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Illinois Advisory Board Members

Jermaine Badie

Senior Vice President, Chief Audit & Controls Office, Global Finance, Mondelez International

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Leonard T. Bell

Leonard Bell

Director, Rates and Currencies Solutions, Bank of America

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Edward Brice

Leader, Learning Governance, Cisco

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Matt Chlystek

Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

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Ricardo Dalmas (Chair)

Global Vice President - Insight & Analytics, Kimberly-Clark

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Jerry Darko

Partner and Managing Director, William Blair

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Vera Ermolinskiy, Associate Managing Director, Accenture

Vera Ermolinskiy

Associate Managing Director, Accenture

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Paul Fayad

Partner, KPMG LLP

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Kyle McHugh

Partner, Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett LLP

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Carl-Martin Lindahl

CEO and Board Director, RealTruck

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Brett Nelson

Vice President, Client Development at Synchrony

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Desiree Rideaux

Vice President and Business Development Officer, Citibank

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Philip Ruffat

Head of Global Futures & Executive Director, BTG Pactual

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Anna May Trala

Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, GTCR

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Jermaine Badie

 Senior Vice President, Chief Audit & Controls Office, Global Finance, Mondelez International
Leonard T. Bell

Leonard Bell

Director, Rates and Currencies Solutions, Bank of America

Leonard Bell II is a director in the Rates and Currencies Solutions business at Bank of America. He is responsible for delivering foreign exchange and interest rate risk mitigation strategies to the bank’s Global Commercial Banking Clients. He is also responsible for driving all aspects of the global FX payments business in the markets he covers which include Metro Chicago, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and the Dakotas.

Prior to joining Bank of America in Chicago, Leonard spent the last 14 years in New York with 8 years at Deutsche Bank, a time at Credit Suisse on the New York FX sales desks, and 4 years on Standard Chartered’s institutional macro sales desk. He began his finance career in Chicago in 2001 at JPMorgan Chase as a middle market relationship manager.

Lenny enjoys travelling with his wife and 2 kids, golf, all things Chicago (except the Cubs), is a part owner of a CrossFit in Brooklyn, and has been on national television twice on HGTV and Oprah.

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Edward Brice

Leader, Learning Governance, Cisco

Edward Brice is a Leader, Learning Governance at Cisco. His role role focuses on ensuring that learning across the enterprise is effectively governed, compliant and aligned with Cisco’s strategic objectives, enabling the organization to maximize the impact of it’s learning investments.

Edward began his career as a high school math teacher with Teach For America in Chicago. Next, he joined Sears Holdings Corporation (SHC), where he spent ten years in various roles- including Marketing Operations, Procurement and Integrated Learning and Performance. Prior to joining Cisco, Edward was Director in Strategy & Operations at AllState.

He holds a Bachelor of Science from Morehouse College with a dual concentration in Mathematics and Economics, a Master of Arts in Teaching in Secondary Education from Dominican University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago- Booth School of Business.

Edward resides in Chicago, IL with his wife and two daughters. His personal interests include investing, reading and sports.

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Matt Chlystek

Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

Matt Chlystek is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. Previously at Moelis & Company, he specialized in advising consumer food and agribusiness companies. Matt has over 20 years of investment banking experience, leading and executing numerous domestic and cross border M&A transactions, equity, and debt underwritings for companies across the food production value chain..

Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Matt spent 12 years at J.P. Morgan in the Global Consumer & Retail Investment Banking group, most recently as a Managing Director. Before that, he was a member of Bank of America’s Consumer Investment Banking group. Matt began his career as a management consultant at Andersen Consulting in Chicago and London.

Matt holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Ricardo Dalmas (Chair)

Global Vice President – Insights & Analytics, Kimberly Clark

Ricardo is a global consumer goods strategist with experience in management consulting, corporate and BU-level strategy and consumer insights. He is currently the Global Vice President Insights & Analytics at Kimberly Clark.

Previously, he served as VP, Consumer and Marketplace Insights at Nestle and VP, Strategic Initiatives at Ventas, Inc. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Marketing & Brand Strategy at McDonald’s, responsible for Latin America strategic marketing initiatives. Before McDonald’s, he was Sr. Director of Global Consumer Insights at PepsiCo, where he implemented company-wide initiatives including marketing mix models, demand segmentation and advanced analytics. At PepsiCo he also led strategy for Pepsi Beverages in North America, focusing on strategic planning and marketing and commercialization projects. Additionally, Ricardo worked 3 years at PepsiCo’s Corporate Strategy team, supporting C-level executives by driving growth initiatives and business development. Prior to PepsiCo, Ricardo spent 7 years as a consultant with A.T. Kearney in the Consumer Goods & Retail practice. He started his career in marketing at General Motors.

