View
214
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
Alton “AJ” Rodino
Manager, Account and Finance
Lake Forest Graduate School of
Management
AJ Rodino is an office utility player
currently serving as a finance
professional at Lake Forest Graduate
School of Management. AJ has worked
across many industries, including
professional sports, municipal
government, commercial banking and
currently higher education in a variety of roles from receptionist to to interim
Director of Financial Aid.
AJ was a three-sport athlete and Economics/Music double major at Lake
Forest College; more recently he earned his MBA in Organizational
Behavior from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in 2014.
He currently lives in Highwood, IL with his wife, Valentina and enjoys home
improvement projects and cycling. On occasion he moonlights at his
mother-in-law's Italian pasta specialty store, Pastificio.
Anthony Izzi
General Manager
F.H. Paschen
Anthony Izzi is a General Manager at F.H.
Paschen, a General
Contractor/Construction Management
company that has been servicing the
Chicagoland area for over 40 years. He
graduated from Illinois State University in
2002, where he studied Construction
Management and Business. Anthony has
over 17 years of construction industry
experience and started with F.H. Paschen
as an Intern in the Job Order Contracting
Division over 14 years ago. He has since held various roles and
responsibilities before becoming a General Manager over five years ago.
With Paschen, Anthony has worked on hundreds of projects of various size
and scopes. He oversees a staff of over 50 client-focused professionals
working on fast-track and emergency projects within different market
sectors, including educational, transportation, recreation, healthcare, and
industrial. Anthony ensures that he and the rest of the Paschen staff are
dedicated to understanding and exceeding customer expectations and
complete every project efficiently and with the best quality, whether that be
a small renovation or a major infrastructure build-out. Anthony and his wife
Amanda currently live with their two daughters, Annabelle (9) and Abigail
(7), in Park Ridge.
Bob Hill
Senior Project Engineer
The Hill Group
Bob got his start working for the family
business as a teenager, performing
typical summer laborer tasks. In 2002,
Bob enrolled at Purdue University where
he began studying Construction
Management. Throughout his college
career he continued to spend his
summers interning at The Hill Group,
where he strengthened his understanding of the construction industry in
Chicago.
After graduation, Bob started working full time as a project engineer with
the mindset of building relationships and executing work in the most cost-
effective manner. In 2012, he was promoted to senior project engineer and
has been operating a business unit within the company ever since.
Christopher Daugherty
Internal Audit Manager
Kirkland and Ellis
Christopher Daugherty is the Firmwide
Internal Audit Manager for Kirkland &
Ellis LLP, and is based in the Firm's
Chicago office. Christopher is a licensed
CPA and CIA (Certified Internal Auditor),
and is a graduate from Loyola University
Chicago where he studied Accounting.
Prior to joining Kirkland & Ellis LLP in
2011, Christopher worked at Baxter International, Inc., in a variety of
finance and accounting related areas including Internal Audit, Internal
Controls, Financial Planning & Analysis, Supply Chain Finance, and
Transfer Pricing.
Christopher also has a breadth of international work experience, having
previously worked and lived in Asia and Europe.
Jason Lesniewicz
Cultural Tourism Manager
Choose Chicago
Born and raised in the Chicagoland area,
Jason graduated from the University of
Illinois Chicago in 2001. Upon graduation,
he went to work for the Chicago Office of
Tourism from 2001-2012 helping run the
Chicago Neighborhood Tour program.
Working for the Neighborhood Tour
program allowed me to learn the cultural,
culinary, historic and architectural assets of Chicago’s 77 community areas.
In 2012 the Chicago Office of Tourism and the Chicago Convention &
Tourism Bureau was consolidated into Choose Chicago and Jason became
the Cultural Tourism Manager of Neighborhoods. In this role, he helped
create the content for Choose Chicago’s robust neighborhood microsite,
shaped Choose Chicago’s Cultural Tourism Strategy and currently plan
and execute a multi-year Neighborhood Tourism Development Strategy.
Jason continues to promote Chicago’s neighborhoods as the heart and
soul of Chicago to regional, national and international guests as the lead of
the Cultural Tourism department here at Choose Chicago.
Jason Schwartz
Director of Investment Sales &
Acquisitions
Syndicated Equities
Jason Schwartz is the Director of
Acquisitions and Investment Sales for
Syndicated Equities. Jason joined the
firm in 2010 and focuses on sourcing,
underwriting, and due diligence
coordination for the firm’s own
acquisitions and dispositions. Jason
also manages the firm’s growing net lease brokerage division, having
completed over $200MM of transactions over the last 5 years. The net
lease brokerage division advises institutions, 1031 exchange clients,
developers, and private investors in both the sale and purchase of net
lease properties across the country. Jason is a licensed Series 22 and
Series 63 representative through FINRA and is a licensed real estate
broker in the state of Illinois. Jason earned his B.S. from The Ohio State
University with a specialty in Finance and Real Estate. Jason is an active
member of the International Council of Shopping Centers. Jason lives in
Chicago’s West Town neighborhood with his fiancé.
