Business, civic, and University leader
Forward-thinking business and nonprofit leader
Global leader in advertising, media, and organizational change
Business, civic, and University leader
William “Bill” Osborn is the retired chairman and CEO of Northern Trust Corporation, an international financial services company headquartered in Chicago. He joined Northern Trust in 1970 and held various leadership positions before he was named president and chief operating officer in 1993 and chairman and CEO in 1995. He ended his tenure as CEO in 2007 and retired as chairman in 2009. Under Osborn’s leadership, the company grew into a global financial powerhouse focused on asset servicing and asset management. He was twice named as one of the best CEOs in the world by Harvard Business Review.
A member of Northwestern University’s Board of Trustees since 1996, Osborn served as chair from 2009 to 2017 and became a life trustee in 2020. He was a member of the University’s “We Will” Campaign Steering Committee as well as the Kellogg School of Management’s Campaign Committee and has served on Kellogg’s Global Advisory Board since 2013. Osborn was inducted into the Northwestern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019 as an honorary member and received the 2020 Kellogg Distinguished Alumni Service Award.
An influential civic and business leader in Chicago, Osborn is a past director of Abbott Laboratories, Caterpillar Inc., General Dynamics Corporation, Tribune Company, Nicor, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He serves on the board of directors of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Additionally, he is a life trustee of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, Chicago Urban League, and Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
Osborn graduated from Northwestern with a BA in political science from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and an MBA from Kellogg. He received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from the University in 2018.
