Governing Board

John Balkcom

Balkcom has been a longtime adviser to management and boards. He retired in 2000 after 25 years as a management consultant, and continues to serve as a corporate director and advisory board member for a number of public and private enterprises. Most recently, he became a member of the Governing Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He is also President Emeritus of St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM.

Michael Bierut

A partner at the renown design firm Pentagram, Bierut currently serves as a director of the Architectural League of New York and New Yorkers for Parks. The former president of the New York Chapter American Institute of Graphic Arts, he has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in several permanent collections.

Robert Finkel

Finkel is the president of Prism Capital, where he has recruited and coordinated two investment teams and overseen equity fund deployment into 14 portfolio companies and mezzanine fund deployment into 20 companies. Currently, he serves on the boards of Artromick and SterilMed; he is the founder of the Illinois Venture Capital Association, from which he received the prestigious Fellows Award.

Lee Francis (Vice-Chair)

An internist and CEO at Erie Family Health Center, Francis is clinical instructor of internal medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. He is a past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), a national organization dedicated to the prevention of violence and nuclear war, and continues to serve on its Board of Directors.

Austin Hirsch (Secretary & Treasurer)

Hirsch is a partner at Reed Smith. His practice encompasses all aspects of business law, including mergers and acquisitions with both financial and strategic parties, corporate and real estate finance, venture capital transactions, partnership and joint ventures, and international transactions, with special expertise in counseling significant privately owned companies.

Satish Nandapurkar

Nandapurkar most recently served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Chicago Climate Exchange Inc. He served as Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Futures Exchange, L.L.C. (formerly known as Eurex US). He joined Eurex US from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he served as Managing Director Products and Services of CME Group Inc. upon its formation and with CME, a subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc., when his title was changed from Managing Director, e-Business, of CME, which he had held since March 2000. His previous experience includes senior management roles at Swiss Bank Corporation, Bank of America, OpiMark Technologies, and Deutsch Bank Morgan Grenfell.

William Revelle (Chair)

An American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow, Revelle directs the personality program in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University. Formerly, he served on the Federation of American Scientists' Board of Directors. He is chairman of the board of Calcomco, a small information company that publishes the San Diego Daily Transcript and Columbus Business Journal.

Lowell Sachnoff

Sachnoff is a lawyer at Reed Smith. Previously, he served as founding partner at Sachnoff & Weaver, Ltd, where he represented individual and business clients in complex litigation and business matters. He possesses a strong commitment to pro bono work, active as a board member of the Lawyers Committee for Nuclear Arms Control and Lawyers Alliance for World Security.

Joan Shapiro

A banker with community investment expertise, Shapiro is a pioneer in socially responsible investing. As president of the Social Investment Forum, her work was nationally recognized. Previously, she worked as an executive vice president of ShoreBank Corp.

Joan Winstein

Winstein is CEO of Loan Strategies, Inc., a bank consulting practice, and a consultant for FSVC, an arm of USAID, advising banks in developing countries. Previously, Winstein served as a vice president and credit officer for Midwest corporate banking relationships at First Chicago (now JP Morgan Chase); and a relationship manager for coal, gas, electric, and nuclear utility clients at Bank of America.