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

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 CEO of Global Chamber®. He's a founder, entrepreneur and global connector focused on advancing Global Chamber® member businesses with new clients, and into new markets. He worked in corporate for decades, first the Dupont Company in Asia and globally, and later Phelps Dodge / Freeport McMoRan. Doug had two expatriate assignments, one in Tokyo and another in Singapore. He has over 40 years of global trade experience working with clients in nearly every market segment including automotive, aerospace, industrial, manufacturing, healthcare, life sciences, mining, retail and technology. 

Doug has 5 U.S. patents related to his work at Central Research in DuPont. His education includes a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah and an EMBA from Michigan State University. Doug's affiliations include the Global Chamber®, Arizona District Export Council, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Thunderbird Global Alumni Network (TGAN) Advisory Council and hundreds of groups in Global Chamber®. He is a German-Polish American born in New York and living in Arizona + California. Doug has a wife of 44 years, a daughter and a superstar grandson.

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