Kathleen M. Flanagan, Biography

In more than two decades of experience in corporate communication, most recently as Senior Vice President for Nuveen Investments, Kathleen Flanagan has worked with CEOs and presidents in aligning management, gaining commitment, and increasing innovation and empowerment in their organizations. Currently, as an executive consultant in leadership communication, specializing in shared leadership and decision making, she helps corporate executives, leadership teams and boards produce change, set direction, generate good decisions, inspire action and achieve success through powerful communication and interaction.

At Nuveen, she was responsible for corporate communication campaigns that raised $25 billion in assets in closed-end funds. Her stirring speeches at innumerable kickoff meetings helped to launch these successful sales efforts. Later, she was responsible for fund board development, managing relationships with the outside directors who annually approved the contracts that generated more than three quarters of NuveenÕs revenue. In this capacity, she developed board presentations and reports for the $35 billion family of Nuveen funds, comprising nearly 100 individual corporations. She had significant responsibility for managing the operational and financial reviews required to meet SEC and fund governance requirements.

Flanagan was a member of the 12-person leadership team at Nuveen that transformed the firm from a 100-year-old municipal bond specialist to a multi-faceted provider of a full range of investments for high-net-worth investors. She managed the brand development campaign that launched the new identity of Nuveen Investments with a Super Bowl ad in 2000 featuring images of Christopher Reeve walking. Media interest in this campaign generated more than 300 million viewer impressions.

Through an MBA from the University of Chicago, and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University, Kathleen Flanagan has gained a strong base in financial and strategic analysis as well as organizational theory and design. She has continued her research of leadership and organizational communication at the Loyola University Center for Organization Development.

She has been active in the Securities Industry Association, serving as a national board member for three years. She was a founding member of the SIA Committee for Public Trust and Confidence. Additionally, at the invitation of the board, she served as the initial co-chair of the SIA Diversity Committee from 1997-2000. She led that committee in producing the first industry survey of corporate practices regarding women and minorities in management in the securities industry. She also guided the publication of a comprehensive resource for securities firms, Diversity Practices and Resources: A Guide to the New America. She served as vice chairman of the Securities Industry Foundation for Economic Education, which sponsors the Stock Market Game in grade schools and high schools throughout the country.

Her focus on the advancement of women in leadership has intensified in recent years. She has organized five womenÕs conferences and catalyzed action for the launch of the WomenÕs Leadership Forum offered by Executive Education of the University of Chicago. She currently is president of the University of Chicago WomenÕs Business Group; co-chair of the conference planning committee of Loyola UniversityÕs Gannon Center for Women and Leadership; member of the Board Appointments Committee of ChicagoÕs chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners; and charter member of Boardroom Bound, a public service to provide informational and educational seminars for director-candidates and to help companies find pre-qualified women and minority candidates for corporate board service.