Our
Team

Chris is the founder and CEO of Great Lakes Advisory.

Chris began his career at Northern Trust working on an investment team within Northern Trust Wealth Management. During Chris’ tenure at Northern Trust, he managed over $85 million of client assets and provided holistic wealth management solutions for high net worth individuals and families.

Prior to launching Great Lakes Advisory, Chris was the Director of Finance and Operations at Harmony Center for Surgery of the Ears, Nose, and Throat. As the Director of Finance and Operations, Chris’ responsibilities included consulting on daily business operations, building process playbooks, streamlining workflows, strategic planning, improving patient satisfaction, growing practice visibility within the metro Detroit area, and assisting in human resources.

Chris shares a passion for operations, processes, finance, investments, and working with people. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Marquette University. He has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation.

Outside of work, Chris loves spending time with his wonderful wife, Courtney, Australian Shepherd, Igor, and their families and friends. He is an avid golfer and enjoys running, cycling, and CrossFit.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

CFA Society of Chicago – Member

Entrepreneurs’ Organization Accelerator Program – Member
BNI Chicago Referral Exchange – Member

Emily is a Process & Training Lead at Great Lakes Advisory.

At the beginning of her career, Emily managed the top team of representatives providing stellar customer service at Great Southern Bank. While at Great Southern, Emily and her team were responsible for streamlining processes to help the bank reach its full potential. By the time she left, she had helped grow the company by more than $1.5 billion.

Emily’s shining accomplishment at Great Southern was revamping and rebuilding the Training & Development Department. Her responsibilities included consulting with department heads to determine pain points, discussing processes and procedures with key employees, and documenting the information in an enriching and engaging way while still exceeding all compliance requirements.

Emily enjoys finding ways to streamline processes and make businesses more efficient and profitable. Emily holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Purdue University and has earned the privilege of the Project Management Professional (PMP) designation.

When she isn’t working, Emily enjoys spending time with her husband and children. They can often be found taking long road trips around the country or building one of their many Lego sets.

Chelsee is the Chief of Staff at Great Lakes Advisory.

Chelsee began her career at 3PM China Manufacturing, working as the Office Manager and assistant to the Chief Creative Officer. While there, she managed the sales associates and the creative department team, working alongside the main offices in Hong Kong and Amsterdam.

Furthering her career after 3PM, Chelsee worked as an Executive Assistant for a financial advisory firm and an HVAC company. This combined experience lead her to become an entrepreneur, starting her business in 2019. Running Chelsee Lee Virtual Assistant, allowed her the opportunity to expand her knowledge and work with multiple business coaches, social media managers, and marketers to help manage their businesses more efficiently. Working as an entrepreneur gave Chelsee experience working with multiple clients, new business management applications, and better business practices. She was able to share the knowledge she possesses to grow their social media presence, build workflows and allow her clients to spend less time working within their business. This helped to shift the business owners’ time into growing their own business ventures.

Chelsee excels at helping businesses thrive and keeping their administrative tasks in order. She is always striving to find innovative ways to streamline internal processes and ensure employee satisfaction. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Ashford University.

In Chelsee’s free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, children, and 2 dogs. She also loves to read and host weekly game nights with friends.