PETER BENSINGER is President and Chief Executive Officer of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates (BDA), a privately owned professional services company that provides a wide range of consultation, training and employee assistance program services promoting a Drug-Free Workplace and employee health and safety as well as intervention and treatment for compulsive gambling. Prior to forming this consulting service with Dr. Robert DuPont, Bensinger served as Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He was appointed to this position in January of 1976 by President Gerald R. Ford and was confirmed by the Senate, serving over five and one-half years as Director of this major federal investigative agency. He also has served as Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, Chairman of the Illinois Youth Commission, Chief of the Crime Victims Division of the Illinois Attorney General's Office, and as Executive Director of the Chicago Crime Commission.
DEBORAH HARRINGTON is the former President of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a grantmaking foundation whose goal is to increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities in the metropolitan area, including the opportunity to shape decisions affecting them. She is responsible for directing the Fund’s operations, grantmaking and providing leadership, particularly in the foundation’s priority programs of public policy development and community organizing. In addition to serving as trustee to several community-based, non-profit and civic organizations, she is a board member of the Donors Forum, advisory board member of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois and Vice President of the board of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest. Prior to joining the Woods Fund, she had broad experience in the public sector, having worked over 20 years in the Illinois Department of Employment Security, Department of Public Aid, and Department of Human Services. She was a member of the Governor’s Taskforce for Human Services Reform and worked on the design and implementation of the state’s human services delivery system, and on implementation of the1996 welfare law.
GEORGE A. RANNEY is President and CEO of Metropolis Strategies, the successor to Chicago Metropolis 2020 which was a non-profit civic organization founded in 1999 by The Commercial Club of Chicago to promote long-term planning, better regional cooperation, and smart investment in the Chicago region and its people. He also serves as chair and chief executive of Prairie Holdings Corporation, the firm developing Prairie Crossing, a nationally recognized conservation community in north suburban Grayslake. He served in various capacities over many years for Inland Steel Industries, including vice president for raw materials and general counsel. He was deputy budget director for the State of Illinois under Governor Richard Ogilvie. He chaired the task force that recommended the creation of the Regional Transportation Authority and led the successful referendum campaign to create the RTA. Mr. Ranney is also senior counsel to the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown LLP and serves as a trustee of many civic and non-profit organizations including the University of Chicago and Chicago Public Television (WTTW). Ranney is a former trustee of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
