Auditorium Theatre Board Of Directors Appoints New Members

The Auditorium Theatre's Board of Directors has appointed Gerry Barad, Patti S. Eylar, Roderick K. Hawkins, and Kevin Hoecker to the Board, and named Edward S. Weil, Jr. as its first-ever Life Director.

"We are thrilled to have Gerry, Patti, Roderick, and Kevin join us during our 130th anniversary season, and we are honored to have Edward S. Weil, Jr., the great-grandson of theatre architect Dankmar Adler, serve again on our Board as our first ever Life Director," says Ann Nash, Chair of the Auditorium Theatre Board of Directors. "These individuals bring a wealth of expertise from a variety of sectors, and they will be vital in helping us shape the next chapter in the Auditorium Theatre's story."

Gerry Barad is the Chief Operating Officer of Live Nation Global Touring, a division of Live Nation. He and his world-class team have promoted and produced some of the top-grossing tours of the last four decades with past and present clients including U2, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, and David Gilmour, who performed at the Auditorium in 2016. ­Prior to joining Live Nation, Barad was a founding partner of The Next Adventure and the vice president of client acquisition for tour merchandise company Brockum.

Patti S. Eylar is a co-director of Chicago Ballet Arts and a teacher at the Lou Conte Dance Studio. Eylar, who first moved to Chicago to dance under the direction of Maria Tallchief with the Lyric Opera Ballet (later the Chicago City Ballet), performed on the Auditorium Theatre stage countless times. She later danced with Ballet Chicago for many years under the direction of Daniel Duell. Eylar has supported multiple productions at the Auditorium, including Miami City Ballet, Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah, and the Bolshoi Ballet. Eylar also serves on the boards of The Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Dancers United, and See Chicago Dance, and she is the immediate past president of The Joffrey Ballet Women's Board. In 2019, Eylar and her husband Charlie Gardner received the Adler & Sullivan Award for their dedication to the Auditorium Theatre.

Roderick K. Hawkins is the Communications Director at Advance Illinois, an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward strengthening the public education system. He leads all communications, marketing, and media outreach strategies for the nationally-recognized public education organization. Before joining Advance Illinois, Hawkins served as Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Engagement. In that role, he led the Mayor's Office of Public Engagement and acted as a key advisor on neighborhood investment, community relations, and stakeholder engagement, with an intentional focus on historically underserved communities. Hawkins also serves on the national Board of Directors for Lambda Legal, the nation's largest legal organization serving the LGBTQ+ community, the iHEARTMedia Chicago Local Advisory Board, and the OUT at Chicago History Museum committee. In 2018, he was recognized as one of Chicago's notable LGBTQ executives by Crain's Chicago Business.

Kevin Hoecker is a Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities, where he leads the firm's Public Finance Investment Banking Midwest Region and Structured Finance Group. He manages and oversees the Investment Banking efforts across 14 states and provides strategic financing solutions to state and city governments, higher education institutions, and other organizations. He joined Wells Fargo in 2018 after working at such companies as RBC Capital Markets and JPMorgan Securities. He resides in the Chicago suburbs with his wife and three children, currently serves on the board of the Civic Federation, and is actively involved with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, among other charitable organizations.

Edward S. Weil, Jr. is currently the longest-serving Board member of the Auditorium Theatre's Board of Directors, as well as a past Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board. Weil is a retired executive from the power electronics and energy conversion business. He and his wife Dia S. Weil provided major support for the Auditorium Theatre's Adler Room donor lounge, the Devil's Ball, and the 125th anniversary season. He is a proud descendant of Dankmar Adler, the primary engineer of the Auditorium Theatre. Weil was the inaugural recipient of the Auditorium Theatre's Adler & Sullivan Award.

For more information about the Auditorium Theatre's Board of Directors, visit AuditoriumTheatre.org.