Born in Brazil, he studied in Austria as exchange student, backpacked for six months in Southeast Asia and China and worked in several international markets including Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Europe (UK, Netherlands, Russia, Turkey), Saudi Arabia and Canada. MBA graduate from Kellogg School of Management.

Jerry Darko

Partner and Managing Director, William Blair
Jerry Darko is a Partner and Managing Director for William Blair, a global boutique investment bank and investment management company. Jerry has over 14 years of experience advising high growth Technology companies on a wide range of transactions from mergers & acquisitions to capital raises to IPOs and other public offerings.
 
Prior to joining William Blair in 2019, Jerry spent nearly a decade at Raymond James in their Technology Investment Banking group. Prior to Raymond James, Jerry worked in Business Development at the Gores Group, a $3B Los Angeles-based private equity firm investing primarily in technology, telecom, and industrials.
 
Jerry holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, a Master’s degree in Engineering from USC as well as Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Math from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.
Vera Ermolinskiy, Associate Managing Director, Accenture

Vera Ermolinskiy 

Associate Managing Director, Accenture

Vera is a seasoned digital leader with over 20 years of global experience in digital marketing and transformation. Vera has long-standing experience working with non-profit organizations such as serving as an advisor for Wake Tech2Empower working with women-led non-profits and Upwardly Global, helping immigrants with professional backgrounds find jobs matching their skillsets and passions. Vera has also coached women professionals in Bay Area on career and business advancement. Additionally, she has worked with Russian speaking kids adopted by US families to help ease the transition process of becoming a part of a new culture and has served as a camp counselor immersing 8-9 year old girls immersing into educational programs and rigorous outdoor activities. Vera is also passionate about inclusion and diversity and serves as one of the leads in Accenture Midwest, coaching teams on how to create a better working environment for women, becoming aware of biases, smashing stereotypes and many other topics.

Vera holds a bachelor’s degree in business management cum laude from San Jose State University.

Vera has a 7-year old daughter and lives in Chicago. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with family, going to theaters, hiking, and taking singing lessons.

Paul Fayad

Partner, KPMG LLP

Paul is a partner at KPMG LLP, a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax & Advisory services. Paul has more than 20 years of experience providing audit services to public and private entities. He began his career with KPMG in the Beirut, Lebanon office and transferred to KPMG Chicago in 2004. He recently completed a 3 year rotation to KPMG’s National Office based in New York as a member of the Audit Quality and Professional Practice Group where he served as a firm resource on various auditing and accounting topics including revenue recognition, business combinations, income taxes, and SEC reporting.

 

Paul is a frequent facilitator and trainer of audit, regulatory, and accounting matters for co-workers and the public, and is a member of the KPMG Culture Champions Network, an internal group of KPMG professionals who are passionate about and committed to making KPMG an even better place to work for and with.

 

As a first-generation college graduate, Paul holds a B.S. in Accounting and a M.S. in Finance from Saint Joseph University in Beirut and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Illinois, New York, and Delaware. Paul is fluent in English, French, and Arabic.


Paul resides in Downers Grove with his wife Mirna, and his three children, Gianna, Naiya, and George. He enjoys playing sports with his kids in his spare time.

Kyle McHugh

Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Kyle McHugh is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. He primarily focuses on mergers and acquisitions for private equity sponsors. Kyle started his career at McDermott Will & Schulte in Chicago and lateraled to Kirkland in 2016, where he has been practicing ever since.

Kyle holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting & Finance from the Kelley School of Business of Indiana University, where he graduated Cum Laude. He also holds a J.D. from the Maurer School of Law of Indiana University, where he graduated with Distinction.

Kyle lives in Chicago, IL with his wife (Elyse), daughter (Livvy) and two dogs (Finn and James). When he’s not working or watching the Hoosiers, he loves to spend time with his family, traveling, playing golf, and skiing.

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Carl-Martin Lindahl

CEO and Board Director, RealTruck

Carl-Martin Lindahl is the CEO of RealTruck, the premier vertically integrated truck, Jeep® and off-road parts and accessories company in North America.

