Live 2024: Chicago

In her role as Head of Total Rewards for JLL, Mikki leads compensation, benefits, and mobility strategy and execution globally for JLL’s 100,000+ employees. She and her team help drive JLL’s business and people strategy through innovative, diversified total rewards that attract, motivate, and retain superior talent.

Prior to JLL, Mikki was at CBRE, where she served as the company’s Head of Global Total Rewards. Before CBRE, Mikki was the Head of Global Compensation at Tyson Foods, and she worked for Kraft Heinz, Discover Financial Services, and Willis Towers Watson earlier in her career.

Mikki is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she majored in Economics.

Kristy Callahan is the Head of Learning & Development at GE Healthcare. She is passionate about eevating individuals and teams by leaning into strengths to excel beyond expectations in the healthcare industry.

Mary C. Murphy, PhD, is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, and author of the forthcoming “Cultures of Growth: How the New Science of Mindset Can Transform Individuals, Teams, and Organizations,” from Simon & Schuster. She is Founding Director of the Summer Institute on Diversity at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She is founder and CEO of the Equity Accelerator, a research and consulting organization that works with schools and companies to create more equitable learning and working environments through social and behavioral science. Dr. Murphy conducts pioneering research on motivation, performance, and intergroup relations. She was awarded the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest award bestowed on early career scholars by the US government. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, she earned her BA from the University of Texas at Austin and her PhD in social psychology from Stanford University in 2007, mentored by Claude Steele and Carol Dweck.

Gus Viano is the VP of Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Brink's.

Jaison Williams ignites passion and purpose in organizations by designing human-centered approaches that improve how employees experience the workplace—whether in physical or virtual environments. He combines business savvy and a strong execution orientation in a way that boosts employee engagement and performance. His people and organization strategies are both practical and innovative, garnering him accolades as someone who 'unlocks' potential and enables companies to reach new levels.

Currently Jaison is the SVP, Talent Management, Capabilities & Culture at Expedia Group. Before Expedia, he was the VP of Talent Management & Inclusion for Fitbit (now part of Google) and has held global positions with Alight Solutions (formerly Aon Hewitt), GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, American Express, Cendant, and Accenture. He has expertise in Inclusion & Diversity, learning & leadership development, talent & performance management, and engagement.

Jaison is a frequent speaker, panelist, and session facilitator on the topics of talent and performance management, employee engagement, and Inclusion & Diversity. He is also a highly sought-after career mentor and coach to mid and senior-level professionals.

In addition to his executive career, Jaison serves as President of the Board of Directors for the Bloomsburg University (PA) Alumni Association and is a Board member of the Stevenson Foundation (IL) and the Evanston (IL) Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. He also mentors students from underrepresented groups at Evanston (IL) High School.

Personally, Jaison lives with his wife and youngest son in the suburbs of Chicago.

Melissa (she/hers) serves as the Employee Belonging and Participation Lead based out of Leo Burnett Group. She believes that fear is the enemy of creativity and that creativity thrives when culture empowers every single one of us. She is guided by her ethos ‘Who we are is intrinsic to what we make.’ She strives to advance creativity through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion by connecting community and product. She gets her energy from supporting others and co-creating platforms on which they can flourish and have lasting impact. She is a white woman unlearning, a mother constantly learning, and flagrantly committed to both.

In her current role, Melissa leads the Multicultural Intelligence COE - an accelerator meant to transform businesses to better reflect the world in which we live, the Inclusivity Product Council – an award-winning multicultural peer-resource that offers a lens of sensitivity and inclusion throughout creative development, is part of the Publicis Groupe Brain Trust - a collective of DEI experts across the Groupe, is a founder of the employee-led culture collective Create Greater Than, supports our collection of employee resource groups and develops identity-based programming for the Groupe like The Joy Series and Pausing for Action. She’s an avid mentor and has mentored countless women through She Runs It, We Are Next and AIGA. In her former life she was an award-winning creative director with her most coveted award being The 3% Conference peer-nominated Nancy Hill Award whose purpose is to honor a woman who has gone above and beyond to champion other women. She’s a big believer in people and the impact they have, and it guides all her work.

Jeanette Kilo-Smith is Chief Diversity Officer, Head of Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging (DIEB) at Zurich North America where she is responsible for the development, implementation, and assessment of DIEB strategies and programming. She partners with the leadership team to ensure continued progress on its DIEB strategy, ensuring alignment of efforts across its Executive Diversity and Inclusion Council (EDIC), its business/function Advisory Councils, its Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and its community investment efforts focused on social equity.