Jeffrey Plecha
Project Manager
Johnson Design Group
In his 11+ years at JDG, Jeff has
consistently used his Architectural and
project management skills to assist in
every facet of the retail design business.
Jeff is in constant contact with
consultants, contractors, and clients to
ensure all projects run smoothly from
beginning to end. He takes pride in his
knowledge and experience of both refined design and technical proficiency
which are helpful throughout all phases of design and construction.
After graduating in 2001 from Lawrence Technological University with a
Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Jeff worked for several architectural
and construction firms in metro Detroit before transplanting himself to the
Chicagoland area. He met his wife in Chicago and married in 2011. Last
year they welcomed their first child and are looking forward to watching
Collette grow.
Jeremy Rice
Senior Manager
Mazars USA, LLP
Jeremy is a CPA with over 11 years of
experience providing audit and advisory
services. He has provided services across
a wide variety of local, national, and
international organizations, including a
number of U.S. subsidiaries of foreign
companies. He has significant experience
working with companies in the
manufacturing, insurance, financial
services, higher education, and health care.
His primary focus over the last 5 years has
been serving international manufacturers
across a variety of subsectors including food & beverage, industrial products, and
consumer products.
Jeremy has also written a series of articles on the manufacturing skills gap for
the WeiserMazars M&D Watch Newsletter which have been quoted in business
journals, and is scheduled to be published in the January/February 2017 edition
of Manufacturing Today. Jeremy holds Bachelor of Science and Master of
Accounting Science Degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants, Institute of Internal Auditors and the Illinois CPA Society.
He has been married to a wonderful wife for 9 years, and has a 6 year old
daughter and a 1 year old son. Outside of work and family, Jeremy is an avid
sports fan and tries to keep up as best he can amidst a busy lifestyle.
John Martin
Senior Director
PureCircle Ltd
John Martin is the Senior Director,
Global Technical Development and
Innovation at PureCircle Ltd, specializing
in product research and development,
and leading application teams globally.
Prior to joining PureCircle, Martin held
technical leadership positions at Ferrara
Candy Company, The Coca-Cola Company, Brown-Forman Corporation,
and Beneo. Martin holds advanced degrees from Cornell University in
Food Science with a minor in International Marketing.
John Wicklein
Director - Information Management
GoGo
John is the Director of Information
Management at Gogo. He leads an
organization of ~25 resources across
three locations. His team develops and
supports the enterprise's data
warehouse and unstructured data cluster
- which is in the process of being
migrated to a newly architected hybrid
data warehouse in AWS. The focus on
everything data related to data: Ingestion, integration, quality, governance,
profiling, modeling, and visualization.
John has been with GoGo since 2013. Prior to that he spent 10 years at
US Cellular managing a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence group and
as a BI Developer. He got his start with Verizon Wireless working on
cellular billing system conversions in 2001.
John and his charming wife have two boys, 5 and 1 and live in Elmhurst,
Illinois.
Katie Yarber
Senior Manager, Events and Operations
Chicago Sports Commission/Choose
Chicago
Katie Yarber is the Senior Manager, Events and
Operations for the Chicago Sports Commission
(CSC), a part of Choose Chicago, the official
destination marketing organization for the city of
Chicago. Yarber joined CSC in June 2012, and is a
key member of the team that has won the rights to
host high-profile national and international events,
such as: 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final,
multiple Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournaments,
the 2017 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Championship,
2016 Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series, the 2015 & 2016 NFL Draft, and many others.
Yarber leads management of these client relationships, providing various services to ensure
event success, including, facilitation of regular communications and meetings, management of
large-scale volunteer programs, hotel contract negotiations, coordination of vendors and
partners, and much more. She also produces a quarterly “CSC Business of Sport Speaker
Series”; and is responsible for the financial management of CSC's Corporate Partner Program,
currently in its forth year and bringing in approx. $500k annually. Prior to joining CSC, Yarber
worked for USA Baseball as the Director of Travel Services. There, she created the department
responsible for managing domestic and international travel for the national teams, and for
providing travel support to over 6,000 athletes annually. Yarber holds a B.A. from The University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband, Matt, reside in Chicago.
Kenneth Kuhrt
Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager
Ariel Investments
Ken serves as co-portfolio manager of
our small cap value strategy.
