Crain's Chicago Business, July 17, 2023

IMATERNAL HEALTH

BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT

Northwestern trustees face a reckoning

BY JUDITH CROWN

Northwestern University’s board of trustees and administration must move quickly to dampen the ames of the football hazing scandal before it singes the elite school’s image, experts in higher education say.

At stake is Northwestern’s reputation, which is important not only to the school but to the Chicago area, where the presence of a globally respected university is a valuable asset.

“Northwestern is one of Chicago’s most powerful magnets for top global talent, attracting the people who invent the world’s future and happily become Chicagoans in the process,” says Paul O’Connor, a consultant who oversaw Chicago’s economic development arm, World Business Chicago, when the city attracted major corporate headquarters such as Boeing.

Attention now shifts to a

70-member board of trustees packed with local luminaries, underscoring Northwestern’s importance to Chicago as a global city. Trustees include retired Abbott Laboratories CEO Miles White, Rocky Wirtz of Wirtz Corp. and the Chicago Blackhawks, Baxter International CEO José Almeida, and investment honchos Michael Sacks of GCM Grosvenor and Madison

See NORTHWESTERN on Page 31

Feds say Outcome Health founder still spends lavishly

Prosecutors cite a nearly $5,000 dinner at Alinea during his fraud trial as reason to worry about millions in assets being frittered away

BY JOHN PLETZ

Federal prosecutors say Rishi Shah spent nearly $5,000 on dinner for ve at Alinea on Valentine’s Day, while he was on trial for fraud at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

It’s just one reason they aren’t buying the Outcome Health founder’s assertion that millions of dollars in assets that have been frozen by the feds since he was

indicted nearly four years ago are interfering with his ability to hire attorneys of his choice to keep ghting after his April conviction.

Prosecutors said in a ling that they want “to restrain Shah’s assets and thereby prevent him from frittering away the money on gambling, yachts and jets.”

In court lings last week, prosecutors noted that Shah tried to wire $100,000 each on May 23 to

accounts at sports-betting sites Barstool Sportsbook and DraftKings, which were rejected. A DraftKings email included in government lings said: “We are returning the bank wire due to these reasons: Negative news and closing account.”

e lings are the latest examples of the contentious battle

See SHAH on Page 30

NOTABLES

Introducing 66 Chicago-area leaders who are advancing sustainability. PAGE 19

BOOTH INSIGHTS

Advice from a female venture capitalist on raising money. PAGE 9

JOHN R. BOEHM

A board packed with local luminaries will largely determine whether the football hazing scandal is a momentary setback or a permanent scar

Retired Abbott Labs CEO Miles White is among the well-known members of NU’s board.

Black maternal health and mortality has reached a crisis level. Here are the people in Chicago taking steps to stem it. | PAGE 13

Rishi Shah

Star August, left, and Callan Jaress are co-founders of the Holistic Birth Collective.

Where buyers are topping the asking price most

and Will County was at 102%.

“It’s not a surprise,” Lukins said. “Inventory is so incredibly low that (buyers) have to do it.”

BY DENNIS RODKIN

When she was preparing her clients’ three-bedroom house in West Chicago to go on the market at $350,000 in late May, Compass agent Chris Lukins had a di erent set of clients who asked to take a look.

Because she was representing both sides, Lukins was prohibited from giving the potential buyers any price advice, but they gured out on their own that “they wanted to make an o er that the sellers would take,” she said.

e buyers o ered $362,000, or about 3.4% over the asking price, and a deal was struck for the house on three-quarters of an acre on Valewood Drive.

“ at’s what buyers are doing,” Lukins said. “ ey need a place to live and they’ve wrapped their heads around the higher mortgage rates.”

West Chicago is one of the 10 suburbs where buyers this spring and summer have been paying the most over the asking price to prevail in a tight-inventory, high-demand market.

Buyers having to pay over the ask is in large part due to the lock-in effect of older, lower mortgage rates, says Laura Fitzpatrick, an @properties Christie’s International Real Estate on the North Shore. For people who bought when interest rates were as much as 3 percentage points below where they are now, “there’s no interest in selling and moving to a higher interest rate” on their next home, Fitzpatrick says.

“Most of the sellers we’re seeing now are people who need to move” because of a life cycle reason, such as divorce or relocation, she says.

Online real estate marketplace Red n reported July 6 that for the rst time since August 2022, the average U.S. home sale is at more than the asking price. It’s a comeback few would have predicted a year ago, when interest rates were climbing as part of the Federal Reserve’s attack on in ation.

Red n’s research shows that in all six Chicago metro-area counties, the average sale price in May was at least 100% of the ask. Cook, DuPage and Lake counties were at 100%, Kane and McHenry were at 101%,

e individual suburbs where buyers, on average, are reaching furthest above the asking price, according to Red n, are:

 Kenilworth: 109%

 Calumet Park: 108%

 Glencoe: 106%

 Norridge: 105%

 Clarendon Hills, Lincolnwood, Robbins, Round Lake Beach, Summit, West Chicago: 104% e average sale was over 100% in many other suburbs, including Winnetka and Arlington Heights (both at 103%). Data is not available for individual Chicago neighborhoods.

Bidding over the ask has its risks. Key among them is that for a buyer with a mortgage, an appraisal won’t back up the agreed-upon price, which can kill the deal unless the buyers have cash to ll the gap.

Compass agent Leslie Cifuentes said she and clients of hers knew that and calibrated their o er on a two-bedroom ranch house on Ada Street in Calumet Park.

“We bid high, but not so high that we thought it wouldn’t appraise out,”

The buyers of this house on Valewood Drive in West Chicago paid about 3.4% over the asking price.

Cifuentes says. Her clients had been beaten in a few bidding wars already and wanted to prevail this time.

“We cannot miss this time,” Cifuentes says her clients told her.

Four days after the Ada Street house hit the market at $99,900, Cifuentes’ clients had it under contract. Appraisals went through, they got their loan and in mid-May they bought the house for $124,000, about 24% above the asking price.

In Kenilworth, Fitzpatrick represented the buyers who paid $926,250 in May for a ve-bedroom house on

Sterling Road. at was about 16% over the $800,000 asking price. e house needs work. It was sold by the estate of a late owner who’d had it for about three decades, according to Cook County records, and the listing showed long out-ofdate kitchen, baths and wallpaper.

Nevertheless, Fitzpatrick said she wasn’t surprised to see the house attract a dozen bids.

“It’s a function of demand,” Fitzpatrick said. ese days, “I’d be more surprised to see something going for under the asking price.”

COMPASS

uring the pandemic, the combination of rising demand for housing and a decade of sluggish homebuilding caused prices and rents to surge. But as housing demand soared across the country, Chicago lagged.

has seen their rent burden increase by 4 percentage points during that time period.

When housing a ordability fell to an all-time low across the country, due in part to a large increase in mortgage rates, less expensive metros like Chicago become relatively more attractive places to live. While I’m not counting on a full reversal of Chicago’s long-running exodus, current housing market conditions may actually help slow the city’s population decline.More new construction puts downward pressure on home prices and rents. And new construction has historically been more sluggish in the region. Yet despite building relatively fewer new homes, home price growth still lagged. Higher population growth creates new demand for housing and Chicago-area population growth has been sluggish for years, due in large part to net domestic out-migration.

than in similar large cities. Despite two years of sharp rent increases, rent a ordability hovers around its pre-pandemic average.

Historically, Chicago has been a top destination for students and highly skilled migrant workers from abroad. Less domestic out-migration, and an increase in immigrant ows, could curb Chicago’s population decline.

Despite a widespread drop in housing demand over the past year, the Chicago-area housing market remains tighter than many large U.S. markets. While nearly half of the 50 largest metropolitan areas have experienced home price declines in the past year, Chicago home values were up 2.4% from a year ago in June, according to Zillow’s latest market report. Annual rent growth in the Chicago area was in the top ve, too, up 6.3% in June compared to 4.1% nationally.

And despite faster growth, Chicago metro rent is more a ordable than the national average. A new renter here would pay about 28% of their income on rent, compared with 32% for the typical renter in the U.S. Zooming out reveals that Chicago rent burdens have basically risen back to their 2016 level, while the typical U.S. renter

But perhaps this is about to change. e current housing market conditions may actually slow the pace of the well-documented Chicago exodus.

Why? Homeowners aren’t selling.

For-sale housing inventory is less than half what it was this time of year in 2019, before the pandemic. Since 71% of sellers end up buying again, few homeowners are willing to sell since that likely would mean trading a low pandemic mortgage rate for today’s much higher 7% mortgage rate.

at’s true nationwide, but perhaps more true in the Chicago area.

e number of home sellers in the Chicago metro was 29% lower in June compared to the same month a year ago. Fewer homeowners choosing to sell means fewer moving trucks leaving the city and the state.

Lastly, renting in Chicago remains relatively more a ordable

economist at the Illinois Policy Institute. His views do not necessarily re ect those of his employers. Expect More from Your Bank W ORK WITH CHIC AG O’ S B ANK FOR BUSINESS

ORPHE DIVOUNGUY ON THE ECONOMY

Housing market moves could sway population drain

D

Pramaggiore files full-throated appeal of ‘ComEd Four’ verdict

In a 77-page ling, the former CEO of Commonwealth Edison lays out a wide array of arguments in seeking acquittal or a new trial.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — and potentially the Supreme Court — will have much to ponder in the appeals of the convictions of the “ComEd Four.”

Former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore, one of the four appealing the jury convictions from early May, laid out a wide array of arguments in a 77-page appeal, led July 7 with U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber. ey include assertions that Leinenweber’s jury instructions weren’t in line with precedents on such public-corruption cases, as well as claims that some of the actions on which Pramaggiore was convicted of bribery weren’t any di erent than other executives at ComEd or parent Exelon, including Exelon CEO

100

BY STEVE DANIELS

Chris Crane, who weren’t charged in the scheme.

