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

John Balbach is responsible for the operational management of Impact Investments, including playing leadership roles with major initiatives such as Benefit Chicago and the Catalytic Capital Consortium. He also leads impact investing efforts to advance the Foundation’s Climate Solutions Big Bet.

Prior to MacArthur, Balbach worked with Silicon Valley Bank and JPMorgan Chase. He has also served on a National Science Foundation commercialization review committee, managed and raised capital for an Impact Investing Fund focused on developing the Michigan life sciences sector, advised industry-leading corporations on infusing cleantech solutions into their supply chains, provided consulting services to leading nonprofit organizations with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, and served as a strategic advisor to hundreds of founders of technology-based startup ventures through a Michigan economic development program.

He holds a BS in Finance from Miami (Ohio) University, an MA from St. John’s College, and an MPA from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Bruce Brege has worked 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). Bruce Brege has a BBA in finance from Ohio University, an MBA in finance and economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MS in engineering-economic systems and operations research from Stanford University, and an MA in math education from Stanford University.

Jim Casselberry, the co-founder and CEO of Known, has over 30 years of experience in investing, impact investing, investment management and investment consulting. He has an extensive managerial background in family and entrepreneurial businesses across industries of waste management, food manufacturing and financial services. Most recently, Jim served as the Chief Investment Officer at 4S Bay Partners, LLC, a single-family office focused on social impact, where he will serve as Senior Advisor. Jim is a board member at the Julian Grace Foundation, where he sits on its investment committee, and at 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. He is the board chair of Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI). Jim has authored several white papers, including “Why Not the Best? Capturing Alpha from a Long-Neglected Market.”

Jim was a principal at Ennis Knupp and Associates Inc. (currently known as AonHewitt Investment Consulting, Inc) where he had a broad range of responsibilities, including serving as the primary and managing consultant assigned to some of the nation’s largest public pension funds, foundations, and endowments. Jim spearheaded Ennis Knupp’s Emerging Manager Advisory Council and was head of the firm’s global equity research group, member of private equity research group as well as the fixed income advisory council. Jim has also held senior roles at NexTier Companies, LLC and Dearborn Park Group, LLC, both of which offered strategic consulting advice to investment management and financial services firms.

During his career, Jim has held leadership positions with The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Partner and Director of Fixed Income Investments), Trias Capital Management, LLC (Founder and CEO), and Wedgewood Capital Management, Inc. (COO and Portfolio Manager). He began his career at First Chicago Corporation and Arthur D. Little Valuation, Inc. Jim 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, and is a Trustee at Morehouse College and the National Urban League.

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

Duncan Davis is a Founder and Managing Director of Breakout Capital. Breakout invests in high growth businesses, with a focus on mission-driven companies led by diverse teams. Breakout’s investments have been primarily in healthcare, consumer, and financial services. Breakout employs a deal-by-deal structure and its LPs are family offices.

Duncan began his career in leveraged finance at Goldman Sachs in New York City. He went on to join the investment team at Sterling Partners where he focused on healthcare services investing. Duncan grew up in Wisconsin and now resides in Wicker Park with his wife and two sons. Duncan serves as a mentor for American Corporate Partners to help military veterans transition to the civilian workforce.

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 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. Edwardson earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 

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.

Foreman is also 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, Hyde Park Art Center, and previously served as President of Chicago Police Board. Most recently Foreman joined Chicago Booth as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Strategy.

Foreman earned a BS from Florida A&M University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Carlos Ganoza is an economist and tech entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Quantum Talent, a startup that uses AI to match workers with jobs in LatAm. Previously he was chief of staff at the Peruvian Ministry of Finance, and CEO of Peru’s largest business media company. He is the coauthor of two bestselling books about the Peruvian economy. He obtained an MBA from Booth in 2010.  

As the COO & General Counsel of 4S Bay Partners LLC, a single-family office based in the northern suburbs of Chicago, Emily Green serves on the executive team supporting the family’s mission to eliminate prejudice and the inequities of our society.

In her tenure at 4S Bay Partners since 2016, Emily has overseen the growth from three employees to over fifty employees and family assets rise fourfold. In supporting this growth, Emily leads the office operations, legal and risk management, finance, and real estate teams, as well as supports the investment strategies of the investment team to ensure family’s mission, achieving both social and financial returns.

Bob Greenlee is Chief Operating Officer at Tusk Holdings, Head of Platform for Tusk Venture Partners, and President of Tusk Philanthropies. At Tusk, Bob has worked for the past decade at helping early-stage and growth-stage startups navigate the regulatory environment. He has worked in the healthcare, telecom, energy/climate, gaming, technology, education, finance, and policy/political reform sectors, leading campaigns for large corporate clients like LVMH, Tesla, and CVS, startups like Bird, Ro, and Sedera, and not-for-profits like Girls Who Code, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Gabe Hakim is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Promise Venture Studio–a national nonprofit with a mission to support innovators and accelerate innovations for equity in early childhood development and education. Promise supports a national network of 500+ social ventures in the fields of early childhood health, prenatal health, birth equity, early childhood education, parental support, and child care quality and access, among others. Promise is also the backbone organization for the national Early Childhood Leaders of Color Collaborative that supports 200+ field leaders in pursuit of greater sustainability, social capital, and collective power. 