Additionally, he serves as portfolio
manager for Ariel Fund, as well as our
micro-cap value and small cap deep
value products. As a research analyst,
Ken covers consumer services and
industrials. Prior to joining Ariel as a
research analyst in 2004, he spent more than two years with William Blair &
Company, LLC, most recently as a senior investment banking analyst. Ken
also worked as a senior auditor at KPMG, LLP. He earned a BS in
accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an
MBA from the University of Chicago, and he is also a Certified Public
Accountant.
Konrad Mikolajczyk
Manager Network and Telco
Edward Elmhurst Health
Information Technology professional
with extensive engineering experience
and leadership skills with a proven track
record leading IT organizations to meet
business goals and objectives. Results
and goal oriented individual who takes
full ownership in his responsibilities of
the organizations operational and strategic information technology
functions. Perceptive management style reinforced by well-rounded skills,
capable of leading, mentoring, and motivating individuals while forming a
cohesive team environment.
Family orientated individual that enjoys outdoor activities and adventures.
Always looking for new challenges and thrills to enjoy with family and
friends. I love to stay busy with kids sports, house projects, and hobbies.
Enjoy watching sports such as basketball and football when time allows.
Laura Wooster
Senior Vice President, Public Policy
American Osteopathic Association
In Laura’s current role she oversees all public policy/government relations for the AOA on behalf of the 130,000 osteopathic physicians and medical students we represent. As well as being a part of the Senior Leadership Team of the AOA, in her current role she oversees all public policy/government relations for the AOA on behalf of the 130,000 osteopathic physicians and medical students we represent. In this senior role she is helping to lead the association's business functions. While she started her career in public health, in 2008 she changed careers to government relations after being exposed to it due to her work in health IT. She’s since grown her responsibilities through her work first for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (5 years), and now 4 years at the AOA. Her future career aspirations are to have more of a leadership role for a large organization that has a strong base in advocacy and public policy. Therefore, play a significant role in helping to lead the association's business functions.
Leslie Corbett
Executive Director
IL Equal Justice Foundation
Leslie currently serves as the Executive
Director of the IL Equal Justice
Foundation, a nonprofit organization that
administers and advocates for the state
appropriation for civil legal aid. This role
requires her to work regularly with the
Attorney General and the legislature to
secure funding as well as with the legal
aid community to grant the funds. Her past work includes serving as the
Associate Director of the Chicago Bar Foundation, the Executive Director of
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS) and
program staff at Chicago Legal Aid to Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM). She
has been in legal aid her entire career even though she is not a lawyer.
Leslie currently resides in Beverly with her husband Aaron Chenoweth and
daughter, Nora.
Matt O’Kane
Chief Development Officer
Group Fox Management
Matt is the Chief Development Officer for Group
Fox Management, a family owned and operated
management company with over 4,000 units in
the Chicago area. Matt has overseen the
acquisition of approximately 1,400 Units, and
the construction of 280, which represents over
$500MM of asset value. H has also overseen
the leasing of about 100,000 sqft of commercial
space and 40,000 sqft of office space. Matt
started in the business in my early teens turning
apartments. Painting and cleaning. He then moved on to the accounting and financing
side in his later teens and as a young adult. He attended a handful of different
colleges/universities. Most notably Purdue University. He spent 8 months as a farmhand
at a self-sufficient farm/orchard and 5 years in the US Navy as a FMF Hospital
Corpsman.
Matt is fortunate to traveled much of the world with his family and the military.
He enjoys SCUBA diving, outdoor activities
I intend to get my motorcycle license this year, and would like to get a pilot’s license.
Someday, he would like to visit space!
Michael Schnepf
Director of Network and Systems
Engineering
Gogo
Mike is the Director of Network and Systems
Engineering for Gogo, the leading provider of
inflight entertainment services. Mike has worked
with Gogo for 10 years, the last 7 of which have
been in management.
When he’s not working, or studying he enjoys
watching sports and playing golf. He is looking
forward to what he can learn from this training
course. Mike and his wife live in Naperville with their
3 dogs.
Paul Marron
Account Executive
SAP
Paul is a Chicago native who grew up in
Hinsdale and has lived in the city since 1993.
He has two fantastic kids who are 7 and 17;
and is a huge sports fan and sports enthusiast.
In his professional life he’s a seasoned and
successful account executive who has spent
20+ years selling for outstanding companies.
He’s an Account Executive for SAP America
and works with several key Installed Base
customers in the CPG, Wholesale Distribution
and Life Sciences industries. His focus is on helping his customers deliver innovation
and best-in-class business results across all of their lines of business.
