Charles Evans has served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago since September 2007. In that capacity, he serves on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve System's monetary policymaking body.

Before becoming president in September of 2007, Evans served as director of research and senior vice president, supervising the Bank's research on monetary policy, banking, financial markets, and regional economic conditions.

His personal research has focused on measuring the effects of monetary policy on U.S. economic activity, inflation, and financial market prices and has been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Evans is active in the civic community. He is a trustee at Rush University Medical Center, a director of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a governing board member of Econ Illinois, a member of the Economic Club of Chicago board of directors, and a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and Civic Consulting Alliance board.

Evans has taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and the University of South Carolina. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in economics from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Elba Aranda-Suh became executive director of the National Latino Education Institute (formerly Spanish Coalition for Jobs, Inc.) in 2008. The National Latino Education Institute (NLEI) is a nationally accredited nonprofit. The organization started in the mid-60s and incorporated in Chicago in 1972. NLEI’s mission is to advance our community’s economic independence through market and results-driven education, training, employment, and advocacy. In her leadership role, Aranda-Suh focuses on developing healthy communities by creating pathways to economic independence through education. She applies her entrepreneurial spirit and pragmatic approach to community development to forge opportunities that develop, strengthen and afford meaningful systemic change for the Latino community.

NLEI has served generations of Latino families enabling economic empowerment through comprehensive industry-driven education, career placement, and supportive services. NLEI offers a variety of high-quality services designed to meet the varying needs of the adult learner and workforce. NLEI’s competitive workforce education includes industries such as healthcare and energy. The services are holistic in nature and include building participant capacity in financial literacy, technology, and wellness.

Jack Lavin is the sixth president and chief executive officer of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce since the organization’s founding in 1904. He has more than thirty years of financial and management experience in both the public and private sectors. Throughout his career, Lavin has focused on economic and business development in order to create jobs and improve the quality of life for people in Chicago and Illinois.

Lavin served as director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the state’s economic and workforce development agency. He revamped and rebranded the organization to incorporate technology and entrepreneurship into the overall mission. He worked closely at the time with the Chicagoland Chamber to incubate the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and developed an early stage venture capital fund, which led to the founding of 1871. His work with the Chamber also established the award-winning disabilityworks program, which provides job training for people with disabilities and promotes their hiring.

Lavin also served as chief of staff for Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and as chief operating officer of the State of Illinois. He led the passage and implementation of the largest capital infrastructure bill in Illinois history and was responsible for managing the operations of the governor’s office and all state government agencies. Prior to that, he served in financial leadership positions for Abbott Laboratories and a private restaurant company.

Lavin serves on boards for the Chicago Children’s Theatre, the University YMCA, and the Chicago Leadership Alliance. He has also served on the City of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic Bid Committee, Navy Pier’s Long Range Strategic Plan Committee as co-chair, and the BIO Convention Steering Committee. Lavin is a strong advocate for people with disabilities. He led a task force for Mayor Daley on special education in the Chicago Public Schools, and he serves on the advisory board of the Adult Down Syndrome Center.

Lavin holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois. He lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.

Andrea Kluger is the director of Legislation and Politics for the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL), the third-largest central labor council of the AFL-CIO with 300 affiliated local unions and half a million members. In this role, Kluger helps drive the CFL’s electoral strategy by coordinating the legislative and political programs of Chicago’s labor unions. Previously, Kluger served as the director of Labor Partnerships for United Way of Metro Chicago, where she worked with the CFL to launch Access United (now HIRE360), a workforce development program that seeks to increase the number of qualified minority applicants entering union construction careers. Prior to that, Kluger worked as a union organizer, a legislative assistant for the New York City Council, and for a union-side lobbying firm. Kluger has a Master’s degree in public policy from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Vanderbilt University.

Juan Salgado is the chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago. He has focused his career of more than 20 years on improving education and economic opportunities for residents in low-income communities.

As chancellor, he oversees Chicago's community college system, serving more than 77,000 students across seven colleges.

From 2001 to 2017, he served as CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino, where he worked to empower residents of Chicago’s Southwest Side through education, citizenship, and skill-building programs that led to sustainable employment and economic stability.

Salgado is a community college graduate himself, earning an associate degree from Moraine Valley Community College, prior to earning a bachelor's degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Salgado has been nationally recognized for his work, including as a 2015 MacArthur Fellow. Among his civic commitments, he serves as a board member of the Obama Foundation.