Specializing in Diversity and Inclusion, Kilo-Smith has more than 20 years of Human Resources experience at Fortune 500 companies. She has held several senior level positions where she has developed successful strategies and initiatives.

Jeanette served as director of diversity and Inclusion at Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Director of Diversity Management, Human Resources, and EEO/AA for Walgreens. She also served as Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion for Walmart and as Global Chief Diversity Officer for Motorola.

Diversity Woman Magazine, named Jeanette as one of the Elite 100 Black Women Leaders in 2022. Other accolades include Excellence in Global Inclusion and Diversity from SAVOY Magazine in 2010 and the Champion Award from Diversity Edge Magazine in 2008.

Jeanette holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Resources Management from DePaul University in Chicago, graduate coursework from Keller Graduate School of Management in Chicago and is a Certified Diversity Professional (CCDP) in Diversity Management from Cornell University in New York. She serves on a variety of boards and councils including the YWCA – Chicago, and the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) Board.

Avenica CEO Scott Dettman is a dynamic leader with a strong track record of driving growth through transformation and innovation in the human capital arena.

Scott joined Avenica in 2019 following a six-year stint with ManpowerGroup that included progressive leadership roles spanning analytics and transformation to general management and business development.

Scott has a master’s degree and Ph.D. (ABD) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and most recently completed an Executive Leadership program at Harvard Business School.

Kate Gebo is the executive vice president of human resources and labor relations for United Airlines. Kate is responsible for leading a global team of more than 500 professionals in the transformation of United’s culture. In her role, Kate and her team are the principal drivers of delivering on commitments to employees to provide a great employee experience. This includes recruiting, developing, and retaining top talent, and building effective teams to put customers at the center of everything United does while working closely with our labor partners. Kate previously served as senior vice president of customer service delivery and chief customer officer at United. She was responsible for delivering an integrated and industry-leading travel experience for customers from booking to landing. Kate also previously served as United’s vice president for the office of the CEO, where she worked with United’s former CEO, Oscar Munoz, and the executive team to coordinate strategic company initiatives. Kate joined United in 1998 and also held roles leading the corporate real estate organization and in procurement. Prior to joining United, Kate worked at Continental Airlines. Kate is a board member of Youth Guidance and also a Leadership Greater Chicago Daniel Burnham Fellow. She received her bachelor’s degree in finance from Chicago’s DePaul University and earned a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Business at Loyola University of Chicago.

Ekpedeme “Pamay” M. Bassey is Chief Learning and Diversity Officer for the Kraft Heinz Company, where she drives a culture of continuous learning, bold creativity, and intellectual curiosity. She is responsible for the company’s global learning and development strategy and initiatives and amplifies the work that every Kraft Heinz employee does to create and nurture a diverse and inclusive workplace. Pamay has deep expertise in learning theories derived from artificial intelligence research and practical experience designing and developing highly rated learning solutions and transformative leadership development programs.

A lifelong learner who loves laughter, words, big ideas, and serving her community, Pamay knows the power of doing big things in small increments. She is a true believer that learning can be a superpower that can transform people, families, communities, and organizations. This belief is demonstrated in her passion projects that, for over a decade, have focused on the ways people believe, worship, lead, and learn.

Her TEDx talk and weekly journal, both named Navigating Sacred Spaces, are based on her interfaith diversity project work and her book: My 52 Weeks of Worship: Lessons from a Global, Spiritual, Interfaith Journey. Her 365 Days of Learning project – where she made a promise to learn something new every day for a year and share it with her organization – has been the foundation of a learning transformation at Kraft Heinz, and inspired her new book, Let’s Learn Our Way Through It, Shall We? — created to encourage others to commit to their own personal and professional learning journeys.

Prior to Kraft Heinz, Ms. Bassey served as the Global Head of Learning Platform and Professional Development for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Before that, she was president of The Pamay Group, an e-learning design and strategy company. She began her career in Accenture's Media Technologies Group.

Pamay is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Senior Faculty and Advisory Board member of the Josh Bersin Academy and serves on the board at both Houlihan Lokey and the M&G Etomi Foundation, which exists to break the harsh cycle of poverty by creating various programs and activities to teach the value of self-empowerment and improvement to the people of the Niger Delta region in Southern Nigeria.

