Chair
Leslie Andrews is a pragmatic servant leader specializing in building innovative global travel and expense management systems, inclusive of custom organizational compliance practices. Additional areas of expertise include transformational facilitation and faculty leadership.
Leslie possesses over 20 years of experience in the Hospitality Industry and Higher Education serving in various leadership capacities from Global Travel Manager for CDK Global to Academic Dean for Computer Systems Institute. Currently serving as Global Travel Category Manager for CDK Global and ad hoc consultant providing adult professional development training and coaching. Corporate experience includes positions working with Caterpillar, Abbott, American Express Travel, JLL, KPMG, and Embassy Travel. Academic experience includes college instruction, curriculum design, and faculty development.
Leslie received her BA in Business Management from DePaul University, a Master Certificate in Hospitality Management from Ƶ, Global Leadership Professional (GLP) designation – Global Business Travel Organization (GBTA) and Darden School of Business, University of Virginia.
Vice-Chair
Kathy Menis is an expert in technology marketing with 20 years of experience creating and leading strategic, results-driven marketing programs. She is currently senior vice president of marketing at Signal, where she oversees all marketing initiatives including the company’s brand, product marketing and go-to-market strategy.
Menis joined Signal from Experian Marketing Services, a leader in data-driven marketing, where she served as director of product marketing. Menis earned her MBA in Marketing from Ƶ and a BA in Communications from DePaul University.
Paula J. Brown is the retired manager of diversity and inclusion in the Office for Equal Opportunity/Government Affairs at Rush University Medical Center. She was responsible for programming related to diversity and inclusion, affirmative action and disability rights. During her tenure at Rush, Paula was responsible for co-chairing a Task Force that led to the creation of a Language Interpreters Program at Rush.
Ms. Brown is also chair of the Rush ADA Task Fours 2012-2018. The Task Force, established in 1991, is known as a national leader in programming, accommodations, and initiatives related to people with disabilities. A major program of the Task Force is the Eugene J-MA Thonar, Ph.D. Award, held annually in October, which celebrates people with disabilities. The recipient of the award does not have to have a disability, but they must have promoted disability awareness either inside or outside of Rush. Paula was honored to have received this award in 2008.
Paula was also chair of the Diversity Leadership Council’s Committee on Training and Communication, which is responsible for creating initiatives and programming to consistently improve the culture of competence and inclusion within the medical center. Paula won the 2018 J. Robert Clapp Jr. Award for her extensive contributions.
Ms. Brown has co-authored several articles related to people with disabilities, published in the Journal of Nursing Administration; as well as articles related to diversity, racism and white privilege as it relates to nursing and treating mental illness, published in the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing.
Paula received her MBA from Ƶ and did her undergraduate work at Chicago State University. She created a Village mentoring program at Rush and participates as a mentor, and Advisory Board member for the Heller College of Business.
David Johnson, founder and managing partner of Abraxas Group, has a 25-year track record of driving organizational change. He has successfully led business transformations for dozens of organizations (family owned, nonprofit, private equity backed, angel and venture backed startups, etc.) as an interim executive and financial advisor. David specializes in working with middle market companies in transition.
Throughout his career, David has demonstrated a commitment to thought leadership, with numerous speaking engagements and articles on the topics of business transformation, change management, performance improvement, restructuring, turnaround, and value creation to his credit.
David received his MBA from the University of Chicago and completed his undergraduate studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Tricia Kelly is director of cash management and compliance for McDonald's Corp., responsible for global corporate cash management, documentation, compliance and treasury-related services for McDonald’s owned restaurants. She joined the organization in 2014.
Before joining McDonald’s, Kelly spent seven years at Navigant Consulting as director of treasury, where her focus was on global treasury management, debt portfolio management, risk management, global cash forecasting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, expense auditing. She also served on the 401k Investment Committee.
She earned her BS in Finance from Bradley University and a MBA in Finance from Loyola University Chicago. She is a Certified Treasury Professional, a member of the Association of Financial Professionals and is currently president of the Treasury Management Association of Chicago.
Dorri C. McWhorter is chief executive officer of YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, tasked with transforming the 140-year-old social service agency to a 21st century social enterprise. McWhorter has relaunched the TechGYRLS program, which focuses on developing STEM awareness for girls ages 9–14, and introduced 3D: Developing Digital Diversity, which provides web and mobile application development training to adult women.