In addition, Pramaggiore’s attorney Scott Lassar, a former U.S. attorney in Chicago, provides new information in his motions for acquittal or, barring that, a new trial on dramatic moments that occurred during the seven-week trial.

Speci cally, he provides new details on a September 2019 meeting between Pramaggiore and federal prosecutors, four months after ComEd and Exelon were made aware of the extensive investigation into their dealings with former state House Speaker Michael Madigan and more than a year before she was indicted. at meeting, which

GTCR’s biggest deal doesn’t mean it will be another KKR

In buying Worldpay, the Chicago private-equity rm followed the same blueprint it uses for midsize targets

BY STEVE DANIELS

It didn’t take long for Chicago-based GTCR to put to work the biggest buyout fund it ever raised. Less than two months after closing the $11.5 billion fund, the rst commitment GTCR made with that cash helped nance the equity for its largest-ever deal.

But don’t get the wrong idea.

e Chicago-based private-equity rm, which has made its reputation investing mainly in midsize companies most haven’t heard of, isn’t trying to become the next Blackstone.

Its $18.5 billion buyout of payments processor Worldpay represents a larger version of what GTCR does routinely — match an experienced executive in an industry with a platform on which to grow organically and tack on acquisitions.

“We de nitely have the capabilities to execute the largest investments out there,” Aaron Cohen, GTCR managing director and head of nancial services and technology, says in an interview. “I can’t say we’re purposefully looking for $15 to $20 billion deals.”

Worldpay’s technology processes payments on behalf of merchants around the world, from the largest retailers to smaller ones like grocery stores, as well as those that sell strictly online. Publicly traded Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS, has agreed to sell its mer-

chant payment processing unit to GTCR, retaining 45% ownership in the deal.

Helping make it happen were several of the largest banks in the country, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Wells Fargo. e bank nancing, which Bloomberg reported totaled around $9.4 billion, was by far the largest private-equity deal of its type since bank lending for such buyouts all but shut down last year in the midst of one of the most rapid increases in interest rates ever.

It wasn’t a surprise that such lending — a highly lucrative business line for the banking goliaths of the world — would loosen up. More surprising was that GTCR, rather than a New York-based buyout powerhouse like KKR, Blackstone or Apollo Global Management, would be the rm leading the industry out of its winter.

years of sailing to Mackinac: A race for family honor

A century ago, these sisters’ great-grandfather won the Race to Mackinac only to be disquali ed on a technicality. Now they have a shot to win the race themselves.

BY JACK GRIEVE

Sailing on behalf of the Jackson Park Yacht Club, John Paul O’Rourke was an underdog going into the 1923 Race to Mackinac. His boat, a small vessel by the name “Intruder,” paled in comparison to the larger ships operated by his North Side competitors.

Yachtsmen racing on behalf of the Chicago Yacht Club, which hosts the annual competition, were poised to lift the trophy displayed inside their own clubhouse. e CYC boats were bigger — better equipped to withstand the 333-mile voyage known to humble even the most

experienced skippers.

rough master-class sailing and a bit of luck, though, O’Rourke managed to navigate the Intruder to an unlikely victory. “Intruder Fights Waves, Rain to Capture Mackinac Race,” a Chicago Tribune headline said at the time, with the paper describing the feat as “the greatest Mackinac race in history.”

In a telegram from Michigan, O’Rourke, a Jackson Park resident who grew up in Englewood, shared the news with his relatives back home: “INTRUDER WINS

MACKINAC RACE MIGHTY

TIRED BUT OTHERWISE IN EXCELLENT SHAPE.”

His triumph, however, would prove short-lived. Months after the race, O’Rourke was retroactively disquali ed on a technicality — allegedly failing to submit proper boat measurements —

and was stripped of his winning ag. e O’Rourke name would never make it onto the Mackinac Trophy.

Now, one hundred years later, the family has another shot at

the race. Christina and Meghan O’Rourke, the great-granddaughters of John Paul who grew up in suburban Glenview, will be among the more than 2,000 crew members setting sail from the shores of Chicago this weekend with their sights set on winning the race to Mackinac.

Humble and conscious of their competition, the O’Rourke sisters insist that a rst-place nish may be a long way o . Still, the signi cance of that 1923 race is not lost on them.

“I’m getting emotional even thinking about that possibility,” Christina O’Rourke, a Glenview resident who works on the advertising team at United Airlines, said when asked what a win on the 100th anniversary would mean. “Being able to have a Mac

Anne Pramaggiore in 2019.

Aaron Cohen See

Ishbia’s private-equity firm adds to its downtown space

BY STEVE DANIELS AND DANNY ECKER

Billionaire Justin Ishbia’s Shore Capital Partners is bulking up its Wacker Drive office in a vote of confidence for downtown Chicago’s future as the private-equity firm continues a growth spurt.

At the same time, Shore Capital has closed two new investment funds, totaling more than $643 million, including its first-ever buyout pool focused on industrial targets. The other fund is the firm’s fifth focusing on the health care industry.

Ishbia’s firm has added a new floor to its office at 1 E. Wacker Drive, a nearly 16,000-squarefoot expansion that brings its new footprint in the tower to around 55,000 square feet, the company confirmed. The deal reinforces Shore Capital’s status as the 41-story tower’s largest tenant and extends its lease in the building by roughly three years through early 2033.

The move belies the

COVID-19 pandemic-fueled trend of companies shedding office space as they embrace the remote work movement. Downsizing tenants have pushed downtown office vacancy to an all-time high, setting off a historic wave of distressed properties and gutting the vitality of the central business district.

For Shore Capital, meanwhile, remote work has never been a long-term option. The company returned to regular in-office work just a few months into the public health crisis and has seen its Chicago workforce quadruple since then, prompting the need for more room, Ishbia said. Shore Capital now employs about 120 in Chicago, up from 30 in July 2020 when Ishbia summoned employees back to the office.

“It’s really hard to grow a business where people who are new aren’t embedded in the office,” Ishbia said in an interview.

Adding to the all-hands-ondeck emphasis is Shore Cap -

ital’s business model, which emphasizes much more dealmaking than the average private-equity firm. Ishbia says Shore Capital has bought about 600 companies in the past three years at an average of about $12 million per deal. That’s a rate of almost a deal per business day.

MUSIC TO LANDLORDS’ EARS

The new industrial fund, with more than $150 million to work with, is Shore Capital’s initial foray into that niche. It will focus on firms with revenue between $5 million and $100 million that are focused on aerospace and defense, building and facilities services, transportation and logistics, environmental services and others. The health care fund raised more than $350 million.

Ishbia says he sees a recession coming as consumer demand for products is reduced by higher interest rates. “Demand is going to be crushed in the future,” he says. “I can’t tell you when.” He’s focusing on re -

cession-resistant themes, like services provided for businesses in order to comply with government regulations. “We love businesses where there’s regulation-driven demand,” he says.

As for Shore Capital’s demand for more office space, that’s music to the ears of downtown landlords. Many are scrambling to shore up their rent rolls and ensure they can make mortgage payments, and a growing number are facing deadlines to refinance properties that will be difficult to do with high interest rates and banks wary of tying themselves to office buildings.

Shore Capital’s expansion is particularly crucial for New York-based AmTrust

Realty, which has owned the 697,000-square-foot building at 1 E. Wacker since 2013. AmTrust paid $102.5 million to buy the property from longtime anchor tenant Kemper, which committed to a long-term lease as part of the deal. But Kemper changed course in 2018 and relocated to the Aon Center.

Prior to the Shore Capital expansion, the tower was just under 80% leased, according to real estate information company CoStar Group. That is slightly better than the average for downtown office buildings midway through the year. A source familiar with the

Wintrust to put a bank branch in West Woodlawn

90,000-square-foot community center

BY STEVE DANIELS

Wintrust Financial has agreed to open a branch in Pastor Corey Brooks’ planned 90,000-squarefoot community center for West Woodlawn, one of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods.

Rosemont-based Wintrust, Chicago’s largest locally headquartered business bank by assets and the market’s fourth-largest bank by deposits, isn’t even waiting for the building to be constructed and opened — a process that Brooks hopes will be complete as early as late 2024. Wintrust will open a temporary branch at 6620 S. King Drive later this year, says Bill Cordes, CEO of Beverly Bank & Trust, Wintrust’s separately chartered bank serving the South Side.

“We thought, why wait?” Cordes says in an interview.

e area is a banking desert and has been for years. e branch will be a neighbor to Parkway Gardens, a collection of apartment buildings that have the been the site of numerous gang-related shootings in recent years.

Brooks, pastor of New Beginnings Church and founder of the nonpro t Project H.O.O.D., across the street from the future community center, famously lived in a tent on the roof of the church over nearly a year to raise awareness and money for the $35 million

project. at’s how he caught the attention of Ed Wehmer, co-founder of Wintrust and longtime CEO until his retirement from that position earlier this year.

Brooks was on WGN Radio in 2022 to talk about the community center, and Wehmer tuned in. He was moved enough to call into the program and pledge to support the project. Ultimately, Wintrust contributed $1.5 million of the $30 million in commitments Brooks says he has so far.

“He’s putting his money where his mouth is,” Wehmer, now Wintrust’s executive chairman, says in an interview. “You’ve got to support a guy like that.”

BANK A ‘CRITICAL PART’

When the two got together later, Wehmer also pointed Brooks in the direction of others who could help. e Robert R. McCormick Foundation contributed $8 million, winning naming rights to the future Leadership & Economic Opportunity Center.

