News Release
at The Chicago Public Education Fund
Aidan Leonard, Development and Communications Associate
(312) 558-4503

April 29, 2004

Venture capital fund for public education elects new directors
4 civic and business leaders join at launch of second fund

CHICAGO —Investors elected four new directors to the board of The Chicago Public Education Fund at its Leadership Fund II kickoff event and annual meeting on April 29. They include leaders in banking, architecture, and the non profit sector:

Judith K. Dimon is the former executive director of the Spunk Fund, a New-York based foundation that supports national and international programs that promote the education, health and well-being of children in need. A former vice president of Shearson Lehman Brothers, where she launched and oversaw the consumer lending group, Dimon serves on multiple boards in Chicago and New York.

Currently, Dimon is a trustee of the Children’s Aid Society, the Center for Arts Education, Families and Work Institute, the Latin School of Chicago, Ballet Hispanico, and the Dance On Foundation. She sits on the visiting committee of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and she is a founding member of the Campaign to Expand Community Schools in Chicago.

Dimon is a graduate of Harvard Business School. She also hold a master’s degree from Catholic University and a bachelor’s degree from Newcomb College at Tulane University. She is married to James Dimon, the chairman and CEO of Bank One. They have three daughters.

Janet Knupp is the current and founding president of The Chicago Public Education Fund. Before joining The Fund, Janet worked as the executive director of Chicago Communities in Schools, where she redirected the organization from imminent bankruptcy to recognition as the most cost-effective urban office in a national network of 141 affiliates. She also re-shaped the organization's strategy to focus on serving as a broker of services for Chicago Public Schools students and families. Under her leadership, CCIS negotiated agreements with more than 100 hospitals, universities and agencies to deliver more than 325 services, at no cost to the school system. During her tenure, she increased the number of schools served at nearly three times the growth rate of operating expenses and reached ten times the students previously served.

Janet is a member of the Kellogg School of Management Center for Nonprofit Management Advisory Board at Northwestern University. She also serves on the Teach for America Chicago Advisory Board, the national board of New Leaders for New Schools (ex officio), the Steering Committee for the Consortium on Chicago School Research and the Chicago Leadership Academies for Supporting Success Advisory Board. In 1994, Janet received an Illinois Senate appointment to serve on the Chicago Schools Turnaround Commission. She served on the Governor's Council for Educator Quality for three years.

Janet earned her M.Ed. in educational foundations and policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and graduated cum laude from Michigan State University with a BA in special education.

Patricia Saldaña Natke is the founding principal of Urban Works, a community-based minority woman owned architecture firm. Her professional architecture experience encompasses both the public and private sectors. As a member of the New Construction Managing Architect Team for Chicago Public Schools’ Capital Improvement Program, she leads the programming and design implementation of new elementary schools, additions and ancillary building prototypes.

Under her leadership and emphasis on design excellence, the firm received the HACIA Firm of the Year award in 2002. Committed to encouraging diversity within the design and architecture professions, she is a member of the National AIA Diversity Committee and the she has served as the president of Chicago Women in Architecture. She has won multiple architecture competitions and honors for her design work.

A former project architect at Ross Barney + Jankowski Architects, she earned her bachelor’s degree in architectural studies at the University of Illinois. Natke grew up on Chicago’s South Side.

Frank Techar is President and Chief Executive Officer of Harris Bankcorp, a large regional retail, business and wealth bank serving more than one million personal and business customers in and around the Chicago area through its network of more than 150 branches. Harris Bank is part of Toronto-based BMO Financial Group, one of North America’s leading financial services providers.

A native of Minnesota, Techar was appointed to his current position in September 2002. He previously served since September 1999 as Executive Vice President, Small Business Banking, a high-priority area in BMO Bank of Montreal’s Canadian operations serving 400,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.

He earned a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree from Princeton University in 1978 and an MBA from the University of Denver in 1983, and completed the University of Southern California Executive Program in 1992.

Techar is an active member of Chicago’s business and civic community. In addition to his new role as a director of The Fund, he is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago and is a member of the Club’s Civic Committee. He serves on the board of both the Executives Club of Chicago and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Economic Club and the Northwestern University Business School Advisory Council.