Pamay earned a B.S. in symbolic systems from Stanford University, with an artificial intelligence concentration, and a M.S. in computer science from Northwestern University. She is also a graduate of the Second City Conservatory program in Chicago, an advanced study of improvisational comedy and theater.

Learn more about Pamay at www.pamay.com and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Stefan Holt is an award-winning anchor of the NBC 5 News every weeknight at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.  He anchors with Allison Rosati. Holt rejoins the NBC 5 news team after spending more than four  years working for WNBC-TV in New York. Prior to that, he was in Chicago for nearly five  years, where he anchored the NBC 5 News Today with Zoraida Sambolin.  

Stefan is the recipient of several Chicago and New York Emmy Awards. In 2022 he received an  Emmy Award for a series of reports called “Flying Under the Radar”, that explored the barriers  faced by many airline pilots when they try to seek mental health treatment.  

Stefan was recognized with a national Edward R. Murrow Award as part of team coverage during  the deadly 2019 police standoff in Jersey City, New Jersey.  

He was one of the first U.S. journalists to report live from Havana following the death of former  Cuban President Fidel Castro.  

Stefan’s career in local news began in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he served as a weekend  anchor and reporter for WPBF-TV.  

Holt was born in Chicago and spent his childhood growing up in Lincoln Park.  

An avid aviation enthusiast, he is an instrument-rated pilot and frequently reports on the airline  industry and transportation safety.  

Stefan graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast telecommunications and  a B.A. in political science from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.  

That is where he met his wife, Morgan, while both were attending the university. They are now  parents to three boys. 

With more than 20 years of experience guiding organizations toward workplace inclusion, Teresa Hopke brings a wealth of knowledge and wisdom on the importance of establishing cultures of belonging where everyone can thrive. Her unique, trusted, and proven insights on employee wellbeing, women's leadership development, and DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) make her an incredibly valuable resource as Talking Talent’s CEO and as a partner to her coaching clients. ​

​Teresa’s career has been focused on building up others in order to achieve the best results, both for the individual and the teams they work with. Her innovative ideas and determination to see real change are the reasons for her success over the last two decades.  She is a nationally recognized thought leader on the topic of inclusive leadership, and she has been featured in many top tier business publications and media outlets such as CNBC, the CBS Morning Show, NBC Nightly News, NPR, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, HR Magazine, Money Magazine, and others. ​

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As a mother of four, Teresa understands the needs of working parents and caregivers. She also continually advocates for people who are underserved, undervalued, and underestimated in the workplace.

D.L. Morriss concentrates his practice on the representation and defense of regional and nationwide financial institutions in commercial litigation claims involving tort, contract and statutory violations involving complex commercial foreclosure, guaranty and loan liability actions, as well as post-judgment
collections. He also has handled matters involving UCC litigation, contract disputes and bankruptcy and creditors' rights. D.L. also regularly represents companies in general litigation matters, such as commercial landlords and tenants in property management disputes; and corporations facing internal management disputes as well as contract and tort claims. In addition to his practice, D.L. serves as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Partner of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, where he oversees the firm's culture groups and civic engagements. In 2015, D.L. was selected as a participant for the Leadership Greater Chicago Class of 2016 Fellowship. In 2013, he was selected as a participant for the Chicago Committee's inaugural "Rate My Pitch" program.

D.L. joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP as an associate in September 2008. Previously he was a summer associate with the firm during the summer of 2007 and a law clerk since September 2007. In addition to clerking at Hinshaw, D.L. was a law clerk for one year with the Office of the General Counsel at DePaul University. Among his law school achievements, D.L. was a member of the Black Law Student Association and a recipient of a CALI Award for Judicial & Scholarly Writing. During his undergraduate studies, he was a teaching assistant in the areas of social and cross-cultural psychology. He was also the President of the William Osborne Society of Wheaton College from 2002 to 2003.

As the Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Keystone Partners, Tim is responsible for the overall performance of the firm’s sales and marketing initiatives, alignment with the business strategy, and the expansion of Keystone into new markets nationwide and globally.

