John Edwardson, '72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC)

Jeannie Annan, PhD, is the International Rescue Committee’s Chief Research and Innovation Officer, spearheading the agency’s efforts to design, test, and scale life-changing solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. Jeannie co-founded the Airbel Impact Lab to increase IRC’s investment in research and innovation to improve the impact and reach of humanitarian interventions. Airbel has been designing and testing new and improved products, services, and delivery systems in more than 30 crisis-affected countries around the world. Annan’s main research focus has been to develop and test economic, behavioral, and mental health interventions to prevent violence and to mitigate its psychological and social consequences on women and children. She started her career leading education and psychosocial programming in Kosovo, northern Uganda and South Sudan. She is a Senior Research Associate at the Harris School of Public Policy at University of Chicago. She is also a research affiliate at Innovations for Poverty Action where she leads their initiatives on humanitarian and forced displacement and on intimate partner violence. She holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University-Bloomington. She was a post-doctorate fellow at Yale University and NYU and a visiting scientist at the Harvard T.C. Chan School of Public Health.

Bruce Brege has a BBA in finance from Ohio University, an MBA in finance and economics from the University of Chicago, an MS in engineering-economic systems and operations research from Stanford University, and an MA in math education from Stanford University. His career has included work in corporate finance, financial services and data analysis in the private sector, including extensive time in the biomedical industry. Prior to joining OHS, he served as the founding math teacher for two charter high schools and helped to develop the charter management organization that runs these schools as well as information analytics.

Bruce loves to travel, enjoys classical and jazz music, is a medium-distance runner, and has been attempting over the past several years to learn to play golf (with limited success).

Kelly Carlquist is a Vice President for Sandbox Healthcare. Prior to Sandbox, Kelly was an Associate on the Primary Investment Team at Adams Street Partners. Kelly started her career in Product Strategy at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Management Division.

Kelly holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from Northwestern University with a major in Economics, a minor in Business Institutions and a certificate of music in Vocal Performance.

Jim Casselberry has over 30 years of experience in investing, impact investing, investment management and investment consulting.

Casselberry is the chief investment officer at 4S Bay Partners, LLC with the primary focus being on market, impact, and mission-related investing. He is a board member at the Julian Grace Foundation and on the investment committee. He’s also a board member of Arc Chicago, LLC, the appointed board of Benefit Chicago. Benefit Chicago is a collaboration between The Chicago Community Trust, the John D, and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Calvert Foundation. Casselberry is the board chair of Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI). 

He has held senior roles at NexTier Companies, LLC and Dearborn Park Group, LLC (DPG)—firms that offer strategic consulting advice to investment management and financial services firms. Prior to DPG, he was a principal at Ennis Knupp and Associates Inc. (Ennis Knupp, currently known as AonHewitt Investment Consulting, Inc) and served as the primary consultant and managed consulting assignments for some of the nation’s largest public pension funds, foundations and endowments. He also served as the leader of Ennis Knupp’s Emerging Manager Advisory Council. 

During his career, Casselberry has held leadership positions with Trias Capital Management, LLC, Wedgewood Capital Management, Inc. and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He began his career at First Chicago Corporation and Arthur D. Little Valuation, Inc. He has been an adjunct professor at Valparaiso University, teaching in the College of Business MBA program, and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He sits on several philanthropic boards including Mosaic Genius, American Friends of Hebrew University, Morehouse College (Trustee), and the National Urban League (Trustee). He has written several white papers, most recently “Why Not the Best? Capturing Alpha from a Long-Neglected Market.”

He received a BS degree in economics from the University of Illinois and an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

John Edwardson is co-chairman of Advance Illinois, an independent statewide education policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that every Illinois student receives a world-class education. Edwardson is the former chairman and CEO of CDW, a leading provider of technology solutions to businesses, government, education, and healthcare organizations. During his tenure, CDW’s revenues grew from $3.8 billion to more than $10 billion. Prior to joining CDW, Edwardson served as chairman and chief executive of Burns International Services Corporation. He also served as president of UAL Corporation and United Airlines. 

