Why has the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge persisted for 41 years in Chicago? Because, quite simply, the participants rave about it and keep coming back.

"The J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge is hands down my favorite event of the year,” said Abigail Hellinga, Team Captain for United Airlines. “It's a great opportunity to bond with colleagues and do something good for the mind and body. The best part of this event is that it's a chance for everyone from different parts of our company to come together and cheer each other on."

The 41^st running of the 3.5-mile Corporate Challenge at Grant Park attracted many enthusiastic team captains like Hellinga. In total, there were 16,632 entrants from 431 companies, an 11% increase in the total number of entries from 2023.

First run in 1982 and held every year in Grant Park since with the exception of a two-year hiatus during the pandemic (2020-21), Chicago is the largest single-night Corporate Challenge held in the United States. It’s become, quite simply and accurately, a Windy City tradition.

Event owner and operator JPMorgan Chase supported the event enthusiastically, bringing 1,689 of its employees to the Columbus Drive starting line. Ten other companies entered 150 or more runners and walkers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (287), United Airlines (243), CME Group (229), University of Chicago (216), Molex (215), Northern Trust (175), Brookfield Properties (173), Mars (160), McDonald’s (160), and Robert Bosch (155).

“We have a big health and wellness culture here at Molex so having our company participate in the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge each year is something that fits perfectly within our population,” said Angela Chiappetti, Team Captain, Molex, a manufacturer of electronic, electrical, and fiber optic connectivity systems. “This year we have 215 employees participating, including our CFO, which is a great opportunity for the employees to socialize, network and get to know each other. This great event also promotes a lot of buzz within Molex, something the employees really look forward to participating in.”

It's one of the most special nights of the year for the JPMorgan Chase team that puts on the Corporate Challenge, overseeing every aspect of the road race and post-race party.

“Like every other company here, we eagerly look forward to competing in the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge as well as operating it,” said Tony Maggiore, Segment Head, Midwest and Canada Middle Market, for JPMorgan Chase. “Putting on an event of this scope is a task we take immense pride in, and it is exceptionally rewarding to see our employees running side-by-side with the businesses we service every day, along with our respected competitors and everyone else in the workplace community. It truly is a night annually to celebrate doing business in Chicago.”

And celebrating a job well done were two worthy individual champions.

Emily Akin was the first female to break the finish tape, winning her individual race in 20:03 (5:44 mile pace). Chris Porst of Thornton Tomasetti came home in 17:34 (5:01 mile pace) to win the male division. Both were thrilled to win but found equal satisfaction in sharing the race course with their colleagues.

“It was an awesome opportunity with the whole crowd going crazy,” said Akin. “I work at Medline (a global healthcare company), and they are really big in building in team culture, so they wanted us to have a lot of fun and bond.”

“We’ve been doing it for many years,” said Porst, who serves as the team captain for Thornton Tomassetti, a scientific and engineering consulting firm. “I organize it and I like to do it to get our whole company together to meet people and socialize with people you do not always talk to in the workplace. We usually pair an architect with a structural engineer (at the event) to make it a networking event as well.”

Sharing the spotlight on this night was Hope Chicago, the beneficiary of the Corporate Challenge. JPMorgan Chase will donate in honor of all 16,632 entrants to the multigenerational economic mobility initiative focused on enhancing the future of Chicago’s students, families, and communities through debt-free higher education completion at scale. Hope Chicago’s model supports postsecondary pathways offering full financial coverage and wraparound services to graduates and their parents from five community high schools on Chicago’s South and West Sides.

On deck for the 48^th year of the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge Series is a visit to Rochester, New York on Thursday, May 23. That will be the fifth stop of this Series year and Rochester’s 32^nd Corporate Challenge.