Tim has over 25 years of expertise spanning across global sales, marketing, client success, and revenue operations. Tim brings a track record of success and expertise in revenue growth, market expansion, and change execution across the teams he’s led with Fortune 100, global enterprise, mid-market, and startup SaaS companies. Tim excels at building and optimizing go-to-market teams and strategies to drive and sustain growth. Over the past 12 years Tim has worked with numerous HR executives on their people and leadership strategies, including employee engagement and performance strategies. Tim has held leadership positions at UPS, Tiffany & Co., O.C. Tanner, Inspire Software, and Reward Gateway; he has also served on the Advisory Board for HR.Com, contributing thought leadership in HR leadership practices. Outside of work, Tim enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf and tennis, skiing, hiking, and rooting for his kids’ college sports teams.

Shawna is responsible for successfully managing and fostering current and prospective client relationships, ensuring proper and consistent delivery of holistic development strategies. Nothing thrills her more than to work with clients, helping companies and individuals excel, grow, and develop. Her warm, engaging style, combined with her quick intellect and understanding of psychological processes, organizational effectiveness, and dynamics have made her a highly sought-after consultant.

She strives to be an authentic leader with a strong commitment to mentoring, promoting collaboration, and developing new approaches that are built on credibility, creativity, ethics, and knowledge. Previously, she held Board positions with the Mile High Society for HR Management (MH-SHRM) and the Executive Advisory Council of the Association for Talent Development, Rocky Mountain Chapter. Shawna is a writer for the ColoradoBiz Magazine, Training Industry, and serves as an Advisor on the Corporationʼs Advisory Board with Merritt Trailers, Inc. 

Transitioning from traditional head-hunting to delving deep into digital transformation has been Gary Benedik's journey. Efficiency and the value of talent have always been his focus. Gary's experiences at Systems Research and Sears Holdings allowed him to manage significant recruitment efforts. His path led him to Shiftgig, BuiltWorlds, ManpowerGroup, and Scout, where he explored the intersection of technology and talent. These experiences inspired Gary to establish Arch Advisory Group, which was later acquired, leading him to Avenica. Here, he continues to lead with a passion for data, transformation and relationship-building. Outside of work, he dedicates time to serving on a nonprofit board and enjoying moments with his son, Archer.

Abby Schneiderman is an entrepreneur, innovator and visionary leader with a passion for finding ways to use technology to make people’s lives better. Together with Adam Seifer, she is currently the co-founder and co-CEO of Everplans (Everplans.com), a life and legacy planning company dedicated to transforming the way people think ahead and get their families organized. Everplans is offered by hundreds of financial services companies, insurance providers, and employers across the country. As an industry expert in the areas of digital estate planning, technology and consumerism, Abby has been featured in numerous publications including the NYT, WSJ, Bloomberg, CNBC, and the Huffington Post. Abby was named to Fast Company’s list of the most creative people in business in 2016 (https://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2016). Abby lives with her husband and two little girls in Washington, D.C.. Abby is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Trevor Bogan is an experienced Regional Director for Top Employers Institute.

During the work week, you can find Trevor working with his world-class sales team reaching out to new and existing clients to learn more about their challenges with their internal HR practices, attending events/speaking engagements to share how the Top Employers Institute certification seals have improved companies’ employment and cultures, and working with his fantastic Marketing team building the Top Employers Institute brand in North America. Trevor’s experience in the staffing industry allows him to support HR and Talent Acquisition departments with building sustainable internal practices that will help retain and attract great talent.

Trevor has received numerous accolades for his sales and business development skills earning him several awards including Elite performer, Top Sales Executive, and Top Regional Sales leader for profit growth.

When Trevor isn’t working, he’s spending time with his family and friends, longboarding, traveling, and enjoying the outdoors.

As the Head of Solution Advisory at Visier Steve Holder is responsible for growing revenue and driving the People Analytics market for Visier.  As a member of the Visier leadership team Steve leads a customer facing team of subject matter experts in HR, analytics and technology.  The teams mandate is to partner with our customers and prospects to solve their People Analytics with Visier and to ensure they understand the solution and can realize value with Visier.  Steve’s passion is making technology make sense for everyone regardless of their technical skillset.
 
Prior to joining Visier Steve held leadership positions at SAS, SAP and IBM.
With many years of software industry experience, spanning: management, solution architecture, presales and sales, Steve helps Visier’s customers, sales teams, and partners use data and analytics to gain insight into their business and create a better future for their people.  Steve lives in Toronto with his wife and two daughters.  During his spare time, he enjoys traveling, cycling, skiing and spending time outdoors.

