Little City Leadership
Leadership team and Board of Directors/AdvisorsLeadership Team



Tina Maraccini
Chief Development Officer
Board of Directors
Little City’s Board of Directors oversees agency policies. The board is made up of community leaders from a variety of backgrounds, all who have a shared interested in furthering the mission of Little City.
Interested in joining the board? Contact Lisa Mariscal, [email protected].
Gregory Burns
President
Allstate Insurance
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Greg Burns is the President of the Board of Directors and has been an ally and advocate of Little City since 2016.
Greg joined Countryside’s Board of Directors in 2013 and, being the brother of a special needs resident, he was happy to be an integral part of the merger between Countryside and Little City in 2016.
Greg recently retired from Allstate Insurance Company after 36 years. Greg spent most of his career in Human Resources, however, was in the role of a Sr Vice President in the Business Transformation area upon his retirement.
Greg currently is working as the principal in his HR consulting company called MB3.
B. Timothy Desmond
Vice President
Project Management Advisors, Inc.
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Jennifer Gavelek
Vice President
Alliant Financial Services
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Jennifer is a senior vice president at Alliant Insurance Services (formerly part of Mesirow Financial), with over 25 years working as an insurance and risk advisor in property and casualty. She founded a nonprofit practice group to provide services and consulting specialized for charitable organizations.
Nick Helmer
DLA Piper LLC
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Nick joined the Board of Directors for Little City Foundation in 2023 when his daughter become a resident of a Little City CILA. Nick is passionate about improving the health and wellness of all Little City’s residents concentrating on nutrition, diet and lifestyle. He looks forward to lending his expertise with the Campus Planning Sub-Committee which is advising on proposals for major development, building projects and proposals for repairs, maintenance and reallocations of existing facilities and housing.
Bill Chepulis
Zurich Insurance Company
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Before being named Head of Underwriting, Bill’s previous role was Head of Finance for U.S. Commercial Insurance where his focus was ensuring that the business had the appropriate support in terms of analytics, expense management, strategy, financial planning and forecasting. He has over 22 years of experience in the financial services industry with 20 years specific to insurance. Bill has held a number of management and leadership positions within the Zurich organization across Finance, Operations and Underwriting.
David Pfau
Assistant Treasurer
Hive 10
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Although David does not have any personal or family ties to the Little City client base, he immediately connected with the urgency and value embodied in the foundations mission.
David is the CEO of Hive10, LLC, a technology focused strategic business operations consultancy practice serving clients both domestic and internationally. Outside of work, David is a professionally licensed motorsport racing driver, holds a second-degree black belt in Hapkido, and studies business innovation and law at Harvard University.
James Testa
Show Sage, LLC
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Jeff Julian
Harper College
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Jeff has a Masters Degree in English Studies from Elmhurst (Ill.) College and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Communications from the University of St. Francis, Joliet, Ill. He is a member of the National Council of Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR) and AGB’s Prime Chief of Staff and holds a certification from the Crisis Leadership in Higher Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Jeff serves as the Secretary-Treasurer on the Executive Committee of the NCMPR Board of Directors. He also hosts NCMPR’s podcast Peer and Simple. He previously served as the District 3 Director from 2018-2021.
Amar Kapadia
Executive Vice President
Alvarez & Marsal
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In his day-to-day job, Amar helps corporate and private equity healthcare clients with difficult strategic topics, such as growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and performance improvement. Amar has a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to Little City, he served on the board of Pressley Ridge, a leading human services not-for-profit. He is also an active supporter of Boy Scouts and serves on the Community Advisory Council for Edward-Elmhurst Health.
Dale Rublaitus
Vice President
Motorola Solutions, Inc.
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Charles G. Fergus
Secretary
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Julie Bell
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When it comes to her professional life, Julie is an internationally recognized Beauty Industry strategist and innovator with 40 years of dynamic experience across sales, marketing and product development. Known for her skill in creating unique marketing positioning with a perfect storm of storytelling, DNA names and creative copy that produce sales results. Julie was the EVP of Global Marketing for Benefit Cosmetics for 20 years. Julie also served as the Benefit brand spokesperson and key product expert for global media and influencer events. Julie was also an executive at Estee Lauder Companies with multiple roles spanning 20 years in sales and marketing.
