Ensuring that hard work and ambition will be met with equality of opportunity

David Cohen is a business leader, father, husband, teacher, mentor, and permanently curious learner. He currently leads the LinkedIn Talent Solutions business in North America which helps companies of all sizes and candidates find one another at a massive scale. In his current role, he oversees a team that helps tens of thousands of companies hire millions of LinkedIn members every year.

In 2008 David opened LinkedIn’s Chicago office and was one of the company’s first 250 employees. In 2012 he moved to London where he was responsible for the Talent Solutions business in the UK, Northern Europe, and emerging markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He returned to Chicago in 2015 to take on his current role and renovate a 95 year-old house. David is an active advisor and investor in high-growth companies in Chicago and technology companies more broadly.  He’s been interviewed by the Financial Times, Management Today, and is a speaker on the topics of Chicago tech, talent and sales leadership.

Before joining LinkedIn, David served as a management consultant for Accenture and worked with JB Pritzker as a venture capital investor.  He also started his own management consulting and investment company.

David received a BA in Psychology from Emory University and has an MBA in Strategy, Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.  He lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with his dazzling wife and three mostly delightful children.

Joan Evans is the Director of the Prosper Road Foundation, based in Chicago.  The foundation is committed to the idea that all students deserve access to a high quality education and mental health supports.

Joan currently serves on the boards of OneGoal (Chicago), Youth Guidance (Chicago) and Braven (Chicago).  Joan is also active at the University of Michigan, her alma matter, where she sits on the Literature, Science and Arts and the School of Education’s Dean’s Advisory Councils.

Prior to joining Prosper Road, Joan worked as a School Psychologist in Skokie Public Schools.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Education from National-Louis University.  She resides in Chicago with her husband, David and welsh terrier, Floyd.  In her spare time, she enjoys being outdoors, playing piano, and traveling.

Kelly Mannard is an Executive Vice President and Northern Trust’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. She is responsible for the global positioning, direction and management of Northern Trust’s brand, marketing, communications and philanthropic efforts.

Kelly oversees teams in Analytics, Advertising and Creative Services, Conferences and Events, Digital Marketing, UX Design,Internal Communications and Public Relations. She also oversees Community Affairs, which defines and manages Northern Trust’s philanthropic activities. During the past five years, Northern Trust has contributed more than $100 million tocharitable organizations worldwide and Northern Trust partners have volunteered nearly 100,000 hours annually to charitable organizations.

Prior to her current role, and running concurrently with her position as Chief Marketing Officer, Kelly was Chief Strategy Officer from 2014 to 2018. In this role, Kelly worked with the Board of Directors, Chairman and CEO, and other executive leaders to define and align strategy across business units and functional teams. She monitored trends and industry changes, managed corporate strategic planning processes, and led executive and Board strategic review meetings.

Before joining Northern Trust in 2002, Kelly served as Senior Vice President of Financial Development, Marketing and Communications at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. Prior to joining the YMCA, she was the Director of Communications for Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan.

Kelly received a B.A. degree from the University of Kansas.

As President of the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (The CAFÉ), Liz is deeply engaged in the nonprofit community and passionate about youth development and education.

She began working with nonprofits in 1993 as founding Executive Director of City Year Chicago, a national service organization that was the template for the AmeriCorps Program. Then in 1995, Liz served as Executive Director of a Montessori school in Denver, where she led a $5 million expansion. In 1998, she became active with boards in the San Diego area, which further fueled her interest in philanthropy and education.

Prior to her work with nonprofits, Liz had a ten-year career with Ameritech Corporation, culminating in her role as special assistant to the CEO of Ameritech Illinois and director of a three-state region for Network Field Operations.

Liz serves as a Trustee for the University of Chicago, is Chairman of the University of Chicago Charter School Board, and serves on the Steering Committee of the University of Chicago Women’s Board. She is a director for the Museum of Science and Industry and serves as Vice Chair of the Partnership for College Completion. She is an alumnus of the Non-Profit Leadership Program of Denver and of the Leadership Greater Chicago Program where she currently also serves as a Director. Liz loves spending time with her family and friends, and cherishes her title of ‘Queen of Useless Facts’.

Mara Botman is the Executive Director at Vivo Foundation, a new Chicago-based foundation focused on education equity. Previously, she spent over a decade at the Circle of Service Foundation. She is
passionate about increasing equity and excellence in the early childhood through career continuum. She currently services on the boards of Braven and Kids First Chicago.

Mara has been deeply engaged in the launch of several organizations and initiatives. She co-founded and co-leads Forefront’s College and Career Access, Persistence and Success, and was deeply engaged in the launch of the Partnership for College Completion, the Discovery Partners Institute’s Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative, and Community Leadership Fellows.

Mara holds an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business with a concentration in Behavioral Economics and Entrepreneurship and holds an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in Social Policy and Political Science. She lives in Chicago with her husband and children.

Robin Lavin is the co-founder and President of The Osa Foundation, a family foundation focused on improving opportunities for Chicago’s youth through education and career preparation.

