Gerald Chan
Honorary Doctor of Health Physics, honoris causa
Gerald Chan is a scientist by training who has helped to forge positive change across medicine and health care through technology.
Chan is a co-founder of Morningside, a venture investment enterprise that works with technology-based startups. Working with academic scientists, he has started more than two dozen biotech companies across diverse therapeutic areas. As a result of this pioneering work, some of these biotech companies have created entirely new fields of medicine, addressing diseases arising from mitochondrial dysfunction, defects in the innate immune system, and autoimmunity.
He has also pioneered ventures in health care delivery, launching a number of companies that use artificial intelligence to improve the quality and accessibility of health care. These companies include Linus Health, which uses AI to assess cognitive impairment in patients at risk for dementia. Cognoa utilizes AI to render fast and accurate diagnosis for patients on the autism spectrum. Lastly, Ieso uses AI agents for cognitive behavioral therapy.
Because of his leadership in the biotech industry, Chan serves as the chairman of NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company Apellis Pharmaceuticals. He also serves on the boards of several privately held biotech companies.
Outside his work in biotech and health care, Chan is a trustee of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and a member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. He also chairs the Advisory Committee of Emory University’s Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine and served as a previous chair of the Innovation Advisory Committee of the Wellcome Trust in London.
Chan received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering from UCLA, as well as his master’s degree in medical radiological physics, and a Doctor of Science degree in radiation biology from Harvard University. He received his postdoctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Chan has also received seven honorary degrees conferred by universities in the United Kingdom, United States, and Hong Kong. Additionally, in 2017 he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2019 he gave the Andrew Carnegie Lecture at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and he held a fellowship at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College.
Manny Maceda (CHE ’84)
Honorary Doctor of Management, honoris causa
Manny Maceda is a culture-setting leader who has helped lead one of the “Big Three” global management consultancies through an era of accelerated growth.
Maceda began his unique path to leading a world-renowned management consultancy firm after graduating from Illinois Tech with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He worked for a short time in industry before attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, where he earned an M.S. in management. Upon graduation from MIT, he joined Bain & Company in 1989—and he has served at the firm ever since.
Throughout his more than 35 years at Bain, Maceda has advised global CEOs across industries, with a specific focus on enterprise-wide transformations that involve strategy, growth, cost reduction, performance improvement, and organizational effectiveness. He has held a multitude of senior leadership roles. These include chairman of the Asia-Pacific region, global leader of the Transformation and Performance Improvement practices, and as a member of the firm’s Management, Nominating, and Global Operating committees.
In 2018 Maceda’s career-long record of culture building and achievement led him to be promoted to worldwide managing partner and CEO, a role that he served in until 2024. In his time leading the firm, Maceda helped Bain double in size, embedded the firm with advanced digital and technology capabilities, and completed more than 20 strategic transactions. Maceda helped to drive those successes while also continuing to develop and nurture Bain’s long-lasting and distinctive culture. The firm has regularly been ranked #1 on Glassdoor’s list of Best Places to Work, and in 2024, it was named #1 on Glassdoor’s inaugural list of Best Led Companies in the U.S.
As an established management consultancy leader, Maceda has brought his expertise and insight to the Board of Directors for the Bridgespan Group and to the North American Advisory Board at the Sloan School of Management. He has also served as a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and for the U.S. Business Roundtable. He is also a founding partner of the Asian American Foundation and the OneTen Initiative, and he has received an honorary degree from De La Salle University in the Philippines.
Earlier this year, Maceda was named chairman of Bain, a role that will allow him to continue to serve as an innovative management consultant and culture-setting leader.
Frank Naeymi-Rad (Ph.D. CS ’90)
Honorary Doctor of Computer Science, honoris causa
Frank Naeymi-Rad is a visionary leader in medical informatics who has transformed the accessibility of health technology across the country.
After receiving his Ph.D. in computer science from Illinois Tech in 1990, and later an M.B.A. from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science, Naeymi-Rad sought to combine his technical expertise with a strong business acumen. His strong belief that health technology can serve as a democratizing force became his motivation for creating new ways to reduce costs and expand global connectivity in health care.