Before assuming his current role, Carl-Martin was the CEO of SVP worldwide, the world’s largest consumer sewing machine company. Before that, he held the position as Business Unit CEO for KitchenAid Small Appliances, a wholly owned, independently run, subsidiary of the Whirlpool Corporation. KitchenAid is a leading kitchen appliance, cookware, cutlery and kitchen tool brand sold in more than 150 countries that manufactures a majority of its products in the U.S. Before his current role, Carl-Martin was the Vice President of Products, Brands and Engineering for Whirlpool in Europe, Middle East & Africa, overseeing a $4B major domestic appliance business. He joined Whirlpool as the Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Business Development & Innovation in 2012 and led acquisitions in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Prior to joining Whirlpool, Carl-Martin was a Partner with McKinsey & Company where he worked for 12 years. He served clients primarily in the Consumer Goods/Retail industries, and he led the Organization practice for the Consumer sector in the Americas. He was based out of the Gothenburg and Stockholm offices in Europe and the Chicago office in North America.

Carl-Martin started out his career with Nestle in their global manufacturing group at the global headquarters in Switzerland. He holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering & Management from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and completed a portion of his degree at Haas Business School at UC Berkeley.

Brett Nelson

Vice President of Client Development at Synchrony

Brett is a Vice President of Client Development at Synchrony, where he manages the firm’s co-brand credit portfolio with Verizon. He previously held leadership roles within Synchrony’s Corporate Strategy and M&A groups, playing a key role in shaping the firm’s strategic direction.

Prior to joining Synchrony, Brett spent time at JPMorgan, where he focused on wholesale payments product strategy within the Commercial Bank. He began his career in management consulting as an Engagement Manager in EY’s Financial Services Advisory practice, advising banks and fintechs on strategic challenges and growth opportunities.

Brett’s commitment to America Needs You spans several years and multiple levels of leadership. Before joining the Board, he served as a Mentor Coach and an Associate Board member, working hard to scale the program in Illinois. He holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Outside of being a devoted husband and father, Brett is a passionate world traveler, an avid golfer, paddle tennis player, and runner. His dedication to the ANY mission even extends to the racecourse, having completed both the New York City and Chicago Marathons in support of ANY.

Desiree Rideaux

 Vice President and Business Development Officer, Citibank

Desiree Rideaux is a seasoned Community and Economic Development Strategist with more than
25 years of leadership experience across real estate, mortgage finance, and affordable housing. She
currently serves as Vice President and Business Development Officer at Citibank, where she helps
shape fair lending, CRA, and multicultural mortgage strategies in the Illinois market.

Desiree has held senior leadership roles at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Washington Mutual,
leading neighborhood stabilization efforts, managing distressed asset dispositions, and advancing
access to homeownership in underserved communities. In addition, she works as an independent
consultant, advising nonprofits, municipalities, and financial institutions nationwide on affordable
housing finance, CDFI program development, and community investment strategies.

A nationally certified HUD trainer and subject matter expert, Desiree is widely recognized for her
engaging facilitation style and her commitment to closing racial wealth gaps through responsible
lending and financial education.

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Philip Ruffat

Head of Global Futures & Executive Director, BTG Pactual

Mr. Ruffat has more than 25 years in the financial industry, most recently as Managing Director & Head of US Futures, Canaccord Genuity LLC Capital Markets and Managing Director at global investment bank BTIG LLC. His previous experience includes Director at Citigroup Global Markets and senior sales roles at Macquarie, ABN AMRO and Mizuho Securities USA. Mr. Ruffat started his career at Kemper Securities (now Wells Fargo) in emerging markets fixed income trading before transitioning to the futures industry as a Managing Director at Sakura Dellsher (now Sumitomo Bank) in 1995. Mr. Ruffat speaks four languages (English, Spanish, French and Portuguese), is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University, and holds several industry certifications.

As a Hispanic-American, Mr. Ruffat has always strived to help the community using his international experience to bridge the gap between cultures, languages, and traditions to achieve common goals. As America Needs You has a very noble and important goal to empower first-generation college students, he is excited to join the Illinois board and advance its mission.

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Anna May Trala

Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, GTCR

Anna May Trala is a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer at GTCR, a leading private equity firm with assets under management exceeding $20 billion. Anna May leads the finance, treasury, portfolio valuation, portfolio on-boarding and performance monitoring, accounting, tax, investor reporting and technology functions.

