Laura West is a Director of Client Service and Sales and focuses on developing and maintaining successful client relationships for Great Lakes Advisors. Laura specializes in investment solutions for religious institutions.

Before joining the firm in 2012, Laura worked at Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, completing a full-time annual volunteer program and subsequently managing corporate and foundation relationships. After Mercy Home, Laura was part of the launch team for a new division with Accretive Health, working to improve quality outcomes and reduce care costs for a nonprofit health system in Minneapolis. Additionally, she worked in the social work department at the University of Chicago Hospital.

Laura is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and received her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and her AM (MSW) from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Laura is a founding member of the Associate Board of Mercy Home for Boys and Girls and is currently a member of Mercy Home’s Leader Council. She is also on the Big Shoulders Fund Chairmen’s Advisory Council, President of the Wicklander Family Foundation, Governing Member for the Brookfield Zoo, Member of the Economic Council for the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great and on the Board of Directors and Investment Committee for the Community Memorial Foundation. Laura is also a parishioner of St. Francis Xavier in La Grange, and an active volunteer at St. Francis Xavier School.

Education and Professional Credentials 

• Industry Start: 2012
• Vanderbilt University, BA
• University of Chicago, MBA, MSW