As SVP, Head of Enterprise, Gretchen leads sales and delivery for General Assembly's upskilling, reskilling, and talent solutions business. General Assembly's products enable workforce transformation for the technology teams of global enterprises like Disney, Accenture, and Adobe.Gretchen has spent the last 7 years at organizations developing innovative models to address the global tech skills gap. Prior to working in the education and talent space, she started her career in investment banking, and thus has first-hand knowledge of the grit required to execute a career pivot. She's passionate about unlocking the potential of every individual and every team to thrive in today's rapidly-evolving world of work.

Todd Kor, M.D., is an anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota with a clinical focus in the
areas of orthopedic, thoracic, transplant, and outpatient anesthesia. He currently serves as the
Associate Medical Director for Mayo Clinic’s Contracting and Payer Relations department and
Medical Director of the Gonda Outpatient Procedure Center. He is also an active member of
several Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine committees.

Dr. Kor received his B.S. at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and completed medical
school at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. He completed his anesthesiology
residency at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and returned to Mayo Clinic in 2015
after spending 19 years in private practice. During that time, he also served as CFO in a group
consisting of a hospital practice and several outpatient facilities, and evaluated new practice
opportunities and implementation of services in new surgical and procedural practices.

Dr. Brock Schroeder serves as the Senior Director of Recruitment at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He recruits qualified candidates for graduate business programs.

Dr. Schroeder is a career faculty member and began his career in higher education as a faculty member in 1996. He has taught at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. His passion is to facilitate student journeys through educational experiences that lead to transformation and fulfillment of lifelong goals.

Caitlin started her career in journalism and is still passionate about bringing the right information to the
right people at the right time. As content manager and data analyst, Caitlin oversees Achievers
Workforce Institute’s primary research program, investigating the latest workforce trends to bring
actionable best practices to HR and business leaders. Caitlin has a BA in Psychology and a post-graduate diploma in journalism and has spent the last decade of her career specializing in HR content and data. She grew up in New Zealand but has lived in Toronto since 2011.

Heidi Guetzkow is a Vice President within Aon’s Health Transformation Team and has a wealth of consultative experience in improving the health outcomes of workforces. She provides guidance in the area of worksite well-being strategy, targeted risk reduction programs and improved access to care solutions including employer sponsored clinics. Heidi is a passionate leader and helps her clients design impactful solutions and implement appropriate resources to maximize their benefits.

Heidi received her B.S. at Mankato State University in Minnesota and began her career working in physical rehabilitation in various clinical settings. She went on to support population health and awareness initiatives with the American Heart Association and entered the consulting industry in 2010. Prior to joining Aon in 2021, Heidi served in similar leadership roles with other global consulting/insurance brokerage agencies.

Rob Catalano is WorkTango’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. Rob has spent the last 20 years building HR Technology companies. He was on the founding team at Achievers, where he spent the majority of his 10+ year tenure leading their Marketing function as well as the final few years leading their global expansion out of the UK. Rob’s passion for improving the employee experience led to him co-founding WorkTango in 2015 to help companies collect and act on authentic employee feedback. He has been named as a top 101 Global Employee Engagement Influencer every year since 2017, and has had the privilege of speaking to HR leaders at conferences in over 45 cities. Rob is an avid hockey fan, traveler, once played guitar in a metal band, and is a self-proclaimed ‘pointaholic’ – collecting loyalty points for anything and everything. Get in touch with Rob at rob@worktango.com.

Andrea Cooper is a human resources executive who has invested more than 20 years to the
practice of improving employee experiences. She currently leads the People function for
Talkspace, an online and mobile therapy company whose mission is “therapy for all”. As a long
time Walmart employee she developed a broad range of human resources skills, including global HR, learning and development, labor relations, diversity & inclusion, and strong business partnership. Andrea has further developed her strategic leadership and innovative HR skills through her roles at Amazon, CUNA Mutual, and while running her own consulting practice (Flourish).

Andrea has a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from John Brown University and a Senior Human Resources Management certification from HRCI. She teaches HR study sessions through the UW SBDC to support developing human resources professionals and is a member of the Wisconsin Innovation Awards board of directors.

Megan Pickett is the Leadership Facilitator at LifeLabs Learning.