Ken Gri n, billionaire owner of hedge fund Citadel, provided another $5 million before he moved to South Florida. Brooks says he has obtained building permits from the city.

e bank — which will be inside the community center, along with an ice cream parlor, a pizza place, space for jobs training in

trades and other vocations, and other amenities — is a critical part of what’s needed, Brooks says.

“We just shared with (Wintrust) how important it is to have a bank in our neighborhood,” he says.

Brooks envisions the community center as a place for fun, workforce training and education. Financial literacy is badly needed in the neighborhood, he says. People who live there use currency exchanges and similar services for basic nancial transactions and pay substantial fees to do so.

“One of the reasons we experience so much violence is there is no economic base,” Brooks says. “We need to get people involved in their nancial future.”

Wintrust is entering a market that other banks won’t touch. Brooks says he approached JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the Chicago market by deposits, about opening there. “For whatever reason, we just haven’t gotten a good response,” he says.

“Ed instantly was like, that ts exactly with the direction we’re going.”

In reaction, Chase points to branches it has on the South Side and other support it’s provided Brooks. “We’re proud to support Project H.O.O.D. in multiple, ongoing ways, and excited to see their progress toward making

the community center a reality,” says Damion Heron, Chase’s executive director of community engagement in the Chicago market. “Chase likewise has served the Woodlawn neighborhood for decades, most recently having renovated and relaunched our innovative Stony Island Community Center branch, adding a dedicated community manager, and community home lending advisers, as well as through our nearby branch at Je rey Plaza (in South Shore).”

Chase’s Woodlawn branch is in the eastern part of Woodlawn, just south of where the Obama Presidential Center is being built. e part of Woodlawn that Brooks tends to is more violent, though Stony Island Avenue sees its share of trouble as well.

WEHMER CONFIDENT

For Wintrust, the Woodlawn branch is spawning a new name as well. ough it has more than $50 billion in assets, Wintrust runs its operation unconventionally, featuring multiple bank charters as well as bank names emphasizing the community. In nearby Hyde Park, for example, Wintrust is Hyde Park Bank. e new Woodlawn branch will be dubbed South Side Community Bank.

It’s a name Wintrust may use again as it expands to other South

Side neighborhoods, Cordes says. e bank would like to eventually have a presence in neighborhoods like South Shore, Greater Grand Crossing, Chatham and Auburn Gresham, he says.

Wehmer long has said that Wintrust’s goal to be “Chicago’s bank” — arguably more than a tagline now that virtually every other locally based bank of size has sold to out-of-town acquirers — means being in every community in the area. “If you’re Chicago’s bank, you’ve got to be in every neighborhood,” he repeats now.

Wehmer, though, says he isn’t calling the shots at Wintrust now.

His successor, CEO Tim Crane, is determining how to attack the Chicago market now and in the future. Crane says he thinks the same way Wehmer does in terms of expansion within the market. In the past, Wintrust has expanded to various parts of the area via acquisition of small banks. ose deals aren’t happening for the moment, as midsize and small banks grapple with issues tied to rapidly rising interest rates.

at leaves branch building.

Wehmer is con dent about Wintrust’s future in a community that other banks fear to go. Likening the future community center to the past establishment of Catholic churches in city neighborhoods, he says: “ is will be a safe zone. You put institutions like that in there and you build up concentric circles of safe zones.”

The bank and Pastor Corey Brooks team up for a location in a planned

That wouldn’t have been a remarkable headline four years ago. It is now, given remote work trends that have pushed vacancy to a record.

Justin Ishbia

See ISHBIA on Page 17

Chicago hotels have been making a comeback with the COVID-19 pandemic behind them, but it’s still not enough for some to keep up on their mortgage payments.

New to the list of distressed hotels in the heart of the city is the 285-room Ambassador Chicago at 1301 N. State Parkway, according to Cook County court records. A lender led a foreclosure lawsuit earlier this month alleging that the hotel’s owner, a venture of Chinese investment rm Gaw Capital, failed to pay o a $38.5 million loan tied to the historic Gold Coast property by its May maturity date.

e complaint is a step toward the completion of a major nancial gut punch for Gaw, which paid $61.5 million for the 17-story property in 2016 and is said to have spent an additional $11 million on upgrades to the hotel and its restaurant. Gaw re nanced the building with its current mortgage in 2019, according to Cook County property records.

e foreclosure lawsuit underscores the pain hoteliers continue to endure in the city, even as leisure travel continues a valiant recovery and hotel room rates now exceed pre-pandemic levels. ough Illinois hotels generated record-high tax revenue for the state over the past 12 months, many properties are still worth far less than they were before the public health crisis, in part because of high interest rates that have made it di cult for owners to re nance. Rising property taxes also have hurt, causing some hotel owners in the city to face foreclosure or surrender their properties to their lenders to avoid a court battle.

Prominent downtown hotels whose owners were hit with foreclosure complaints early in the pandemic include the Palmer House Hilton, the JW Marriott Chicago and the Hotel Felix in River North.

las marketed the property as an opportunity to either capitalize on Gaw’s renovations to the property and continue operating it as a hotel or potentially convert it into a residential use, such as apartments or senior housing.

But Gaw couldn’t strike a deal amid a sluggish period for commercial property sales, ultimately triggering the foreclosure lawsuit on the loan’s roughly $33 million balance. e complaint was led on behalf of investors in the mortgage, which was packaged with other loans and sold o to commercial mortgage-backed securities investors. New York-based SitusAMC is serving as a special servicer overseeing the loan on behalf of bondholders.

Spokesmen for Gaw Capital and SitusAMC did not respond to requests for comment.

e hotel was known as the Public Chicago when Gaw bought it from a venture of hotel pioneer Ian Schrager, who had rebranded it as the Public but couldn’t get the concept to take o . Gaw rebranded the hotel as the Ambassador Chicago, a nod to its history as the storied former Ambassador East hotel. e Ambassador East opened in 1926 and stood as a Chicago institution for decades, known for celebrities dining at its renowned Pump Room restaurant and names like Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe staying there.

After restoring the Ambassador name, Gaw hired Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises to operate the Pump Room restaurant, which it reopened in 2017 as Booth One. But the restaurant closed in 2019, and the owners and Lettuce parted ways. e restaurant is now reopened and called the Ambassador Room.

In March 2020 — just days before the start of the pandemic — Gaw announced a plan to further renovate the property as the brand linked up with the Hyatt Hotels’ Joie de Vivre lifestyle hotel collection.

e hotel then closed for nearly a year amid the public health crisis.

Gaw tried to resolve its loan issue last year by putting the Ambassador up for sale, hoping a buyer would pay enough for Gaw to pay o its mortgage.

Brokerage RobertDoug-

Occupancy at downtown hotels last month averaged 80%, according to a preliminary report from hospitality data and analytics rm STR. at was up slightly from 78% in June 2022 but below the 88% occupancy average downtown Chicago saw in June 2019.

Chicago’s housing commissioner looks back on her tenure as she prepares to step down

Marisa Novara speaks about her time in the position, including her goal of ‘equitable distribution of a ordable housing across’ all of Chicago

BY JUSTIN LAURENCE

Chicago Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara, who re-established the city’s revived Department of Housing as a key policy driver over the last four years, is stepping down.

Novara told her sta last week that she was leaving city government on July 28.

Novara told Crain’s on July 11 that when she took the job she decided to work at a “four-year pace.”

She did not disclose if she has another job lined up, saying her rst priority was to see her eldest child o to college, but she would “always be in community development in some way.”

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot pulled Novara into government in 2019 from the Metropolitan Planning Council, where she served as vice president. She is among the department heads asked by Mayor Brandon Johnson to stay on for at least 90 days as his administration takes hold of city government and continues to hire senior o cials.

vara overseeing a major overhaul of the A ordable Requirements Ordinance. Changes included increasing the amount of a ordable units developers must provide in certain projects, creating an emergency rental assistance program during the early days of the pandemic and legalizing granny ats under a pilot program.

Contrary to doomsday predictions from developers, the city’s increased demands through the A ordable Requirements Ordinance did not stop new projects in the city, Novara said.

“We brought people along with where we thought the market could go without stopping development. Of course, you don’t want to go to a point where you’re stied, because then you won’t get the a ordable units you are trying to get to begin with,” she said.

Novara walked into a job that did not have a policy director, much less policy goals.

“When I started, we had no mission statement, no vision — so one of the rst things we did as a team was to create that,” she said. “Now we’re very clear in saying that the vision of this department is equitable distribution of a ordable housing across all 77 community areas.”

During Novara’s tenure, the city also built the Lucy Gonzalez Parsons Apartments a ordable housing complex on vacant city land in Logan Square and purchased land in Pilsen to build another.

colleague, as has been tradition.

With Novara’s backing, the City Council did approve a new housing development on the Northwest Side near O’Hare International Airport against the staunch opposition of local Ald. Anthony Napolitano, 41st, in December 2022, which Lightfoot held up as a model

for other potential projects and Napolitano cautioned was a sign of his colleagues losing their power.

Although she won’t be around to lead the department, Novara hinted that it’s possible for the Johnson administration and the new, more progressive City Council to go further in expand-

ing a ordable units in Chicago.

“Over the past four years, the biggest opponents to doing things like citywide additional dwelling units or allowing three- ats by right near transit, those folks are no longer in o ce. So it’s a new day and a new opportunity,” she said.

Novara’s time at the Metropolitan Planning Council and in government suggested she could be a good t to continue to lead the department under Johnson, who campaigned on doubling down on Lightfoot’s Invest South/West program and expanding a ordable housing across the city.

