Dr. William W. Towns is a scholar, activist, and practitioner, dedicated to helping solve civic and urban issues at the structural level. He is the Executive Director of Benefit Chicago, a collaboration between The Chicago Community Trust, The MacArthur Foundation,...
Ellen Barry is the former CIO for the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority. The Authority owns and manages McCormick Place, Navy Pier and the Hyatt McCormick Place Hotel. In addition to traditional aspects of a CIO, Ms. Barry successfully implemented revenue...
Michael Arndt is editor of Crain’s Chicago Business, where he leads an editorial staff of three dozen. He moved over to Crain’s after more than 10 years as a senior editor and senior writer at BusinessWeek. Most recently at the magazine, he oversaw coverage of...
Ron Gleason is WBBM Newsradio’s Director of News and Programming, a role he has held since November 2005. Gleason oversaw WBBM’s expansion from its AM only signal on the 780 frequency to a simulcast with 105.9 FM in 2011. Radio Ink magazine has named him one of the...
Hardik Bhatt is the CEO of SDI Presence, LLC. Prior to SDI, Hardik was the Secretary Designate of the newly formed Department of Innovation and Technology and the Illinois State CIO in Governor Rauner’s cabinet. Hardik led 1,700 IT employees and over $1B of technology...