She has also led the YWCA’s expansion of digital services with the launch of YShop.org (e-commerce platform), womenshealthexchange.org (health insurance and information) and the MPWR mobile app (community engagement). She was included in the Chicago Tribune’s Blue Sky Innovation “Blue Network” list for top 100 innovators in Chicago and earned Good City Chicago’s Innovative Leader Award.
McWhorter received a BSBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Alex J. Pollock is a distinguished senior fellow with the R Street Institute in Washington D.C., providing thought and policy leadership on financial issues. He joined R Street in January 2016 from the American Enterprise Institute, where he was a resident fellow from 2004–2015.
Pollock is a director of the CME Group, a director of Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, and a director and past-chairman of the Great Books Foundation. He is a past president of the International Union for Housing Finance.
Pollock received his BS from Williams College, an MBA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, and a MPA in International Affairs from Princeton University.
James J. Radous III is president of UniCarriers Americas and corporate/executive officer of Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas. Through his leadership, he has guided UniCarriers through a major acquisition to global powerhouse Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, overseen a significant expansion of manufacturing capabilities, and led the implementation of a state-of-the-art ERP system to drive greater efficiency and productivity into the company’s operation.
At UniCarriers, Radous has overseen a major brand change; a dramatic rise in sales, market share and profitability; and has led the development of a new corporate culture placing an emphasis on teamwork and unmatched product reliability.
Radous was previously president of retail operations at UniCarriers from 2014–2016 and was selected to oversee the company’s first factory-owned dealerships.
Radous earned an MBA in Marketing from Ƶ and BA in Communications from Northern Illinois University. As an alumnus, Radous mentors students from both universities and has provided several internships at UniCarriers.
Daniel Schuette, a 2005 graduate of Ƶ’s Heller College of Business, is Senior Vice President for Large Corporate Banking, PNC Bank and a seasoned banking and sales executive with over two decades of financial services experience. He is a client relationship champion, who strives to maximize working capital for large, diversified private and public corporations.
Schuette serves on PNC’s Chicago Council Advisory Board and is a five-year PNC Market-All Star Performance Recipient. He is a peer-mentor and leader within PNC’s Analyst Development Program and previously served as the Board-Chair for the Heller College of Business Advisory Board.
Rian Spencer is a private wealth advisor at BMO Private Bank, where she serves as a lead advisor and relationship manager to high-net-worth individuals, families and organizations, including closely held and family-owned businesses. Spencer closely works with clients to gain a complete understanding of their lifestyle, career, philanthropic and wealth-planning goals. She joined the organization in 2003 and has more than 14 years of experience in the financial services industry.
Spencer earned a BA in Spanish from Ohio University and earned an MBA at Ƶ, and is a member of Alpha Sigma Gamma International Real Estate Honor Society. She has served on the not-for-profit board for Youth Services Glenview-Northbrook and Shelter Inc. She is a participant of Roosevelt’s Professional Mentoring Program.
Robert Van Deven is Vice President and a partner at Power Construction. Van Deven joined Power in 1996 as a Project Manager with 10 years of industry experience. He has a BAS in Construction Management from Western Illinois University and an MBA in Finance from Ƶ. Bob’s focus for Power began principally in the healthcare, hospitality and developer areas. He has managed a variety of projects, most notably, Ƶ’s Wabash Building, 465 N. Park Apartments and the Marquee at Block 37. Bob serves on The Boy Scouts of America’s Chicago Council.
Janelle James is a consumer, retail and media expert whose career spans 19 years, 3 continents, and many strategic functions. Her work has touched over a billion people and key client engagements include Samsung, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, TD Bank, and Sanofi. Interesting stops along her professional journey include becoming the most junior expatriate at Leo Burnett Worldwide and working in Italy for 4 years, managing global campaign development across 60 countries, conducting research in 15+ countries, founding Leo Burnett’s first employee resource group and growing it to over 200 people.
Janelle is passionate about education and talent development; is an active member of the Prep for Prep, Chapin, and Harvard alumni communities; and spends a great deal of time mentoring students and recent graduates. She has been a guest speaker at The University of Chicago, DePaul University, Ƶ, Northwestern University, Harvard College, Harvard Business School, UCLA, The Wharton School of Business, and Northwestern in Qatar.
