Jessica Andujar-Redman is Executive Vice President of Business Development at World Business Chicago, where she leads corporate attraction, retention and expansion efforts across Chicago and the broader region. Her work sits at the intersection of business, public policy and capital formation, with a focus on how public and private investment can support economic growth, infrastructure and stronger communities.

Before joining World Business Chicago, Jessica spent 17 years in commercial banking, most recently at Fifth Third Bank, where she led teams serving nonprofit, government and for-profit commercial clients. Her experience includes structuring financing for complex economic development projects and working across public, private and nonprofit stakeholders to advance investment.
 
Jessica serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Planning Council and Casa Central and is a 2023 Leadership Greater Chicago Signature Fellow. She holds an MBA from DePaul University, a BBA in Finance and Economics from Loyola University Chicago, and an associate degree from College of DuPage. 

Squire Patton Boggs is one of the world’s leading full-service law firms, operating at the intersection of law, business, and public policy. With more than 40 offices across four continents, the firm combines deep local insight with global reach to help clients navigate complex legal, regulatory, and commercial challenges. Founded in 1886, Squire Patton Boggs serves a diverse client base ranging from Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 companies to local and national governments, public agencies, and growing enterprises with practical, business-focused counsel across a full spectrum of legal disciplines. Through innovation, collaboration, and industry knowledge, the firm delivers strategic solutions that help clients manage risk, seize opportunities, and achieve lasting success.

Barnes & Thornburg operates 26 offices across the United States, enabling more than 900 lawyers to serve clients nationwide. As one of the 100 largest law firms in the country, we provide seamless coast-to-coast coverage for high-stakes litigation, complex transactions and innovative IP matters. Barnes and Thornburg has one of the country’s leading public finance practices, with the issuance of more than $1 trillion of tax-exempt obligations nationwide. We advise a broad range of public and private participants in public finance transactions, including governmental and quasi-governmental entities, education and institutional clients, and organizations in healthcare, housing and community services.

Katten is a full-service law firm with approximately 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm’s core areas of practice include corporate, financial markets and funds, health care, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, restructuring, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, private credit and private wealth. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals.

Michael Babcock is the Assistant Director of Capital Markets for the Illinois Housing Development Authority where he oversees all debt financing for the Authority. In his role, he has overseen more than $6 billion in bond issuances over the last five years for both multifamily and single-family programs. During his tenure, Illinois has implemented a volume cap recycling program, as well as dynamically structured best execution for leveraging MBS through taxable and tax-exempt bond issuances. Michael has worked in a variety of roles at the Authority over the last eight years, with five years in Capital Markets. Michael has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin Madison and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Basefund is the leading platform to secure and insure institutional money movement. Having protected over $60B in transactions, the platform gives issuers, trustees, underwriters and their counterparties a verified channel for high-value transactions. Basefund validates payment instructions and protects wire transfers against fraud, misdirection and human error; shifting liability away from participants and allowing coordinators to satisfy their regulatory and professional obligations.

Ashlee B. Gabrysch is the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Chicago. She brings over nineteen years of professional experience and twelve years of public finance expertise spanning credit analysis, fiscal management, and organizational leadership across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.

Prior to joining the City, Gabrysch served as Senior Director and Mid-Central Region Manager at Fitch Ratings, where she led a regional analytical team covering local and state government credits across a $50 billion portfolio. She previously served as Deputy Director of Secure Choice at the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office, as a Financial Research Analyst at the Cook County Office of the Chief Financial Officer, and as a Senior Research Associate at The Civic Federation.

Gabrysch held a Master of Public Policy with Distinction from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, where she was a full tuition Dean’s Scholar, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from the University of Chicago.

She was recognized with the C.C. DuBois Alumni Service Award from the University of Chicago Harris School in 2025, the Bond Buyer Rising Star Award in 2023, and the Global Fitch ACE Award in 2023. She served as Global Chair of the Fitch Women’s Network, leading a 1,400 member organization across 18 cities and 6 continents.

Gabrysch serves on the boards of the Chicago Summer Business Institute and the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, and teaches at the Municipal Bond Club of Chicago’s Bond School.

Samadhi Asnes is a Vice President in RBC’s Energy & Infrastructure Solutions Group, a component of the firm’s municipal finance investment banking division. Samadhi and her team are responsible for the execution of advisory and financing mandates for RBC’s not-for-profit and governmental clients across (1) DBFOM energy-as-a-service partnerships for combined heat and power facilities, distributed energy infrastructure, and other on-site generation technologies, and (2) real estate portfolio optimization strategies, including sale-leaseback transactions, capital-to-lease structures, and other balance sheet management solutions. Samadhi is based in New York City.

Jacob (Jake) Bissell is the Sr. Director of the Integrated System Planning at CPS Energy, the  nation’s largest municipally owned gas and electric utility. 

Jake is a registered Professional Engineer in Texas and joined CPS Energy in 2007. He spent the  first 10 years of his career at CPS Energy in the Power Generation business unit, supporting new construction, operations, and major maintenance across the generation fleet. Since then, he has led teams in customer-facing and strategic development roles, including electrical distribution design & project management, Key Account Management, business development, and research & innovation. Now, Jake leads the Integrated System Planning team, which includes the Energy  Portfolio Analytics team and Large Load team. 

Jake is a native Texan and lives in San Antonio with his wife and two daughters. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and in  Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio.