Chief Operating Officer and President, Social Enterprises

North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN), an innovative economic justice nonprofit based in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, seeks a relational, strategic, and entrepreneurial leader to be its inaugural Chief Operating Officer (COO) and President of its Social Enterprises. The COO & President will join an organization that has distinguished itself as a nationally recognized workforce development and social enterprise trailblazer and a force for economic advancement and improved quality of life for residents in North Lawndale and beyond. It is an exciting moment at NLEN as the organization prepares to significantly expand its reach and scale its impact.

NLEN recently celebrated 25 years of transformative service to community members who are unemployed, formerly incarcerated, asset-limited, and/or income-constrained. The organization assists these individuals in securing employment and developing the skills to successfully navigate the job market, maintain fulfilling long-term employment, achieve educational ambitions, and build household wealth. NLEN empowers low-income job seekers with access to financial tools, digital literacy, and other supports, and partners with employers in recruiting and retaining employees. In 2024, NLEN served 1,642 clients, offered 921 financial services and workshops, and hired 40 transitional workers. Three out of five clients increased their monthly income, net worth, and FICO score. NLEN has an FY25 operating budget of $7.5 million and 46 permanent employees, more than 20 percent of whom are NLEN program graduates.

Of fundamental strategic importance to NLEN’s mission are its groundbreaking Social Enterprises, Sweet Beginnings, LLC, and the beelove® café. Sweet Beginnings is a wholly owned subsidiary of NLEN offering full-time transitional jobs to citizens returning from incarceration who face barriers to employment. Sweet Beginnings manages apiaries (bee farms) throughout Chicagoland, produces honey for consumption, and manufactures and sells all-natural honey-based skincare products. Sweet Beginnings honey is an essential ingredient at the beelove® café, opened at NLEN’s headquarters in 2021. The café has become a cherished community hub, providing a friendly gathering space and critical work opportunities to transitional employees. In 2024, NLEN’s Social Enterprises employed 12 participants.

The COO & President will report to and work closely with NLEN’s dynamic President and Chief Executive Officer, who also serves as the CEO of the Social Enterprises, to achieve a thriving and sustainable organizational structure and realize maximum impact and profitability for the Social Enterprises. The COO & President will lead daily operations, develop systems to mature administrative functions, and introduce critical efficiencies. They will nurture strong and reliable teams, build more robust and efficient cross-team collaboration, and cultivate a culture of performance, accountability, and community care. 

The COO & President will be energized by the prospect of investing in and expanding the scope and scale of the Social Enterprises, attending equally to each element of its “triple bottom line:” excellent outcomes for participants, community economic revitalization, and high-quality production. The ideal candidate will bring exceptional organizational management and development skills, an enterprising approach, and a history of honoring diverse lived experiences and empowering people, especially those who are low-income and have been impacted by the carceral system.

EMPLOYMENT DETAILS

Salary Range: $240,000-$260,000

Location: Residing within a daily commutable distance of NLEN’s headquarters in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago is required.

APPLICATIONS, INQUIRIES, AND NOMINATIONS

All nominations, inquiries, and applications (including a resume and a letter of interest responding to the objectives outlined in the full position profile) should be directed in strict confidence to the search team below. Applications will be reviewed as they are submitted. For additional information about NLEN, please refer to the full position profile and its appendix.

Jeff Kessner is leading this search with Tatiana Oberkoetter.



NLEN CORE VALUES

Neighborhood-focused employment initiatives are fundamental.

Successful programs are neighborhood-focused and community-driven so they meet the specific needs of individuals.

Quality of work matters.

People who work hard should not be poor. A full-time job must meet basic needs and offer conditions for engagement, advancement, and respect.

Economic mobility is essential to reducing poverty.

Family support and financial literacy are core to addressing economic insecurity, which disproportionally affects African American, Latino, and other families of color. Economic insecurity is not only impacting the poor; it has grown to threaten the middle class. Self-employment and entrepreneurship are critically important economic mobility strategies to generate income and boost household finances.

We must address the racial wealth gap and social inequality.

The United States’ history of racially charged public policy has created the modern racial wealth divide not just through the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, but through the more recent race-based discrimination in hiring, housing subsidies, tax subsidies, and veteran benefits as well as other implicitly and explicitly racist public policies.

Everyone deserves human dignity and empowerment.

To uphold this belief, we do all of our work in a manner that values human dignity and eliminates shame, humiliation, and stigma by building on the strengths that help our participants and community survive loss and trauma and rebalance the power dynamic between participants and authority figures.