Leadership and Staff
At Ignite Progress, we provide the unique, personalized attention you deserve in preparation for your exam. Over the last six years, we have worked with hundreds of students to substantially improve their test scores by both improving on their weaknesses as well as maximizing upon their strengths. All throughout, our coaches guide students through the various layers of winning test-taking strategy. These are the people who make it happen:
Founder & CEO: Eric Fenton has been working with junior high and high school students in various educational settings for 16 years. His professional background is in the non-profit sphere, having worked as a Student Ministries Group Life Director at Willow Creek Community Church and as the Assistant Director of Microcredit at Paradigm Shift in Johannesburg, South Africa. He began providing test prep and college readiness services back in 2004 and did this part-time until launching Ignite Progress in 2010. He received his B.A. from Wheaton College, his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, and is in the midst of receiving his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Eric is passionate about seeing transformation in the lives of teenagers by equipping them with skills necessary to college and career success. He is the proud father to his precious daughter, Natalie, and husband to his beautiful wife, Kristen. ericf@igniteprogress.com
CFO: Mike Gogis brings a unique mix of strategic business development, mission accomplishment, and the ability to partner with creative visionary leaders. He has a wide range of experience in the for-profit and non- profit sectors and the blending of achieving mission impact while delivering bottom line results. As CFO of the Willow Creek Association (a global non-profit leadership development organization) for 15 years, he helped profitably grow the company from $3M in Revenues to over $30M. Mike has also partnered with, consulted, and helped launch and grow various organizations, providing a financial and operational framework that helps align the organizational objectives to business realities.
Strategic Partner: Ivan Gonzalez has been strategically connecting social entrepreneurs, universities, corporations and investors for some 20 years now, as he helps Chicago become a place where social innovation can thrive. He is an industry social impact coach, mentor, facilitator, strategic planner and partnership developer, bringing 25 years of experience in the global non-profit and start-up space to service small and mid-stage social entrepreneurs. He has helped launched 10 social enterprises, each operating at $500k to $1 million. Finishing his MBA at North Park University in 2012, he passionately challenges business and not-for-profit leaders to develop high impact enterprises in America.
Strategic Partner: Rowan Richards is the Founder and Executive Director of The Stewards Market whose mission it is to develop lasting solutions to break systems of poverty through the creation of social enterprises and financially freeing education that empowers people to become robust participants in the global economy. The Stewards Market is located in Chicago’s Humboldt Park Neighborhood and works with schools, community groups and individuals in and around this region to raise student achievement, increase high school completion, and prepare students for both college and career.
