About Us
For more than thirty years SIGMA Resource Group has been helping business leaders and their companies achieve their goals. We help business owners and leaders break through organizational and personal limitations and plan and lead their companies to long term success. Our one driving goal has been and always will be to help clients improve their condition.
Mark Akerley
Mark is managing partner and principal consultant for Sigma Resource Group. His clients and colleagues point out his excellent listening and analytical abilities combined with his drive and know-how for getting things done. He has worked with companies of all sizes and in many industries –including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, GE, Penn National, EMC, AMA, American Automobile Association, many solopreneurs and start-up companies, and over 200 other organizations. His consulting, coaching and facilitating has resulted in companies significantly improving service, quality, productivity, and operating results. Mark’s real passion is working closely with small to mid-sized companies and their owners to establish and achieve realistic yet “stretch” goals, using a “working together” approach.
Prior to co-founding Sigma, Mark spent ten years in industry rising to senior vice president of Signature Financial Group responsible for several operating divisions. However, before that, he established a successful taxi ride-sharing business (before Uber and mass adoption of the internet!). Running that business (and even driving the taxis sometime) provided many valuable lessons about markets and getting things done … and especially about working with people.
Mark is a US Army veteran, has served on the leadership council for the Lincoln Foundation to help Illinois companies achieve excellence, the advisory board for the Montgomery County American Red Cross and the MGH Health Foundation. Mark has been awarded degrees in business, economics, and organizational improvement from the Defiance College and DePaul University. He has authored and co-authored several instructional handbooks for business leaders including “Food for Thought –Lessons at Lunchtime for Business Leaders,” “Becoming Better Leaders,” “Strategic Edge: a simple but not easy process for producing winning results,” and “Manage Yourself Then Lead Others.”
For fun, Mark likes to roll on the floor with the grandchildren and teach them things their mothers won’t. He is also an FAA licensed pilot where he enjoys the challenges of flying sailplanes (i.e. airplanes without engines) cross country –sometimes successfully and sometimes not. Mark is married to the lovely Mary for 42 years, and is fortunate to have received much sage advice from her throughout their journey together.
Partial List of Clients
- Arbitration Forum
- Biodyne
- Cameron Group
- Eva Maddox Associates
- Daily Herald
- EMC
- Germania
- Mutual Trust Life
- Farm Mutual
- Fortis Financial
- Guarantee Reserve
- Horton Group
- Guy Carpenter
- MGH Health
- Montgomery Mutual
- Mountain West Farm Bureau
- Newcastle Companies
- PAMIC
- Partners Group
- Penn National
- Quaker Oats
- Security Benefit
- Rowe Companies
- US dept of Agriculture
- US Postal Service
- Interstate
- Merchants & Business Owners Assn.
- Preferred Mutual
- Amtrak
- Robert Taylor Associates
- Business Engineering
- TIACP
- IBR Services
- ARAMARK
- Northwestern Memorial Hospital
- American Medical Association
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Certified Grocers
- Perseco
- Richard Morton Company Charming Shops
- Sterling Stainless Tube
- Nielson Clearing House
- Boatman’s Bank
- Fort Dearborn Life
- Holmes Murphy & Associates
- Management Programs Inc
- Federal Reserve Bank
- Montgomery Ward
- Farm Bureau
- North American Insurance
- Official Airine Guides
- Mid Central Foods
- Walter Heller Financial
- UARCO
- American Medical Association
- Heinold Commodities
- Elangy Littman Jewelers
- Channel Home Centers
- Regency Savings Bank
- Exchange National Bank
- Signature Group
- McCrory Stores
- American Dental Association
- Alliance Insurance Co
- Employers Health Insurance
- Aetna
- The Brethren Mutual Insurance Co.
- National Assn for Mutual Insurance Co’s
- MEDCO
- Follett College Stores
- AAA-American Automobile Assn.
- J.C. Penny
- Lewis Paper Inc.
- Chicago Beverage Systems
- Alliance of American Insurers
- Amerisafe
- Town of Franklin
- Village of Rocky Hill
- ITT