Alison P. Ranney

Alison Ranney specializes in serving not-for-profit organizations and institutions of education. In addition to her current work, she has also had considerable search experience with industrial/renewable energy clients. Alison has successfully conducted searches for a range of clients at the CEO, President, Dean, Executive Director, COO and Vice President levels, as well as direct reports to these positions and members of their boards of directors. Alison is also a member of the Diversity team.

Recent Client Experience

Alison's recent assignments include recruiting a successor to the CEO/Director of an art museum with internationally renowned collections, finding the next CEO for a global organization dedicated to fostering economic literacy in young people, and recruiting a COO for one of the world’s leading museums. In education, she has recently placed the Dean of a nationally ranked law school as well as the Dean of an entrepreneurial engineering school.

Previous Experience

Prior to her executive search career, Alison served as a consultant with a focus on business development, marketing and sales. In this capacity, she served as Vice President for the real estate development firm responsible for Prairie Crossing, the award-winning conservation community. Previously, Alison was an executive with AT&T Wireless, where she managed joint venture relationships from launch through initial public offering and subsequent financings. Alison began her career in the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where she was a corporate attorney with a focus on mergers and acquisitions.

Additional Professional Activities

Alison serves on the board of directors of the Lake Forest Bank & Trust Corporation, the flagship bank of Wintrust Financial Corporation, where she is an active member of the Compensation & Nominating, Credit, Audit and Business Development Committees.

With a strong commitment to civic involvement, Alison also serves on the board of directors of Chicago Public Radio, where she is a member of the Executive Committee and chairs the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. She has served on the board of directors of City Year Chicago and Ryerson Woods Conservation Area as well as the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Law School.

Education

Alison received her B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in urban studies from Brown University. Alison received her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.