John Canning is Chairman of Madison Dearborn Partners. Prior to co-founding MDP, Mr. Canning spent 24 years with First Chicago Corporation, most recently as Executive Vice President of The First National Bank of Chicago and President of First Chicago Venture Capital.
John has more than 35 years of experience in private equity investing and currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Corning Incorporated and Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club; and is a Life Trustee of Northwestern University. Mr. Canning is Co-Chairman of the Big Shoulders Fund, a Director and Chairman of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a former Trustee and Chairman of the Museum of Science and Industry, a Director and former Chairman of The Economic Club of Chicago, former Chairman of The Chicago Community Trust, a Trustee and former Chairman of The Field Museum and former Director and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
John received a A.B. from Denison University and a J.D. from Duke University.
Eric is Vice President and General Counsel of The Duchossois Group (TDG). He formerly served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary to The Chamberlain Group, Inc., TDG’s largest operating unit and the world’s largest manufacturer of garage door openers, commercial door openers and gate openers.
Prior to joining TDG, Eric was a partner in the Corporate Department of McDermott Will & Emery. Eric’s private practice involved counseling and advising corporate clients on a variety of transactional matters including commercial financial transactions, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate governance matters. Eric began his career in the Chicago office of Jones Day.
Eric serves on the Board of Milestone AV Technologies, Systems, Inc. and is a member of the Investment Committee for Chicago Ventures. He also serves on the Board of Seaway Bank & Trust Company and advises several early stage companies. He is a Trustee of Rush University Medical Center.
Eric is a member of the Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute (2009), Chicago United Business Leaders of Color honoree (2009), and a graduate Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago (2007). Eric is an active member of the Economic, Executives’, Chicago and University Clubs of Chicago.
Eric received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from The Ohio State University.
Ms. Connors is the founder, and has served as the Chairwoman and CEO of Pine Grove Holdings, LLC, a woman and minority-owned privately-held investment company focused on acquiring small-to-mid-sized businesses with a high engineering component, since 2011. Prior to founding Pine Grove Holdings, LLC, Ms. Connors served as President and CEO of Atkore International and as Vice President at Eaton Corporation.
Ms. Connors serves as a board director of BorgWarner, Baker Hughes Company, Boston Scientific Corporation, EnerSys, as an independent outside advisor for the board of directors of Nissan North America Inc. She also serves as board director of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and as an advisor of Xavier University of Louisiana. Previously, she served on the Board of Delphi Technologies PLC, Echo Global Logistics, CNHI.
Ms. Connors brings her executive leadership skills and her experience in the areas of operations and financial management, quality, engineering and business strategy, as well as her knowledge of public company matters resulting from her service on other public company boards.
Joel Steinhaus is Co-Founder and CEO of Daybase, a seed-stage startup developing a new model for the hybrid workplace. Mr. Steinhaus is the former Head of Strategic Initiatives at WeWork and was previously Chief of Staff to WeWork’s Co-Founder and CEO. Prior to WeWork, he was Managing Director and Chief of Staff to the Chairman at Citigroup. Before joining Citi, Mr. Steinhaus helped launch NBC News’ Education Nation, a multi-media enterprise focused on engaging the public in a conversation about improving education in the United States.
He is Chairman Emeritus of the century-old non-profit New Yorkers for Parks and is a Trustee of uAspire, a national nonprofit focused on college affordability. He is Vice Chairman of the Board of Corlears School in Manhattan and a member of the Presidential Computer Science Advisory Board at Hunter College. He formerly served on the board of the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association as well as the advisory board of the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program at Yale University.
Mr. Steinhaus is a member of the Economic Club of New York and a recent term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2014, he was named a David Rockefeller Fellow through the Partnership for New York City. Mr. Steinhaus has an MBA from the Yale School of Management, where he was a Sutphin Fellow and a Greenberg World Fellow. He earned an AB, magna cum laude, from Harvard University, where he was Managing Editor of Let’s Go Publications. Originally from Kansas City, he now lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
Charles is a Co-Founder & Managing Partner of RECOGNIZE. Prior to RECOGNIZE, Charles was the CEO and Chairman of Infor, an enterprise applications company. Prior to Infor, he was President and a director of Oracle Corporation, and a Managing Director in the Technology Group and a director at Morgan Stanley. Charles served as a Captain in the U.S. Marine. Charles received a J.D. from New York Law School, an M.B.A. from Hampton University, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Charles currently serves on the boards of directors of ViacomCBS Corporation, American Express, Compass Inc., the Apollo Theater, and the Council of Foreign Relations. He is also the co-founder and Co-Chairman of the Black Economic Alliance, a consortium of business leaders committed to economic growth in Black communities.