Gabe has spent the last decade committed to equity-driven innovation in early childhood development and draws upon experience from a broader career of leadership within mission-driven organizations seeking social justice. Prior to launching Promise in 2018, he was the US COO of Generation: You Employed, a global workforce development nonprofit started by the McKinsey Social Initiative, where he supported programmatic growth and execution across 13 states. He’s also led the strategy and scaling efforts for Interfaith America, a national nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation and leadership on 1,000 US college campuses. As a former management consultant, he has experience working across the public, private, and social sectors to develop high-impact strategies for innovative solutions. Gabe has an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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.

Lloyd Lewis is the CEO of the Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado, one of Colorado’s largest social enterprises. Arc Thrift is also one of Colorado’s largest nonprofits, employers of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), recyclers, and relief organizations. Under Lewis’ tenure, Arc Thrift has funded over $250 million to nonprofit causes and charities since 2005.

Since taking on the leadership role at Arc Thrift Stores, Lewis has become a passionate and uncompromising advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. With 80% of people in the U.S. with disabilities being unemployed, a champion was indeed called for. Focusing on healthcare, housing, voting rights, and employment, Lewis is most definitely that champion and is on a crusade to promote a new way to think about inclusion and diversity.

When and where he can, Lewis takes a stand and has issued a challenge to all CEOs and business leaders to follow his lead and change how we approach and truly embody inclusion in this country.

Lewis was a nominee for CEO of the Year by ColoradoBiz magazine in 2020 and named one of Denver’s Most Admired CEOs in 2021 by the Denver Business Journal. He is also the recipient of a Civil Rights Award and received the World Citizenship Award in 2022 from the International Civitans, an honor that has included such noted past winners as England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Eunice Shriver, the founder of Special Olympics.

Additionally, Lewis sits on the board of The Arc of the United States Foundation and is treasurer of Inclusion International, a worldwide organization advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with members in over 100 countries.

Lewis’s career in disabilities and employment has also been recognized in the Congressional Record by U.S. House of Representatives Jason Crow and Diana DeGette.

Before coming to Arc Thrift Stores, Lewis was a municipal investment banker with Smith Barney, a senior financial analyst with IBM, a director of finance for a publicly traded medical equipment company, and a CFO for a high-tech start-up company that was ultimately sold to Micron. Lewis is a board member of the Colorado Business Roundtable and chairs its community committee. Lewis also sits on the board and serves as treasurer of Inclusion International, one of the world’s largest international organizations fighting for the rights of individuals with IDD across the world, with over 200 member organizations in 115 countries. 

 Lewis lives in Englewood Colorado with his wife Claire who is a substitute teacher. He has four grown and two younger children, including a 19-year-old son with Down syndrome.

 Lewis is a nationally recognized expert in IDD employment and speaks nationally to corporations about the positive contributions of employees with IDD. He spoke at the opening plenary session at the Arc of United States convention in November 2022. Lewis has an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sheila Mikhail has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical leadership experience and is a Co-Founder of Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), a company she started in 2001. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of AskBio until March 2023 and currently serves in the role of Advisor/Co-Founder. During her tenure as CEO, she built three GMP manufacturing facilities in Spain and AskBio’s excess capacity is sold under the tradename Viralgen for CDMO services and TAAV for plasmid supply.  With $235m in Series A funding, she built the company to over 349 employees operating in five countries. Under her leadership, AskBio has advanced programs into the clinic for Pompe, late stage Heart Failure, Parkinson’s, Multiple System Atrophy, and Huntington’s. In December 2020, Ms. Mikhail led the negotiation of the $4b AskBio acquisition by Bayer AG and has since grown the company to over 800 employees worldwide.  Prior to her role at AskBio, she served as Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Bamboo Therapeutics which, in 20 months, raised $50m, advanced a therapeutic for GAN into the clinic, completed pre-IND studies for a Duchenne muscular dystrophy therapeutic, and built a GMP manufacturing facility. Bamboo was acquired by Pfizer in August 2016 in a deal valued at $827m. Prior to that, she was part of the management team at Chatham Therapeutics which was acquired by Baxter in 2014. Ms. Mikhail practiced law for more than 15 years. During that time, she founded Life Sciences Law which serviced clients including Bayer, Gilead, GSK, Sanofi and Aventis. She also practiced with Ropes and Gray in Boston. She earned a JD with honors from Northwestern University, a finance MBA with honors from the University of Chicago, and a BS with highest honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Chris Noon, MBA ‘72, 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, Noon 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. Noon currently serves as a Trustee of Ravinia Festival, an internationally renowned, not-for-profit music venue, and is a previous board member of Lake County Habitat for Humanity. Noon resides in Winnetka with his spouse, Barbara, and is the proud parent of two adult children.