Janelle holds a BA (2000) and MBA (2008) from Harvard. Janelle currently lives in New York with her partner Shareef and their daughter Dillyn. She absolutely loves family time, cooking, road trips and discovering new cultures. Janelle joined the HCB advisory board in 2013.
Kasey is the actively retired Vice President of Risk Management & Chief Internal Auditor, Telecommunications.
As the Vice President of Risk Management & Chief Internal Auditor at TELUS, Kasey and his team redesigned TELUS’ enterprise risk governance approach, reengineered the internal audit processes; established the ethics office and worked collaboratively with stakeholders across the company to help TELUS continuously improve and achieve significant and sustained external recognition for ethics, enterprise risk governance, business continuity management, diversity and inclusiveness, environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility reporting.
Kasey represented TELUS on the Advisory Board of the Conference Board of Canada’s Strategic Risk Council from 2004 – 2014. He is a founding member of TELUS’ Diversity and Inclusiveness Council, and is one of the founders of TELUS’ LGBTQ team member resource group – Spectrum.
Prior to TELUS, Kasey enjoyed an 18 year career at Ameritech/SBC (now AT&T) in Chicago where he energized strategic change in a variety of leadership roles and served as one of the founding members, and first president of Ameritech’s LGBTQ employee resource group in the 1990’s.
Kasey and his husband enjoy being actively involved in both the LGBTQ and Latino communities in Vancouver and are longtime supporters of a number of community based organization including Out in Schools & Out on Screen, Qmunity, the LOUD Business Foundation, and the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation, Positive Living, the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre and the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.
Kasey holds professional certifications in internal auditing, control self-assessment and risk management assurance; a BSBA in Management from Ƶ, 1993, and an MBA from DePaul University, 1991.
Kevin Newell is a retired executive with 37 years of global and domestic experience in marketing, advertising, restaurant operations, P&L and line management.
Kevin was a member of McDonald’s Corporation’s global senior management team. As their Global Chief Brand Officer, he was responsible for leading global marketing, menu strategy and consumer and business insights. Kevin also led a multi-country team of strategy, marketing and consumer insight professionals in the development of global brand positions built on the strategic pillars of food, people and global neighbor. Additionally, he served in the Chief Brand Officer for McDonald’s USA, the company’s largest and most complex business unit. Kevin served as President of McDonald’s West Zone from 2014 until his retirement in April 2016.
A strong and passionate believer in giving back to his community, Kevin has been recognized by numerous organizations including the city of New Orleans, Chicago Business Leaders of Color, One Hundred Black Men of Chicago, One Hundred Black Men of New York and Black Enterprise Magazine. Kevin currently serves on boards for the American Red Cross of Chicago and Northern Illinois, WTTW/WFMT Public Broadcasting, the Off The Street Club of Chicago and the Louis Carr Internship Foundation. He also established two scholarship funds—the Aspire Higher Scholarship for graduating high school seniors and the Off The Street Clubs and the Delores A. Newell Scholarship at the University of Kansas.
Kevin received his BS in Journalism from the University of Kansas and is a 2012 CEO Perspectives Fellow at Northwestern University. He resides with his wife Adrian in Chicago.
Max Kelman is a Chicago-based Engagement Manager working for Cloudreach, an industry leading Cloud Consultancy. Max previously worked for Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Amazon. Additionally, Max is chairman of the HCB Alumni Board at Ƶ.
In his spare time, Max enjoys nerding out on new technology, being an avid automotive enthusiast and experience new adventures.
Max received his BSBA in Management from Ƶ in 2010.
Robert Graettinger is an experienced litigation attorney who now serves as outside General Council to established corporation and start-ups, including manufacturing and green technology clients. Mr. Graettinger has extensive experience in the areas of commercial litigation, corporate law, employment law, real estate and government practice. He currently works with a group of 20 collaborative attorneys to offer clients a full range of services, including counsel on business development, restructuring, capital formation and litigation support.
Mr. Graettinger practiced with the Office of the Illinois Attorney General where he specialized in civil rights, employment and administrative law matters. He has extensive civil trial experience in the State and Federal courts and has counseled and represented clients in a range of corporate matters, including employment, breach of contract, officers and directors’ liability and the acquisition and sale of corporate assets.
Mr. Graettinger has also prosecuted and defended attempts to pierce the corporate veil and has managed extensive litigation involving mortgage and real estate fraud. Additionally, he has represented clients on government licensing, land use and zoning matters in the City of Chicago and suburbs.
