Ann Kidd Named 2022 Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Leader in Community Development

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  August 23, 2022

Lincolnshire, Ill. – Mowery & Schoenfeld, LLC is proud to announce Ann Kidd, Director of Marketing, was named one of the 2022 Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Leaders in Community Development. This award recognizes leaders who have made a difference by working to improve underserved communities—from those underrepresented in industry to historically overlooked populations and beyond.

In her role at Mowery & Schoenfeld, Ann focuses on marketing, communications, and people strategies—including launching service lines, participating in M&A projects, and internal branding. She also oversees the Firm’s Employee Experience, including active involvement with recruiting, onboarding, training, employee engagement and events, surveys and awards, and goal setting.

Managing Partner Jeffery Mowery shared, “Ann has brought an unmatched energy and passion to the Firm. She acts as a mentor and advocate to elevate younger members of our organization. Ann never hesitates to take on tough issues to help us continue to grow in a way that embraces our core values. We are very proud to have her on our team.”

As a strong advocate for women, Ann helped spearhead the 2020 launch of our women’s initiative, Growth & Learning Opportunities for Women (GLOW). Ann recognizes the importance of providing women with opportunities to lead and grow and therefore avoid having women exit mid-career—a trend that plagues the accounting and financial industries. These efforts have helped our Firm rise from zero female partners to two and zero female directors to six.

She is actively involved in the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois, helping girls to grow into tomorrow's leaders. Most recently, Mowery & Schoenfeld opened its doors to host the inaugural Women's Leadership Forum & Girl Scout Business Badge Bash. Ann created the Business Badge Bash as an opportunity for Girl Scouts to work directly with professional women to develop their entrepreneurial skills. This event brought together female executives in varying industries and specializations to share their knowledge with both Firm employees and Girl Scouts from Chicago and Northern Illinois.

In addition to her work within the Firm, Ann sits on the executive board of Arden Shore as the Vice Chair of Resource Development. She is devoted to helping to rebuild families through foster care, in-home and community parental programming, and mental health services. Ann began her journey with Arden Shore by sponsoring a holiday gift for one child and continues to build her relationship with the organization each year. She currently helps to oversee outreach and event programming in order to increase awareness of the organization’s mission and critical work through marketing, communications, and community engagement.

“For many years before Ann joined our Board of Directors in 2019, she was an exceptionally ambitious volunteer—intrinsically motivated to organize food drives and solicit donations on behalf of families participating in our foster care and family preservation program," said Dora E Maya, Ph.D , President & CEO Arden Shore Child and Family Services. "Ann’s leadership, creativity, and passion for community engagement expands Arden Shore’s capacity to make the connections necessary for safer and healthier families in Lake County. Ann inspires generosity. We look forward to celebrating the phenomenal impact she will no doubt continue to make well into the future."

Ann shared that her passion for giving back comes from her late mother. “She taught me that we each have a beautiful capacity to give back. I always try to share small acts of kindness—a meal, a lunchbox note to my kids, a quick text to a friend. This can take only moments but, as we all know personally, can make a real impact when you are having a tough day. In working with amazing organizations such as Arden Shore, Mowery & Schoenfeld, and Girls Scouts, I hope to help turn the sum of a thousand tiny acts, by dozens of individuals, into a meaningful opportunity and change.”