Andrea Sáenz is the president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s largest and oldest community foundations. She works to bring to life a vision to realize a stronger and more prosperous Chicago region where access to opportunities transcends race, ethnicity, or zip code. The Trust’s work is professionally fulfilling and deeply personal for Sáenz. She joined the Trust from Chicago Public Library, where she led strategy, program design, and organizational development. Previously, she served as chief of staff at Chicago Public Schools, policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education, and executive director of HACE, a national nonprofit focused on Latine success in professional careers. She serves on numerous nonprofit boards. Sáenz earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Scripps College.

Mauricio Servitje Labarrere holds a bachelor’s degree in international business administration from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, where he graduated with the Class of 2018.

Since 2020, Servitje has served as co-CEO of Grupo Altex. He began his career with the company in 2006 and has since gained broad experience across multiple departments. Before his current role, he led the Citrus division and previously held the position of sales director.

Servitje’s extensive experience and leadership within Grupo Altex have provided him with a deep understanding of the company’s operations and market dynamics, which continue to inform his executive responsibilities.

Roberto Servitje, ’13, is C0-CEO at Altex, his family’s business and one of Mexico’s largest agro-industrial companies. He has spent most of his professional career in a variety of local and international roles within his family’s businesses in the food industry, including risk management and marketing. Directly after graduating from the full-time program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2013, he joined Grupo Lacrem in Barcelona as Director of Marketing, and in 2015 he returned to Altex based in Mexico City, most recently serving as CEO for the group. 

Servitje received a BA in international commerce from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico City (2008) and participated in the SNVC while he attended Chicago Booth. He is active in various organizations that support urban and contemporary art, as well as rural development initiatives throughout Mexico.

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.

Ron Tarrson is the owner of Santa Fe Aero Services and a majority partner of The Jet Center Santa Fe, suppliers of avionics, maintenance, fuel, hangar and concierge services for private and corporate aviation at the Santa Fe, NM Regional Airport.  He formerly worked for the John O. Butler Company, where he held numerous positions, including corporate director, treasurer, COO, and president. After selling to Sunstar of Japan, which took the public company private, he served for two years as vice chairman.  He serves in leadership roles for many foundations that focus on the airline industry. Tarrson recently served on the Council on Chicago Booth and is currently on the advisory council for the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation.” Tarrson received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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.

David B. Wells, MBA ’98, MPP ’98, has focused the last 20+ years on helping consumer businesses grow as an operating exec, advisor, and board member.

Wells spent nearly 15 years at Netflix, with the last 8 as its CFO, departing in early 2019 and having served as VP of Financial Planning and Analysis prior. He was an integral part of the team that presided over Netflix’s transition to a self-produced content streaming company from the DVD company of its early days, its expansion to 190+ countries, raising $12B+ in capital, and growing to a $140B+ company along the way.

Wells now splits his time between the for-profit and nonprofit worlds. He is a current Corporate Director for three public companies:  ad tech leader The Trade Desk (Comp, AC Chair), direct-listed fintech Wise.com(Chair of BOD), and direct-to-consumer healthcare, HIMS (Lead Director, AC Chair).  In the nonprofit world, he works with a number of economic development organizations and serves on the Board of Innovations For Poverty Action, is an advisor/panelist with Endeavor Global, and is a member of the Harris Council for the University of Chicago Policy School and Jefferson Trust for the University of Virginia.

Wells holds a joint MBA/MPP from The University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

He loves spending time with his wife and 16 year old daughter doing anything outside.

Tony Wilkins, CFA is a private investor and executive coach focused  on helping C-suite teams make better decisions by providing broad perspectives from experiences and investments in a variety of industries. He mentors founders at 1871, TechStars Chicago, the Polsky Exchange, Google for Startups and the founders in his portfolio. An investor in Pre-Seed and Seed rounds of startup companies, current board seats include TraknProtect and Mile1 Technologies.  

Active in the non-profit space, Tony was a member of the Disciplinary Review Committee of the CFA  Institute from 2006 – 2012, President of the Association of Investment Management Sales Executives in  2012 and Board Member of the National Association of Securities Professionals. He represented BNY  Mellon as Trustee Representative and Senior Investment Advisor to the W. K. Kellogg Foundation Trust  serving as one of four Trustees on this $9B entity and currently serves on the board of AnitaB.org as Chair of  the Investment Committee. 

Prior to embarking on his career in early-stage space, he spent 18 years at Northern Trust and Weiss, Peck &  Gree in institutional asset management sales and 6 years as a portfolio manager and marketer at Chicago based Stein, Roe & Farnham starting in 1986. His finance career began after six years in the military  electronics industry working for AT&T and as a firmware engineering manager at Atlanta-based, Lockheed  Loral. He began his work career in 1979 at Chrysler Corporation in Detroit. 

Tony received his BSEE from Northwestern University and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is an avid randonneur.