services Administration in the Clinton administration, and president and COO of Chicago-based real estate development firm, Stein & Company. She currently serves as chair of the board of MacArthur affiliate, Lever for Change, whose mission is to unlock significant philanthropic capital and accelerate social change around the world’s biggest challenges. Stasch is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economic Club, and The Chicago Network. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Loyola University Chicago and holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Stasch is a Distinguished Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. She is Executive in Residence in Philanthropy at the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, senior advisor to the philanthropic Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities and its efforts to reduce violence in Chicago, and board member of P33, a private sector-led effort to drive inclusive, global tech and innovation leadership in Chicagoland.

Engineering Executive, Facebook

Helen Sun is a technology strategist and thought leader. She is known as an expert in transforming businesses through innovative solutions applying artificial intelligence, cloud, analytics, and architecture.​ Prior to her role at JP Morgan Chase, Helen held the VP position for Cloud Compute, Information, and Architecture at Motorola Solutions. Helen also held senior leadership positions at some of the most innovative companies including Oracle, and Salesforce. While at Oracle, Helen became the first woman to achieve “Oracle Enterprise Architect” status. She was subsequently honored as “Oracle Enterprise Architect of the Year” for her contributions on critical growth. During her tenure, Helen lead the development of Oracle Information Architecture Framework and Development Process, and published many white papers on Architecture, Big Data, Analytics, and Data Governance.

Executive Director, Chicago Quantum Exchange

Kate Timmerman is the executive director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, a catalyst for advancing academic and industrial efforts in the science and engineering of quantum information. The Exchange is a collaboration between the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University, and industry partners. With the Exchange, Kate fosters emerging research, workforce, and economic partnerships between academia, national labs, and industry. Kate is currently a board member of P33, a private sector initiative to turbocharge Chicago’s tech economy, and ARCS Illinois, which supports Illinois graduate and medical students by providing financial awards for science, engineering and medical research. Kate received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, Davis and her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College.

President & CEO, AnitaB.org

Brenda Darden Wilkerson is an advocate for access, opportunity, and social justice for underrepresented communities in technology. She currently serves as the President and CEO of AnitaB.org, an organization that connects, inspires, and strives for greater equality for women technologists in business, academia, and government. She founded the original Computer Science for All program, building computer science classes into the curriculum for every student in the Chicago Public Schools, and serving as the inspiration for the Obama administration’s national CS For All initiatives.

Chair, President and CEO, The Allstate Corporation

Tom Wilson is the Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Allstate Corporation. He has been CEO of Allstate since 2007 and became Chair of The Allstate Corporation’s Board of Directors in 2008. He has held key leadership positions at the company since 1995, including all major operating units. As CEO, Wilson led the creation of Our Shared Purpose in 2007 to make Allstate a purpose-driven corporation powered by purpose-driven people. Wilson has led investments in innovation, improving efficiency, restructuring for the long term, investing in people and ensuring Allstate is a positive force in America. He has managed corporate risk and return to withstand the 2008 global financial crisis, adapt the homeowners business to significant increases in severe weather-related losses, lead the industry in the use of telematics, and expand into protection plans and identity protection. Allstate’s Transformative Growth Plan is designed to increase market share in personal property-liability. Wilson is a Director on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and holds active leadership positions in the financial services industry and the community. He is a trustee of Rush University Medical Center and a member of the Young Presidents Organization Gold Chicago chapter. He is on the board of P33, a civic initiative focused on accelerating Chicago’s leadership in the digital economy, and co-founded Get IN Chicago, a public-private partnership to reduce violence among youth. He has previously served as Chair of the Property and Casualty CEO Roundtable, Chair of the Financial Services Roundtable and Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and is a former Director of State Street Corporation. Wilson regularly offers comment and insight on the financial services industry and the role of business in national media outlets, and he has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and on CNN.com. A native of St. Clair Shores, Michigan, Wilson holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.

CEO, Leadership Greater Chicago

Maria Wynne Chief Executive Officer, Leadership Greater Chicago Maria Wynne is Chief Executive Officer of Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC), the region’s premiere civic leadership development organization. Since 2014, Maria has led the transformation of LGC, representing the organization at the highest levels of business, government, and social services , and leading innovation in the civic space with the creation, development, and launch of The Daniel Burnham Fellowship, of which she is the Founding Daniel Burnham Fellow. Maria has distinguished herself as an innovator and transformational leader, having led large national sales and marketing organizations for world-recognized brands, Xerox and Microsoft, in the roles of sales vice president and general manager respectively. At Microsoft, Maria also developed the Office of Citizenship and Innovation, a pro bono office whose objective was to help U.S. Mayors and their teams develop ground – breaking ways to address and close the digital divide. After leaving Microsoft, Maria went on to serve as Chief Executive Officer for the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana from 2008 to 2013. She successfully led a merger of seven corporations into one, the largest merger and transformation of any Girl Scouts organization in history, which created the largest Girl Scout Council globally with $18M in revenue and $31M in assets. The council served 84,000 girls and supported a network of more than 24,000 volunteers. As an award-winning and recognized executive, Maria has received numerous honors for her leadership professionally and in the community, including being selected as a McCormick Fellow for CEO Perspectives (2013) and Crain’s Who’s Who in Chicago Business (2017), named Chicago Executive of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America (2011), honored with the Women of Influence Award by Chicago Business Journal (2016), awarded the inaugural ATHENA Organizational Leadership Award (2010), and featured in Crain’s Chicago Business inaugural list of Chicago’s Most Powerful Latinos (2019) and Notable Women Executives Over 50 (2019), and Today’s Chicago Woman magazine’s 100 Women of Influence (2013). Additionally, she received the Outstanding Alumni distinction by her alma mater, North Central College (2012), and was named one of Chicago Woman magazine’s Fierce 50 (2017). In April 2019, Maria was named a co-chair of the Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot Transition Leadership Team. Maria is a member of The Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economic Club of Chicago, The Chicago Network, and The Chicago Club. She also serves on several civic and charitable boards including Executive Committee of the Goodman Theatre, Trustee of North Central College, and Advisory Board Member of Chicago Innovation. Maria earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at North Central College and a Master of Business Administration from Northern Illinois University. She has continued her executive education at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, the Harvard Business School, and the Center for Creative Leadership.