Prior to joining GTCR, Anna May was a Partner at Ernst & Young, in the Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) practice advising the private equity industry in the merger, acquisition and divestiture process primarily in the healthcare, TMT, financial services and growth business services sectors. During her time at EY, Anna May was involved in over 100 transactions. Anna May also led the TAS human capital initiatives for the Midwest region.

Anna May serves as a Board Director of Paya, and is a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
Anna May is a Certified Public Accountant, holds a B.S. in Accounting from Goldey Beacom College, and is also a first-generation college graduate.

Outside of GTCR, Anna May is passionate about education and empowering women. In addition to sitting on the ANY-IL Advisory Board, serving on its Governance Committee, she sits on the board of the Chicago Foundation for Education, also serving on its Governance Committee, as well as the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, where she chairs the M&A Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee. Anna May also spent several years on the board of Rogers Park Montessori School as its Board Treasurer, member of the Executive and Growth Committees, and Chairing the Business Finance and Audit Committee.

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William Glascott

Chief Investment Officer, Green Courte Partners

Bill is responsible for the oversight of Green Courte’s acquisition team and its investment activities in the parking and specialty housing sectors.  Bill joined Green Courte in 2012.

Bill joined Green Courte after spending twelve years with Hometown America, LLC in various positions, most recently Vice President of Acquisitions. Bill joined Hometown early in its evolution, helping it grow into one of the nation’s largest private owners of land-lease communities.  He was responsible for the acquisition of over $620 million of land-lease communities during his tenure at Hometown and was involved in some of the most notable portfolio transactions in the industry, including Hometown’s acquisition of Chateau Communities.  Bill’s duties spanned the entire spectrum of the transaction process, including: sourcing acquisitions, valuations, contract negotiations, conducting due diligence, financing and closing deals.

Prior to his association with Hometown America, LLC, Bill worked as a Research Analyst in the Corporate Finance group at Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Company. In this role he was responsible for research and assessment of economic risk and industry trends in the consumer products, chemical and healthcare industries.

Bill holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

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Tim Sanders

Senior Investment Officer, Ventas

Tim Sanders has been employed at Ventas Inc. since 2015 as a Senior Investment Officer. Ventas is a $20B publicly traded REIT, specializing in healthcare investments.  Tim is responsible for originating life science real estate acquisitions in the eastern half of the United States and Canada. He also works on ground up development of office and lab space in conjunction with Ventas’ development partner, Wexford Science and Technology.  The projects are mixed use developments including office, hotel and residential.  They are located on or adjacent to university campuses, including Brown, Washington University, Penn and University of Maryland.  Tim is currently responsible for over 1M sf of development projects expected to deliver in 2020 and 2021.  In addition to the life science platform, Tim leads Ventas’ business development efforts in the senior housing sector.  He has more than 15 years of seniors housing finance experience and has held various positions with GE Capital Healthcare Financial Services.  Additionally, Tim started and led the senior housing group at Marathon Asset Management originating over $1B in financings during his tenure.  He was also the President of the bridge lending business at Capital Funding Group (“CFG”).  CFG is a Baltimore based HUD lender specializing in senior housing transactions.  His career also includes 15 years of commercial banking and corporate finance work, including stints with Crestar Bank (SunTrust) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Mr. Sanders received his B.B.A. from Howard University and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a board member of Prince George’s County Economic Development Incentive Fund, Forest Hills of DC (one of the oldest nursing homes in Washington, DC) and the American Senior Housing Association.  He’s an advisory board member of Dynis, Inc. and provides mentorship to several young real estate professionals in Washington, DC and Chicago, IL.

Tim resides in Bowie, MD with his wife and daughter.  His personal interests include golf, reading and sports.  He’s a native of Pittsburgh and avid Steeler fan.

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Taylor Weaver

President & CEO, LNG Energy
Co-Founder, Kushkart

Taylor is the co-founder of Kushkart, one of Massachusetts’ first wholesale cannabis delivery operators. Prior to Kushkart, he founded the Urban Energy Garden, which places college students in STEM-based public and private sector internships. Taylor is an Adjunct Professor at Boston University Law School, where he teaches 1) Business Fundamentals and 2) Deals 999; and he also serves as a board member of Atamos, LLC (d/b/a TrainMoment), an Illinois-based strength forward fitness club that focuses on safely pushing individuals outside of their comfort zone through HIIT training.