“I am really hopeful and excited about the Johnson administration and the alignment with his philosophy and vision and the work we’ve already done,” Novara told Crain’s. “But, for me personally, I think it’s just time to pass the baton to the next person.”

e city’s Department of Housing was folded into the Department of Planning & Development under former Mayor Richard Daley in 2008. While former Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced in 2018 he would relaunch the department, it was not fully sta ed and funded until Lightfoot and Novara took over a year later.

e relaunched Housing Department was one of the most active in pushing major legislation through the City Council during Lightfoot’s term, with No-

And the Housing Department helped create the Connected Communities Ordinance, a revamped transit-oriented development policy last summer to allow more developments across the city focused along transit routes, including bus lines, in an e ort to bring such dense developments to the South and West sides.

She said her proudest accomplishment was leading the city’s racial equity impact assessment of its low-income tax credit tool, which led to putting $1 billion into the creation of a ordable projects in 2012.

Novara and Lightfoot both previously sought to legislatively curb aldermanic prerogative in zoning decisions as a way to push through more a ordable developments in areas of the city that had resisted them, but they were not successful amid a mountain of opposition from the City Council.

However, incremental changes were made. e Connected Communities Ordinance requires a vote on a ordable projects in areas with few a ordable housing units after a period of time, even if the local alderperson opposes the project — although the City Council could still side with their

Chicago Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara is leaving city government.

FORMER CHICAGO MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT PULLED NOVARA INTO GOVERNMENT IN 2019 FROM THE METROPOLITAN PLANNING COUNCIL, WHERE SHE WAS VICE PRESIDENT.

This is the highest price ever paid for a home anywhere in the city south of the Loop

BY DENNIS RODKIN

A rare contemporary home set amidst the historic buildings on Printer’s Row sold for the highest price on record in any part of the city south of Ida B. Wells Drive.

The Dearborn Street house, which has an outdoor pool on the second floor and a grocery store as a tenant on the ground floor, sold for $4.8 million on July 6. The price tops all past home sales south of downtown, including a Hyde Park mansion that went for $4.2 million in late 2021.

With a checkerboard terra cotta screen on the exterior of its upper floors, a dramatic ribbon-like staircase made of oak and a second-story terrace and swimming pool tucked behind empty window openings on the second floor, “it’s a one-ofone house,” said Tim Salm, the Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty agent who represented sellers Chris and Sara Talsma. “There’s nothing else like it.”

For the buyers, the appeal was that the house “has all these special architectural details,

but it still put them in the heart of Chicago, still has a feeling of being in the neighborhood,” said Debbi Nick, the Compass agent who represented them. The buyers were not identified in public records as of July 10.

The Talsmas put the five-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot home on the market in November 2022, asking almost $6 million. It sold for about 80% of their asking price.

DENSITY DICTATED DESIGN

Chris Talsma, a principal at Chicago-based architecture firm Filorama Talsma, told Crain’s when the house was coming on the market that density dictated much of the design. The slender, long-vacant lot across the street from Dearborn Station wouldn’t accommodate a yard, so “we emphasized creating outdoor space” above the ground.

That’s mostly on the second floor, where the living spaces open onto a 2,000-square-foot space that spans the south side of the building but is concealed from view for passersby who only see a tall brick wall pierced

by what look like empty window openings.

When the Talsmas bought the site in 2012, zoning would have allowed about 12 stories of residential space.

“That wouldn’t have fit the

neighborhood,” Chris Talsma said last year. He designed the four-story house, with parking and a retail space on the first floor and the residence on the upper three.

At the time, the Talsmas were

planning to build another house in the city. Crain’s couldn’t reach them to learn where that project is. Before completing the Printer’s Row house, they lived in a West Town house they also created and sold in 2017.

Court battle intensifies over Old Town apartment project

BY ALBY GALLUN

The developer of an unbuilt 254-unit apartment project on an Old Town property has sued a Chicago investor that recently seized control of the site, escalating a legal battle that has been brewing for nearly two years.

The lawsuit reveals more fallout from the collapse of a New York-based crowdfunding firm, Prodigy Network, which raised $22 million in equity for the development at 1400 N. Orleans St. Amid a wave of lawsuits from investors, Prodigy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in March 2021, leaving the future of the Old Town project — along with a proposed Fulton Market hotel — in doubt.

Now, the New York developer that led the failed project, Joe McMillan, is crying foul over a Chicago investor’s takeover of the development’s most valuable asset: the parcel where the seven-story building was planned. In a lawsuit, ventures led by McMillan accuse entities led by the investor, Ananthan Thangavel, of improperly snatching the property, estimated to be worth $16 million, for next to nothing.

It’s a complicated conflict,

involving multiple legal entities and clashing interpretations of partnership agreements. The dispute entered arbitration in 2021, and an arbitrator last year ruled against a McMillan venture, accusing it of self-dealing and ordering it to pay more than $350,000 in legal and other fees.

STAKE AUCTIONED

The fight over the Old Town property traces its origins to the Prodigy bankruptcy case. To recover money for Prodigy’s creditors, a bankruptcy trustee auctioned off Prodigy’s 90% interest in the company formed to develop the site. A Thangavel entity prevailed in the auction, paying $7.65 million for Prodigy’s stake, according to the lawsuit, filed in late May in Cook County Circuit Court.

In November 2021, the Thangavel venture effectively fired McMillan from the development company, the suit says. An affiliate of the development company went on to transfer the Old Town property to another Thangavel venture in October 2022 for just $10, according to the complaint.

It “was a self-interested transaction that did not constitute fair dealing,” the complaint says.

The development affiliate had paid $14.4 million for the parcel in late 2018, and the property’s value was estimated at $16 million in November 2021, according to the suit. At that value, the McMillan venture should have received at least $1.6 million for its 10% stake in the development company, and by extension, the property, the lawsuit says.

It’s unclear what Thangavel, managing director of a company called Lakshmi Capital Management, has in mind for the site. Thangavel, a former hedge fund manager, oversees a small portfolio of rental properties on Chicago’s North Side, according to the Lakshmi website. His developments include a 105unit apartment building at 343 W. Schiller St., just south of the Orleans development site, that opened in 2020. Thangavel and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment. McMillan and his attorney also did not respond to requests for comment.

A firm led by McMillan, DDG, originally teamed up on the Old Town and Fulton Market projects with Chicago-based Marc Realty. But DDG bought out Marc’s stake in the developments at some point before

Prodigy’s bankruptcy.

The developers had planned to finance the project with equity raised by Prodigy, a firm founded in 2023. Rather than seeking out tens of millions of dollars from private-equity firms or big institutional investors, Prodigy was among a group of crowdfunding platforms that raise money in smaller amounts largely from individual investors.

NEVER BECAME REALITY

In April 2019, Prodigy disclosed it had raised an initial $22 million in equity for the development, with a ground -

breaking set for the second quarter of that year. Called Old Town Residences, it was Prodigy’s inaugural project in Chicago. DDG and Marc planned to raise a total of $43 million in equity and secure $52 million in debt for the $95 million project, according to the announcement.

But the development never became a reality, nor did the hotel in Fulton Market. In October, McMillan and a partner, Chicago-based Golub, filed plans with the city for a 42-story, 400-unit apartment tower on the Fulton Market site, at 1234 W. Randolph St.

A lawsuit reveals more local fallout from the collapse of a New York-based crowdfunding rm that raised money for the proposed development

ANDREW MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY COSTAR GROUP

The Dearborn Street house, which has an outdoor pool on the second oor and a grocery store on the ground oor, sold for $4.8 million on July 6.

A rendering of a 254-unit apartment project that was proposed for 1400 N. Orleans St. in Old Town.

A female VC’s top ve tips to navigate and win at raising investment capital

It seems crazy to think that less than 2% of female founders receive venture-capital funding in this day and age, according to PitchBook, even though we know that female-founded startups exit faster and at higher valuations. But we see that typically, “like invests in like”, so when only 4.5% of venture-capital general partners and fund managers with check-writing authority are women, it only makes sense.

And money is being left on the table when there are no women at the top. Without insight into the female demographic, all male investment teams might miss market opportunities. Signi cant ones.

According to Statista, the femtech market in 2021 was worth around $51 billion worldwide, and it is predicted this market will grow to $103 billion by 2030. Poised to capture this growth, female general partners relate to and identify with female-centric, female-founded startups. ere are continued opportunities for both female founders and female GPs in this up-and-coming industry.

So, if the goal is to capitalize on and collect that money being left

on the table, while increasing access to capital for female founders, we need to strive for major change in venture capital.

Here are my top ve tips for navigating and winning at raising capital:

1. Network with other founders who know the inside scoop on which investors and venture capitalists fund female founders.

SHARE OF U.S. VC FIRMS BY MAJORITY DECISION-MAKER GENDER*

2. Know your weakness. Hire for it, include it on your advisory board or perfect it in yourself.

3. Invest in your personal brand and public exposure, including social media, PR/media relations, and speaking at and attending relevant conferences.

4. Do your research on VCs and investors and identify common

personal synergies to connect with them.

5. Ask for and nd warm introductions. A referral o ers credibility and can open many doors.

Bonus tip: Keep in mind, rejection is protection. Take the “no” and ask for another point of contact to continue the conversation. Also keep in mind that “no” can often

mean “no, not right now.” In many cases, a year from now, that “no” can turn into “yes.” So, keep connected.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that change takes time. Many of us want instant grati cation and immediate funding, but you should estimate a year or more to garner credibility, create connections and develop a rapport before you hear the word “yes.”

Advice for small businesses and entrepreneurs in partnership with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Renata Merino is a venturecapital investor and founder and CEO of Blazin’ Babes, a female founder community. She serves as a mentor for entrepreneurs with the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and holds an MBA from the Uof C Booth School of Business.

Source: PitchBook • Geography: U.S.

For NU, there’s a lot at stake in cleaning up its house

No doubt administrators, faculty and trustees of Northwestern University would like to quickly move past the stunning disclosures of the past several days and get back to some sort of normalcy.

