Leadership

Lee Allison, Co-Chair

Since 1995, Lee Allison has been the owner of Lee Allison Company, a manufacturer of handmade silk neckties, cotton dress shirts and men’s formal accessories. Known for its sly sense of humor as well as the beauty of its products, the company wholesales to better retailers throughout the country, and also sells directly to consumers through its catalogue and website. In 2000, leeallison.com was named one of the “Best of the Web” by Forbes magazine. Lee and his collection have also been featured in numerous national publications, including The New York Times, GQ, In Style, Playboy, United Airlines’s Hemispheres and Men’s Vogue. Ties from the collection have adorned various celebrities including Kevin Spacey, Conan O’Brien, Pierce Brosnan, Drew Carey and countless news anchors. Lee was also selected by MR Magazine (a menswear trade publication) as “One of the Seven Sexiest Men in Menswear.” (He notes that this was several years ago, before his hair turned gray.)

Before launching his eponymous company, Lee worked as a free-lance copywriter, before that, at The Leo Burnett Company as both an account manager and a copywriter, and before that, as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Lee has a BA from Williams College (1982), and an MBA from the Harvard Business School (1988). Mr. Allison was born in, and lived in, Connecticut all of his years before college. He moved to Chicago in 1988 after business school, planning to stay for just a few years. Nearly 20 years later, he’s still here.

Jason Felger, Co-chair

Jason Felger is the executive vice president of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and oversees day-to-day operations, delivery and strategic direction of client services and the growth of the organization. This includes: oversight of the organizations grants and sponsorships; delivery of advisory services and capacity building programs; and management of the CEC’s grant programs. Additionally, Jason has operational and financial oversight for the Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund, a $10 million seed-stage venture capital fund administered by the CEC.

Jason continues to counsel clients in the areas of debt and equity financing and sales strategies specifically in the retail, fashion, food service and real estate industries. In addition, he developed and launched the programs and services of the CEC’s Stitches Fashion Program.

Prior to the CEC Jason was brand manager at Parker LePla a Seattle-based brand and marketing communication agency servicing technology companies during product development and launch. Before Parker LePla Jason was a product manager with Newark Electronics, an international distributor of electronic components, where he managed functional areas of product lines including, sales and pricing strategies, product selection and vendor relations for the connector and equipment testing divisions.

Jason continues to be involved in Chicago community by participating with organizations and initiatives such as Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance, Chicago Fashion Focus, and Private Equity CFO Association. In addition, Jason currently sits on the board of Columbia College’s Fashion & Retail Management School, City of Chicago Mayor’s Fashion Advisory Council, the Illinois Small Business Development Association and is the Treasurer for Chicago Professionals for Youth.

Jason is a graduate of DePaul University and lives in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago.