John Anderson is a seasoned business leader and board member with a unique combination of financial and human capital management skills. He is a leading expert in business strategy and performance alignment, as well as change management, leadership successions, and corporate governance. He has an extensive background as a board member as well as a retained independent adviser to corporate boards. He has more than 40 years of consulting experience in human resources, talent management/alignment, and leadership transitions.
John began his career with a tax specialty at Deloitte. He then joined Hewitt Associates and for the next 30 years held several senior leadership roles, including global practice leader of the firm’s Compensation & Talent consulting line of business. He served on Hewitt’s Executive Committee until the firm’s IPO in 2002. In 2010, he was a founding partner of Meridian Compensation Partners, formed from a business spun off from Hewitt. He retired in the fall of 2019.
He received his B.A. in Economics from the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences at Northwestern University, and then received his M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He is a Certified Public Accountant.
John is a member of the independent corporate board of Laughlin Constable Inc., a mid-size, privately-held advertising/marketing agency headquartered in Milwaukee. He also has extensive board leadership experience at non-profit organizations. He is a life trustee and the former chair of the board of trustees of Ravinia Festival Association in Highland Park, Illinois. He is a life trustee and was the former chair of the board at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago (Hyde Park). He was the founding chair of the board of directors of the Lake County (Illinois) Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Chicago Community Trust; and, he was a board member and former chair of the Boys & Girls Club of Lake County in North Chicago, Illinois. John is currently the Chairman of the Lake Forest Cemetery Commission. And, he is the current alumni regent at Northwestern University for the state of Arizona.
John is married to Megan Paynter Anderson, and the Andersons have homes in Scottsdale, Arizona (DC Ranch) and Lake Forest, Illinois. They have two grown children and five grandchildren.