Awards and Recognition:

  • Featured in Provincetown Independent for launch of Cape Cod Delivery Services
  • Featured in Reuters as an expert on SPACs
  • Featured in Leafly for Kushkart’s $3.5mm series seed raise
  • Selected as 2020 Chicago Scholars Foundation 35 under 35
  • Selected as 2019 Southern Methodist University Alumni World Changer (Chicago)
  • Recognized as an outstanding attorney in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s 2018 Generation Esq. Under 40 Series for his corporate practice and his leadership in the nonprofit sector

Taylor received his B.A. from Southern Methodist University in international studies and Japanese, and holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is also pursuing his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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Sona Patadia-Rao

Expert Design Director, McKinsey Design

Sona Patadia-Rao is an Expert Design Director with McKinsey Design in Chicago, IL with over 18 years of experience in the design industry.  Sona focuses on building empathy to inform and create user-centered products, experiences and strategic business opportunities.

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Pranay Gupta

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Pranay is a Partner at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. Pranay is the leader of McKinsey’s healthcare operations work, focusing primarily on healthcare payers, and health-services organizations. His areas of expertise include multi-lever performance transformation, service-operations strategy, customer experience and engagement, clinical operations, and technology.

Pranay has received a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Mumbai University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Before joining McKinsey, Pranay worked as a computer engineer in enterprise application development. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Annie, and daughter, Maggie.

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Peter Domanko

Partner, PwC

Pete Domanko has spent 14 years with PwC. He is a Partner at PwC and focused on helping companies in the Energy and Industrials sectors achieve their business objectives through transforming their supply chains and operations. He began his career in the Cleveland office, before spending two years on global assignment in London, and then moving to Chicago in 2013.

Pete graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in Business – Operations and Supply Chain Management. He has served on the Advisory Council for the Operations and Supply Chain Management department at UD since 2014. He is also a Certified Supply Chain Management Professional (CSCP) from APICS.

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Karen Matusinec

Former Senior Vice President and Treasurer, McDonald’s Corporation

Karen was most recently Senior Vice President and Treasurer of McDonald’s Corporation, responsible for global Treasury, Tax and Insurance matters along with the Global Business Services unit.

Each department in Karen’s span of responsibility was comprised of high-performing teams that provided value to the McDonald’s System through strategic advisory services that enabled corporate and operational strategies, by managing key risks, protecting financial assets, ensuring fiduciary excellence and connecting internal customers with services and solutions. As a senior finance executive, Karen provided insights and advice to executive management and the Board of Directors on key financial strategies, including the Corporation’s global debt portfolio, shareholder return strategies and liquidity planning.

In addition to these management responsibilities Karen Chaired the Committee that has oversight of McDonald’s 401k Plan, was a member of the Company’s Diversity Equity & Inclusion Global Advisory Council and took pride in mentoring others, including those in her Global Women’s Leadership Network Circle.

Prior to joining McDonald’s in 2003, Karen spent over eight years in the professional services industry, first with Arthur Andersen and then with Deloitte, specializing in international tax planning and consulting for large multinational companies. Prior to her public accounting experience, Karen worked in corporate tax in the financial services industry for five years.

She holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a MS in Taxation from DePaul University. Karen served on the Board of Directors of the Elmhurst Art Museum for nearly 10 years and held the Treasurer and President roles with the organization. Karen is a first-generation college graduate.

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Jason Leung

Former Global Head/CEO, Cumberland

Jason Leung has over twenty years of experience in traditional financial markets, with most of his career focused on foreign exchange options. He is most recently the Global Head/CEO of Cumberland (a DRW Company), the largest OTC market maker for crypto currencies.

Jason joined DRW in 2013, where he successfully built and managed the global FX options team before joining Cumberland.

He started his career on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and has worked for Wall Street banks in Chicago, Stanford, London and Singapore over the course of his FX career.

Jason earned a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Guillermo Marroquin

Head, North American Real Assets, Campbell Lutyens

Guillermo joined Campbell Lutyens in 2018 to take responsibility for the firm’s North American real assets practice. Prior to joining Campbell Lutyens, Guillermo was a Managing Director with Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets in Chicago, where he was responsible for institutional investor coverage in the Americas, product development and project management. Prior to Macquarie, he worked in debt capital markets with Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan and Bank of New York. Guillermo earned his MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia College at Columbia University. He lives in Lakeview with his wife, Pamela, and son, Sebastian.

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