Joan E. Steel, Trustee, Loyola University Chicago; Founder & Managing Principal, Alpha Wealth Advisors

Ms. Steel is a financial wealth consultant well-known for her sound business judgment, deep technical knowledge base and collaborative problem solving skills. She founded Alpha Wealth Advisors, LLC in 2009 to provide independent investment consulting and customized financial solutions for CEOs, family offices, and private foundations.  Prior to founding her firm, Ms. Steel was a senior vice-president with the global asset management firm, the Capital Group in Private Client Services.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Steel was a senior executive team at Aon Corporation (NYSE: AON) where she founded and led investor and media relations and managed global branding and marketing. She was also Aon's global spokesperson to Wall Street and the press. Prior to joining Aon, Ms. Steel was a senior executive in her family’s water treatment chemical manufacturing and distribution company. She began her career on Wall Street as an institutional fixed-income broker for Salomon Brothers and then moved to co-found and head E.F. Hutton’s global money market group.

Ms. Steel has a track record of private company and nonprofit board leadership with audit, risk management, governance and investment committee experience. She is a non-executive director and member of the Audit and Investment Committees of the Hershey Trust Company, a $12 billion private company with controlling interests in the Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY.) She serves as a dual director serving on the Milton Hershey School’s board of managers. She is also a Trustee of Loyola University Chicago and Chairs the Investment Policy Committee, a trustee of Rush University Medical Center, and Director and Treasurer of the Cuneo Foundation.

She holds a University of Chicago MBA and her BS from Georgetown University and has completed continuing education programs at Harvard Business School and Stanford Law School’s Directors College.