Advisory Board

Advisory Board Chair Jeff Niew leading a meeting

The College of Engineering advisory board, established in 1980, brings representatives from government, industry, and academia into the life of the college. This board meets twice a year to:

  • Provide external feedback on areas of curriculum improvement to better prepare our students
  • Participate in long-range strategic planning
  • Solicit funding to support facilities, research, scholarships, chaired professorships, and other initiatives
  • Support career placement and participate in student events

The advisory board meets twice a year, usually in October and May, on the UIC campus.

Advisory Board Members Heading link

Chair: Jeffrey Niew, BS ’88
President and CEO, Knowles Corporation

Prakash C. Agarwal, BS ’76, MS ’78
President, CEO, and Co-Founder, m2i International

Stuart M. Bailey, BS ’94
Co-Founder and Chief AI Architect, ModelOp

Prith Banerjee, MS ’83 (UIUC), PhD ’85 (UIUC)
CTO, ANSYS, Inc.

Mostafa A. Beik
Managing Director, Art Nouveau Ventures, LLC

Christopher B. Burke
President and CEO, Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd.

Mihai Caratas, MBA ’98
Manager, Project Management, Global Engineering Services, Tech Center of Excellence, Abbott Laboratories

Sunil S. Gaitonde
Founder and CEO, GS Lab

Michael H. Goluszka, BS ’74
Vice President, Manufacturing, La-Co Industries, Inc.

Scot Greenlee
Senior Vice President, Engineering and Technical Services, Exelon Nuclear Generation

Laurence “Larry” Hayward
BS ’90, MBA ’91 (UIUC)
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
ATOMS VC
Independence Equity
Founder and Managing Partner
VentureLab
Co-founder
Cornerstone Angels

David W. Heinzmann
President and CEO, Littelfuse, Inc.

Fred Hoch
Founder and General Partner, TechNexus Venture Collaborative; Executive Chairman, Illinois Technology Association

Erin M. Inman
President and CEO, Primera Engineers Ltd.

Kennary Jangla, MS ’07
Engineering Manager, Facebook

Anne Marie Johlie, MS ’93
Head of IoT and Connected Products
Parker Hannifin
Motion Systems Group
Electronic Motion & Control Division

John J. Just, BS ’83
Director, Illinois Budgets, Peoples Gas

Bruce Kannry
CEO, NVISIA

Muthiah K. Kasi
Chairman Emeritus, Alfred Benesch & Company

Cezar Kolodziej, PhD ’97
CEO, Drivebox Automation

Shaun Lovick
President, NVISIA

Ann Madea, BS ’88
CIO and Global Transformation Executive

John E. Major, MS ’82
President & Founder, MTSG; Immediate Past UIC Engineering Advisory Board Chair

Mitrankur Majumdar
Vice President and Regional Head – Services Americas, Infosys Limited

Adam McElhinney, MS ’13
Chief Data Science Officer, Paylocity

Thomas J. Meehan, BS ’99
Senior Vice President, Sargent & Lundy, LLC

Samantha Melchiori, BS ’05, MS ’20
Global Marketing Manager, Cat Solutions at Caterpillar, Inc. 

Sheila A. Mikhail, BS ’88(UIUC)
Co-Founder and CEO, Bamboo Therapeutics, Inc.

Rafiq R. Mohammadi, BS ’83, MS ’95
CTO and Senior VP, Engineering, iManage Incorporated

David A. Neumann
CEO, PCTEL, Inc.

Patrick J. O’Donnell, BS ’83
Strategic Advisor, OCA Ventures

Yusuf Ozturk
CTO, Rand McNally

Jake Pepper
Executive Vice President
Pepper Construction Company

David R. Perez, BS ’95
Vice President, Transmission & Substation, ComEd

Mark T. Peters
Executive Vice President for Laboratory Operations
Battelle

Jose M. Rodriguez
Director, Regional Engineering Americas, Global Project Management, Global Engineering Services, Abbott Laboratories

Ulku Rowe, MS ’97 (UIUC)
Technical Director, Financial Services, Google Cloud\

Ali Shadman
Managing Director, JK&B Capital

Thao Tang
Senior Director of Engineering, Motorola Solutions

Raj Tank
Managing Principal, Arvidion Corporation

Valerie E. Taylor
Division Director, Mathematics and Computer Science, Argonne National Laboratory

Marshall Towe
Founder and Former CEO, Cascadiant, Inc.

William D. Unger, BA ’71
Partner Emeritus, Mayfield

Peter L. Wexler, MS ’81
Co-Founder, SpiderCloud Wireless, Inc.

William O.  White
Vice President, Advanced Technology, USG Building Systems

Matt Zamborsky
VP of Engineering
NuCurrent

Jenny Zhao, BS ’88
Self-Employed Advisor and Coach

*denotes Advisory Board members who are alumni of either UIC or UIUC.

  • Jacob Babcock
  • Joseph B. Barrett
  • Hardik Bhatt
  • John L. Blumenshine *
  • Dennis Demoss *
  • Michael F. DeSantiago *
  • Andy Dunham
  • Arup Gupta
  • Robert Hamilton
  • Phil Hanegraaf
  • John F. Hardin *
  • Robert Hauck
  • Richard S. Hill *
  • Michael R. Just *
  • Audrone Karalius
  • Tony Kobrinetz *
  • Sujatha Karoor
  • Norman N. Li
  • Anila Lingamneni
  • Ying Cheng Lo
  • Lee Makowski
  • Maryann McNally
  • Jeffrey T. Miller
  • Amreesh Modi
  • William E. Morrow
  • Joseph P. Mulvey *
  • Glenn E. Neland *
  • Kenneth E. Nelson *
  • Diane O’Keefe
  • Ralph Pini
  • John Regan *
  • A.V. Setlur
  • Martin H. Singer
  • Stewart A. Skomra
  • Mark P. Slivinski *
  • Rick Stevens
  • Jyoti Mahurkar Thombre *
  • Sunil Velagapudi *
  • Bruce S. Widmann
  • David Zavattero