With nearly twenty years of experience developing and implementing innovative educational programs and leading large-scale operations that provide digital skills training, community-based learning, and educational advancement for children, families, and adults, Brian Bannon is a recognized leader in the government and nonprofit sectors, and has developed cross sector recognition as an innovator.

Since 2012, Brian has served as commissioner and chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Library (CPL). With a budget of $130 million annually, seventy-seven branches, two regional hubs, and a 750,000-square-foot central library, the CPL is one of the largest public library systems in the world.

Over his tenure, Bannon has built an executive team that has dramatically changed the library’s organizational direction and brought design thinking—specifically human-centered design—and experimentation front and center to the CPL’s programming and operations. This shift has created an environment that has enabled new programs to expand citywide and be replicated in other cities across the country. The key investments in talent, structure, and design have not only improved access to high-quality learning opportunities for Chicago residents, but they have built an entrepreneurial culture that supports innovation at all levels of the organization.

Bannon’s ability to foster a strong organizational culture is matched by his business savvy and heart for mission-driven results. His fierce dedication and focus on outcomes is evidenced by operational efficiencies, program growth, and impact. In the last four years, family summer program attendance has grown by 80 percent to 99,000 children. This attendance is linked to a 15 percent increase in reading and a 20 percent increase in math/science performance in school. By adding free personalized online homework assistance and expanding in-person homework help to all eighty locations, the CPL is now the largest provider of free homework help in Chicago. This expansion has led to 95,000 sessions and a 15 percent increase in attendance over four years. CPL delivers ten million items to customers through the eighty retail locations and through improvements in ordering, processing, distribution, and automation, materials transit time has been cut by 47 percent, and return on investment is more than $5 million annually.

These results have also incited new partnerships and investments from philanthropy, business community, researchers, and the social sector. With additional support at the state, federal, and local levels, combined with philanthropy, the new financial investments in the CPL have grown to over $70 million in four years.

Bannon also has received numerous accolades for this work. In 2016, he was named to Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” list. In 2015, Blue Sky Innovation, a publication of the Chicago Tribune, named him among Chicago’s top 100 innovators. Also in 2015, Newcity Lit named Bannon one of Chicago’s Lit 50, and he was awarded the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Washington Information School. In 2014 he was listed among Crain’s Chicago Business Tech 50.

Bannon’s board service includes READ Global, Illinois Humanities, Donors Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Libraries. Bannon has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences, including the LEGO Idea Conference, Aspen Ideas Festival, City Club of Chicago, Gates Foundation Global Libraries Summit, Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society, and South by Southwest.

Prior to working in Chicago, Bannon held leadership roles at the San Francisco Public Library, Seattle Public Library, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He received his bachelor of arts from Pacific Lutheran University and his master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Washington Information School.