But as the fumbling around the hazing scandal that cost a popular football coach his job and left the biggest of black eyes on the university in recent memory continues to linger, more unpleasant headlines keep drip, drip, dripping out from other corners of the university’s sports programs.

Case in point: e university’s baseball coach was red following bullying allegations.

You get the sense Northwestern ocials are covering their eyes and asking periodically, “Is it over yet?”

Let’s just say that crisis communications is not the forte of this leafy institution.

Unless the university, which launched what appeared to be a thorough, monthslong investigation into the hazing allegations, starts being transparent about what happened and what the investigation really revealed, only then can Northwestern start to think about moving on.

Until that happens, the fallout will be long and painful.

Already some football recruits are reportedly turning their backs on attending and playing for the university.

ere is tension in the faculty ranks now about whether the university should proceed with plans for a big, shiny new stadium that would seemingly take Northwestern’s football program in a whole new direction.

Beyond the stunning revelations of players’ alleged demeaning and degrading acts, some sexual in nature, the scan-

dal has put a spotlight on a university clearly at a signi cant crossroads. Over many decades, Northwestern at its core has prided itself on its academic record, striving to be a world-renowned educational institution that helps shape future leaders across the globe, including a healthy share of Chicago CEOs.

Until recently, sports, notably football,

took a back seat. But as it goes for most in the college big leagues, sports has increasingly moved to the driver’s seat at universities, setting up tensions that play out mostly behind the scenes, and sometimes out in full view of the public when scandals hit.

ere’s a lot at stake in Northwestern cleaning up its house, and not just for

the Evanston campus. As Crain’s reports in this week’s issue, the university is one of the Chicago region’s biggest assets, attracting top undergrads and graduate students who go on to run companies and invent things.

“Northwestern is one of Chicago’s most powerful magnets for top global talent, attracting the people who invent the world’s future and happily become Chicagoans in the process,” Paul O’Connor, a consultant who oversaw Chicago’s economic development arm, World Business Chicago, tells Crain’s.

And as our story reports, it’s now up to Northwestern trustees — many of them captains of Chicago’s biggest rms and institutions — to demand transparency and accountability and set a path for the university’s future.

ere will be fallout. But for how long and how much depends on leadership communication speci cally around how it xes its problems.

“ e short-term fallout will likely be profound, including signi cant embarrassment for all associated with the university, a blow to the institution’s image and reputation, a drop in donations, difculty in recruiting student-athletes, a decline in the competitiveness of sports teams and major lawsuits, all resulting in a substantial nancial loss for the institution,” William E. “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor emeritus of the University System of Maryland and former president of e Ohio State University, tells Crain’s. “With strong action by the university, however, the university will rebound.”

In other words, Northwestern is at a tricky moment.

Now is not the time for its leaders to be quiet and hope it all blows over.

How to ease development of a ordable housing

Crain’s recently published a story highlighting construction costs for Invest South/West developments

(“Invest South/West projects ring up sky-high construction costs,” July 10). In late June, the DePaul Institute for Housing Studies released a report that found Chicago’s a ordability gap is the highest it’s been in at least a decade. Now is the time for the new mayoral administration to prioritize strategies that will get a ordable housing built more quickly and eciently across our city.

e Illinois Housing Council represents more than 270 organizations active in the development of a ordable housing throughout the state. Our members see rsthand the overwhelming demand for a ordable housing and they understand the cost-escalation crisis that is impeding

our ability to get more Illinoisans the housing they desperately need.

Two compelling examples of the need for urgency:

Casa Durango, an a ordable development in Pilsen, received 1,497 applications for 57 a ordable apartments this spring. 5150 Northwest Highway, an a ordable development in Je erson Park, currently has 1,877 requests on its waitlist for 75 a ordable apartments. ese waitlists are not unique and demonstrate the dire state of housing a ordability across our city.

At the same time, we are facing unprecedented growth in costs to develop and build new housing. A report from the National Council of State Housing Agencies published in late 2022 found a ordable housing developments across the nation

have experienced year-over-year cost increases averaging 30%. A ordable developments in the city of Chicago are not immune to these cost increases, as was highlighted in the recent Crain’s article.

Many of these challenges result from larger economic forces outside of our control; but there are many city policies that can escalate what is already an extremely di cult environment for building affordable housing with the limited resources available.

Despite the city of Chicago’s meaningful leadership related to a ordable housing, all relevant development funding from the city is subject to its own set of architectural and technical standards that are often more stringent than the requirements for market-rate housing, exceeding basic code requirements. ese standards dictate everything from the size of units to stor-

age and materials used — all areas that can result in increased costs. ey also outline how and when developers can engage with a general contractor on the development and how that contract is managed.

In many cases, these policies are worthy, both to ensure code enforcement

for health and safety and to provide social bene ts to the residents living in a ordable housing and the surrounding community. But other times, they can add costs, cause delays and extend

Allison Clements is executive director of the Illinois Housing Council.

WE CALL ON MAYOR JOHNSON TO DESIGNATE A MEMBER OF HIS LEADERSHIP TEAM TO BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR BREAKING DOWN BUREAUCRACY AND INCREASING EFFICIENCY IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.

development timelines.

Many of the city’s policies are out of timing alignment or in direct con ict with standards required by other funders that may be contributing resources to the project. When a development is using both state and city funding, con icting standards can cause confusion and add time and cost to the budget.

ere is no denying that the current resources we have available are simply not enough to meet the overwhelming demand for a ordable homes and apartments across our city. However, we also need our political leaders to use their power to cut the layers of bureaucracy and policies that may be slowing down the production of a ordable housing.

Here are just a few examples of changes

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the city could make to expedite the development process:

 Allow a design-build model where the general contractor is part of the development team from early in the design process. It’s a common practice of our market-rate developer colleagues. With the continued uncertainty of the construction market, being able to tap the expertise of contractors with up-to-date, real-world knowledge during early- and mid-stage design is critical for robustly designed and feasible developments.

 Re-evaluate the need for the Committee on Design. e committee’s review of developments is an unnecessary step that adds time, cost and duplicative work

to an already complex process. Chicago is home to award-winning, high-quality architecture rms; a ordable housing is often leading the way in design. e city should instead focus on how it can better coordinate its design policies between agencies.

 Expedite the permitting process. On average, we estimate an a ordable housing development waits six to eight months for permit approval, and that’s after all required documents are submitted. At a minimum, the city should consider a specialized fast track for a ordable housing developments, as other municipalities have established.

 Engage all departments that touch af-

fordable housing in a process to review their policy approaches and identify any processes that could expedite projects and reduce costs. Various cities, including Denver, have conducted similar internal reviews and have seen immediate success.

We call on Mayor Johnson to designate a member of his leadership team to be solely responsible for breaking down bureaucracy and increasing e ciency in the development process. is individual should be tasked with engaging all stakeholders, including the Illinois Housing Development Authority, developers, lenders, investors, and city sta to better understand the development ecosystem and improve it. We stand ready to be partners with the city in this e ort.

ACCOUNTING / CONSULTING

John Kasperek Co., Inc., Calumet City / Mokena

Alexis Keller joins JKC as a full-time Associate following her graduation from Indiana University Northwest where she earned her BS in Accounting & Finance. A high achiever and quick learner, Alexis has provided immediate support to the rm’s audit engagements.  Alexis previously worked in various roles including general manager while earning her degree. She also participated in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program last tax season preparing taxes for low-income taxpayers.

CONSTRUCTION

Skender, Chicago

To

BANKING / FINANCE

Associated Bank, Chicago

Associated Bank Private

Wealth welcomes

Arnold “Arnie” Brown as private banking executive. Drawing on his 40 years of banking experience, Brown will be responsible for continuing to develop the professional services vertical offering banking solutions to help organizations thrive. In the community, he is a board member for the Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Lawyers Connecting, Buffalo Grove Friends of the Park, and is a past president for the Jewish Community Center Northern Regional Board.

Skender, one of the nation’s top building contractors, congratulates Stacy Laughlin on her promotion to Chief Financial Of cer. Stacy joined Skender in 2012 and has built a cohesive nance and accounting team, helped to introduce and integrate forward-looking nancial technology, enhanced the budgeting process and advanced the company’s nancing capabilities. In her role as CFO, Stacy will be responsible for overseeing the nancial and technology teams.

INSURANCE BROKERAGE

The Horton Group, Chicago

The Horton Group is pleased to welcome Andy Howard to the company as the practice group leader of their commercial property practice. He will serve as a subject matter expert on property placements and a carrier liaison while focusing on building and strengthening Horton’s property department. Andy brings over 15 years of insurance experience with a wealth of knowledge in Excess and Surplus (E&S) property, international property and property broking in challenging market conditions.

LAW FIRM

Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres, Chicago

Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres welcomes David Lopez-Kurtz as the rm’s newest associate, focusing on emerging technology, digital assets, blockchain technology, and arti cial intelligence (AI)/large language models (LLMs). In addition to his work with web3, AI, and LLM companies and investors, David maintains a vibrant practice working on traditional corporate and securities matters.

NON-PROFIT

The Ark, Chicago

The Ark, a nonpro t serving more than 4,000 Jews in Chicagoland, appointed Steven Handmaker, Chief Marketing Of cer at Marsh McLennan Agency, as the new President of its Board of Directors. Since joining The Ark’s Board in 2016, Mr. Handmaker headed the Marketing and Communications Committee. Effective July 2023 through June 2025, he will play a crucial role in effectively addressing the evolving needs of the organization’s clients. For more information about The Ark, visit arkchicago.org.

