Melissa L Bean

Bean, 49, represented Illinois' 8th district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2005 through this year. In Washington, she served on the House Financial Services and Small Business Committees and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. She regularly facilitated forums with Chicago area business leaders and led the task force that wrote key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act to protect investors without stifling market growth. Bean also wrote the SAFER NET Internet Child Safety Act and co-authored key business tax relief in the GROW Act, both passed by President Bush as well as key amendments in the Recovery Act and Small Business Lending Act signed into law by President Obama. Prior to serving in Congress, Bean worked for more than 20 years in consulting, sales and management in the high tech industry. Her consulting firm, SRI, developed IP and facilitated training and business development methodology to Fortune 1000 partner clients such as Anixter, Intel, Microsoft and Novell. She previously held management positions at local technology companies including Arrow Electronics, Motorola, SynOptics (now Nortel) and Dataflex. Bean earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Roosevelt University.