Edwardson earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University and his MBA from Chicago Booth. He serves as a trustee of the University of Chicago, on the Council on Chicago Booth, and on the advisory board of Booth’s Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. He is also a retired board member of FedEx Corporation, Rockwell Collins Inc., and currently serves on the board of Chubb LTD.

Ghian Foreman is the president and CEO of the Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, which generates community wealth and amplifies local culture through shared pride, power, and investment for Chicago’s mid-South Side. Emerald South attracts and coordinates investment through community convening and collaborative partnerships that increase local ownership and prosperity. 

Prior to joining Emerald South, Foreman was the executive director of the Greater Southwest Development Corporation, a community development corporation focused on the improvement of the Southwest Side of Chicago. 

Foreman is the managing partner of the Washington Park Development Group, a real estate development firm focused on traditionally underserved urban markets. In this capacity, he has been responsible for over $50 million in investments and development. Foreman sits on several boards, including the Chicago Rehab Network, Chicago Housing Authority Support Corporation. He is currently the President of the Chicago Police Board, and most recently joined Chicago Booth as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Strategy.

He earned a BS from Florida A&M University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. A native Chicagoan, he lives in Kenwood with his wife, Traci, and daughter, Jade.

For 25 years as an executive and board member in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, Sonny has applied his willingness to challenge conventional thinking, deep commitment to value-based leadership, and belief in taking his work but not himself seriously to both create new enterprises and transform mature organizations.

In late 2020, Sonny joined DNS Capital, the family office for Gigi Pritzker, Michael Pucker, and their immediate family to establish the DNS Phunhouse, an investment vehicle focused on seed-stage investment opportunities.

Immediately prior to DNS, he spent five years at Uptake, an industrial AI software company, launching and growing Uptake’s Energy division. With a valuation now over $2B, Uptake has been recognized both by the World Economic Forum and Bloomberg New Energy Finance as a Technology Pioneer and was named the #3 most promising AI company by Fortune.

In addition, to his early-stage experience, Sonny spent thirteen years at Exelon Corporation, a Fortune 100 company, leading various departments and divisions during periods of inflection, including retiring Exelon’s coal generating plants as the President of Exelon Power, designing and executing Exelon’s cost management program during the Great Recession and as the company’s first Chief Information & Innovation Officer, founding an Emerging Technologies department to systematically identify, pilot and scale innovative technologies within Exelon.

Sonny began his career at The Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, where he conducted research on social capital, as well youth and neighborhood development programs, in inner-city neighborhoods. He later served as an Assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, leading the conceptualization and creation of World Business Chicago, the City’s public-private economic development organization.

In addition, Sonny also has served as the President or Chair of non-profits founded by social entrepreneurs, including the Chicago Children’s Theatre, the Interfaith Youth Core, the Invisible Institute, and Project&. Sonny has also published numerous editorials in the NYTimes, Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business on topics varying from diversity, equity, and inclusion to civic leadership.

For his leadership, Sonny was appointed a White House Fellow by President Clinton, where he served as a senior aide to the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget and was selected as an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow. He currently co-teaches a course on High Performance Leadership at University of Chicago’s Booth School, where he is also an Executive in Residence on Civic Impact and co-leads a seminar on Business, Society and Self.

Sonny earned a M.B.A. and a B.A. at the University of Chicago, and a M.P.P. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He and his wife are grudgingly adjusting to empty nesting.

Rich Hoops is the executive director of Impact Charitable, a nonprofit based in Denver, Colorado that partners with donors and government funders to identify and address critical capital/funding gaps among underserved individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses, through the facilitation of direct, philanthropic investments and special purpose funds.  He is also a member of Social Venture Partners, an organization that provides capacity building services to nonprofits and social enterprises, and Social Venture Circle, a national network of social impact investors and he serves on several nonprofit boards.  