CONSTRUCTION

Skender, Chicago

LAW FIRM

Taft Law, Chicago

Michael Best, Chicago

NON-PROFIT

BANKING / FINANCE

Associated Bank, Chicago

Associated Bank is proud to announce the promotion of Steven Jones to SVP. Steven will continue to structure and manage complex commercial credits while also taking on new leadership responsibilities within the team. Steven has worked for Associated Bank since 2007 and held various positions throughout the bank. Steven is also the Chair of the Cultural Awareness ERG, where he leads the bank’s initiatives with diversity and inclusion. We are also pleased to share the promotion of Nathan Saporta to Portfolio Manager. Nathan joined the bank as an analyst in 2021, supporting the team with a variety of credit and underwriting responsibilities. In his promoted role, Nathan is managing a large commercial portfolio and underwriting new credits.

BANKING / FINANCE

PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., Chicago / Minneapolis

Ryan Alwood has been appointed Executive Vice President and Market Leader of PNC Private Bank for Chicago and Minneapolis.

With over 20 years of experience in nancial services, Alwood will help lead PNC’s strategy and growth initiatives to offer a broad spectrum of planning, investment management, banking, and credit services to high-net worth individuals and families. He recently served as PNC Retail Executive, with responsibility for over 150 branches across four states, including Illinois.

Skender, one of the nation’s top building contractors, congratulates Lisa Latronico on her promotion to Chief People Of cer. Lisa joined Skender in 2001 and has overseen the HR function since 2006. An advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, under her watch Skender has boosted its representation of women in the company to 25%, well above the industry average of 11%. Under Lisa’s leadership, Skender has also earned 29 “best place to work” awards.

Anabel Abarca has joined Taft as an associate in the Real Estate practice focusing on zoning and land use. She has experience guiding clients pursuing land use approval processes involving special use, variations, and planned developments between developers and municipalities. Anabel is active in the community and previously served as Alderman of Chicago’s 12th Ward.

Michael Best welcomes Bethany Martinez to the rm as the Chief Talent & Administration Of cer. Bringing more than two decades of experience, Bethany will work alongside the leadership team to oversee and implement core policies and processes related to people, culture and workplace inclusiveness. Prior to joining Michael Best, Bethany held several leadership roles at Ernst & Young and the global law rm Baker & McKenzie spanning over the last twenty years.

The Salvation Army, North & Central Illinois

Lieutenant Colonels

Jonathan Rich and Barbara Rich appointed to lead The Salvation Army North and Central Illinois Division. Their leadership will guide a large area of Illinois including the Chicagoland area in delivering critical social services to meet the various communities’ physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

CONSTRUCTION

Skender, Chicago

Skender, one of the nation’s top building contractors, congratulates Jerry Ball on his promotion to Chief Operating Of cer. Since joining Skender in 2003, Jerry has been a key member of the company’s executive leadership team, directing nancial, risk management, admin and operational initiatives. In his new role as COO, he will be focused on cultivating a people- rst, “one-Skender” mindset, providing employees with training, mentorship and coaching, building client relationships and more.

LAW FIRM

Taft Law, Chicago

Taft welcomes of counsel

M. Gavin McCarty to the Chicago of ce. He focuses his corporate, litigation, and ethics and compliance legal practice on highly regulated renewable and traditional energy industries and public utilities. Prior to joining Taft, Gavin served in senior corporate leadership roles as General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel of Fortune 500, S&P 500 component, and private companies.

MANUFACTURING

Hoffer Plastics, South Elgin

Hoffer Plastics is pleased to announce the hire of Jeff Klabunde as Vice President of Operations. Leveraging 33 years of experience in the design and execution of organizational development and process optimization strategies, Klabunde will be responsible for driving operational excellence across the organization. He will focus on maximizing productivity across all operations-related functions, including automation, plant maintenance and more.

Lt. Colonels Jonathan and Barbara Rich have served in The Salvation Army for over 25 years, leading one of the largest U.S. area commands in North Central Texas and overseeing the development and opening of a Kroc Center as area commanders in Memphis. One of Colonel Jonathan Rich’s passions is strategic change management which would involve developing a team to conquer a task.

Prologis, Rosemont

Sean Olvany has been promoted to Vice President, Market Of cer – Chicago for Prologis. He oversees all portfolio and market operations for Chicago.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Midtown Athletic Club & Hotel, Chicago

Midtown Athletic Club and Hotel in Chicago appointed industry veteran Matt Tilburg as its new General Manager. Tilburg will lead operations at one of the world’s largest and highest ranked athletic clubs following Midtown’s $75 million renovation in 2018. Today, the Bucktown landmark features 575,000 square feet of world-class amenities including indoor and outdoor pools, six tness studios, 16 tennis courts, a spa and salon, a rooftop lounge and a 55-room boutique hotel.

LAW FIRM

Taft Law, Chicago

Intellectual Property attorney Jeff Mote has joined Taft. He litigates patent, copyright, trademark, unfair competition, and trade secret cases in the U.S. and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Of ce for a broad range of clients. Jeff also represents clients in IP transactions involving M&A, technology transfer, and IP licensing. His experience includes brand management counseling and overseeing all aspects of the patent and trademark portfolios of large, middle-market, and startup entities.

NON-PROFIT

Aspire, Hillside / Waukegan

Sharon Lawrence is named Chief Operating Of cer of Aspire, helping empower people with developmental disabilities, rethink accessibility and reshape communities. With more than 30 years of developing enterprising solutions and driving organizational change, Sharon will refresh and evolve Aspire’s programs. She’ll foster collaboration between Aspire team members, people with disabilities, and the community; bringing Aspire closer to its vision. Become a partner in progress at aspirechicago.com.

Sean is also responsible for disposition strategy, collaborating with the Capital Deployment team on investments, and community relations. Prologis is the largest industrial property owner in the Chicago market, with over 82 million square feet, consisting of 349 buildings occupied by over 575 customers.  Sean joined Prologis in 2016.

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Jonathan Barbara

LAW FIRM

Jones Saporta

HOSPITAL TO HOME: Rush University team creates app to support breastfeeding. PAGE 15

PREGNANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS: Illinois continues to push for expectant moms. PAGE 16

HEALTH JUSTICE: A case for adding more licensed certi ed professional midwives. PAGE 16

BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT

For Star August, the birth of her rst son did not go as planned. August hired an out-of-hospital midwife to guide her through the pregnancy but attended checkups in a hospital as a cost-saving measure. At one of her last checkups, the doctors told her that her amniotic uid was low and wanted to induce labor.

“I wasn’t able to get a hold of my midwife, and I didn’t know what to do,” August recalls.

What happened next was a harrowing experience. After taking Pitocin, a synthetic hormone used to induce labor and speed up contractions, her son’s heart rate began

to drop. August was rushed to the operating room for an emergency C-section. She wasn’t completely anesthetized before doctors cut into her skin, and they ignored her pleas to stop.

After awakening from a drug-induced coma, she saw her newborn son being resuscitated next to her. Once revived, the baby was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit. August couldn’t experience skin-to-skin contact with her child at birth, which can decrease stress in both mother and child and help initiate breastfeeding.

August’s traumatic birthing story is a fa-

MATERNAL HEALTH SPONSORS

By Amy Kraft

miliar one, especially for Black and Brown women, who face a greater risk of trauma and death due to childbirth compared to their white peers.

Research published earlier this month by the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, found higher maternal mortality rates in Black communities, while Native American and Alaska Native people experienced a particularly rapid rise. State median mortality rates more than tripled over the last two decades.

In Chicago, Black women have a maternal mortality rate nearly six times higher than

white women, and Latina women have a maternal mortality rate twice as high as white women.

“ e root causes of disproportionate pregnancy complications in Black women are driven by inequality, discrimination and longstanding racism deeply rooted in the U.S. health care system,” Dr. Jana Richards, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UChicago Medicine, wrote in an article.

In late June, Cook County Board Com-

See BIRTH on Page 14

Black maternal health and mortality has reached a crisis level. Here are the people in Chicago taking steps to stem it. |

Star August, left, and Callan Jaress are co-founders of the Holistic Birth Collective, a nonpro t organization advocating for midwife-led care models for underserved communities.

MATERNAL HEALTH

BIRTH

Continued from Page 13

missioner Donna Miller, who represents south and southwest suburbs, convened a Health & Hospitals Committee hearing to discuss the maternal mortality crisis. U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, and Illinois State Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, talked about their policy e orts. Mothers, doctors and doulas described the alarming incidences related to maternal health during pregnancy and childbirth. “We can and must do better,” Miller told Crain’s.

Undergirding the disparities is the disinvestment in health care systems in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods, where the legacy of discrimination and redlining has contributed to shorter lifespans. On Chicago’s South Side, only three hospitals o er maternity care, severely limiting residents’ options. Food and housing insecurity and chronic stress also impact birth outcomes for mother and baby, as do the lack of paid maternity leave and exible work policies.

When all factors are taken into account, maternal health and mortality become an economic issue, especially for demographic groups already struggling nancially. A maternal death can cause economic devastation than spans generations, as over 40% of mothers are the sole or primary breadwinners for their families, according to the Pew Research Center.

“ e racial disparities seen in maternal health outcomes are complex and go deeper than economic resources alone: having a higher income or more education does not protect Black mothers from increased rates of maternal mortality and morbidity,” wrote Anna Bernstein, a health care policy fellow and deputy director of health equity and reform at e Century Foundation, a progressive, nonpartisan think tank.

For August, the maternal health crisis demanded that she take action. After her birthing experience, she began to train to become a midwife herself. In 2020, while hosting a conversation with local Black mothers who were interested in home births, she met Callan Jaress, who is white, and the two women decided to work on closing the disparity gap together.

“Lack of options is a form of oppression,” says Jaress, a mother of two. Together, the women founded the Holistic Birth Collective, a nonpro t organization advocating for midwife-led care models for underserved communities.

