Hall of Fame Inductees
Andrew Berlin
Shield.AI - Chairman: Berlin Packaging - Chairman & CEO (Ret.)
Chicago Cubs - Partner/Investor; South Bend Cubs - Chairman/Owner
Andrew Berlin serves as an Executive Chairman & Managing Director at Shield AI. He also serves as a Trustee & Member of the Investment and Endowment and Athletics Committees at Syracuse University. He served as an Operating Partner, Private Equity at MidOcean Partners. Previously, he served as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Berlin Packaging. He has been a frequent commentator in business publications including the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. He received his Juris Doctor of Law Degree from Loyola University Law School. He also received his Master's Degree from Boston College and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Syracuse University. Andrew is passionate about baseball and the ways baseball and business intersect and is an investor in the Chicago Cubs organization and Chairman and Owner of the South Bend Cubs, the minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.
John DeBlasio
Owner; Partner/Investor; Chairman & CEO, DT Global & DT Institute
Chairman, Continuity GS
John P. DeBlasio is the Chairman DT Global and DT Institute which he founded in 2019 after the successful merger of Development Transformations and the international development arm of AECOM as well as Chairman of Continuity Global Services.
John is a 1989 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served 21 years in active and reserve service, before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves Civil Affairs branch in 2011. He holds degrees from the University of South Carolina Master of International Business Studies program and has completed studies at the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth.
John currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Illinois Joining Forces Foundation, the Crown Center for Middle East , the Social Science Foundation (Korbel School of International Affairs at Denver University), and The Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
John Major
Founder & President
MTSG
John Major is a seasoned executive and business leader with extensive experience in the technology industry. He has served as a board director for several publicly traded companies, where he played a pivotal role in driving growth and profitability.
John has served on the boards of directors of Littelfuse since 1994 until 2022, Lattice Semiconductor Corporation since 2018 until 2022, Lennox International Inc. since 1993 until 2022, and ORBCOMM Inc. since 2007 until 2022. He previously served as a director of Broadcom Corporation from 2003 until its acquisition by Avago Technologies in February 2016, and as a director of Pulse Electronics Corporation from 2013 until its acquisition by Yageo Corporation in May 2018, and as a director of Resonant, Inc. from 2013 until April 2019. John holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Rochester, an MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Northwestern University, and a JD from Loyola University.
Throughout his career, John has been recognized as a dynamic and visionary leader with a track record of driving growth and delivering results. His experience as a board director at publicly traded companies has given him a deep understanding of the complex challenges facing today’s businesses, and he has proven himself to be a valuable asset to any organization he works with.
Gordhan Patel
Chairman
American Standard Circuits, LLC
Gordhan is an experienced Chairman with a demonstrated history of working in the electrical and electronic, pharmaceuticals, powder coatings, food packaging, defense and aerospace, metal fabrication manufacturing industry. He is skilled in Operations Management, Continuous Improvement, Manufacturing Engineering, and ISO Standards. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a Business Administration focused in Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies from University of Illinois at Chicago. Gordhan founded, co-founded, advised, or been an integral part to so many Chicagoland businesses from American Standard Circuits, one of five places in the country cleared to build parts for some military aircraft; to RF Elite, which is revolutionizing so many radio frequency solutions for a variety of different industries from dental to mining; and many, many, more. Having immigrated to the US as a young man, trained as a pharmacist in India, he worked as a pharmacist to eventually be able to found and build multiple companies. He then brought his family members over and provided the founding capital for each of them to build self-sustaining companies in many different industries.
Susan Scanlon, MD
President & Board Chair
Midwest Center for Women’s Healthcare
Susan, a practicing gynecologic surgeon and leader in the Illinois healthcare space, started her business with three doctors, negotiated a merger with Midwest Center, and has grown the practice north of 110 providers. In the last 16 months, she has closed deals with five physician groups, most recently in southern Illinois, and is in negotiations to add two more physician groups by first quarter 2025. Susan negotiated a partnership with Unified Women’s Healthcare, an MSO backed by private equity, in order to be better capitalized and compete against institutional health care and major hospital networks while maintaining physician autonomy. Susan is third generation physicians in her family, each focused on innovation. Her late father, Dr. Patrick Scanlon, cofounded Loyola Department of Cardiology which remains a leader in cardiac research in the US. In addition, Susan is a member of the U.S. Women’s Health Alliance and lobbies on the Hill in support of private practice.
Atif Zafar
Chief Scientist
X-Silicon
Dr. Atif Zafar serves as Co-Founder and serves as Chief Scientist at X-Silicon. He is the Founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer at Pixilica. Dr. Zafar is a Co-Founder and serves as Vice President of Clinical Applications at Meridian Cardiovascular Systems. He is a serial Entrepreneur in Medical Devices, Computing Technology, and Renewable Energy. Atif is passionate by technology and he goes to every technology-related conference for years and he gives lectures at the University of Buffalo. He is also creating a $200 million fund in Dubai that intends to invest in high-impact medical and technology projects.
The newly launched $200 million NEXUS Fund, whose portfolio is comprised of Transformative early stage HealthTek companies, Disruptive, semiconductor/chiptek companies and Next-Gen-Web3.1, digital data-PRIVACY protecting companies