Originally from Chicago, Julie currently lives in San Francisco and spends the weekends enthusiastically exploring the local neighborhoods, beachs and Golden Gate Park.
John M. Duffey
LionFish Capital LLC
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Alexander A. Gianaras
Alec K. and Viena P. Gianaras Foundation
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Alex Gianaras is the President and CEO of Transformer Manufacturers Inc. in Norridge Illinois. A 73 year old company focused on the manufacturing of Low Voltage Magnetics and Value Added Electronic Assemblies for the electrical and electronic industries. Alex has been committed to serve our community throughout the years. He enjoys working with people in trying to advance causes in both the secular and non-secular worlds. Here are some of the organizations Alex has been involved in.
St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church:
Alex served on the Parish Council for over 3 decades, serving as President for three terms in addition he Chaired committees such as the Annual Festival, Capital Campaign, Finance during that tenure
National Hellenic Museum:
Alex has been serving on the board since 1984 and has been involved with the Capital Campaign, Fundraisers, Event management, and other projects.
Little City Foundation:
Alex has been serving on the board for over 30 years and has Chaired the Golf Committee and other fundraising projects.
Other Organizations:
Hellenic Foundation Board Member
Past President — Stick and Rudder Flying Club, Waukegan Illinois
Immediate Past President — The Transformer Association
Sean Moran
KPMG LLC
Elizabeth Williams
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Andy Richmond
Vice President
Cornerstone Research
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Heather Ritter
Vice President
Daily Herald Media Group
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Chad Werkema
Assistant Secretary
Motorola Solutions, Inc.
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Chad is a first-generation college graduate who brings high energy to everyone he engages and high impact to all endeavors. His goal is to inspire others to lead in this way.
Chad is honored to serve as a Board Member and Executive Committee Member at the Little City Foundation– a vital and vibrant community that offers a full range of services to adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Eleni P. Bousis
Hippocratic Cancer Research Foundation
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Eleni has a Certificate of Proficiency in speeches from the University of Michigan, Bachelors Degree from North Park University in Psychology- Human Development. Along with being on the Board of Directors for Little City Foundation, Eleni is the Chair of the Board of the Greek American Rehabilitation and Care Centre, Serving the Board of Directors “Leaders 100”, Serving Presidents Counsel “Maryville Academy”, member of the Ladies Philoptochos Society and supports many other charities in different capacities.
Rit Faisal
Spherade Inc.
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Marcus D. Montanye
CIBC US
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Marcus serves on the Board of Directors for Little City Foundation, an organization whose mission is to serve children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Marcus has been involved with Little City dating back to 1998. Over the past 22 years he has served on the Planning Committee for the Little City Foundation’s Annual Golf Invitational Tournament. In addition, he served on Little City’s Board of Advisors from 2005 thru 2013, at which point he transitioned to the Board of Directors where he continues to serve in that capacity.
Marcus and his wife, Melissa, along with their two daughters, Kaitlyn and Madeline, reside in Clarendon Hills.
Anshuman Vaidya
US Department of Treasury
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Board of Advisors
Timothy Bleuher, Department of Building and Zoning of Cook County
Randi B. Blume, BMO Harris Bank
Paul A. Castiglione, States Attorney Office
Amit Choksi
Kevin J. Conboy, SalesForce
Thomas J. Dart, Sherriff’s Office of Cook County, Illinois
Lincoln D. Germain, Honeywell International
Jonathan C. Green
David Rose, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Jack Shum
Ron Sowadski, ADP
Neil Cooper
James Hartwell
Andrius Kasparaitis
Emeritus Board
Alex Alexandrou, City of Aurora
Associate Board
Holly Bachman
Curt Beckman
Joseph Bieda
Laura Dierking (Co-Chair)
Lauren Fifarek
Ian Mattern
Kyle Prentice (Co-Chair)
Jack Richardson
Rebecca Schlesinger
Sam Shah
Ryan Van Stedum
Brianna Wielinski
Joseph Zanfardino
General Counsel
John George, Akerman LLP