With more than 300 members, the Emerging Leaders community is a dynamic cross-sector network of Chicago’s visionary, globally minded, locally committed leaders.
Patrick Hanley manages Mason Rocque, a family office investing in Midwest businesses, and serves as a senior advisor at Piglet in Bed, a direct-to-consumer sustainable homewares company. As an environmentalist, he currently chairs the Village of Winnetka Environmental & Forestry Commission. Previously, he advised public sector executives at the Chicago office of McKinsey & Company.
As the executive director of Project C.U.R.E. Chicago, Katie Hanlon is working to make Project C.U.R.E. the world's largest distributor of donated medical supplies and equipment to under-resourced countries. Hanlon is passionate about empowering and equipping communities, specifically women and children, with the tools needed to build a healthier community, and ultimately, a healthier world.
Amiel Harper brings over a decade of professional advisory experience across industries to Morpheus Consultancy, LLC. He's served as an advisor to two Illinois governors and many C-suite executives in addition to extensive service to academic, corporate, political, government, philanthropic, and entrepreneurial organizations.
At the Cook County Assessor's Office, Kelwin Harris leads public participation and stakeholder outreach for nearly two million property owners. Previously, he was a senior outreach planner with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) where he led outreach for Chicago's official regional plan, ON TO 2050, and helped communities find more equitable solutions to improve quality of life.
In addition to his work at BMO, Andrew Harrison is the leader of WMNfintech, a national accelerator program run in collaboration with 1871. He has spent 15 years in finance and banking focusing on commercial banking, payments, and technology. As the head of digital partnerships, he works to identify partnerships that improve the experience of BMO's retail and commercial customers.
Sarah Herda is the executive director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Founded in 1956, Graham Foundation is the only private foundation in the United States committed to providing project-based grants to individuals and institutions working to address issues related to architecture and the built environment.
Rachel Hermes manages programs of scale at Rotary International. Rotary is a worldwide organization comprised of 1.2 million business and professional leaders that promote local community initiatives with global action. In her role, she leads Rotary’s five-year global grant model evaluation to understand the effectiveness of the estimated $80 million of grants awarded annually.
Benjamin Hernandez is the founder and CEO of NuMat Technologies, a software-driven chemistry design company focused on solving generational challenges at the atomic level.
Before joining Vote Solar, MeLena Hessel was associate director of policy at Elevate, a nonprofit organization that designs and implements programs that reduce costs, protect people and the environment, and ensure the benefits of clean and efficient energy use reach those who need them most.
Previous to joining EMPLOYERS, Barbara Higgins was the senior vice president of customer experience and retention at Allstate Insurance Company. Before that, she was vice president of customer experience at United Airlines, where she led the global customer experience function and managed contact center operations in nine countries.