Consistently Paul has met and exceeded quota targets and been in a leadership role on
his teams. His positions have always been focused on competitive, new account
acquisition at the companies he has worked for. Being customer-focused, working with
great people and working well in a team environment have been the keys to his
success.
Rachel Traurig
Market Development & Cultural
Strategist
DIRTT Environmental Solutions
Rachel is the leader of Market Development in
Illinois, for premanufactured interior
construction. DIRTT is a disrupter in interior
construction, they use video gaming technology
to build spaces more efficiently and creates
future flexibility. Rachel’s main responsibility is
to educate clients on building their interior
spaces with a new methodology of
construction. Clients include healthcare, education, corporate commercial, residential,
and government vertical markets. Her role of market development encompasses sales,
design, project management, and managing client budgets. Rachel has been in her
current role and in the construction industry for 17 months. In that short amount of time
she has been able to create her own network of architect & designers, general
contracts, and brokers. Aspirations for the next three years to is be a leader in 21st
century construction. In the next ten years, Rachel is looking forward to being the head
of cultural strategy for DIRTT, assisting companies in building innovative and
technologically advanced spaces for their specific company culture.
Ryan Ferrell
Director, Scientific Communications
HDMZ
Ryan leads a department of two full-time and
several contract technical and creative writers
focused on scientific content generation and
public relations at HDMZ, a full-service
branding and integrated marketing
communications agency that works with leading
healthcare and science brands. His
responsibilities include: providing strategic
direction to clients and staff; elevating the
overall agency's industry and scientific
expertise; advising and consulting with clients and staff on clients' business and the
agency's ongoing client relationships; leading, mentoring and advising writers;
participating in new business development at the firm; managing projects throughout
their lifecycle; and personally taking on selective writing and PR assignments.
Ryan joined HDMZ in 2011 after working for a competitor for a year and half. In 2013,
he founded the Scientific Communications practice and began hiring team members.
In the next few years, his goals include: to grow the team with more senior talent to win
larger and more challenging clients.
Sarah Beeskow Blay
Director of Client Services
Shareasale
Sarah currently is the Director of Client
Services for the performance marketing
network, ShareASale.com. She joined
ShareASale in 2005 and is currently
responsible for the Client Services Department.
The Client Services team provides strategic,
educational, and technical guidance to help our
clients grow. Prior to joining ShareASale, Sarah
was at the Michigan Association of
Broadcasters as Director of Member Services and Broadcast Coordinator for the
implementation of Michigan’s Amber Alert program.
Sarah Frick
SVP External Affairs and Strategy
Chicago Commons
Currently, Sarah is the SVP of External Affairs and
Strategy. She oversees all fundraising, data,
advocacy, communications/events, and strategic
planning for Chicago Commons. Sarah has been
promoted twice in the last 4.5 years and now serves
as the right hand to our CEO. She has gotten
comfortable in her role as the 'number 2' and only
recently have begun to think about a higher
leadership role like a CEO or Executive Director of
an organization.
Tom Klehr
Senior Vice President – Relationship
Manager
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Tom Klehr is a Senior Relationship Manager on
the Illinois Middle Market Commercial Banking
Team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
He leads a team of dedicated solution experts
that assist middle market clients in achieving
their overall strategic objectives by advising
them on financing strategies, treasury
management solutions, international banking,
FX and interest rate risk management, and
investment banking strategies. Tom seeks to develop and grow banking relationships
with middle market companies across Illinois.
Tom joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s predecessor LaSalle Bank in 1998 as an
analyst in its credit training program. He graduated from the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign where he earned both a B.S. in Business Administration and a
M.B.A. He holds the Series 7 and Series 63 general securities licenses administered by
FINRA (Financial Industry Regulation Authority) and is a Registered Representative of
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc.
Zach Wilson
Principal
Gulo Solutions
Zach co-founded Gulo in 2003. Gulo was
created to build beautiful, impactful and easy to
use websites and digital experiences.
Prior to founding Gulo, Zach worked for the
University of Michigan building web software.
Following those years, he consulted
organizations as a software developer. In the
15 years at Gulo, he has grown his professional
career and personally. Zach is also credited
building several successful web applications.
In his spare time, Zach is very passionate about his family and triathlons. He has
completed 6 full IRONMANs, 30 half IRONMANs and competed the half-IRONMAN
World Championship on Mont-Tremblant. He continues to actively swim, bike and run.
He also enjoys playing Tennis, Squash and occasionally Golf.
Lastly, his involvement in the community is very important. Zach volunteers for Chicago
Cares and is active with the Chicago Chamber of Commerce. This year, with his family
Zach would like to volunteer more and show his daughter what community participation
involves.
Recommended