board

Meredith O’Sullivan is a Director at General Growth Properties, where she is responsible for managing the relationships with several different joint venture partners. She has held various positions in financial services and asset management since joining the firm in 1998. Prior to GGP, she was a market researcher for JMB Institutional Realty and later for Security Capital Group in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Meredith has a bachelor of arts in economics from The University of Texas and a master of business administration from DePaul University. She has served on the board of Friends of Downtown for 5 years and as its Treasurer for 4 years. She also serves on the board of Shapeshifters, the in-house theater group at the Irish American Heritage Center.

Vanessa Casciano is the Community Relations Director for Magellan Development Group L.L.C.. Her mission is multi-faceted, from coordinating community relations activities to serving as a resource for questions and comments about the community. Vanessa has been a part of the Magellan Development Sales and Marketing team since December of 2006.

Prior to joining Magellan Development, Vanessa was a Campaign Director for the Chicago chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Vanessa’s extensive non-for-profit background includes her winning the 2005 Chicago Leukemia & Lymphoma Society title, Woman of the Year. In addition to volunteer and later professional affiliation with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, she is a junior board member of Multiple Solutions of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

RoxAnne L. Rochester is a staff attorney in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Law Division. She is responsible for analyzing and recommending the appropriate disposition of contested pre-trial motions involving personal injury, contract, tort and construction litigation.

Prior to joining the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ms. Rochester worked for 17 years in private practice as principal of the Law Offices of RoxAnne L. Rochester, serving as in-house counsel to small and mid-sized businesses, and with Fishman and Merrick, P.C., where her practice focused on corporate, securities and commodities law. Ms. Rochester counseled clients on dispute avoidance in business governance, employment and contracts. She represented small and mid-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, and high net worth individuals in transactional and litigation matters involving stock purchase agreements, complex real estate acquisitions and leasing, employment contracts, trade secret protection, non-compete covenants, securities and commodities law, business torts, estate matters and family law.

Stephen R. Patterson is an attorney with Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP whose practice focuses on land use, zoning, public finance and economic development, and government relations issues. Prior to joining Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Stephen was assistant commissioner of the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development, Development Support Services Division, heading the Planned Development Unit and managing the Chicago Plan Commission. He previously served in the department's Development Finance Division. In his service with the city, he had responsibility over the establishment and maintenance of planned development zoning districts. He also oversaw the creation of tax increment financing (TIF) districts; negotiated and implemented TIF grant redevelopment agreements; and processed applications for industrial and municipal bond funds, low interest loans and property tax abatements.

Noah Temaner Jenkins is a freelance research, planning, and writing consultant to nonprofit groups and universities that are engaged in community development, evaluations, technical assistance, workforce development, social justice, and poverty alleviation. Since 2002, Noah has helped clients, through her grant writing, to raise more than $3 million for workforce development programs, technology upgrades, commercial development, ex-offender re-entry programs, community based research, advocacy efforts, strategic planning, and other activities. Noah is also an online instructor at the University of Illinois at Chicago Great Cities Institute. A native Chicagoan, Noah holds a Masters Degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She lives in a historic building in downtown Chicago.

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John Holden is a communications professional with more than 20 years of experience in media, finance and government. He was a core member of the communications team during the first two terms of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration, responsible for all financial and business-related news management. During this period, Chicago established a reputation as a fiscally well-managed city in both the popular press and financial press. Holden also handled community outreach and crisis communications projects for the City. He later promoted the redevelopment of Chicago's public school infrastructure, garnering national and international attention, including a visit by President Bill Clinton. Holden also has served as communications director for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he managed internal communications and promoted the Exchange's products and services to international audiences. He began his career as a certified public accountant working both as an independent auditor and in internal audit for a Fortune 500 company. He later became a reporter with the City News Bureau of Chicago, where he covered a wide range of beats. He also wrote for American Medical News, the leading socio-economic journal for the U.S. medical profession. Additionally, he served as Midwest bureau chief for The Bond Buyer, a national daily newspaper covering the fixed-income securities market. At the same time he was a contributing writer at numerous other publications including the Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business and the Chicago Reader. A resident of Chicago's Uptown community, Holden is active in numerous community improvement organizations. He joined DePaul's staff in 2006.

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Peter J. Kindel is an architect specializing in urban design and city planning. A resident of Chicago’s Old Town, Peter is president of the urban design firm Topografis, and was formerly an Associate Partner with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP in Chicago. In his seventeen-year career, he has addressed town planning, mixed-use urban infill and large-scale master planning. With training in landscape architecture, Peter has a special concern for Chicago’ lakefront, parks and open spaces, and is active in the continued improvement of Chicago’s neighborhoods. Peter’s work has been the recipient of seven national design awards from the American Institute of Architects, the Urban Land Institute, and the Congress for New Urbanism, among others. Outside of work, Peter’s hobbies include hiking, climbing, skiing and sailing.

Kevin Lawler has spent most of his professional career in some way or fashion focused on the real estate industry. He is currently employed at BMO Capital Markets but has also worked at other financial institutions, two development firms and a non-profit; all with a focus on real estate lending, development or land reuse. Kevin has supplemented his professional experience by obtaining a masters in urban planning and policy.

