CHICAGO, IL, September 10, 2026 — The Executives’ Club of Chicago today announced an expanded commitment to Learning & Development, growing its portfolio of programs designed to help leaders develop and advance throughout all phases and stages of their careers.
Today’s leaders are navigating increasingly greater complexity, guiding teams through constant change, and building capabilities that didn’t exist when they began their careers. Insight alone is no longer enough: leaders need structured, real-world experiences that let them immediately apply what they learn, strengthen their judgment, and build the confidence to lead through uncertainty.
This expansion reflects the Club’s evolution into a more integrated leadership platform — one that brings together insight, learning, and community to help leaders become more capable, connected, and adaptable. By embedding development within Chicago’s business community, the Club connects actionable earning to the people, perspectives, challenges, and opportunities shaping business in real time.
“Chicago’s leaders have always shaped what comes next — for their organizations, for this region, and for the world,” said Dorri McWhorter, President and CEO, The Executives’ Club of Chicago. “Investing in Learning & Development is how we ensure they’re ready to keep leading through change and not just reacting to it. As leadership skills increasingly becomes a key differentiator, the Club’s role is to make sure leaders continue to have the capabilities, relationships, and perspectives to define what Chicago’s business community becomes.”
As part of that commitment, the Club has appointed Rita Armiras as Head of Learning & Development, who is focused on shaping and growing the Club’s learning portfolio. Armiras brings deep expertise in leadership and executive development, most recently serving in Executive Education at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She leads the continued expansion of a learning portfolio designed to develop and advance leaders throughout their careers — building capabilities, confidence, and connections they need to grow as leaders, navigating what’s changing, and shape what comes next.
Under this expanded approach, the Club’s Learning & Development portfolio is structured around how professionals actually grow — meeting leaders where they are and building experiences around what they need to develop and advance. Through cohort-based programs, workshops, intensives, executive coaching, and peer exchange, each offering is designed around measurable learning outcomes rather than topics alone. Competencies are aligned to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2030 framework, helping ensure participants build the skills organizations and leaders will need in the years ahead.
One example of this expanded approach is the Club’s Leadership Accelerator, a cohort-based development experience designed for emerging leaders and people managers ready to strengthen how they lead. The enhanced program launches September 25, 2026, with additional cohorts available for registration, and combines applied learning, executive coaching, peer connection, and real-world practice in either a four-month experience or an immersive one-week intensive. Both formats follow a four-phase learning arc — Lead the Business, Lead Yourself, Lead Others, and Lead Teams — helping participants build capabilities they can immediately apply while creating a 90-Day Leadership Action Plan to continue their growth beyond the program.
“Leaders should have opportunities for more than a single moment of development, and the Club can offer learning that keeps pace with them at every stage of their career,” said Brandon Austin, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer. “With new leadership, an expanding portfolio, and new learning experiences, we’re positioning Learning & Development to become a more meaningful part of how the Club develops and advances leaders — connecting what they learn with the insights, relationships, and opportunities that help them move forward.”
Learning & Development is one part of the Club’s broader leadership platform designed to develop and advance leaders throughout their careers. By bringing together Insight, Learning, and Community, the Club is creating more connected ways for leaders to understand what’s changing, build the capabilities to respond, strengthen the relationships that move them forward, and pursue new opportunities for growth and advancement.
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About the Executives’ Club
As the region’s premier leadership organization, the Executives’ Club of Chicago connects and ignites leaders to advance business and humanity. For more than a century, the Club has served as a platform and resource for executives who want to build what’s next, make their mark, and move the world forward. For more information, visit executivesclub.org.
Media Contact
Katy Broom
Head of Brand Experience
Executives’ Club
kbroom@executivesclub.org
312-283-2197