The Board of Advisors to JAD Communications International plays an important role in the development of programs for women. The Board has been carefully selected to represent the diversity of issues facing women in today's more complex global and time-compressed environment as they pertain to helping women reach their potential.

Ellen Barry
Chief Information Officer
Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority
Biography

Regina Karas
Senior Vice President
Millenium Trust
Biography

Cadi Nones
President
Arcadia Group
Biography

Zoa Norman
Chief Sales and Marketing Executive
BPO Management Services
Biography

Melody Spann-Cooper
President, General Manager
WVON-AM
Biography

Lydia Davis Eady
President, Joy Communications
Biography

Ellen Barry joined the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority in February 2000 as Chief Information Officer responsible for information technology initiatives for the Authority. The Authority owns and manages McCormick Place, Navy Pier, and the Authority’s Corporate Center. Her role involves strategic IT planning, budget and staff management, project implementation and ongoing support of the network, desktops, and business applications. In her attempts to align the IS organization with the Authority’s business objectives, Ms. Barry has successfully implemented a revenue generating initiative by insouricng the delivery of Internet and Technical Services to Exhibitors, Show Management and Meeting Planners for McCormick Place, Navy Pier and the Hyatt McCormick Place. In addition, she has been responsible for bringing high speed internet service to all sleeping rooms in the Hyatt McCormick Place Hotel, which is owned by the Authority and managed by the Hyatt Corporation; installing wi-fi cafes within the facility; and implementing a gigabit circuit to ‘next generation networks’ including Internet2.

Prior to MPEA, Ellen Barry was the 1st Deputy Chief Information Officer for the City of Chicago. As 1st Deputy CIO, Ms. Barry was responsible for all information services within the City relating to data center and client-server operations. The City of Chicago outsourced these services through two large outsourcing initiatives, one for desktop support and one for data center operations. Ms. Barry led these two initiatives from Statement of Work Development through contract negotiations and transition of services.

Previous to her role as 1st Deputy CIO, Ms. Barry worked with Chicago’s Police Department in numerous IT and Strategic Planning activities including efforts toward implementation of a major Criminal History Records Information System.

Prior to coming to the City of Chicago, Ms. Barry worked as an internal consultant for various private sector organizations in strategic IT development and planning. Her experience includes initiatives ranging from implementation of a major Health Care and Physician Billing System, to EDI, to energy management, as well as, Forecasting, Inventory Planning and Distribution Requirements Planning systems.

Ms. Barry holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a MBA in Quantitative Methods and Computers from Loyola University. Ellen Barry has been a life-long resident of the City of Chicago.

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Reggie Karas is responsible for the marketing and business development of FlexHSA®, Millennium's Health Savings Account offering. FlexHSA® which combines a savings account with a high deductible health plan, offers lower health insurance premiums with various tax advantages. FlexHSA® offers the complete HSA experience by integrating health benefits, banking services, and investment options with one point of contact.

Ms. Karas draws on extensive sales and marketing management experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Millennium Trust, she was Senior Vice President, Marketing & Client Strategy for Harris Bank's U.S. Private Client Group where she was responsible for developing and executing the wealth management brand and implementing the marketing and client strategy in all markets in the U.S.

Prior to her work at Harris, Ms. Karas was Senior Vice President, Director of Marketing for First Union Securities where she led the marketing, development, and the implementation of a national sales strategy for the organization. She has held similar positions for other full-service financial institutions. Ms. Karas received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Illinois University and is a member of the board of the Securities Industry Institute.

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Cadi Nones As the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arcadia, LLC, established in 2003, Cadi Nones has many years of highly successful leadership, executive management, operational, financial, and consulting experience in providing management, business and information technology services. She has expertise in all stages of business growth from start - up environments to industry leaders. Her expertise includes strategic business planning, business/financial management, market positioning, IPO, merger and acquisition integration, venture capital acquisition, corporate governance, retail, distribution, manufacturing industries, results-driven organizational development, strategic sales and marketing.

Previously, Ms. Nones was the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Buckingham Technology incorporated in 2001, a global management and technology consulting organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Hanoi, Vietnam.

Prior to beginning Buckingham Technology, from 1991 - 2001, Ms. Nones was a Partner at Whittman-Hart, a 10,000 person IT services firm based in Chicago. She was instrumental in growing the firm from ~50M to ~1B annual revenue, as the highest overall revenue producing Partner, exceeding all sales and financial goals annually and receiving the Presidents' Club award each of her 10 years with the firm.

Previously, she was the Vice President of Sales for Wisconsin based, Technology Consulting Corporation and an Executive Board Member.

Cadi Nones holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics from Colorado State University and has completed numerous graduate programs in business management, finance, marketing and sales.

Ms. Nones has served on several business and not-for-profit boards, including The Girl Scouts - Illinois Crossroad Council, Executive Board member and Treasurer, 2000 - present; Executive Board member and Treasurer for her church, 1999 - 2005; Hill Top Center, a care facility, Executive Board member and Secretary, 2004 - present. She is a member of Leadership Illinois Class of 2003 and serves on their Board of Directors and is a member of Leadership America Class of 2005.

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Melody Spann-Cooper is the president and general manager of WVON, Chicago's only African-American owned and operated talk radio station. In 2002, she became chairman of the board of Midway Broadcasting Corp., the parent company of WVON, when she purchased the company's controlling interest. She is the only African-American female general manager in radio in Chicago.