Crystal T. Jones is Head of Talent Acquisition for John Deere, Americas. In her role she is responsible for the strategic direction of Deere’s outreach and recruitment efforts for early talent and professional recruiting;  building a global ecosystem.   Additional responsibilities include supplier negotiation and management, compliance, and recruitment marketing and branding.  Prior to joining Deere, Crystal’s career spans leadership roles in the Manufacturing, Consumer Packaged Goods, Transportation and Financial Services sector.  Her approach to TA is data driven with a strong emphasis on relationship management.  Crystal received her B.S in Finance from the University of TN, Knoxville.

Tim Conway has pioneered Solstice’s Sales team in the Midwest for 2 years now and possesses nearly a decade of experience in Sales and Operations, Project Management and Delivery, and Network Contracting. His passion lies in fostering broker and HR relationships that will bring consumers no-hassle healthcare solutions.

After a 25-year career in corporate finance and capital markets, Gianna Bern joined the Mendoza College of Business faculty at the University of Notre Dame. She is in her second term as the Academic Director, Master of Science in Finance program (MSF) and is a Teaching Professor of Finance. She teaches in the MSF program, the undergraduate finance program, the MBA program and the EMBA program. Gianna Bern is a founding principal of the former Brookshire Advisory and Research, Inc. a Chicago-based research and consulting firm focused on the energy sector. Brookshire was a consultant to global corporate clients and investors. Gianna Bern is a former Senior Director, Fitch Ratings' Corporate Finance Latin America group focused on Oil, Gas, and Utilities.

Prior to that, she managed a $2.1 billion commercial lease portfolio for a large commercial lessor. She has held managerial positions at BP Plc and Amoco Oil in energy economics, market analytics, and risk management. She began her career at Continental Bank (now part of Bank of America). In 2011, Gianna Bern authored the business textbook, Investing in Energy: A Primer on the Economics of the Energy Industry (Wiley/ Bloomberg Financial Series). Gianna Bern is an occasional commentator on global energy markets on Bloomberg Television, BBC Radio, PBS, and quoted in the Wall Street Journal. She is the recipient of the 2018 and 2020 Outstanding MSF Professor of the Year award. In 2020, Gianna was named by Poets & Quants as a Favorite Executive MBA Business Professor.

Alex Maragos anchors the weekday 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. newscasts for NBC 5 and contributes stories to the station’s award-winning Investigates unit. Previously, Maragos anchored weekend evening newscasts and filed reports from the field three days a week. Prior to that, he spent four years as anchor of NBC 5 News Today. Alex started at NBC 5 in August 2015 as a general assignment reporter. Maragos primarily covers news, but has a passion for sports. Since 2016, he has served as the start and finish line reporter for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. In 2022, he spent one month in Beijing, China, covering the Winter Olympic Games. This summer he earned another Olympic assignment, for the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Maragos returned home to Chicago after spending two years as a morning anchor and reporter at WLFI-TV in West Lafayette, Indiana. While there, he won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Indiana Broadcasters Association for breaking news and feature reporting. During summers home from college, Alex held internships at ESPN Radio WMVP-AM 1000, news/talk WLS-AM 890 and NBC Sports Chicago. Alex graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where he majored in Journalism and Mass Communications and played baseball for four years. He is also a graduate of Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Alex is married and lives in Chicago.

Nicole Poole-McGill is a leader and business partner in her current role as Senior Vice President, Talent Development at Digitas North America. She is directly responsible for creating the overall learning strategy for Digitas US, consulting with agency leaders, designing curriculum for each employee level and implementing focused coaching programs for employees. Nicole earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Corporate Communications from Northern Illinois University. She is a certified Career Management and Executive Leadership Coach, has a certificate from eCornell University in Diversity & Inclusion, holds certifications in DISC and Emotional Intelligence and is master certified as a Presentation Skills Coach. 

Nicole is also Owner & Chief Coaching Officer of Coach Me Coach, LLC, a coaching practice geared toward empowering individuals through authenticity. With a focus on mid and senior level professionals, Coach Me Coach is a practice rooted in guiding individuals to be true to themselves through every aspect of life, personally and professionally. Nicole’s expertise includes working with individuals to discover and pursue their passion, to identify and achieve their goals, and to enhance their presence and delivery skills. 

John Pletz is a senior reporter covering technology, aviation and cannabis for Crain’s Chicago Business. He joined Crain's in 2007 and previously covered technology for the American-Statesman in Austin, Texas.

Kim Quillen is a business editor at the Chicago Tribune. Earlier in her career, Kim held editing positions at The Arizona Republic and at The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, where she was involved in that newspaper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Kim is past president of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, a national business journalism organization.