As CEO of Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC), Maria Wynne leads LGC’s mission to convene, connect, and mobilize bold leaders across sectors to affect transformative change in the region. Since joining LGC in 2014, Maria is proud to have taken LGC’s civic leadership development into a broader public discourse, raising the visibility of LGC, adding design and equity thinking to its approach to build greater understanding of Chicagos co’mmunities. Most recently, having identified a need to civically activate C-suite leaders, she successfully introduced The Daniel Burnham Fellowship, an accelerated civic onboarding experience for senior executives new to the area or their role. The vision of The Daniel Burnham Fellowship is to develop a group of committed civic leaders whose focus will be on job creation, workforce readiness, and economic investment in communities, making Chicago the city with potential for all.

Previously Maria was vice president and general manager of Xerox and Microsoft respectively, leading national sales and marketing teams with upwards of $250m in revenue in an aggregate $500m segment with P&L and people responsibility.

At Microsoft she created the Office of Citizenship and Innovation, working with US mayors on citywide initiatives to accelerate workforce readiness and reduce the digital divide. Following her tenure at Microsoft, as CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, Maria led a merger of seven corporations that became the largest transformation in Girl Scout history.

Maria has been recognized by Latino Leaders magazine with the Maestro Award for Entrepreneurship in 2021, and Crain’s Who’s Who in Chicago Business. She was named Chicago Executive of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America, McCormick Fellow for CEO Perspectives in 2013, and Crain’s Most Powerful Latinos in Chicago in 2019. Maria was selected by Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot as one of eight co-chairs of the Transition Leadership Team in 2019.

She is affiliated with The Commercial Club of Chicago, Economic Club of Chicago, The Chicago Network, and The Chicago Club.

Maria’s board service includes director of Federal Home Loan Bank, Chicago; president, executive committee of The Goodman Theatre Board; co-chair, Civic Consulting Alliance of Chicago advisory board; trustee of North Central College; and advisory board member of Chicago Innovation.

Maria has a BA in art and education from North Central College and a MBA in marketing from Northern Illinois University.