ELMHURST CHAMBER ELECTS NEW DIRECTORS
ELMHURST, Ill., November 14, 2008 – A historic eight members of the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry elected by their peers in October were sworn in to serve their three-year terms at the Chamber’s Board of Directors meeting at Community Bank of Elmhurst (330 West Butterfield Road) on November 12.
Due to a tie vote for the last of the seven contested Board seats, a record eight Directors were elected by the membership, which cast more than 200 ballots (196 valid).
“We were only a handful of votes away from a three-way tie for the final seat,” said John Quigley, the Chamber’s President and CEO since 1999.
The Board is comprised of 21 elected Directors (now 22) serving three-year terms and three Ex-Officio Directors. Directors are limited to serving two consecutive elected terms, not counting years as an appointee or as a post-term Past Chairperson.
“Our Chamber is blessed to have well qualified individuals willing to serve on the Board of Directors,” said Quigley. “Five Directors were already serving on the Board, three of them elected in 2005 and two appointed in 2006 and 2007 to fill vacancies.”
Newly elected Directors are (in alphabetical order):
Todd Benson, Owner/Operator of Castco Communications, Inc. (391 River Glen Avenue), a marketing and advertising agency that he founded in 1991;
Kelly Bradford, Staff Accountant with Porte Brown, LLC (845 Oakton Street, Elk Grove Village), a full-service CPA firm;
Pete DiCianni, President and Chief Executive Officer of DiCianni Graphics (421 South Addison Road, Addison), a full-service marketing, graphics and communications firm that he founded 1985;
Jennifer Speaker Illingworth, President of CompUcoach, Inc. (188 Industrial Drive, Suite 120), an IT, training and virtual assistance services firm that she founded in 1999, and a Representative with Chicago Avon Lady;
Bill Korbel, Account Executive with Suburban Life Newspapers (1101 West 31st Street, Suite 100, Downers Grove), publishers of the Elmhurst Press;
Scott Levin, Partner, Executive Committee member and Attorney-at-Law with Defrees & Fiske LLC (200 South Michigan Street, Suite 1100, Chicago), a business practice law firm;
Joyce Slone, Principal of Slone Commercial, LLC (352 River Glen Avenue), a commercial real estate firm that she founded in 2004; and
Susan Tyburski, Director of Development at Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare (200 Berteau Avenue), an Elmhurst-based comprehensive healthcare system.
Following is a brief biography for each of the Directors:
Todd Benson
Todd Benson, a second-term Director and Chamber member since 1997, founded Castco Communications in 1991. He is a fifth-year member the Chamber’s Marketing Committee and served on the now-defunct Technology Task Force.
Benson also has served as the Chamber’s Internet Development Consultant, advising on the establishment and upgrading of the website and e-mail communications.
An active community volunteer, Benson has been a member of the Spring Road Business Association since 1997 (including President for six years), serves on the Elmhurst St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee and is a Director for the North Graue Woods Homeowners Association. He played an instrumental role in the completion of the “Elmhurst Remembers” 9-11 Memorial off Spring Road.
He is a 1976 graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Communications.
A resident of Elmhurst since 1994, Benson and his wife, Lena, have two children attending York Community High School.
Kelly Bradford
Kelly Bradford, a first-term Director, interned at Porte Brown as an Honors Program senior at Elmhurst College and joined the firm’s staff last spring after her graduation. She is a second-year member on the Chamber’s Ways and Means Committee.
Bradford also is a former ECCI Blueprint for Success student who interned at Chamber member E.L. Foust while attending Elmhurst’s Timothy Christian High School, where she has mentored accounting students since graduating in 2003.
Bradford graduated Summa Cum Laude from EC with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and was named Outstanding Accounting Student for 2008.
She is a 23-year resident of Bolingbrook.
Pete DiCianni
Pete DiCianni, a second-term Director and a Chamber member since 2000, founded DiCianni Graphics in 1985. He has served on the Chamber’s Marketing Committee for three years.
His career in printing began at York Community High School (Class of 1984), where he served as In-Plant Manager of the school’s nationally acclaimed Graphic Arts Department. He founded Pete’s Printshop to help work his way through college and, after graduating from Elmhurst College (Class of 1988) with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Marketing, renamed his business to DiCianni Graphics.
DiCianni serves on the Board of Directors for Harris Bank’s Oakbrook/Glen Ellyn Region, Metropolitan Family Services and Elmhurst YMCA, and Board of Governors for Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare. He has provided technology advice to the graphic programs at YHS and Triton College, where he earned a two-year degree.
While serving on the Elmhurst Children’s Assistance Foundation’s Board of Directors (1996-2006), DiCianni founded the Cool Kiddie Cars and Friend of the Children fundraisers.
A 32-year Elmhurst resident, DiCianni and his wife, Rosemarie, have three children in Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205.
Jennifer Speaker Illingworth
Jennifer Speaker Illingworth, a first-term Director and a Chamber member since 2001, founded CompUcoach in 1999 and is a Chicago Avon Lady Representative. She is a second-year member on the Chamber’s Business-to-Business Expo Subcommittee.
