Melissa Conyears-Ervin is the current City Treasurer of the City of Chicago and a former State Representative for the 10th District. She believes in the promise of opportunity and the strength of families to effectively address the needs of our communities. As the product of a single-parent household, Melissa has seen firsthand the value of education and faith from her mother. Through hard work and determination, Melissa became the first in her family to graduate from college and earn an MBA from Roosevelt University. She has more than 15 years of experience in the insurance industry as an executive for Allstate and CS Insurance Strategies. Melissa is well qualified and intimately aware of the challenges in this diverse and vibrant City of Chicago.

During her tenure as State Representative for the 10th district, Melissa sponsored the improved Illinois education funding formula that directed over $221 million dollars in additional funding to Chicago Public Schools. She was also the chief sponsor of bipartisan legislation that protected funding for childcare assistance, a service that allows many working parents to stay in the workforce.

As City Treasurer, Melissa plans to focus her private-sector and financial training on ways to increase economic development in Chicago’s neighborhoods. She believes that Chicago’s $9.5 billion-dollar portfolio should be leveraged to help Chicago communities grow at the same economic rate, regardless of their zip code. Additionally, Chicago’s investments should observe a triple bottom line, turning a profit while ensuring city money makes environmentally friendly investments and aids working families.

In addition to her extensive civic and financial backgrounds, Melissa is passionate about giving back to the community. She has served as a mentor for high school girls and as co-chair of several events for the community, including the popular back-to-school festival that provides school supplies for over 1,000 kids. Melissa is married, has a daughter, and is a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Melissa and her husband live in Garfield Park with their young daughter, Jeneva. She also serves as the youth superintendent at Mt. Vernon Church and participates in a youth mentoring program for teenage girls. Melissa also founded a women’s book club that draws members from Roscoe Village to Lawndale.

Melissa is prepared to meet the challenges of the office. She is committed to protecting and growing the City’s $9.5 billion-dollar portfolio, while serving as the only city-wide elected official sitting on four pension boards. Melissa considers it an honor to serve the City of Chicago as its Treasurer. She cares deeply about the community and will work diligently to restore the integrity, honesty and dedication that the entire City of Chicago deserves.

Jeff Gendel is a Managing Director of Gen II Fund Services, LLC where he is responsible for driving the firm's business development and client relations activities. Jeff has 17 years of experience in the private equity industry, including deep relationships within the private equity operational infrastructure community. Prior to Gen II, Jeff was Head of Business Development for PEI Media, a global information company and the publisher of Private Equity International magazine. While at PEI, Jeff was responsible for Western Hemisphere business development across the private equity, real estate and infrastructure markets and was directly responsible for the creation and commercial execution of many of PEI's key products, including the annual Private Equity CFO and COO Forum, the PEI Operating Partners Forum, and the PEI 300, the industry's definitive size ranking of private equity firms. Prior to PEI, Jeff was a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of a private equity fund of funds organization investing over $100 million on behalf of institutional and high net worth investors, where he gained a comprehensive understanding of private equity operations. Jeff began his career at Pershing & Company where he was responsible for marketing and business development for the firm’s institutional clients group. Jeff received his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Lehigh University.

Adam Handwerker is a Managing Director of Lazard’s Private Capital Advisory. Mr. Handwerker leads the origination, structuring, and execution of the group’s real estate assignments in North America. Previously, Mr. Handwerker was a Managing Director of Rialto Capital Management, where he was responsible for capital raising and business development.

Prior to joining Rialto, Mr. Handwerker was a Managing Director of Hodes Weill & Associates, where he was a founding member of the team and responsible for the origination, structuring, and project management of the firm’s institutional capital raising and advisory mandates globally. Before joining Hodes Weill, Mr. Handwerker was part of Credit Suisse’s Real Estate Customized Fund Investment Group and Real Estate Private Fund Group. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, he worked for Ernst & Young in the Structured Finance Advisory Group, focusing on collateral due diligence of commercial mortgage backed securities. Mr. Handwerker holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a M.S. in Real Estate Finance from New York University.

Kevin Kester is a Managing Director at Siguler Guff and a member of the Investment Committees for various funds. Mr. Kester joined Siguler Guff in 2004 to establish and build the Firm's small business investment unit including all related funds, where he has responsibility for managing the investment team, designing and implementing fund strategy, screening and selecting investment managers, negotiating terms and conditions, identifying and executing direct investments and co-investments, and monitoring investment portfolios. He has 24 years of experience investing and managing institutional portfolios in alternative investments.

Previously, Mr. Kester spent eight years in the investment division of Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association (Colorado PERA). Mr. Kester held various positions at Colorado PERA, including Director of Alternative Investments. During his tenure at Colorado PERA, Mr. Kester served as a founding member of the Board of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA).

Mr. Kester holds a B.A. in Government from Hamilton College and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Siguler Guff & Company, LP (“Siguler Guff” or the “Firm”) is a multi-strategy private equity firm with over $14 billion of assets under management. The Firm’s investment strategies include small business, opportunistic credit, distressed real estate and emerging markets. Siguler Guff currently serves over 600 institutional clients, including corporate and public employee benefit plans, endowments, foundations, government agencies and financial institutions, and more than 900 family office and high net worth investors. Siguler Guff is headquartered in New York with additional offices in Boston, London, Moscow, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Houston.

Ilene is a Managing Director on the Fund Investment team, responsible for all aspects of fund due diligence in North America.

Previously, Ilene was the Co-Investment Product Manager in the Product Management Group, where she served as the primary point of contact for all aspects of client relations for Hamilton Lane’s co-investment activities.

Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 2012, Ilene was a Principal at Beringea, focusing on private equity investing in the healthcare and media sectors. Previously, she worked as a Portfolio Manager at Harvard Planning and Real Estate and a Corporate Financial Analyst at Lehman Brothers.

Ilene received an M.B.A from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.

Brian brings a diverse professional background to bear on his work, with experience spanning the sports, fitness and healthcare sectors and across technologies (wearables, disposables, artificial intelligence, machine-learning) and business environments (VG-funded startups and investment firms).

Prior to founding Will Ventures, Brian served as Vice President at Blue Star Innovation Partners, where he was responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence and execution of growth equity investments.

In addition to his investment expertise, Brian has deep technology experience, gained as a Founding Member and the Director of Product and Research at the Sports Innovation Lab, the premier sports technology research and advisory firm, and as a product manager at MC10, where he was responsible for the development and commercialization of next-generation sports, fitness and healthcare wearables and software systems for big data storage and
machine-learning.

Brian earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University and was a member of the college's varsity football team. He is from East Windsor, New Jersey.