Mark Rust will serve as board chair, succeeding Peggy Daley

The Better Government Association is pleased to announce the election of a new leadership team for our Board of Directors in 2015 and 2016.

Mark Rust will serve as board chair, succeeding Peggy Daley; Steve Miller, Dan Goodwin and Heidi Rudolph will become vice chairs; Jose Padilla will continue as board secretary, and Scott Solomon as board treasurer.

After serving as co-Chair with Hill Hammock before he stepped down earlier this year due to other pressing commitments, Peggy Daley offered encouraging words:

“It has been an honor to serve as board co-chair and then chair during this period of tremendous growth. I have great confidence in Mark Rust and the entire slate of new officers, and I’m excited to see them extend the reach of the BGA and lead it into the future.”

The election was on Friday, Nov. 21, and the new officers take over on Jan. 1.

Mark Rust is managing partner at the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg, LLP, has practiced and written about healthcare law for more than 30 years, and was a national legal affairs reporter and business editor for the American Medical News.

Mark joined the board after his long-time law partner, former BGA board chair Rod Heard, passed away in 2013 after a battle with cancer.

“I am humbled to inherit this leadership from Peggy and hope to continue the great work she has done, and Rod and Hill before her,” Rust said. “With an outstanding staff under the leadership of Andy Shaw, the BGA is in the best shape of its 91-years in existence, and we plan to continue that growth in a time of challenges and opportunity for good government for Chicago and Illinois without parallel in recent history.”

Vice chair Steve Miller is the principal and co-founder of Origin Ventures, a venture-capital firm that invests in start-ups, including GrubHub. He has extensive online development experience and is active on several other nonprofit boards.

Vice chair Dan Goodwin is the chairman and CEO of The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc. and is a member of the Chicago Association of REALTORS Hall of Fame, the Illinois Association of REALTORS Hall of Fame and the National Association of REALTORS Hall of Fame.

Vice chair Heidi Rudolph is Senior Vice President at AegisAdvantage, a legal and compliance operations consulting firm that assists corporate legal departments of all sizes throughout the United States. She is also a past chair of the BGA board.

Jose Padilla is Vice President and General Counsel at DePaul University and a member of the National Board of the Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education, which advises U.S. education officials on ways to improve higher education

Scott Solomon is a Director at Navigant Consulting, where he provides independent advisory, forensic accounting and other investigative services, and serves as an expert accounting witness in commercial litigation matters.

“We’re confident that Mark and the other officers can build on the strong success of previous board leadership in taking the organization to the next level, as we continue to shine a light on government and hold public officials accountable,” said Andy Shaw, BGA president and CEO.

The Better Government Association is a Chicago-based nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog organization that works for integrity, transparency and accountability in government by exposing corruption and inefficiency; identifying and advocating effective public policy; and engaging and mobilizing the public to achieve authentic and responsible reform.