Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Chief Risk and Compliance Officer
Strada Education Foundation
Ryan Waggoner is a first-generation college graduate, and that background drives his professional and personal accomplishments. “I’ve learned,” he said, “that blue-collar grit can take you a lot farther than just about anything else.” A former partner at Ice Miller, he was recruited by Strada Education Foundation, an Indianapolis nonprofit that helps young people make the most of education to achieve a career. Within a couple of months of coming aboard, he proposed reorganizing the $2 billion charity to better align its structure to its strategy. While at Ice Miller, he led a fundraising effort to build a primary school in Uganda and founded an employee resource group for lawyers from working-class backgrounds. Closer to home, he established the Franklin First Scholars program, a mentorship program to help students from working-class families in his hometown succeed as first-generation college students. “The promise of higher education has changed the lives of millions of Americans, including me,” he said. “My work at Strada allows me to build on that promise for the next generation of students.”
Getting here: Waggoner was elected to partnership at Ice Miller only seven years after he began practicing there. He served as outside counsel for charities, governmental entities and nonprofits focused on social impact. He also served as a mentor to younger lawyers at the firm. “I look up to Ryan as an example of what it means to be true to yourself and where you came from,” an Ice Miller attorney said.
First job: concession stand worker at the Franklin city pool
Givebacks: former board member of Franklin Community Schools and the Central Nine Career Center, current board member of The Oaks Academy
Influential person: His high school principal, Leighton Turner. “He stood in the gap between what I thought was possible for me and what he believed I could do with my life,” Waggoner said. “That type of secondhand confidence was game-changing for a blue-collar kid who wanted to be a lawyer but didn’t even know exactly what lawyers did except for wear a suit and tie.”•
Check out more Forty Under 40 honorees.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.