The Executives' Club of Chicago's Annual Awards Recognizes OptionMonster for Technology, Discover Financial for Corporate Citizenship and Impact Engine for Innovation

CHICAGO, May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 16 The Executives' Club of Chicago will host their annual awards program honoring OptionMonster for excellence in technology, Discover Financial for corporate citizenship and Impact Engine for innovation.  More than 600 business leaders are expected to attend the luncheon at the Hilton Chicago.

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OptionMonster Holdings' Sanjib Sahoo was selected as the 2013 CIO of the Year award honoree, which is presented by The Executives' Club of Chicago, The Association of Information Technology Professionals and the Society of Information Management – Chicago.  OptionMonster Holdings, Inc. is the parent of tradeMONSTER, an online brokerage firm.

Sanjib was selected from a group of top IT executives from some of Chicagland's largest and most-recognized companies.  A panel of 13 judges reviewed nominations that were scored in 11 weighted categories, to determine the winner.  Sanjib received the highest scores in several categories including Leadership in Driving Business Value, Vision and Tactics and Managing the IT organization.

"This is a great honor that reflects on the whole of our truly world class technology team.  We have achieved huge successes using disruptive technologies to create a leading industry financial trading experience within a short time," said Sahoo.  "It has been a phenomenal experience building this team from the ground up to solve complex challenges and create competitive differentiation for our business."

Awarded since 2003, past CIO of the year honorees include technology leaders from Nalco, Loyola University, Boeing and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The inaugural Corporate Citizen of the Year, recognizing an individual or company for their outstanding contributions to the Chicagoland community, was awarded to Discover Financial for their Pathway to Financial Success financial literacy program.

The five-year, $10 million investment will train more than 1,000 teachers on how to teach about personal finance. It also comprises a dedicated personal finance course for Chicago Public School high school seniors—which will be implemented district wide, and an ultimate goal of reaching half a million students across the country by 2015.  It was also recognized at the White House Summit on Financial Literacy in May 2012.

Impact Engine – an accelerator supporting for-profit businesses that make the world a better place – was selected as the inaugural Chicago Innovator of the Year award honoree.

In addition to celebrating innovation, this award emphasizes and strengthens connections between emerging companies and the established business community, which is one of the primary objectives of the Executives' Club's Innovation Council.

"Impact Engine is honored to be named the inaugural winner of the Innovation Award by The Executives' Club of Chicago, an organization that understands the power of markets to address the challenges affecting Chicago and the world," said Co-Founder Jamie Jones.

"Impact Engine embodies this approach by creating a pipeline of entrepreneurs who are building companies that address today's societal and environmental challenges. Additionally, Impact Engine helps mobilize new capital into these areas by raising awareness among investors and showing that it's possible to generate financial returns and have positive impact."

Chicago Innovator of the Year finalists included Narrative Science - business analytics and data-driven communication firm - and LanzaTech, whose gas extraction technology converts waste gases into low carbon fuels.

Attendees will hear a keynote presentation from another company recognized for innovation, Ecolab. Company Chairman & CEO Doug Baker will speak about water scarcity and business risk.

Program sponsors include KPMG, Catamaran Corp., Motorola Solutions, and Schneider Electric – who are founding members of the Innovation Council.

Accenture, Astellas, BT, CDW, Mesirow Financial, Cisco, Discover Financial, Kemper, & William Blair are gold-level program sponsors.  

For more information or for tickets, visit http://centennial.executivesclub.org or call The Executives' Club at 312-263-3500.

Event Details: Thursday, May 16; Registration and Networking 11:30 am; Luncheon and Program: 12:00 – 1:30 pm, at the Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan.

About The Executives' Club of Chicago
One of the nation's oldest and most prestigious organizations, founded in 1911, the Club facilitates strategic relationship development, intellectual exchange and development of future leaders.  Through its Global Leaders, Women's Leadership, Chicago CEO Series and other programming, the Club brings together business, civic and academic leaders from all industries to discuss strategies that address challenges and opportunities affecting Chicago and the world.

SOURCE The Executives' Club of Chicago