LinkedIn Nearly Overlooks Chicago In New List Of Young Innovators
By Kate Shepherd in News on Sep 9, 2015 6:31PM
via LuminAID
There's yet another list honoring influential young professionals—150 under 35, this time—and only one of them is from Chicago.
Chicagoan Anna Stork, 29, has been recognized by LinkedIn as one of the "the next generation of business luminaries" under 35. The co-founder of clean energy startup LuminAID was the only Chicago resident selected for LinkedIn's inaugural class of 150 "Next Wave" professionals. The networking site will release a new list of people selected from their membership through a combination of opinion and algorithms each quarter. The criteria includes recommendations from about 500 of its LinkedIn influencers, site data, such as profile views and media appearances, and editor insights.
Chicago-based LuminAID designs and sells inflatable solar lights, which can last up to 30 hours after being charged in direct sun. They have been used after disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, Typhoon Haiyan and the Nepal earthquakes. Hikers and campers also use the lights in remote areas.
Following the footsteps of other startups like Toms Shoes and Warby Parker, LuminAID has a buy one, give one program which has distributed more than 12,000 lights in 50 countries to people in need of a safer and cleaner source of light. Stork and her co-founder Andrea Sreshta previously appeared on ABC's "Shark Tank" where they sealed a $200,000 deal with Mark Cuban.
The list, as we might have predicted, is very centered on San Francisco—to a degree that had us rolling our eyes and bristling a bit with second-city pride.
And while LinkedIn makes few attempts to mitigate the critique of lists like these for routinely overlooking the Midwest—and anywhere else outside a few select coastal cities—a few professionals between the coasts were recognized for their work. They include:
-We are the Protestors activist and organizer Deray McKesson (Minneapolis)
-Genscape oil markets and business development analyst Hillary Stevenson (Louisville, Ky.) -General Motors Director of Global Media Strategy & Entertainment Jonathan Halvorson (Detroit)
-Pizzeria Locale Operations Director Chris Donato (Denver)
-Ford Motor Company Lincoln Interaction & Ergonomics Supervisor Cary Diehl (Detroit)
-General Motors Ventures Investment Manager Alisyn Malek (Detroit)
-Walmart Director of Health Services Strategy and Operations Ben Wanamaker (Bentonville, Ark.)