One of the main goals of the HBC is to have a certi ed professional midwife in every neighborhood so that all women have options for their childbirth experience. One study out of Michigan found that Black women prefer giving birth outside of the hospital at the same rate as white women; however, most women in the U.S. are constrained to birth in hospitals where insurers cover the cost. e study also noted a paucity of certi ed nurse-mid-

BIRTHS

wives in the state, a statistic that extends throughout the U.S.

In addition to making midwife care more accessible, pregnancy and childbirth experts across the city are researching ways to improve prenatal and postnatal care for Black and Brown women and to enact maternity leave laws so that working women can continue to participate in the labor market after childbirth.

Regarding midwifery in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Licensed Certi ed Professional Midwife Practice Act in 2021, which licenses individuals who have earned the proper certi cation necessary to perform out-of-hospital births. e law, however, does not allow licensed midwives to be covered by Medicaid. Seeing the disparity, the HBC championed SB 1041, a measure extending the use of certi ed professional midwives to Medicaid patients.

After August, a mother of four, became the rst person of color credentialed as a professional midwife in Illinois in 2021, she and Jaress set out to increase the racial diversity of midwives by developing a Licensed Midwife Education Program on Chicago’s South Side, which has been labeled a maternal health desert

“We need to put these programs where they are needed,” August says.

PRE-PREGNANCY HEALTH

After experiencing oppression and systemic racism rsthand growing up in an impoverished neighborhood in Detroit, Dr. Melissa Simon was determined to change that.

Simon, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, preventive medicine and medical social sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, has focused her career on advancing health justice.

“For me, it’s about how to improve health care access and health care delivery conditions to ensure everyone has an opportunity to achieve health regardless of the color of their skin,” says Simon, founder and director of the Center for Health Equity Transformation at Northwestern.

Simon is working on the Optimize study out of Northwestern, a veyear cluster randomized clinical trial in partnership with AllianceChicago and the Access Community Health Network that explores how to improve care for prenatal and postnatal African American/ Black patients. e study’s goal is to increase pregnant women’s ability to attend prenatal and postnatal visits, to receive comprehensive care at these visits and to connect with resources that address social determinants of health.

Simon says that the rst prenatal appointment should be focused on building trust with the patient.

Prenatal appointments are especially important for Black women because research shows they face a higher risk of pregnancy complications, including hypertension (pre-eclampsia) and gestational diabetes. If complications are not identi ed and treated, they could lead to death, as was the case with Tori Bowie, an Olympic athlete who died this year. Autopsy reports showed she was eight months pregnant and in labor at the time of her death, which was likely caused by

Pregnancy-associated mortality is defined as the death of the mother occurring during pregnancy or up to one year after the end of a pregnancy, regardless of the cause of death.

INFANT MORTALITY RATE, PER 1,000 LIVE

Disparities can begin even before a woman makes it into a clinic, says Dr. Sarosh Rana, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UChicago Medicine and section chief for maternal and fetal medicine. JOHN R. BOEHM

eclampsia, a severe complication of pre-eclampsia when high blood pressure results in seizures.

POSTPARTUM IMPROVEMENTS

“Black women are not only dying during pregnancy, there’s so much disparity in how people are being followed postpartum,” says Dr. Sarosh Rana, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UChicago Medicine and section chief for maternal and fetal medicine.

Disparities can begin even before a woman makes it into a clinic, Rana says, enumerating barriers that include lack of access to clinics, increased health risk factors (such as obesity), lack of transportation, lack of child care, restrictions with insurance, gun violence in the community, domestic violence, lack of education and awareness among patients and providers, and health care system/provider implicit bias.

To address these issues, Rana, an expert in the diagnosis and management of women with preeclampsia, created the Systemic Treatment & Management of Postpartum Hypertension program, which standardized care so that every woman who comes into the clinic gets the same hypertension education material, a blood pressure cu for continuous monitoring and a treatment plan that includes follow-up appointments.

She created a quality-improvement initiative consisting of a bundle of clinical interventions, including health care professional and patient education, a dedicated nurse educator and protocols for postpartum hypertensive disorders of pregnancy care in the inpatient, outpatient and readmission setting.

Rana says these changes made a big di erence in outcomes. Home blood pressure monitoring increased patient satisfaction and reduced hypertension hospitalizations. Rana is working to see how she can expand the program to other institutions.

Postnatal care is also important for mental health. Research shows that postpartum depression a ects 1 in 8 new moms, and mental health issues are the leading causes of pregnancy-related death in the U.S. (including deaths by suicide and poisoning/overdose). Research also shows that postpartum depression is more common in women of color who have less access to treatment.

While seeing her regular newborn patients at UI Health, a state hospital that primarily serves Medicaid and Medicaid-eligible families, Dr. Rachel Caskey, professor and chief of the Division of Academic Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago and a health services researcher, noticed that a lot of newborns were doing well, but their mothers were not. “I was struck by the fact that they did not seem well physically and mentally.”

With a $9.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Health Resources & Services Administration, Caskey and colleagues launched a maternal health task force and improved methods for collecting data and training health care professionals.

e money was also used to implement an integrated care model that serves babies and mothers, so when a mother brings her newborn in for a checkup, she also gets seen by a doctor. “Everyone gets comprehensive medical care,” Caskey says.

“Every family meets with social workers, lactation specialists and community health workers, and we screen the mom and her partner for social support needs, depression, anxiety and substance use disorder.”

EMPLOYERS’ ROLES

Postnatal care is only one factor in the larger issue of maternal health.

It is important to have employers that are exible with family and medical leave, Caskey says. “What a lot of families need is more leave and more support.”

Miriam Gensowski, a senior researcher at the Rochwool Foundation in Denmark who is part of the Human Capital & Economic Opportunity Global Working Group out of the University of Chicago, agrees.

“Employers by nature have to play a role in this because the majority of Americans get insurance through their employer.”

After Denmark increased paid parental leave from 24 weeks to 46 weeks in 2002, Gensowski wanted to know the e ects this had on children’s socioemotional skills and well-being in adolescence. Her research, which focuses on human capital, found that extending leave for parents is associated with higher earnings and better labor attachment, as well as better health.

“Skills that are important for life outcomes,” she says.

Although results from one country cannot be generalized to the world, this research sheds light on how longer parental leave a ects long-term human capital formation.

Some companies in Chicago have recognized the importance of this bene t. As of Jan. 1, municipal employees are eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave under the Family & Medical Leave Act if they have been employed by the city for at least 12 months prior to taking leave and worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months preceding the leave.

e same amount of paid maternity leave has been extended to Chicago Public Schools employees, although the details of that program still need to be worked out.

Additionally, in 2021 Pritzker extended full Medicaid bene ts from 60 days to 12 months for all eligible new mothers.

“ is enhanced period of care is critical to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality rates and the alarming disparities in health outcomes for Black women and all women with Medicaid coverage across the state,” Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services Director eresa Eagleson said in a press release.

“Bonding is critical,” says Northwestern’s Simon. “Establishing family health and a routine healing and recovery takes from a few months up to a year. It would be helpful if employers could understand and recognize that.”

Breastfeeding disparities prompt creation of an app

BY AMY KRAFT

roughout her career as a nurse and lactation consultant on Chicago’s South Side, Jo Ann Allen saw countless infants struggling immediately after birth.

ey would arrive at their rst pediatric appointment jaundiced or dealing with issues related to lack of nutrition. She also noticed that the majority of women in her predominantly Black neighborhood were not equipped with the right information or resources to help them breastfeed their babies.

“I witnessed disparities in how lactation support was provided,” Allen says. “People who needed the services weren’t getting it.”

For years, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization have recommended exclusively breastfeeding for up to six months. Several barriers stand in the way of this goal, especially for Black women, who have the lowest breastfeeding initiation rate of all races, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

Allen co-authored a 2021 research paper on structural racism and barriers for African American families on the South Side who choose to breastfeed.

For one, they do not have sucient health care services at their disposal. Where services do exist, research also shows a lack of knowledge about breastfeeding best practices and an undervaluing of breastfeeding.

“A lot of health care providers and nurses assume that Black women don’t breastfeed, so they don’t talk to them about breastfeeding,” says Urmeka Je erson, an associate professor in the Department of Women, Children & Family Nursing at Rush Univer-

sity, who was not involved in the research.

After delivery, Black mothers are also more likely to need to return to work, where they have in exible schedules, rendering it nearly impossible for them to express milk.

In nancial terms, not breastfeeding results in economic losses of approximately $350 billion each year in lost life, productivity and increased health care costs, according to peer-reviewed journal e Lancet’s Breastfeeding Series.

Breastfed babies have a reduced risk of infant mortality and decreased rates of diarrhea, ear infections and chronic diseases, including diabetes and obesity. Additionally, breastmilk carries antibodies to pathogens that a mother is exposed to, which confer protective e ects on the baby. ere are also known bene ts of breastfeeding to the mother, including a reduced risk of hypertension, breast and ovarian cancers, and Type 2 diabetes. e need to work is one of the top reasons cited for not exclusively breastfeeding or for early weaning.

mother to express milk as well as a private space that is not a bathroom to express milk for up to one year after the birth of a child.

To bridge the gap in breastfeeding support from hospital to home, Je erson of Rush University is working with African American moms, health care advisers and an advisory board to design an app called Latch On (previously called Mother’s Milk Connection), which provides peer and professional support for breastfeeding mothers as well as access to community services and information on state and local laws regarding breastfeeding.

e app also addresses social determinants of health. “If you’re losing your home and worried about where to live, you have resources available in the app. Same with food insecurity,” she notes.

Currently in a second round of

“A LOT OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS AND NURSES ASSUME THAT BLACK WOMEN DON’T BREASTFEED, SO THEY DON’T TALK TO THEM ABOUT BREASTFEEDING.”

