Coming out the great recession in 2009 several local businesses, PI Midwest, Lurie LLP (today EisnerAmper) and Hillary's LLC, came together to create the Business Leaders Breakfast Forum. The forum was formed to bring business leaders together to learn, connect and create community. In that time, new acquaintances became old friends through their shared experiences. In March of 2020 the program was shut down by the pandemic.
Since 2022, emerging out of the pandemic, there have been ongoing requests to bring this community back together. Hillary Feder, quickly realized by talking with other business leaders in the community there was an interest to gather and create community together outside of direct work inside their organizations. Feder lead the way, putting together a group of sponsors to lead and in April 2024 The Business Leaders Breakfast Forum 2.0 was formed.
