Carla Varner—ABTA, Board Chair
Carla Varner serves as Chair of the ABTA Board of Directors. Serving as an ABTA board member since 2014, Carla previously served as Secretary of the board.
Carla is the Chief Legal Officer and Managing Director of Franklin Monroe Administrative Services, LLC, a financial services company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. She joined Franklin Monroe from Guggenheim Partners in 2013. During her time at Guggenheim, she acted as senior transactional attorney for multiple business units.
Prior to joining Guggenheim Partners, Carla practiced law in the Global Finance Group at Sidley Austin in both their Chicago and New York offices. She received her undergraduate degree in Economics and German from Kalamazoo College, cum laude, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. While in law school, she was an award-winning student contributor to Michigan Journal of International Law.
Since joining Franklin Monroe, Carla was nominated to InsideCounsel’s 2015 R3-100 list. She is licensed to practice law in New York, Illinois and Michigan, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Chicago Bar Association and the University of Michigan Alumni Association.
In addition to Carla’s volunteer work with the ABTA, she serves on the Board of Directors for Greenlight Family Services. She has a love of gardening and flowers, and spends much of her free time with her husband, their two children and family dog tending to her family’s garden center in Niles, Michigan.