Global Chamber® Chicago What Businesses Need to Know Now: Q3 Economic & Finance Outlook

Global Chamber® Chicago

What Businesses Need to Know Now:

Q3 Economic & Finance Outlook

What you need to know to plan for the rest of the year.

Our conversation will include issues such as:

• Where is the economy heading through the balance of 2026?
• What should businesses be watching most closely right now?
• What is happening with credit and access to capital?
• What are banks seeing from business borrowers?
• How should companies be thinking about expansion and investment in the current environment?
• What risks should businesses be planning for now rather than reacting to later?
• How are current economic and financial conditions affecting companies involved in international trade and cross-border growth?

Speakers:

Carol Schleif, CFA, FSA - Chief Market Strategist, BMO Private Wealth

Carol Schleif is the Chief Market Strategist for BMO Private Wealth, the North American Wealth Management Business of BMO Financial Group. In this role, Carol leads several key initiatives aimed at amplifying BMOPW’s research and investment expertise, including authoring the firm’s Weekly Strategy Perspectives. Decades in the industry as a strategist, thought leader and portfolio manager position Carol as a sought-after speaker, writer and media commentator. Carol is a member of key asset allocation, strategy and governance working groups from across the bank as well as leading the Senior Investment Advisory Council. Carol is an active member and contributor to BMO’s Women & Wealth group.

Prior to her current role, Carol was the Chief Investment Officer for BMO Family Office, the Ultra High Net Worth money management group within BMO Private Wealth. As CIO, Carol led a team of 35 front line investment professionals, managed portfolios, and oversaw development and compliance activities for the team.

Prior to BMO, Carol spent over 25 years in the HNW and UHNW space of Wells Fargo, managing portfolios and client relationships, leading teams and participating in research, strategy and portfolio construction. Prior to that, Carol spent a decade on the sell side as a Market Strategist, Senior Research Analyst and Director of Fundamental Research.

Carol serves on the joint board of trustees for the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University where she chairs CSB’s investment committee. She earned her MBA from Hamline University and undergraduate degrees in both business administration and equestrian science from William Woods College, where she graduated salutatorian and summa cum laude. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) and has also earned the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA).

**Kevin Brown - **Market Executive, Emerging Middle Market at BMO Commercial Bank

Kevin is a seasoned commercial banker who brings more than 30 years of experience to BMO Commercial Banking Team. He re-joined BMO (one of the Top 10 commercial lenders in North America -- with offices in 25 states and global reach via BMO Capital Markets) in 2010, after spending several years here earlier in his career. In his current role as a Managing Director of Commercial Banking, Kevin leads a team of commercial banking professionals that is focused on delivering customized banking solutions to privately held companies and non-profit organizations located throughout the Chicago Metropolitan Area (and BMO’s U.S. footprint) – helping these clients to expand their businesses, improve working capital efficiencies, enhance their bottom lines, and increase shareholder value.

With a consultative, relationship-oriented approach and a wide array of industry contacts, Kevin serves as a trusted advisor to his clients in the areas of C&I Lending, Treasury & Payment Solutions, International Banking / Trade Finance Services, Capital Markets Solutions, and Leasing. Current and past clients include manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, importers / exporters, professional service firms, contractors, transportation & logistics providers, and non-profit organizations.

Kevin holds a Bachelor’s degree with majors in Finance and Marketing from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he was a recipient of a full athletic scholarship for football. He is also active in the community, having served as a past member of several local chambers of commerce, the school board and finance committee for a local private school, and the City of Geneva’s Master Plan Committee. He has also served as a youth basketball and football coach, and as a volunteer assistant football coach for North Central College (Naperville, IL).

Dr. Maude Toussaint-Comeau - Senior Economist & Economic Advisor

Dr. Toussaint-Comeau is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Racial Justice, Loyola University Chicago. She is focused on community development, banking and financial inclusion. Dr. Toussaint-Comeau was a senior economist and economic advisor on the community development team at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Demitrus Evans - Advisory Board Chair Global Chamber® Chicago | Principal and Managing Attorney at The Evans International Law Firms

Demitrus began her legal career as Ralph J. Bunche Fellow for the Midwest region with the NGO Amnesty International, worked in several Chicago based law firms before going in house with the National Railway Company focusing on international sales and distributorships.

Prior to starting The Evans International Law Firms LLC (“TEIL Firms”) in 2009, classified as a minority and Women Owned Business with the County, City and State, she was a civil rights lawyer with Willis & Associates, a trial attorney panel lawyer for the Northern District of Illinois and a partner at Jones & Collins. At TEIL firms she is the managing Attorney and focus on corporate transactional work, litigation and Intellectual Property in the federal and state courts. In addition she arbitrates and speaks on international contractual issues nationally.

Attorney Evans holds licenses in the Illinois Appellate and Supreme Court as well as maintains license in the Northern District Trial Bar, United States Supreme Court, and the Federal Circuit and the International Court of Trade. She earned her BA from Denison University, her J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in Miami, Florida, where she worked on Asylum applications for Hattian, Guantanamo Bay refugees, utilizing her French and studied International Constitutional Law at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. Her International Trade Law LLM, with a Finance concentration, was earned from John Marshall Law School, Chicago and her Entrepreneurial Studies Certificate from the Joseph School of Business, Forest Park, Illinois.

Doug Bruhnke is founder and CEO of Global Chamber®. He's an entrepreneur, mentor and global connector focused on supporting Global Chamber® members to gain new clients, and enter into new markets.

Doug is a chemical engineer and an optimistic embracer of technology who has worked for decades as a global executive for DuPont and Phelps Dodge / Freeport McMoRan. He's had two expatriate assignments, one in Tokyo and another in Singapore, and he knows enough Japanese to travel comfortably to every corner of Japan, which he has, loving it!

Doug has also traveled to 65 countries, and his 40 years of global trade experience includes working for clients in every market segment including automotive, aerospace, industrial, semiconductors, healthcare, life sciences, mining, retail, food and beverage, technology and consulting.

Doug has 5 U.S. patents and his education includes a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah and an EMBA from Michigan State University. His affiliations include the Arizona District Export Council, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and Global Chamber®. Doug is a German-Polish American born in Mount Kisco, New York, living in Phoenix and Los Angeles. He's been married 44 years, with a superstar daughter and grandson.

Connect with Doug here. Hear the Global Chamber® story here.

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Global Chamber Chicago

Read more about our board and chapter HERE.