The Chicago Community Trust Welcomes Three New Executive Committee Members

CHICAGO (April 18, 2022) – The Chicago Community Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to its Executive Committee, Brett Hart, Jesse Ruiz, and Gretchen Crosby Sims. The executive committee, also known as the board, governs the Trust’s use of donor advised and endowed funds to benefit millions of residents who call our region home.

“We are thrilled to welcome these three civic leaders to the executive committee,” said Andrea Sáenz, president & CEO of The Chicago Community Trust. “Each brings deep expertise and commitment to our region. We are honored they’ve chosen to serve.”

Hart is the president of United Airlines, Ruiz is a Partner, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of The Vistria Group, LP, a next-generation private investment firm, and Crosby Sims is a Chicago-based executive with Hakluyt, a global strategic advisory firm.

The Executive Committee also includes:

• James “Jim” Reynolds, Jr., founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Loop Capital (Executive Committee Chair)
• Bryan Traubert, chairman of the Pritzker Traubert Foundation (Executive Committee Vice-Chair)
• Martin Cabrera, CEO and Founder of Cabrera Capital Markets (CCM) and Cabrera Capital Partners (CCP)
• Omar Duque, president of The Hispanic Information Technology Executive Council (HITEC)
• Steven Koch, former deputy mayor of the City of Chicago from September 2012 to August 2017
• Anne Ladky, a nationally recognized expert on workforce development and higher education access, equal opportunity policy, job quality, and issues affecting low-paid working women
• Connie L. Lindsey, former executive vice president and head of corporate social responsibility at Northern Trust, Chicago
• Renetta McCann, chief talent officer at Leo Burnett
• Ethan Meers, principal of Kinship Capital
• Sandra Cordova Micek, president and CEO of WTTW|WFMT
• Luis P. “Lou” Nieto, Jr., president of Nieto Advisory, LLC
• Terry Peterson, vice president of government affairs at Rush University Medical Center
• Heather A. Steans, chair of the Steans Family Foundation
• Margie Stineman, nonprofit management and philanthropic leadership leader

Full biographies of Brett Hart, Jesse Ruiz, and Gretchen Crosby Sims are included below. To access full biographies for the entire executive committee, visit https://www.cct.org/about/our-people/executives-trustees/.

Brett J. Hart is president of United Airlines. In this role, Brett is responsible for United’s global operations – flight, technical, and network operations as well as inflight services and safety.  In addition, he leads external-facing functions, including government affairs, regulatory, corporate communications, advertising, market, and community innovation, legal, global community engagement, and environmental sustainability teams. Brett also oversees business-critical functions such as corporate real estate, human resources, and labor relations teams.

Previously, Brett served as executive vice president, chief administrative officer and executive vice president general counsel for United.  Brett also served as acting chief executive officer for a six month period in 2015 and 2016. 

Brett is a member of, among others, the Obama Foundation Inclusion Council, University of Chicago Board of Trustees, and the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Brett received his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and English from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School. He is married and has three sons.

Jesse Ruiz is a Partner, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of The Vistria Group, LP, a next generation private investment firm focused on investing in middle market companies and delivering both financial returns and societal impact.

Prior to joining Vistria, Jesse was the Deputy Governor for Education in Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s administration, overseeing the state’s education system from early childhood through higher education, as well as the Illinois Student Assistance Commission and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Jesse was also legal counsel to Governor Pritzker’s transition committee. Before joining the Pritzker administration, Jesse was a partner in the Corporate & Securities Group of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (n/k/a Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP). For 22 years at the firm, Jesse focused his practice on middle-market mergers and acquisitions and commercial transactions. Throughout his legal career, Jesse has also dedicated time to public service. He served as President of the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners, Commissioner on the Public Building Commission, Vice President of the Chicago Board of Education, Interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, Commissioner on the U.S. Department of Education Equity and Excellence Commission, Commissioner on the Illinois Supreme Court Character and Fitness Committee, and Commissioner on the Chicago Public Schools Desegregation Monitoring Commission.

Jesse received his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School. Jesse is currently a Lecturer in Law at The Law School, teaching a course in Negotiations. He received his Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The son of Mexican immigrants, Jesse is a lifelong Chicagoan and is married with two sons.

Gretchen Crosby Sims is a Chicago-based executive with Hakluyt, a global strategic advisory firm. She joined the firm in 2021 to launch its Chicago office and co-lead its business in the Midwest, and advises corporate and private equity clients across the region on the most important opportunities and risks facing their businesses. She also leads the firm’s Senior Hires practice in North America. 

Prior to Hakluyt, Gretchen held a variety of executive and strategy roles in the policy, politics, philanthropy, nonprofit, academic, and impact investing sectors. Immediately before Hakluyt, she served as the executive director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, founded by IOP Director David Axelrod to develop the next generation of leaders in American politics and public service. From 2015 to 2017, she was a director at London-based impact investing intermediary Social Finance UK, where she led policy efforts and the firm’s education practice. Until 2014, Gretchen was the chief program executive at The Joyce Foundation, a private foundation in Chicago with assets of over $1 billion and $50 million in annual grants. 
 
Gretchen has also worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, CNN, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and as a policy adviser to presidential candidate Bill Bradley. She holds Ph.D. and Master of Arts degrees in political science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard University.