As a life long Chicagoan Kevin has always been focused on the health of downtown but is happy to have the opportunity to become more engaged in the issues through Friends of Downtown board membership

Graduate of the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (B.A. History and Philosophy 1981) and Loyola University of Chicago School of Law (1984). Admitted to the Bar in Illinois (1984). In private practice between 1984-1991.

Board member of Friends of Downtown 1982-1985 Chaired Friends of Downtown Sidewalk Cafe Committee, which success fully lobbied City for passage of sidewalk cafe ordinance in 1985.

Employed with U.S. General Services Administration since 1991 as an Assistant Regional Counsel for the Great Lakes Region. He is serving in his individual capacity only.

Gigi McCabe-Miele has been a licensed architect for more than 25 years. She started her career with Skidmore Owings & Merrill and moved on to form a partnership, Riverside Architects, with a former classmate. For the past fifteen years she has worked as a Senior Project Manager and Program Director in the private and public sectors. Projects have ranged in size, clients and building type. Examples are Chicago’s Millennium Park, St. Xavier University, the Chicago Transit Authority, the Chicago Housing Authority, Cook County Hospital and Courts, numerous offices and single family homes. She is currently an associate with LCM Architects and has become a specialist in accessibility regulations.

Gig has served on many boards and committees. She served as a representative to the Illinois AIA, has been a Vice President of AIA Chicago, is currently a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals for the City of Chicago and has been an adjunct design professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago for two semesters. She works as a mentor for the Cotter Boy’s and Girls’ Club during the school year and is a new member of Friends of Downtown.

Gerald Moriarty has been in franchising for over 36 years! The first 23 years were with Midas International, franchisor of Midas Auto Expert Shops. Jerry was Regional Vice President. His later assignments were VP / Sales, VP / Marketing Administration, and VP / Quality. Jerry later became the first VP / Quality for Sears Mortgage Company.

Jerry returned to the franchising arena when he joined an association called FranNet, short for the Franchise Network. Started in 1987 in California, FranNet pioneered a way to help clients find the right franchise business for them, the one that will give them what they want, affordably and with safety. The reputation of FranNet is such that the SBA asked FranNet to craft a training module for the SBA web site (http://sba.frannet.com/) and SCORE asked FranNet for help with a brochure that SCORE can give to clients inquiring about franchises. Some 50,000 copies of Roadmap to Success were distributed by SCORE in 2008 – 2009, and another 75,000 copies have been provided to SCORE.

In 1995, Jerry opened the office of FranNet serving Chicagoland. Since that time, Jerry has educated thousands of Chicagoans about franchising in seminars conducted in sixteen outplacement offices, two universities, seven community colleges, SCORE offices, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) Chicago headquarters.

Jerry takes great satisfaction in helping clients find the franchise business of their dreams.

Roseann O’Laughlin is the Goods Movement Planner for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the officially designated Metropolitan Planning Organization for the 7-county region of Northwest Illinois. Her work includes data collection, analysis, strategy and policy development and is the CMAP liaison to the Freight Committee.

Prior to joining CMAP, Roseann worked for a transportation planning and engineering consultant where she was instrumental in the completion of the Chicago Downtown Freight Study. She was also involved in the regional rail project, CREATE. Roseann has also worked as a land use planner and civil engineer.

Roseann is a long-time resident of Chicago and has worked in the downtown area for 10 years. She is an active cyclist and docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation as well as a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Roseann earned a B.S. in civil engineering and B.A. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and masters in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Susanne Schnell is the Executive Director of Archeworks, a Chicago-based alternative design school that addresses the social and environmental concerns of urban communities through a multi-disciplinary design process. Susanne was previously the consulting director of the planning and start-up phase for the National Public Housing Museum, a new cultural institution and educational center in Chicago. Previously, Susanne held positions with the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and its affiliate, the Civic Consulting Alliance, where she launched numerous public-private partnership initiatives in the areas of community-based planning, cultural and historic heritage, inner-city business development, workforce training, and school leadership development. While at the Civic Committee, Susanne also played a lead role in the strategic planning process and launch of the Historic Chicago Greystone Initiative, an affordable housing rehabilitation and preservation program that serves Greystone homeowners in transitional communities across the City's Greystone Belt. For the past four years, Susanne has also held an adjunct research faculty position with the City Design Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is currently completing a national best practice study on building demand in vulnerable middle-market communities. Before moving to Chicago, Susanne was the Assistant Director of Social Compact, a Washington DC-based national coalition of financial services institutions that promotes partnership-based investment in underserved communities. Susanne is a member of the City of Chicago's Capital Improvements Advisory Committee, and Lambda Alpha Honorary Society for the Advancement of Land Economics.

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This is Tom's second year as President of Friends of Downtown. In his day job as Executive Director of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce's Energy Council, Tom is responsible for leading the Council's charge to encourage the development and availability of all kinds of energy and conservation measures in an environmentally responsible and cost effective way.

Tom joined the Chamber after more than 20 years as a public affairs executive, most recently as vice president with the Chicago-based Jasculca/Terman and Associates -- where he was a senior strategist and project manager for corporate, not-for-profit and government clients.

Tom lives in Chicago with his wife, Barbara Govednik, and spends way too many summer afternoons and evenings cheering on the Cubs at Wrigley Field.