Renowned for his contributions to electronic health records, clinical terminology, and artificial intelligence applications in health care, Naeymi-Rad has played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of health informatics. As the director of Leap of Faith Technologies, and co-founder of Intelligent Medical Objects, Naeymi-Rad ushered IMO into becoming the premier terminology vendor for electronic health records, which are now used by approximately 85 percent of physicians and nurses. His work with Leap of Faith Technologies includes launching a program with Illinois Tech for computer science students. The program provides students with real-world, hands-on digital health experience where they work to maximize artificial intelligence to help medical professionals better serve patients.
Naeymi-Rad also holds a distinguished career spanning academia, entrepreneurship, and research. He has authored more than 50 scientific publications and holds 11 patents related to health informatics and enterprise solutions. His work has focused on leveraging codified semantics and natural language processing to break down data silos, ultimately improving decision support and patient care.
Naeymi-Rad’s contributions to health informatics have made him a profound thought leader in the field. He has received high praise and recognition for his work, including receiving a nomination for the prestigious Oracle Corporation Smithsonian Award in Medicine. His passion for fostering innovation in medical informatics led to the launch of the AMIA Pitch IT competition, which encourages entrepreneurs to develop cutting-edge solutions for clinical workflows, decision support, and analytics.
A testament to his perseverance and dedication to the field, Naeymi-Rad is actively involved in numerous professional organizations. This includes serving on the advisory board of Suki, as well as on the Board of Directors for Adventist Health’s St. Helena Hospital Foundation and Washington University’s Brown School National Council. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the OLE Health Foundation, part of CommuniCare+OLE. He is also a member of the External Advisory Committee for the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University. In recognition of his vast contributions, he was inducted into the American College of Medical Informatics in 2018.
His unwavering commitment to bridging academic research with practical health care solutions continues to drive advancements in medical and biomedical informatics.
University Regent Ralph Wanger
Honorary Doctor of Management, honoris causa
Ralph Wanger is widely revered as one of the most successful and respected small-cap money managers in the United States. His triumphant career spans investment, finance, academia, energy and sustainability, philanthropy, and other areas.
Having earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wanger began his finance career as a securities analyst with Harris Associates in Chicago in 1960. From there, Wanger made the transition to portfolio manager of the new Acorn Fund in 1970. There his investing style of holding small companies with financial strength over the long term produced annualized returns of 16.3 percent with the fund between 1970 and 2003. This was the highest return of any mutual fund over that period.
During his time as portfolio manager, Wanger did a lift-out of the Acorn Management Company and launched his own firm, Wanger Asset Management, which was eventually sold to Columbia Funds in 2000. In 2003, Wanger retired from day-to-day investment management. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Money Management from Morningstar Mutual Funds as a result of his strategic and accomplished work during his career. He is now the owner of RW Investments, which has managed his personal investments since 2008.
In addition to his successful career in investment management, Wanger channeled his years of experience and expertise and authored his first book, A Zebra in Lion Country: Ralph Wanger's Guide to Investment Survival, in 1997. His book details the principles of investing in small, rapidly growing companies whose stocks will yield well-above-average returns. Wanger received recognition as the “dean” of small-cap investing by Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report due to the book’s success.
Wanger has also been a champion for Illinois Tech. This includes roles on the Board of Trustees, where he is a current member of the Board Chair Executive Council and the Investment Committee. He also has served as co-chair of the board’s Advancement Committee and as a past member of the Executive Committee. In 2014, the university recognized his dedication by making him a University Regent.
Additionally, he is the founding donor of the Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (known as WISER). Launched in 2007 to improve our quality of life and preserve the world’s natural resources, WISER creates important learning opportunities for students and faculty from across academic disciplines. As a result of Wanger’s support and contributions to WISER, Illinois Tech was able to secure additional tens of millions of dollars for student and faculty research in clean coal technology, hybrid vehicles, wind energy, and smart electric grids. He continues to serve as chair of WISER’s Board of Advisors.
In addition, as a founding member of Illinois Tech’s Mies van der Rohe Society, Wanger has supported building preservation and restoration projects and has contributed to many other strategic, energy, and research initiatives at the university.
Wanger and his family are members of Illinois Tech’s Philip Danforth Armour Society, which recognizes donors who have given $1 million or more to Illinois Tech, and they are recognized at the $10 million-plus level. He was the 2011 recipient of the Illinois Tech Alumni Association’s Galvin Award, which is given to the university’s most generous non-alumni benefactors, in recognition of his philanthropic support.