Mark Fields

“I literally started my career in the basement of a bank processing checks on an NCR machine.” Learning businesses from the bottom up is a keystone of Mark’s professional journey. From his training years at Union Bank and pioneering time with TD Securities in the technology and communications sector, through the launch of Ernst & Young’s Capital Services Group and CME Group’s IPO, Fields was always at the frontier of his organizations’ efforts to achieve long-term strategic goals. Just prior to joining ALP, Mark was CEO of Wickr Inc., a secure messaging and communications platform where he refocused the business from a consumer-targeted messaging platform into an enterprise-worthy secure collaboration platform. Prior to Wickr, Fields spent 15 years at CME Group as a leader in corporate finance running M&A, business, and strategy development teams. CME executed over $20Bn in M&A transactions during his tenure. Fields led the team that established the cleared interest rate swap product line which at CME which has cleared $ trillions of trades as a central counterparty. Fields conceived, founded, and was appointed the Managing Director of CME Ventures, the company’s corporate venture capital group. Fields headed the investment committee and led the investment team which made minority investments in emerging technology companies in cybersecurity, settlement & payment, computational, AI, and big data software tools. In 2015, Fields was recognized as one of Crain’s Chicago Business Tech 50. Fields holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Fields currently serves as a board member at ALP portfolio companies Baton Systems, Ion Storage Systems, Ascent Technologies, and as an observer at Nabaco, Inc. Between 2011 and 2021, Fields served on the Board of Trustees at Dominican University, and as a Senior Advisor to Dominican’s Brennan Business School. Fields also served as an establishing member of the Board of Black Tech Mecca.