MARILYNN KELLY GARDNER - President & CEO, Navy Pier

Marilynn Kelly Gardner is a visionary, strategist and passionate advocate for Chicago. As President and CEO of Navy Pier, one of the Midwest’s top-attended cultural destinations and leading mission-driven institutions, Gardner continues to build on her reputation as one of the region’s most respected leaders.<br /><br />Appointed to her current role in 2011, Gardner has been the driving force behind transforming the Pier’s 50 acres of premier waterfront space into the multifaceted cultural destination it is today. Her stewardship has inspired nearly $380 million of philanthropic and private capital investment in Navy Pier’s current redevelopment. Since construction began in fall 2013, Gardner has overseen every aspect of the effort—from design and redevelopment to programming and fundraising. For Gardner, impactful endeavors—like programmatic partnerships, the Community Rides program, and the Pier’s first employer initiative, to name just a few—are essential to positioning the Pier in its second century. <br /><br />Gardner has spent the better part of two decades establishing Navy Pier as one of the top-attended destinations in the Midwest, typically welcoming nearly 9 million annual guests. To ensure the future vitality and growth of the People’s Pier, Gardner led efforts to secure several multi-million-dollar gifts from prominent private and corporate donors. In 2014, Navy Pier received a historic $20 million legacy gift from the Polk family through their Foundation, the Pier’s single largest private gift. These funds were essential to revitalizing the Pier’s entrance, now Polk Bros Park, complete with an interactive fountain and two performance lawns making the Pier one of the most highly sought-after venues for arts and culture in Chicago. In 2015, under her leadership, Navy Pier secured a multi-year, multi-million gift from the Aon Corporation to underwrite the Pier’s summer firework series and Grand Ballroom, further establishing Navy Pier as a world-class programmatic destination. In 2018, two further mul