With more than 300 members, the Emerging Leaders community is a dynamic cross-sector network of Chicago’s visionary, globally minded, locally committed leaders.
Carolyn Baer is a global health specialist with over 20 years of experience leading programs focused on reproductive health for women and girls in humanitarian settings, as well as infectious disease surveillance and response. She played a key role in launching the Center for Global Health and currently oversees global medical research and educational initiatives.
Kaberi Banerjee-Murthy is a philanthropic leader committed to transforming philanthropy by shifting power to historically underserved communities. Her experience includes leading the education, arts & culture, and civic affairs work at Crown Family Philanthropies. She's also worked with the Picower Foundation, the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, and Hemenway & Barnes.
Brendan Carroll is a senior partner at Victory Park Capital Advisors (VPC), which he co-founded in 2007, where he's responsible for strategic initiatives and firm operations. He's a frequent speaker at industry conferences, serves on the board of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, and was named a 2023 Notable Leader in Finance by Crain’s Chicago Business.
John P. DeBlasio is chairman of DT Global and DT Institute, founder of the Global Peace and Development (GPD) Charitable Trust, and managing director of Bootstrap Capital. He also founded Sallyport Global Holdings to support reconstruction efforts in Iraq, later expanding its operations across the Middle East and Africa.
Deb Fiddelke has led strategic communications and government relations for some of the world’s most influential organizations. She served in the White House under President George W. Bush as a legislative liaison to the US Senate, focusing on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees.
Amy Francetic's career spans over 20 years of high-technology entrepreneurship, private equity, and research. She previously founded and led Energize Ventures, a $165 million venture fund that invests in digital energy technologies. She also held roles at the Stanford Research Institute, where she worked on an early version of the voice recognition technology that became Siri.
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.
Christian Hagen has over two decades of consulting experience, specializing in leveraging digital technologies and analytics to optimize supply chains, revolutionize operations, and secure competitive advantages for clients. He's advised many of the world’s largest organizations across multiple industries – including retail, consumer products, high-tech, financial services, and government.
Before her role at the Chicago Quantum Exchange, Andrea Jett Fletcher managed the civic engagement, participatory democracy, and public policy initiatives of the McCormick Foundation. Previously, she worked with the University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Brookings Institution, and the African Development Bank.
Murali Kanakasabai is a leader in the derivatives industry, having designed and launched exchange-traded products in several industries. Before Exponential, he was a member of the founding team at the Chicago Climate Exchange, which pioneered environmental derivatives, and the American Financial Exchange/Ameribor, a market-based LIBOR alternative.
