With more than 300 members, the Emerging Leaders community is a dynamic cross-sector network of Chicago’s visionary, globally minded, locally committed leaders.
Before joining S2G Ventures, Aaron Rudberg was a partner with Baird Capital, a venture capital and private equity firm that invests in the US, Europe, and Asia. He oversaw the firm’s relationships with current and prospective investors globally, as well as its business development, communication, sales, and marketing activities.
Ryan Ruskin serves as president and chief operating officer of the Ruskin Group, a 105-year-old family packaging company and industry leader in sustainability. He previously worked as a consultant with A.T. Kearney, focusing on supply chain and manufacturing strategies with several Fortune 50 companies.
Sean Ryan has over ten years of consulting experience with U.S. and European clients. He specializes in growth-related issues in consumer products and healthcare and leads the North America practice area. He has published articles on Europe, the global economy, and finance.
In 2009, after visiting his hometown of Jerusalem, Kais Salhut started a software development outsourcing company in Ramallah, Palestine, to tap into the largely underutilized talent pool Palestinian universities produced each year. The company he started later merged its operations into iConnect Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer.
Jason Schmitt is a global CEO with a track record of unlocking growth across Fortune 500 and private equity-backed companies in retail and consumer goods, most recently as interim CEO of a $100M Southern California 3rd-party omnichannel logistics firm with 600 employees. He currently serves on the board of two private equity-owned companies.
Ross Shelleman is the CEO of Aisle Rocket, after previously serving as president and CEO of Target Data, a venture-backed "Big Data" and analytics company focused on the life event of moving. Before founding Target Data, Shelleman held various senior business development positions across a multitude of industries, including technology, healthcare, and managed services.
J. Jordan Shields joined Juniper Advisory, a specialized investment banking firm that provides government-owned, non-profit, and faith-based hospitals strategic transaction support, in 2011, in part due to the work his class of Emerging Leaders did exploring the opportunities and risks of privatizing public infrastructure, specifically hospitals.
In her role at KPMG LLP, Amanda Spikes leads the operations of the internal export controls and sanctions compliance programs for the United States and Americas region while devising, recommending, and implementing strategies to continuously improve their effectiveness. Prior to her current appointment, Spikes was a senior manager in KPMG’s trade and customs practice
Based in Chicago, Julie Steffen-Layda leads the Midwest hub for the international desk for JLL. In this role, she is responsible for expanding the growth of the company's international business across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific regions. Before her move to Chicago, Steffen-Layda was part of the Palo Alto hub of the international desk.
Linhard Stepf, a 10-plus-year veteran in foreign direct investments and economic development marketing, is currently the vice president of VISTRA. Previously, he was president of FrankfurtRhineMain Corp., where his responsibilities included promoting the Frankfurt region (Germany) in North America and Brazil to recruit and attract companies for relocation or expansion.
