Learn more about our honorees below!

Luminary Award:
Carole Brown
Head of Asset Management Group for the PNC Financial Services Group

Carole L. Brown is head of Asset Management Group for The PNC Financial Services Group. In this role, she is responsible for leading PNC’s wealth management and private banking services for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net worth individuals and families, as well as custom investment and advisory solutions for institutional clients.

Prior to being named to her current role, Brown was chief change and risk officer for the Asset Management Group (AMG) and Corporate & Institutional Banking (C&IB) businesses. In this role she was responsible for managing overall operational risk framework, coordinating with all business lines to ensure appropriate risk governance and oversight for change initiatives, and maintaining oversight for business risk appetite, key risk indicators, control validation and testing alongside businesses and enterprise testing. Brown also had responsibility for issues management, regulatory capital models, regulatory examinations, policies and procedures, and first line of defense compliance within AMG and C&IB.

Prior to joining PNC in August 2019, Brown served as chief financial officer for the City of Chicago under Mayor Rahm Emanuel from May 2015 to May 2019. Brown assumed the role of the CFO when the City of Chicago was entering into the greatest fiscal crisis of its 149-year history. She worked closely with the mayor and his senior management team to develop and implement a series of financial reforms to restore financial stability to the city. Prior to her work for the City of Chicago, Brown had a more than 25-year career as one of the leading municipal finance investment bankers in the country. For six and half years, Brown served as chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority Board, a position she held through September 2009. As CTA chair, Brown oversaw policy for the nation’s second largest transportation agency. She was a member of the Transition Team for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, served as chairman of his TIF Reform Panel, and was one of his appointees to the board of the Regional Transportation Authority. From 2017 to 2019, Brown served as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission Fixed Income Market Structure advisory committee.

She serves as board member for Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Metropolitan Planning Council and the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. She is also a member of The Economic Club of Chicago, The Executives’ Club of Chicago, The Chicago Network and The American Red Cross National Board of Governors. She is a 2002 Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and in 2007 was named a Distinguished Fellow. In 2021, Brown was named one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking™ Standouts.

Brown graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in government and from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management with a master’s degree in Management.

Corporate Award:
McDermott, Will & Emery
Accepted by Michael Boykins, Partner

McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. With more than 20 office locations, our team works seamlessly across practices, industries and geographies to deliver highly effective–and often unexpected–solutions that propel success. More than 1,400 lawyers strong, we bring our personal passion and legal prowess to bear in every matter for our clients and the people they serve.

Michael L. Boykins focuses his practice on corporate finance, representing corporate and individual lenders, investors and borrowers in connection with secured and unsecured credit facilities, asset-based lending, high-yield financings, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) financings, acquisition financings, over-the-counter derivatives, insurance industry financings, senior subordinated debt, mezzanine and venture capital transactions. Michael also represents debtor committees and secured creditors in debt restructurings and workouts.

Michael advises issuers and underwriters in debt and equity public offerings and other types of secured transactions. On behalf of insurance companies and other institutional investors, he provides counsel in connection with the private placement of debt and related equity investments and exit strategies. Michael draws on his deep experience with the structure and issuance of convertible and nonconvertible debt and equity securities, and secured and unsecured financings, to advise clients on a wide range of US and international equity derivatives transactions, including swaps and over-the-counter derivatives.

Michael is a member of the Firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and was past chair of the Racial and Ethnic Diversity Sub-Committee.

Girl Scout’s Own Award:
Jodi Bahl
Global Risk Management Deputy Leader at EY

Jodi Bahl is currently the Global Risk Management Deputy Leader. She oversees our strategy and its execution for risk management across the globe. Through her 25-yeartenure with EY, she has served in a variety of leadership roles, displaying strong technical, market, operational, and people leadership skills. She is a strong advocate for our people, serving as a mentor, counselor and a leader for various women’s groups (e.g., Professional Women’s Network, Women’s Coaching Circle Leader).

Jodi served as the Global Quality Leader for the PAS practice (2016-2019), leading the Quality network in over 130 countries, working every day to support exceptional client service by providing a consistent policies framework, by executing our service quality programs, and by helping all our professionals with practical advice as issues arise day-to-day on client engagements. This included guiding on how the practice delivers services in compliance with regulatory policies and guidelines around the globe, creating consistent methodologies for service delivery, and developing training for the over 11,000 professionals in PAS worldwide.

Jodi was part of the PAS Americas extended leadership team for the Rewards pillar. In this role, she was the executive sponsor for EY’s employee benefit compliance services and assisted clients with Form 5500 compliance, HR regulatory compliance, Affordable Care Act compliance, HR tax reporting and operations, and evaluating employee benefit issues, including benefits operational compliance analysis, plan design and plan implementation.

Jodi served as the Chicago market leader for People Advisory Services (2008-2017) where she focused on all matters related to our people, clients and the local market. While market leader, she led the expansion of the team from a small seven person Performance & Reward team to 100+ PAS professionals. During this time, Jodi expanded the market presence and brand, grew the team from one Partner to six, and led the integration and change management efforts during the creation of the People Advisory Services practice.

Jodi served as the Central Region and co-US leader of our Affordable Care Act service offering. In this role, she built a cross sub-service line functional team of professionals, built a market strategy to stand up the new offering, created market collateral, raised EY’s brand through technical speeches at numerous conferences, and developed our people through technical and market training. During her tenure, the Central Region was the top market for revenue, sales, and integration of the service lines.

Previously, Jodi was the Human Capital Region Leader for the Midwest Region (2010-2014). She led an approximately 100-person practice across 8 states and 6 offices. She focused on driving market leadership and growth, providing exceptional client service, creating high-performing teams and developing and retaining talent. Under her leadership, the Midwest Region Human Capital practice achieved double digit growth for four years in a row.