History, Mission & Values

Leadership Greater Chicago creates lifelong partnerships and develops community awareness among leaders in the Greater Chicago region by:

• Building relationships characterized by respect, trust, and understanding among leaders who represent the diversity of Greater Chicago in terms of race and ethnicity, gender, occupations, and the many communities of the area.

• Familiarizing these leaders with the multiple perspectives on Greater Chicago's challenges, opportunities, and resources.

• Actively encouraging and enabling these leaders to be involved in the Greater Chicago region throughout their lives.

HISTORY

Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) was established as a nonprofit organization in 1983 when a group of distinguished, civic-minded individuals came together at the invitation of The Chicago Community Trust (CCT) to create a leadership development program to serve the Greater Chicago region. This collaboration, under the guidance of CCT Executive Director Bruce Newman, founding LGC Executive Director Dr. Marvin R. Cohen, and many others, formed the beginnings of LGC.

The LGC Signature Fellows Program launched in 1985 to help educate diverse groups of civically engaged leaders about issues facing the region, facilitate connections between these leaders, and inspire them to make a deep personal commitment to civic engagement, and effecting positive change in the community.

Most recently, LGC launched The Daniel Burnham Fellowship©, an accelerated civic onboarding experience for senior executives. While beneficial to any executive, it is especially beneficial for those who are new to Chicago and provides a rich introduction to an executive new to their role and with market facing responsibilities. The Fellowship is designed to inspire these leaders to mobilize and exert their combined influence and intellect to positively impact Chicago, its future, and the continued economic progress of the region. To date, 120 C-suite executives have participated in this innovative leadership experience.

LGC boasts a distinguished roster of more than 1,500 Fellows who continue to lead across industries and sectors in Chicago and beyond. In the last five years alone, LGC has supported building leadership capacity for more than 70 organizations whose leaders would not have otherwise been able to benefit from the LGC Fellows Experience. Over the last 40 years, we estimate that LGC has invested over $5M in building leadership capacity for the Greater Chicago region. Our leaders are the change-makers of the future.