Shannon McGhee

Shannon McGhee, Vice President of Programs and Engagement, leads programs and member success across the organization including curriculum, mentorship, member engagement, community engagement, and the Catalyze Initiative to reduce barriers to Hardtech entrepreneurship for historically underrepresented founders.

Shannon brings a human-centered approach to program design and delivery, rooted in equity and inclusion. At mHUB as Director of Community Impact and Engagement, she designed and launched and built a team around the Catalyze Initiative, an initiative encompassing four programs to rebalance opportunity and access in product innovation. Launched in 2022, the initiative has quickly become a central priority for mHUB – generating more than $2.6 million in multi-year support from individuals, public, and private funding. The initiative continues under her leadership and includes the mPOWER Program, Landis Family Hardtech Development Fellowship, the Equity in Innovation Scholarship Program, and granted and in-kind Community Partnerships. In this new team structure for the mHUB, members will see deeper integration across programs and expanded resources to improve outcomes for all members.

Prior to mHUB, Shannon spent her career developing grassroots and public information campaigns focused on healthcare, small business support and access to capital, and economic development in the private and nonprofit sectors. She was a part of the team who worked on the original vision and plan for mHUB at World Business Chicago, where she also managed marketing campaigns to drive inclusive economic growth, including 1000 Jobs for Chicagoland Manufacturing, Connect Chicago and SimpleGrowth (now part of Venturize). She re-joined the mHUB team in 2018 after time at public affairs firm Hawthorne Strategy Group, where she led work for clients including Small Business Majority, Chicago Children's Choir, Building Illinois Bioeconomy Consortium at Southern Illinois Edwardsville, and others.

Prior to that Shannon was at Fleishman Hillard, where she supported healthcare and corporate client teams including the Get Covered Illinois campaign out of the State of Illinois, Baxter, Abbott and Navistar.

A graduate of Butler University's School of Journalism (now College of Communications), Shannon was named to “Crain’s Notable Women in Manufacturing" in 2020 and “Crain’s Notable Executives in HR and DEI” in 2022. She is an appointed member of Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s Regional Economy Committee and serves on committees centered in equitable business support including GET Cities Chicago’s Tech Equity Working Group and Chicago Urban League’s NextONE Advisory Committee.