Robin takes an active role in the philanthropic community, serving as a board member and advisor to numerous non-profit organizations, as well as playing a leadership role in funder collaboratives. Robin serves on the board of directors of One Million Degrees, Spark (Chicago), and Braven (Chicago). She is also a member of the Leadership Council of The Chicago Public Education Fund, the Advisory Council for Embarc, and the Civic and Business Advisory Council for Healthy Schools Campaign. Additionally, she is the co-chair of the Progressive Pathways Fund of the Chicago Workforce Funders Alliance.

Prior to founding The Osa Foundation, Robin’s professional experience was in the financial services industry in the U.S. and London. She began her career at the New York City based money management firm, Jennison Associates, then later in cash management for both Maryland National Bank and Bank of America.Robin then joined Dun and Bradstreet in NYC and London, where she was responsible for managing internal treasury activities and later directing the marketing of international credit services for D&B, Europe.

Robin has a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from American University. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Jack, and enjoys spending time with her three adult children.

Ron is a partner with Deloitte Tax LLP and has over 34 years of experience in all aspects of U.S. taxation.

He currently leads a restructuring organization within Deloitte Global, supporting Deloitte member firms around the world. For the last decade, Ronhas held leadership positions in the U.S. Tax practice helping drive national operational strategy and client and business growth. Ron has also served as a member of the Deloitte U.S. Firm Board of Directors and on the Risk and Regulatory Committee and the Strategic Investment Committee.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his graduate degree in Taxation from DePaul University in Chicago. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Illinois CPA Society.

Ron currently serves on the Chicago Advisory Board for Braven. For his entire career, Ron has been active within the community, with a focus on education and youth organizations.Although he has served on many non-profit boards, he currently serves on the boards of Working in the Schools and Beber camp.He has also been awarded the Outstanding Leadership in Advancing Diversity Award from the Illinois CPA Society, the Alter and Stone Volunteer Award from WITS, and the Deloitte Community Impact Award.

Since co-founding Kendall Miles Designs, LLC in 2015, Sandy Reynolds has been serving in numerous capacities for the emerging luxury women’s footwear company. Working closely with her daughter, who is both CEO and Design Director, her current roles as Global Sales Director and COO involve the planning and execution of all direct-to-consumer marketing events, global coordination and logistics of all product deliveries and inventory management in their Chicago-headquartered distribution center. Prior to this latest entrepreneurial venture, Reynolds served as Senior Vice President of Business Development at Intralink Global, a content marketing firm located in Chicago, IL.

Reynolds holds an M.M. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a B.A. from Stanford University and Chartered Financial Analyst designation. While specializing in fixed income sales at First National Bank of Chicago (now JP Morgan Chase), she covered many of the largest global institutional portfolio managers in the insurance, mutual fund and hedge fund industries. Her goal to provide superior value, expertise and results propelled her to co-found Loop Capital Markets in 1997.

At Loop Capital, Reynolds performed virtually every function in the global investment bank, servicing corporate, governmental and institutional entities to build a track record of success and assist it in becoming one of the fastest-growing firms in the financial services industry. Combining state-of-the art quantitative analysis and technical customization, she was able to enhance the revenue growth of the complexly structured municipalities while forging relationships with key public finance executives and government officials. She is still active as a Partner at the company, which recently partnered to close its first Infrastructure Fund in 2017.

Reynolds currently serves on the boards of the Navy Pier, Chicago’s number one tourist attraction; Braven, a not-for-profit addressing the education-to-employment gap in higher education and the University of Chicago Women’s Board. She previously served on the boards of the Goodman Theatre, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Court Theater, Choose Chicago and After School Matters. Sandy and husband, Jim Reynolds, have three adult children.

Sarah Berghorst is Founder and Principal of August Impact Partners, a social impact consulting firm.  She is Special Advisor and former Chicago Executive Director and Leadership Group member at OneGoal, an innovative national organization that works to close the college degree divide and create a more equitable future. OneGoal partners with high schools in low-income communities as well as school districts and postsecondary institutions to equip educators with the training, tools, technology and partnerships to ensure Fellows (students) realize their postsecondary dreams. Under Sarah’s leadership, OneGoal grew over 300% in Fellows served and 3x in revenue raised.  She also managed and grew both the team and the Board of Directors and played a key role in the development and expansion of the national organization.

Prior to joining OneGoal, Sarah served for over two years as a consultant at Bain & Company, where she worked with clients in private equity, healthcare, financial services and technology.  Before joining Bain, she led Ashoka’s Global Development team and served as the Director of the Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur Program in Latin America, launching a program to engage business leaders with social entrepreneurs. Sarah also worked at DAI, an international development consulting firm, where she managed multi-year economic development projects across Latin America.

Sarah began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama, where she led the effort to establish the area’s first rural information technology center and ran a national women’s education initiative. She holds a BA in economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she was an F.C. Austin Scholar. She is an associate of the Prison Creative Arts Project based in Ann Arbor, and a partner with Social Venture Partners, Chicago. Sarah also serves as a member of the board of directors of Braven and of the Erie Elementary Charter School.  She is an Alumna of Leadership Greater Chicago, and is a member of Kellogg’s Pete Henderson Society and Alumni Council.