Men’s Executive Speaker Series - Lent 2026
Fearless Presence: Encountering Christ on your Journey
Wednesdays, Feb. 25, Mar. 4, 11, 25 | 7:00-8:30 p.m.
(Due to Saint Clement School's Spring Break, we will NOT meet on March 18)
The Men’s Executive Speaker Series invites men to deepen their leadership, professional impact, and personal growth through faith-based reflection. Throughout four weeks, participants will explore how spirituality can guide decision-making, resilience, and influence in every aspect of life.
This Lent, our parish theme “Fearless, Wrapped in His Mercy” calls us to encounter Christ and return home to what matters most. Through inspiring talks and small group discussions, we will learn how grounded presence, courage, humility, and forgiveness can transform your leadership and life.
SCHEDULE:
February 25: The Quiet Power of Faith
SPEAKER: Leonardo De Biasi—Partner at PwC USA
Week 1 invites men to rediscover the quiet strength that comes from grounded presence—a way of showing up to life rooted in God rather than in stress, success, or constant motion. In a culture that pushes noise and urgency, grounded presence helps us lead with clarity, courage, and trust. Together we’ll explore how anchoring ourselves in Christ becomes the starting point for fearless living and the foundation for every decision and relationship that follows.
March 4: Fearless Decisions in a Noisy World
SPEAKER: Tom Snyder—Leadership and Governance Consultant
Every man faces decisions that shape both career and family, but modern life rarely makes space to hear God’s voice. This week focuses on discernment—how to cut through the noise, listen with clarity, and act with conviction. We’ll unpack practical, faith‑driven tools that help men make courageous choices with peace, confidence, and purpose.
March 11: Living Boldly, Leading Humbly
SPEAKERS: Todd Ohlms—Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP; James Tye—Head of Private Equity at Calamos Investments; and Jack Hermiller—PWM Associate at Goldman Sachs
True leadership isn’t loud—it’s grounded, humble, and boldly faithful. This week challenges us to rethink what strength looks like in the workplace, at home, and within ourselves. We’ll see how courage and humility aren’t opposites but partners—and how living boldly for Christ transforms the way we influence others.
March 25: The Strength of Forgiveness
SPEAKER: Tom Shanley—President and CEO at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Forgiveness is one of the hardest acts of leadership—and one of the most freeing. As we approach Holy Week, we explore how mercy opens the door to resilience, reconciled relationships, and authentic strength. This week invites men to consider the ways forgiveness—both given and received—restores hearts, families, and teams, reflecting Christ’s own courage on the cross.
Meet Our Speakers
Leonardo De Biasi—Partner at PwC USA
Leonardo was born and raised in the south of Italy, Apulia region. After living in several other countries, Leonardo moved to Chicago 12 winters ago and today is part of the Saint Clement family thanks to his 2 kids Sergio Maria (2nd Grade) and Carlo (PreK4).
Leonardo spent a full life in consulting as an expert of Finance Transformation and Enterprise Performance Management. He is also passionate about Italian food and cuisine (who is not?!?) and is the Delegate for Chicago of the ‘Accademia Italiana della Cucina’ where along with his wife Floriana helps foster the culture of Italian food in Chicago.
Tom Snyder—Leadership and Governance Consultant
Tom spent 25 years advising clients and candidates as they made consequential decisions—most recently as Global Managing Partner of the Consumer Practice at Heidrick & Struggles, a global leadership advisory firm. In that role, he worked with boards, CEOs, and senior executives around the world, helping them discern who should lead at pivotal moments — often during seasons of rapid growth, transition, or uncertainty. His work focused on executive leadership, succession planning, and board development across industries including retail, hospitality, and consumer brands working with companies like Walmart, Dollar General, US Foods, and Constellation Brands.
Earlier in his career, Tom held leadership roles with companies such as Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and ConAgra — experiences that frequently required stepping into change and making difficult decisions. Over the course of his professional journey, he also advised major organizations and private equity firms such as Bain, Blackstone, CD&R and KKR, on high-stakes leadership decisions, giving him a front-row seat to how character and conviction shape outcomes.
Tom is a graduate of the University of Scranton. He and his wife Mary, a nurse, moved 13 times in their first 20 years of marriage as his career unfolded — a season that required sacrifice and trust. They have now been married nearly 50 years and are blessed with three children and six grandchildren.
The Snyders have lived in Glen Ellyn for more than 30 years and are active members of St. Daniel the Prophet Parish in Wheaton. Tom brings both professional insight and personal perspective to conversations about leadership, decision-making and leading a life guided by principle and rooted in faith.
Todd Ohlms—Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP
Todd J. Ohlms is as a partner in the Litigation department and a member of the Asset Management Litigation Group. Todd has represented clients in business-critical litigation matters for over 25 years, and has tried several cases to verdict before juries and the bench. He has also participated in numerous arbitration proceedings, including counseling clients regarding disputes subject to international arbitration agreements.
Todd is often retained by private equity firms to counsel them and their portfolio companies on a wide range of matters and is frequently chosen to serve as outside general counsel to their portfolio companies. He also represents family offices in disputes related to their operating companies where sensitive and complex relationships often play as large a role in determining the result as the actual legal theories at issue.
Todd has substantial experience in actions involving temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, and in the critical areas of securities and shareholder litigation, corporate governance, intellectual property, fiduciary litigation, antitrust and trade regulation and complex/multi-jurisdictional disputes. He also has extensive experience in creating and implementing electronic discovery strategies and protocol for clients.
James Tye—Head of Private Equity at Calamos Investments
James is the Head of Private Equity at Calamos Investments, a global investment firm with pioneering capabilities in risk-managed and alternative strategies, with over $45bn in assets under management.
Before moving to Chicago in 2023, James was a Transaction Services (M&A) Partner at PwC in London, where he led teams of advisors working with global private equity firms and large cap corporates acquiring/divesting across the financial services sectors in Europe, North America and Asia. James served on both PwC’s Global Insurance Leadership Team and UK Financial Services Leadership Team.
Jack Hermiller—PWM Associate at Goldman Sachs
Tom Shanley—President and CEO at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Tom Shanley, MD, became President & Chief Executive Officer of Lurie Children’s on December 6, 2019. He is a pediatric intensive care physician and researcher who joined the organization in 2015 as Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and President & Chief Research Officer of the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Lurie Children’s.
Dr. Shanley champions the provision of and accessibility to the highest quality and most advanced pediatric healthcare delivered with respect and compassion. He is dedicated to achieving optimal health outcomes for children by focusing on evidence-based excellent care and further advancing care through discovery, innovation, and community collaboration.
After receiving his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Shanley served as the pediatric chief resident at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He completed his clinical and research fellowship in pediatric critical care under the auspices of the Pediatric Scientist Development Program at the University of Michigan sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation.
As a clinician, Dr. Shanley specializes in the treatment of children with hypoxemic respiratory failure from acute lung injury and severe sepsis triggered by infection. The broad goal of his research, spanning from basic science to translational and clinical work, was to improve understanding of the molecular basis of inflammatory diseases that afflict critically ill young patients.
Dr. Shanley is committed to leading Lurie Children’s toward further growth in scale, scope and scientific discovery in order to transform child health and create a healthier future for every child.
A father of four grown children and husband to Maureen, a pediatric nephrology nurse, Dr. Shanley prioritizes spending time with his family and staying fit running and biking along the Chicago lake shore. He is an avid reader, often enjoying a glass of northern California wine with his book.