He is a member of the Chicago and Illinois State Bar Associations and has been admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Central Districts of Illinois. He also has served on the editorial board of the Chicago Bar Association’s publication the “CBA Record.”
Mr. Graettinger received a BA with Distinction in History in 1977 and an MA in History in 1979 both from Boston University. He spent ten years as a newspaper reporter and political consultant prior to attending law school, receiving his JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1992.
Sally Fletcher is the retired, as of March 29, 2019, Director of Human Resources and London Controller NEP Broadcast Services/US. Sally has been with Fletcher since May 1992 and has been a key part of Fletcher’s success. During her tenure, she was involved in the growth and development of Fletcher’s cinema division, which manufactures sports, political and entertainment camera systems. It was sold to VER in 2013. After the sale, as VP/CFO of Fletcher Sports, Sally played a key role in the growth of the sports division supporting all financial reporting and financial management. She also managed Human Resources implementing 401K, HAS, Flex plans and other best practices.
Sally also holds the position of President of the Friends of the Chicago River. Since 1979, Friends has been working to improve the health of the Chicago River system for the benefit of people, plants and animals; and by doing so, has laid the foundation for the river to be a beautiful, continuous, and easily accessible corridor of open space in the Chicago region.
Sally received her MBA from Ƶ in 2006.
Sherrill Ross has over 20 years of experience in the area of Income Tax, Corporate Audit and Regulatory Compliance. In her current position, she supervises a team for one of the largest tax departments in the world. She also has mentored and trained auditors who have worked all across the United States. Sherrill’s expertise is in Illinois Taxation and her knowledge spans both global and domestic business industries. She has set a benchmark that has led to restoration of the integrity found in world leaders across America. Sherrill’s audit territory stretches from coast to coast and has worked in taxation, audit, training and development as well as leadership for both corporate and government entities.
Sherrill received an MBA from Ƶ with a specialization in Real Estate. She received a BSBA from Chicago State University in Accounting.
Tina Milligan is a Managing Director with CTC/myCFO, an integrated wealth management provider that serves ultra-affluent individuals, families and family offices across their tax, estate, investment, philanthropic, risk and family capital needs.
Tina joined the organization in 2014 and has nearly 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, including working with financial institutions and public accounting firms. She oversees the delivery of integrated wealth management advice and client service for ultra-affluent clients. Her expertise includes tax planning and compliance, wealth transfer, charitable and philanthropic planning, and business owner and corporate executive planning.
Tina earned a BS in Accounting from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado and an MS in Accounting from Ƶ. Tina also earned a JD from Concord Law School.
Ms Milligan serves on boards of Chicago Estate Planning Council, Ƶ and the Women’s Leadership and Mentoring Alliance. She is a member of AICPA, New York State Society of CPAs and Illinois CPA Society. She frequently speaks on estate planning issues; her most recent presentation include “Love & (same sex) Marriage, Death & Taxes,” for the ALI-CLE and Wyoming Bar Association; and, “Weather Passive or Not: Planning for Real Estate Trusts Must be Active,” for the ILCPAS Real Estate Tax Conference.
Tina makes her home with her husband and daughter in Kenilworth, IL. Her love of skiing comes from her days growing up in Vail, Colorado where she ski raced, and the ultimately coach skiing.
Viktorija Isic joined Northern Trust Exchange Traded Funds Group, FlexShares, in 2014 briefly after its launch while having only $7Bn in Assets under Management. During her tenure, the group expanded to Mutual Funds and Managed Accounts and administers currently $200Bn in
Assets. An essential drive of long-term success is effective business and financial management
where Viktorija is leading financial management, budgeting, planning and analysis by ensuring operational excellence.
Her background includes investment management, information technology and venture capital where she worked on mid-to-late-stage financing for pre-IPO companies alongside some of the world’s premiere venture capital groups. Viktorija served as an active partner in a broad spectrum of investment sectors, with a primary focus on biotech, clean-tech, energy, and information technology.
Viktorija was educated in Germany, France and USA and holds a dual degree in Political Science and Economics and Legal Studies, as well as a MBA in Finance and International Management, both from Ƶ. In addition, she also holds Bloomberg Certification in Equity, Fixed Income, Commodity and Foreign Exchange and is fluent in German, English, Serbian-Croatian, and conversational in Russian.