With more than 300 members, the Emerging Leaders community is a dynamic cross-sector network of Chicago’s visionary, globally minded, locally committed leaders.
Steve Babitch’s work lies at the intersection of the social sciences, business strategy, and design. As a consultant who has worked with leading-edge innovation and design consultancies Doblin, now part of Deloitte, and IA Collaborative in Chicago, Babitch has worked with clients across many sectors, including computer hardware, automotive, consumer goods, and health care.
Emma Belcher is the president of the Ploughshares Fund, a public grantmaking foundation that supports initiatives to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons. Before this position, she was the director of nuclear challenges at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and published research on nuclear weapons at the Council on Foreign Relations as a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow.
Christian W. Fabian is a corporate lawyer who focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He has led M&A transactions involving Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Russia, Mongolia, Germany, Latin America, and China, among others. He formerly worked at Mayer Brown as part of a core group of M&A partners responsible for maintaining the excellence of the firm's global M&A practice.
Alicia Farag is the co-founder and president of Locusview, which provides mobile and geospatial technologies to support integrity management, regulatory compliance, and cost reductions for the natural gas industry. Previously, they worked at the Gas Technology Institute, where they were responsible for the development and commercialization of mobile and geospatial technologies.
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.
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.
Adam Hitchcock is a managing partner at Great Lakes Global Holdings, and before that, at Guggenheim Partners. Before joining Guggenheim, Hitchcock served as the chief of staff of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He also served as a special assistant in the White House Office of the Chief of Staff, where he provided support to President Obama’s senior advisors.
Harley Jones is a mission-driven leader with 21 years of experience in non-profit and emergency management. As the director of domestic programs at Project HOPE, a global health NGO, he leads strategic partnerships and health initiatives with community health centers, free clinics, and public health departments across the country.
In her previous position, Abigayil Joseph leveraged over a decade of experience as a senior leader at Chicago Public Schools to advise on strategic, policy, and operational priorities. She served as a liaison for the board with the mayor’s office and the CEO of CPS. She's guided by a deep commitment to equity and access to quality education for all children, in every school and neighborhood.
Natasha Krol's work has included facilitating collaboration across distributed higher education systems, supporting the government of Nigeria in reducing poliovirus cases, and designing innovation labs. Recently, Krol supported Chicago and UILabs in their winning bid to launch a $320M public-private "Digital Lab" to support advanced manufacturing technology research, development, and demonstration.
