Janet Zelenka

Janet is a Board member for public and private companies and most recently served as both CFO and CIO for Stericycle, a public company in the healthcare waste industry. She combines her collaborative and transparent leadership style with her unique synthesis of finance and IT expertise to drive shareholder value. She is an engaging and respected thought leader and speaker on profitability, cash generation, artificial intelligence, IT/data, and board governance. In 2023, she was named to 2023 Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Leaders in Finance List and was awarded the 2023 Bronze Stevie Award for Technology Executive of the Year. In 2022 Janet won the 2022 Chicago Enterprise CIO of the Year ORBIE Award, the Chicago SIM CIO+ of the Year Award and was a finalist for the Chicago FEI CFO Public Company Award.Janet currently serves as the Audit Committee Chair and a member of the Compensation Committee on the Board of Directors for U.S. Venture and IDEAL Industries, two large private companies. She was recently named to the Board of FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN). Janet previously served on the Board of Directors for Summit Electric. Janet is a former trustee of Rockford University’s Board of Trustees and remains a strong supporter of their Esports Team, leading to the dedication of the Zelenka Family Esports Center on campus in 2024. Janet served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Stericycle, Inc. (formerly Nasdaq: SRCL) from June 2019 until November 2024. She assumed the additional responsibilities of Chief Information Officer in June 2020. She was instrumental in leading the financial turnaround of the global services company with $2.7B revenue and ~13,500 employees as well as advancing the company’s technology-enabled transformation. Janet led the valuation, due diligence, and integration planning that contributed to the successful acquisition of Stericycle by WM (Waste Management) at the end of 2024.Before joining Stericycle, she spent 15 years with Essendant Inc., (aka United Stationers) a former Fortune 500 company, culminating through several promotions to become Chief Financial Officer until the company’s acquisition by Sycamore Partners. While at Essendant, she also served five years in the roles of Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Integration during a transformational period for the company, six years in Vice President roles in Finance and Pricing, and in roles supporting the audit function as either Vice President and General Auditor, or as a Sarbanes-Oxley consultant. Prior to Essendant, she spent 16 years at SBC/Ameritech (AT&T) in a range of IT, financial, and operational roles, including CFO of the IT division and Vice President of IT. A trusted executive advisor, Janet serves on Harper College’s C-Suite Advisory Counci and is an advisory board member for ChicagoCIO, part of the national InspireCIO leadership network. She is a past member of the Chicago CIO Governing Body for Gartner’s C-level community (formerly Evanta). Janet is a member of The Chicago Network, FEI (Financial Executives International, and NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors). Janet has a Master of Business Administration from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Rockford University (Phi Beta Kappa). She resides in the Chicago area.