The Naperville Heritage Society, administrator of Naper Settlement, welcomes Mike Krol as the new chairman of the board and three new board members, Kathy Birkett, Superintendent of Indian Prairie School District 204; Kevin Harris, General Manager, Chicago Area Facilities Operations for BP; and Ron Stenger, Executive Director, Wealth Advisor, Senior Portfolio Management Director for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Each board member will serve a three-year term.
The Naperville Heritage Society board of directors oversees the operations of Naper Settlement, Chicagoland’s outdoor history museum, located on a 12-acre site in downtown Naperville. Accredited by the American Association of Museums, Naper Settlement has 30 historic structures ranging from a rustic log cabin to an elegant Victorian mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Naperville Heritage Society was founded in 1969.
Mike Krol has served on the Naperville Heritage Society board of directors for seven years and was chairperson of Naper Days from 2004-2006. He retired from SBC/Ameritech in 1999 with 40 years of service, most recently as vice president of sales and service for a 14-state area.
Kathy Birkett began serving as superintendent of schools for District 204 in July 2009. She currently oversees the third largest school district in the State of Illinois, serving 29,500 students in 33 schools in Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield. She has dedicated her career to District 204, beginning as a teacher at Waubonsie Valley High School in 1979 and holding several positions including assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent for secondary education and deputy superintendent.
Kevin Harris is a senior leader at BP responsible for its Naperville, Warrenville and downtown Chicago facilities and operations. He leads a team of 250 people to deliver cost efficient and reliable operations for facility power plants, research labs and commercial offices, which house nearly 3,000 employees across 2 million square feet of space. Kevin has 17 years of experience with BP in various leadership, strategy, sales and manufacturing roles.
Ron Stenger is a sixth-generation Naperville resident, who has been a financial advisor for 30 years with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. The Stenger Group handles more than $350 million in assets under management for their clients. In 2008, he was honored as one of the top 50 financial advisors in the Chicago area by Chicago Magazine. In 2009, and again in 2012, he was named one of the Top 50 Financial Advisors in Illinois and one of the Top 1,000 Financial Advisors in the U.S. by Barron’s. Ron has been a Naperville sesquicentennial citizen since 1981 and in 1982 was issued a pioneer certificate from the DuPage County Historical Society. The Stenger family was inducted into the Distinguished Heritage Hall of Honor in 2011.
