About
Jim Kales is CEO of Aspire, a non-profit recognized throughout the Midwest as a leader in providing bold, pioneering and uncompromising services to kids and adults with developmental disabilities like autism and Down syndrome. Each year Aspire helps more than 1,000 kids and adults with disabilities and their families through its ground-breaking enterprises – Aspire Kids, Aspire Careers, Aspire Living and Aspire CoffeeWorks. Since Kales took the helm in 2007, Aspire’s private fundraising has doubled, helped by a strong emphasis on corporate partnerships. Aspire has embraced social entrepreneurship and social media, launching its own coffee company, Aspire CoffeeWorks. Aspire coffees are sold in all Chicagoland Whole Foods stores and numerous corporate offices and were featured nationally on TODAY. Prior to joining Aspire, Kales served as CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lake County where he helped forge mentoring partnerships with Fortune 500 companies such as Baxter, CDW, HSBC and Macy’s. Kales also served as the director of communications for the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. Kales graduated summa cum laude with honors from Bucknell University, and received his Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
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