2024 Youth Leadership Award Honorees

Since its founding in 1889, Northern Trust has embodied the principles of expertise, service and integrity -- including as a philanthropic leader. As a global financial services firm with offices in 24 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., as well as across 22 locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, Northern Trust is committed to creating more equitable opportunities to achieve long-term success for those who have been marginalized around the world. In the last decade alone, Northern Trust has contributed more than $170 million and our employees performed more than 1 million hours of volunteering to support nonprofit and non-governmental organizations.

You may recognize the name Pepsi but you may not realize that brands including Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker and SodaStream are also part of PepsiCo too, a company whose products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo is truly a global food and beverage powerhouse and it’s one that is home right here in Chicago. PepsiCo’s roots in Chicago date back more than 100 years through the Quaker Oats Company. Today, more than 5,000 employees call the area home, serving neighbors across Chicagoland from their headquarters at the Old Post Office, to their beverage manufacturing site at 51st Street, distribution location at 35th Street, and other locations across Chicago suburbs.

While the company has been serving shoppers and neighbors for decades, three years ago the company sat down with community leaders—including some in this room today—and laid out a purposeful goal to grow WITH Chicago. PepsiCo committed to increasing career resources to at least 3,000 young people from our South and West Side communities and thanks to UCAN and other community leaders, they’re well on their way.