Illingworth is a member in the Windy City Chapter of the Young Professional’s Organization (since 2004), Oak Brook Chapter of LEADS Club (since 2007), serving as an officer and Director, and International Virtual Assistants Association.
Active in Elmhurst’s Cool Cities Coalition, Illingworth served on the Marketing Committee for Elmhurst Green Fest 2008.
A 1995 University of Illinois graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Statistics, Illingworth is an IBM Certified Developer and a Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor.
Her husband, Michael Illingworth, is President of Elmhurst-based All Chicagoland Moving & Storage, a Chamber member since 1989.
She is a fifth-year resident of Elmhurst.
Bill Korbel
Bill Korbel, a first-year Director, has worked as an Account Executive with Suburban Newspapers, publishers of the Elmhurst Press, since 2002.
Korbel serves as the newspaper’s liaison to the Chamber in publishing the Elmfest Commemorative Programs and semi-monthly News & Notes columns, and was primary salesman on the Chamber’s award-winning Community Directory.
Prior to joining the Elmhurst Press, Korbel worked at WSCR/The Score (2001-02) as an Account Executive and at Chamber member Continental Cable/Media One/AT&T/Comcast (1994-2001) as a Local Sales Manager/Account Executive.
Korbel is a second-year member of the Rotary Club of Elmhurst and helps organize the club’s annual Thanksgiving Dinner.
Korbel attended Southern Illinois University (1972-74) before transferring to the University of Illinois-Chicago (1975-76).
Korbel and his wife, Sandy, are 10-year residents of LaGrange.
Scott Levin
Scott Levin, a second-term Director and second-year Executive Committee member, has been a Chamber member since joining the partnership at DeFrees & Fiske in 2003. He served as Second Vice Chair and Chair of the Membership Committee in 2008, and in 2007 served as Treasurer and Chair of the Ways and Means Committee.
His legal practice involves the areas of business and commercial law, litigation and intellectual property. Prior to Defrees & Fiske, Scott was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Levin, McParland & Minetz LLC (1993-03) and a Partner in the Business Litigation Department at Hinshaw & Culbertson (1986-93).
His resume includes state governmental service as Deputy Executive Director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (1983-86) and Executive Assistant with the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission (1977-82).
Levin also serves as President and Legal Counsel for his neighborhood association, Vice President of the Elmhurst Chiefs Hockey Club and Chair of the Edison Elementary School Parent Teacher Association’s Legislative and Bylaws Committee, and
is a Chief in the Indian Guides Program. He also provides pro bono legal advice to not-for-profit organizations such as Special Kids Day and Life Education Center.
A University of Illinois graduate with a Bachelor of Science (1976) in Business Administration and Master of Arts degree (1978) in Public Administration, Levin earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree (1983, with honors) from Chicago-Kent College of Law and Master of Law degree (1994) in Intellectual Property from Chicago’s The John Marshall law School.
Levin resides in Elmhurst with his wife, Marisa, and their two children.
Joyce Slone
Joyce Slone, a first-term Director appointed to the Board in 2007, founded Slone Commercial, LLC, in 2004. She served on the ad-hoc Governmental Affairs Committee.
Slone is among only 700 real estate professionals worldwide to hold the double designation of Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) and Certified Consumer Investment Membership (CCIM). She has served on SIOR’s National Admissions Committee since 2004 and chaired several National Committees since 1999.
For the Chicago SIOR Chapter, Slone served as Treasurer, Secretary, Vice President and then President from 1998 through 2001, respectively, and she received the Chapter’s prestigious President’s Award in 2004.
Prior to opening her own firm, Slone was Director of Portfolio Leasing for Northern Builders and worked in the Industrial Brokerage Divisions at Cushman & Wakefield, Podolsky Northstar Realty Partners, LLC, and Paine/Wetzel Associates.
In 2004, Slone began serving a five-year term as a mayoral-appointed Commissioner on the City of Elmhurst’s Zoning and Planning Committee. She also was a member of the former Elmhurst Economic Development Corporation’s Board of Directors (1999-2004), serving as Board Vice Chair (2000-01) and Chair of Membership and Retention, Real Estate, and Marketing and Recruitment.
Slone is a fourth-year member of the Rotary Club of Elmhurst and has served on the club’s Board of Directors since 2006.
A graduate of Elmhurst College, Slone resides in Elmhurst.
Susan Tyburski
Susan Tyburski, a first-term Director appointed to the Board in 2006, serves as both Director of Development at Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare and a staff member for the Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Foundation.
Her resume includes stints at the Cleveland (Ohio) Center for Contemporary Art, Dallas (Texas) Museum of Art, Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., Interlocken Center for the Arts in Traverse City, Mich., and Chicago’s Newberry Library.
Tyburski is a member of the Chicago Council on Planned Giving, Association of Healthcare Professionals and Rotary Club of Elmhurst.
She earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Indiana University.
She has resided in Chicago for the past five years.
Established in 1918, the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry is a voluntary organization of business and professional men and women who have joined together to promote the civic and commercial progress of the community.
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