Hoops began his private-sector career at Tandy Corporation in 1986. After that, he joined Dell Computer Corporation where, over 11 years, he held a variety of senior management and executive positions in sales, marketing, and business development. In 2000, Hoops moved to Boulder, Colorado where he founded and served as CEO of Outdoor Intelligence, a digital mapping company that served the outdoor recreational industry. Since 2004, Hoops has invested his time, energy, and resources in a variety of nonprofit and for-profit social impact initiatives and organizations in Colorado and East Africa, where he continues to support several nonprofit community development organizations and for-profit social ventures through mentorship and investment.  

Hoops has a bachelor of arts from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. When not working, Hoops enjoys skiing, fishing, cycling, and spending time with his four daughters.

Rachel Kohler is the CEO of NowPow and is improving access to community resources that support whole person care. Under her leadership, NowPow’s referral technology has been rapidly adopted by top health systems, payers, and community-based organizations across the country. Before joining NowPow, Kohler spent more than 20 years building and managing global luxury brands at Kohler Co., one of the largest and oldest private companies in the nation. Kohler is a trustee at the University of Chicago, the University of Chicago Medical Center, and the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. 

She also serves on the boards of Kohler Co., Kohler Foundation, LPMC Foundation and MAPSCorps, a technical workforce pipeline for NowPow. Kohler also previously worked at Booz Allen & Hamilton, a management consulting firm, and at First Boston, an investment bank now known as Credit Suisse. Kohler earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Princeton University.

Unmi Song is President of the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, a private foundation that supports nonprofits serving low-income communities in Chicago. The Fry Foundation focuses its grant-making in the areas of arts learning, education, employment, and health. Across all of its funding areas, the foundation’s focus is on helping organizations: build capacity to enhance the quality of services and better assess the impact of programs; develop successful program innovations that other organizations in the field can learn from or adopt; and share knowledge so that information which can help low-income communities and individuals is widely and readily available. The Foundation is especially interested in testing new ideas that will advance knowledge or practice in the fields in which its grantees work. Addressing needs of the Chicago community since 1983, it has assets of $200 million and awards $8 million in grants annually.

Song received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and continued her education at the University’s Graduate School of Business, obtaining an M.B.A. in Finance and International Business. Song was a vice president of Bankers Trust Company and held positions at Citicorp Investment Bank in New York City, at the First National Bank of Chicago and at Gold Star Tele-Electric Company, in Seoul, Korea. Prior to joining the Fry Foundation, she directed the Employment grant-making program focused on job training and welfare policy issues at the Joyce Foundation.

Song has many affiliations with philanthropic and nonprofit organizations. She serves on the board of the Metropolitan Planning Council. She was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She has served on the boards of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Forefront (previously the Donors Forum of Illinois), and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy; and she has served as board chair for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the nation’s leading Pan-Asian American civil rights group. She has been honored by Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago and Korean American Community Services (now known as Hana Center) for her support of the Asian American community in Chicago. She is a member of The Chicago Network, the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the Economic Club of Chicago.

Noon has been involved in the development of more than 800 acres of land for suburban office and industrial parks, over 3,000,000 square feet of office buildings and over 1,700,000 square feet of industrial buildings. After 5 years as a construction lender and 10 years working for other national development companies, Chris started Quadrangle in 1988. He has an undergraduate degree with Honors in Civil Engineering from Purdue University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Emma is the General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Board Secretary of LGIM America, the U.S. arm of LGIM, the 6th largest institutional asset manager globally, managing over $1.8 trillion. LGIM America focuses on sustainable investment solutions, pension stabilization and retirement income generation. Emma leads the risk, compliance, legal and governance functions. She is a member of the LGIM America Executive Committee and the LGIM Global Senior Leadership Team, and Chairs the LGIM America Risk Oversight Committee. She also serves on Legal & General Group’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council, helping set D&I priorities across all L&G entities globally, and the LGIM America DEI Steer Co. She was previously an investment management partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, among other in-house and private practice experiences. Emma serves on the boards of WTTW (Chicago PBS), WFMT (Chicago’s Classical Music Station), Angeles Investors and the Chicago Metropolitan Planning Council, and is a member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association.  She co-led the ESG and Green Economy Sub-Committee of the Volunteer Economic Policy Committee for the 2020 Biden for President Campaign, focused on developing ESG strategy and policy proposals for the campaign and the new administration. She has been previously recognized as a Top Latino Leader by the U.S. National Diversity Council, as a DEI Leader by the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association, and as a Business Leader of Color by Chicago United, among other honors.