A former vice president of broadcast for the Chicago Association of Black Journalists, Spann-Cooper chaired the media advocacy committee, which was responsible for monitoring news coverage and employment practices on behalf of African-American journalists in television, radio and print media. In addition, she has appeared as a guest on CNN as well as on public radio and television for her views on current political, social and media-related issues. One of a handful of local independent station owners in a market dominated by huge media companies, Ms. Spann-Cooper is also one of the only female African-American station owners in the country. Her revenue strategy focuses more on promotions serving the African-American community than on advertising.

The station's revenues hit $2.4 million last year, up from $700,000 in 1994, when Ms. Spann-Cooper became program director. Spann-Cooper has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Cook County Bar Association's "Barristers Award" and the Today's Black Woman's "Phenomenal Woman Award." A graduate of Loyola University of Chicago with a B.S. in criminal justice, she has been in the broadcast industry for 20 years and plans to return to school to pursue a law degree.

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Lydia Davis Eady is president of Joy Communications, a media, marketing, and special events company specializing in projects that celebrate women and families. A media professional with many years of experience in publicity, advertising, marketing, public relations, public affairs, event planning and speech writing, she brings a wealth of knowledge in targeting and reaching consumers in relationship to their demographics and has particular expertise in marketing to African-American consumers. She also offers significant experience as a corporate spokesperson.

Previously Lydia was Vice President of Promotion at Johnson Publishing Company. After 23 successful years with the corporation she resigned her position to head Joy Communications effective December 16, 2004. At Johnson Publishing Lydia was responsible for corporate public relations, media and communications projects for EBONY and JET magazines, Fashion Fair Cosmetics, EBONY Fashion Fair, and the JPC Book division. She was Creative Director and Media Planner & Buyer for the in-house advertising agency. Her ad campaigns have appeared in EBONY and JET, the New York Times, Advertising Age, network and prime cable television and urban radio. She also interviewed and hired models, scouted and selected locations and served as photographic stylist and photo shoot director for advertising and promotional materials for the various company divisions and video productions.

She was also the editor and manager for all the company web sites. She planned and executed special events including TV shows, product launches, press conferences and V.I.P. luncheons and receptions. She produced video presentations and television commercials. For 10 years she was Program Coordinating Executive for the nationally-syndicated Hollywood production of the American Black Achievement Awards. She consulted on the production of the ABC-TV network special, Celebrate The Dream: 50 Years Of EBONY; and was associate producer of EBONY/JET Celebrity Showcase. Lydia also wrote speeches for the CEO and other senior-level executives, books such as the EBONY Guide To Historically Black Colleges and Universities, calendars including the EBONY Great Black Americans, magazine articles for special events and fashion, and press releases. She represented the company at the White House and at several other events internationally, nationally and locally. Lydia also administered sweepstakes, contests and model searches; was copywriter and consultant for the circulation division.

She is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who of American Women, and Who's Who of Black Americans. She has received several awards and honors including the Woman Of Substance Award. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. who makes her home in downtown Chicago with her husband Jacques and their two sons.

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Zoa Norman accepted her current role in 2004, serving as Chief Sales and Marketing Executive and board member for BPO Management Services, a North American outsourcing company focusing on HR, IT, and document management outsourcing. She began her corporate career with Control Data (now Ceridian) in 1987 as a Sales Representative in Kansas City, Missouri. She held positions of National Account Executive, Bank Marketing Manager, and Project Manager. She was promoted to District Vice President of Sales and moved to Omaha to start a district sales and service office in 1993. During her tenure in Omaha, the Omaha District exceeded its revenue objective by 600% while maintaining 99.97% customer retention. She was promoted to General Manager and moved to San Diego in 1996 and in two years the San Diego District moved from last place in the country in revenue, profitability, revenue to headcount, and customer satisfaction to #1 and #2 rankings in all categories. Norman was then promoted and moved to Los Angeles as General Manager where customer satisfaction and profitability of Southern California realized a marked turnaround. Eighteen months later she was promoted to Southwest Regional VP of Sales where her team assumed a first place ranking in sales attainment. In 2000, Norman accepted the role of Vice President Customer Care, where she was responsible for improving customer retention by 10% and customer satisfaction by 19%. While at Ceridian, Norman qualified for 10 President’s Clubs, received the only non employee American Express Pinnacle Club membership awarded to date, earned the National Balanced Performance Award, achieved K Club membership, ranked # 1 Regional Vice President Sales, was selected and graduated from the Ceridian Management Institute, and chaired the BPO Service and Delivery National Committee.

In 2002, Norman was recruited to develop the national sales organization for Adecco HR Services, which achieved 120% of the organization’s sales objective. Adecco is a $20 Billion world wide staffing company. As Vice President Sales for this new division, she served on the management team creating the product offering, marketing plan, sales roll out, and the service delivery strategy.

Norman has served on the board of March of Dimes, Executive Women’s Club President, served on the board of her church, treasurer of her sorority alumnae association, member of SHRM, Boardroom Bound 100, Meeting Manager for Consultant Trainer's Southwest, YWCA Circle of Friends, Mercy Hospital board member, career coach at the Career Transition Center of Chicago, and is currently serving on the Illinois Employment Law Council. Norman has been a featured speaker on topics such as business process outsourcing, building a high performance team, and how to turn around a failing business.

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