With more than 300 members, the Emerging Leaders community is a dynamic cross-sector network of Chicago’s visionary, globally minded, locally committed leaders.
Bridget Gainer is a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, where she chairs the pension committee and leads the reform of the county's foreclosure policy and treatment of women and mothers incarcerated at Cook County Jail. She also leads Aon’s public strategy group, directing national policy issues.
Before joining Beacon Building Products, Prithvi Gandhi worked at Dover Corp., where he was responsible for corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic investments. Before that, he worked at Zebra Technologies and Morgan Stanley.
Ravin Gandhi is the founder and CEO of GMM Nonstick Coatings, one of the world’s largest suppliers of nonstick coatings to the $10B housewares industry. Its products are found on iconic brands such as Calphalon, KitchenAid, Farberware, George Foreman, Black and Decker, Wilton, Sunbeam, and Pyrex.
Jeanne Gang, a 2011 MacArthur Fellow and member of the 2011 class of the Council's Emerging Leaders Program, is the principal architect of Studio Gang Architects, a Chicago-based firm that has been recognized internationally for its innovation in design. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
Before joining Boeing, Anthony P. Garcia was with the US Department of Justice. His last assignment was to the gangs and narcotics section in the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. He also served as the US Department of Justice attaché assigned to the US embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, and worked in the Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs.
Rodrigo Garcia is previously the chief investment officer and chief financial officer for the Illinois State Treasury under State Treasurer Michael Frerichs. He directed the treasury’s combined $25B fixed income, equity, and venture capital portfolios; multiple asset classes; and $300B in related banking and financial services in order to bolster the Illinois macro and micro-economy.
As a visionary cultural strategist and global operator, Anas Ghazi has expanded firms across six continents, launched 22 pioneering data partnerships, and generated over $1 billion in revenue through digital transformation and AI-driven innovation for major global brands. He's currently an adjunct professor and career chair at Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Communication program.
Janice Giddens is a registered dietitian, and at the US Dairy Export Council, she leads collaborations with thought leaders to promote awareness of the link between agriculture, sustainable food systems, and health. Previously, as the nutrition manager at a food bank, she designed and implemented the rollout of a system that assessed the nutritional adequacy of 70 million pounds of food annually.
At the Cook County Land Bank Authority, Kenneth Gilkes Jr. spearheads strategic planning and policy execution to enhance operational efficiency in asset management. Previously, he managed economic development funds for the City of Chicago and oversaw a $1.8 million budget for the U.S. House of Representatives 2nd Congressional District of Illinois.
Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido is currently the founder and principal at FGP Atelier. Previously, in his 15 years at the international architectural firm JAHN, he designed and built projects on four continents. He shared the design leadership of the firm's work with the internationally acclaimed architect Helmut Jahn.