Tasha Seitz leads the venture investment team at Impact Engine, where she invests in early stage software companies driving improvements in education, health, economic empowerment, and environmental sustainability. She has been making and managing technology venture investments for over two decades. Prior to joining Impact Engine, she was a partner with JK&B Capital, a technology venture capital firm based in Chicago with $1.1 billion dollars under management, where she was responsible for identifying, evaluating, and making investments in early stage enterprise software companies. Her post-investment responsibilities included serving on boards of directors, managing growth, coaching and hiring management teams, and managing investments through exit.

In addition, Seitz serves as adjunct professor of social impact at the Kellogg School of Management, board director for the Bridges Impact Foundation US, and a member of Echoing Green’s Investor Advisory Group. She is also a founding partner and former board chair for the Chicago chapter of Social Venture Partners. Seitz earned a BA from Wellesley College and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Strausbaugh joined the Trust from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, where in her role as senior director of finance and treasurer she oversaw Lurie’s endowment and pension investment portfolios, enterprise risk management, payroll, tax compliance, debt issuance and cash management.

Prior to her work at Lurie Children’s Hospital, her previous roles included first vice president at LaSalle Bank (now Bank of America); three years in London consulting to European banks as manager in KPMG’s financial risk advisory group; and three years in new product development at Standard & Poor’s in New York and Paris.

Born and raised in Chicago, Strausbaugh holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Nasrin Thierer, founder and managing partner at Assetblue Investment Group, is an innovative leader and experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record of building new businesses and optimizing distribution channels.

Thierer has launched many companies from the ground up, most recently Revenew, Inc., a cloud-based distributed marketing automation platform, which was acquired by Marlin Equity Partners and now operates under the Aprimo brand. Nasrin is an active investor in the community and on the board of ShoppingGives and PatientBond.

Thierer is also founder and president of the Thierer Family Foundation, which focuses on leveraging technology to help nonprofits. She currently serves on the boards of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Ryan Opera Center.

Over the first 22-years of her career, Thierer held a broad spectrum of senior business management, technology, and marketing roles at Motorola. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Design from University of Tennessee and a MBA. in Marketing and Finance from Nova Southeastern University.

William Towns is a scholar, activist, and practitioner, dedicated to helping solve civic and urban issues at the structural level. He believes in the power of increasing access to capital, data, and academic resources to create pathways of opportunity for organizations and individuals to impact communities often overlooked. Using his lived experience, Towns takes a broad, system-wide approach to problem solving with respect to equitable community development.

Over the course of his career, he has managed more than $900 million in capital directed at reversing economic disparities and racial discrimination. He has developed multiple corporate strategic plans, directing resources to local organizations, and has worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies to help address complex civic issues.

He is the National Market President for Gorman and Company, a vertically integrated Real Estate Development firm and a Lecturer at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy where his courses examine the intersection of business and society.

Towns received his bachelor’s in marketing from Loyola University Chicago – Quinlan School of Business, an MBA from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business, and a Ph.D. in Organization Development from Benedictine University.

His goal is to use his research to help cities, anchor institutions, corporations, and non-profits to develop policies and initiatives that welcome in those who stand just outside the door of opportunity to the table of prosperity.

Tom Wells is Chairman, President & CEO of WMC Holdings Inc., a family office that deploys capital across all asset classes, with a primary focus on private equity and venture capital. Before forming WMC, he owned and operated Wells Manufacturing Company, the only producer of continuous cast iron bar stock in North America and the largest in the world, prior to its sale in 2012. Tom is an Advisory Board Member at Iron Gate Capital (Boulder, CO) and a Director on the Board of the Chicago Booth Angels Network of Chicago. In addition to his investing background, Tom has significant experience in general management, operations and sales, with earlier roles at AT&T and Hewitt Associates. He earned his MBA from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago (’94) and his BA degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana (’88).