Urmeka Je erson, associate professor in the Department of Women, Children & Family Nursing at Rush University

e U.S. is the only wealthy nation without federally funded maternity leave. To date, 11 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted paid family and medical leave laws, which typically provide up to 12 weeks of bene ts.

Although Illinois does not have a paid maternity leave law, the state’s Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act states that employers must provide reasonable paid break time for a nursing

testing, the app is being designed with Black women in mind, says Je erson, who experienced rsthand the social barriers to breastfeeding and wants to be part of the solution.

She hopes that her app can help to change that.

“We want to work with women where they are to provide individualized support from someone who looks like you,” she says. “It helps build that trust.”

Mothers’ milk improves lives, increases productivity and decreases health care costs

Illinois can be a leader for pregnant workers’ rights

We’ve heard the sobering stat before: America is the only developed nation in the world that does not guarantee workers paid leave of any kind. But many of us have not thought of it in these terms: 80% of U.S. workers have no paid time off after the birth or adoption of a child.

While there are many contributing factors to a healthy pregnancy and healthy babies, we know that maternal health is improved with paid maternity leave. Numerous studies have shown that paid leave is essential for healthy moms and babies. e National Partnership for Women & Families details the staggering bene ts proven in these studies, including a reduction in preterm births and decreased chances of re-hospitalization for both mothers and babies.

And still, in Illinois, 62% of workers report not being able to take even unpaid leave, either because they are not eligible or because they cannot a ord it. Nationally, 62% of workers in low-wage households reported they received no pay during leave. Black and Latino workers are also more likely to

HEALTH

JUSTICE

lack access to leave, both paid and unpaid, than white workers.

e good news is we are working to ensure maternal health and well-being is a central focus of legislation at the federal and state levels. e Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which recently became federal law, helps end pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. But it may also be an important stepping stone to stronger workplace polices like paid family leave.

In Illinois, we are continuing to push for more protections for pregnant workers. Earlier this year, Women Employed helped champion the passage of the Paid Leave for All Workers Act. e bill provides up to 40 hours of paid time o for any reason to Illinois workers. For pregnant workers, this means paid time o to attend critical prenatal appointments without having to worry about losing a paycheck.

While groundbreaking, the law only provides time for short-term needs, like dealing with a cold or a u. It does not o er enough time for bonding with or caring for a new child. at’s why we are looking to pass the Family & Medical Leave Insurance

Act in Illinois. e law would create a staterun insurance program that allows Illinois workers to use up to 18 weeks of paid, jobprotected leave a year. e program would be funded by a small contribution — less than 1% of wages.

Under the proposed legislation, workers could use their paid, job-protected leave each year to welcome a new child and maintain a healthy pregnancy, among many other reasons. It could be a game-changer for tens of thousands of Illinois workers who have never had access to this bene t. It

could be a lifesaver for mothers and parents who deserve time to bond with their new babies and could get the post-natal care that both parent and baby need.

Illinois is a leader in workplace rights, and we have the opportunity to better support pregnant workers. We can improve maternal health by establishing a strong, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program that bene ts pregnant workers, especially low-wage workers and workers of color who need it most. Let’s seize this opportunity.

Ine ective strategies too often repackaged as solutions

There’s a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that has become ubiquitous in monthly newsletters from health-focused nonprofits: “Of all forms of discrimination and inequalities, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.” Few people realize King’s remark originates from a 1966 press conference held here in Chicago. And even fewer people are aware that King was highlighting the fact that the infant mortality rate among Black infants in Chicago was no better than among Black infants in Mississippi.

I imagine many people would be shocked to hear that the Black infant mortality rate in Cook County today (11.4 per 1,000 live births) is no better than the Black infant mortality rate in Mississippi (11.2 per 1,000 live births). In fact, the Black infant mortality rate in Illinois in 2017-2019 (12.2 per 1,000) was worse than in Mississippi (11.2 per 1,000).

Critical review of the most recent Illinois Maternal Morbidity & Mortality Report (reporting on statewide data for 2016-2017) reveals that the rate of avoidable mortality amenable to health care among Black moth-

ers (35 per 100,000 live births) exceeded that of non-Hispanic white mothers (2 per 100,000 live births) by a factor of more than 15 to 1. Put another way, if our maternal health system furnished timely and e ective health care to Black mothers as well as it did for white mothers, the rate of pregnancy-related deaths due to medical conditions among Black mothers would decrease by more than 80%.

Maternal-infant health injustices are the product of health system dysfunction in Chicago.

In 2014, an article in e Lancet called for “a system-level shift from maternal and newborn care focused on identi cation and treatment of pathology for the minority to skilled care for all.” Targeted investments in growing the midwifery workforce in Chicago are necessary to addressing dysfunction in our maternal health care system.

Licensed certi ed professional midwives are newly legal in Illinois. Like certi ed nurse midwives, licensed certi ed professional midwives, or CPMs, are trained and educated to international standards and capable of providing the essential components of maternal-newborn care needed

by 90% of the childbearing population. And importantly, licensure as a CPM does not require a bachelor’s degree.

Chicago should install a direct-entry midwifery program within one of the City Col-

leges of Chicago and have a new cadre of licensed CPMs ready to go within three years. And because licensed CPMs specialize in working in out-of-hospital settings, there is no reason to exclude underinvested neighborhoods from program installation. e “capital intensive” resources necessary to support conventional health care education programming (e.g., hospital simulators) are not necessary for successful community midwifery programs.

If we want something di erent, we have to be open to doing something di erent. But too many initiatives being marketed to taxpayers as “solutions” to maternal health inequities merely recycle the same old strategies that have already proven ine ective. Increasing “access” to perfunctory, low-value maternity care did not work in the ‘90s, and it’s not going to work now. Dumping over $12 million of general revenue funds into “evidence-based home visiting” programs does not change that the best research available concluded that those programs fail to bene t any relevant maternal health outcome. e same is true of “care coordinators,” “case managers” and “patient navigators.” Band-Aids on broken legs are politically expedient, but they do not realize population-level health improvements. e path of least resistance is a dead end.

Callan Jaress is co-founder and chief strategy ocer of Holistic Birth Collective.

Sarah Labadie is director of advocacy and policy for Women Employed.

Shore Capital Partners adds downtown office space as growth continues

Shore Capital deal said AmTrust committed to renovations of the building’s lobby and amenities in conjunction with the lease expansion and extension. An AmTrust spokesman didn’t provide a statement.

in 1986 and now one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders.

Mat Ishbia, a former Michigan State University basketball player, has taken the lead running the Suns, who are regarded a contender for the NBA championship next season.

Though lower profile than the mortgage giant, Shore Capital has grown to $6 billion in assets under management since its 2009 founding, doing so using a “microcap” approach that is focused on smaller targets than many other buyout firms pursue. It’s acquired 56 platform companies and tacked on about 800 incremental buyouts to those anchor investments.

SHORE

Ishbia isn’t joining in the business-community jitters over the future of downtown Chicago, still not back to normal activity more than three years after the pandemic hit. He sees Chicago as a magnet for younger workers, referencing people he’s hired who moved from California, Texas and Michigan, among other places. Give the downtown recovery time, he says.

“We believe it will come back,” he says. “Chicago is a hub where people want to be.”

e Ishbia name is best known these days for the recent $4 billion purchase of the Phoenix Suns by Justin and his brother Mat, CEO of Detroit-area-based United Wholesale Mortgage, founded by the siblings’ father

AmTrust, Shore Capital’s landlord, no doubt hopes Justin Ishbia’s predictions for a downtown resurgence happen sooner rather than later. In addition to 1 E. Wacker, AmTrust owns six large o ce properties in Chicago. ey include a 43-story o ce building at 30 N. LaSalle St., where AmTrust was hit late last year with a $186 million foreclosure lawsuit, and the mostly vacant former Bank of America o ce building at 135 S. LaSalle St., which AmTrust was negotiating last year

to hand over to its lender rather than face a likely lawsuit over a loan default.

MIXED-USE CANDIDATES

Both LaSalle Street buildings are candidates to be converted into mixed-use residential

buildings with the help of hefty public subsidies, part of the “LaSalle Street Reimagined” program launched last year by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

AmTrust also owns o ce buildings at 33 W. Monroe St., 33 N. Dearborn St., 233 N. Michigan

Ave. and 111 E. Wacker Drive.

CBRE Vice Chairman Brad Serot and Senior Vice President Ian Murphy negotiated the lease expansion on behalf of Shore Capital. Melissa Rubenstein of Jones Lang LaSalle represented AmTrust.

CAPITAL HAS GROWN TO $6 BILLION IN ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT SINCE ITS 2009 FOUNDING.

Justin Ishbia sees Chicago as a magnet for younger workers, referencing people he’s hired who moved from California, Texas and Michigan, among other places.

SHORE CAPITAL VIA YOUTUBE

ISHBIA

The 66 leaders profiled here all are innovating, and then some, on sustainability’s “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra. They have launched programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of garbage that goes to landfills. Initiatives they are championing cut back on water waste and save electricity. Buildings they design, both commercial and multifamily homes, make liberal use of existing materials. These leaders have devised ingenious ways to recycle all sorts of objects, from railroad ties to industrial boilers. But wait—there’s more. They are conserving our area’s local forests, expanding our green spaces, tackling threats to our abundance of clean water and cleaning up neglected areas in underserved communities. Together, their efforts are setting the stage for a greener future.

By Lisa Bertagnoli

Gerald Adelmann

CEO and president

Openlands

Jerry Adelmann’s leadership was crucial to the success of the Space to Grow joint program of Openlands and the Healthy Schools Campaign to transform Chicago’s public schoolyards into playgrounds with trees and sustainable materials. e rst phase of the program ended in December 2022 with 34 CPS sites completed. In March 2023, his policy leadership helped in the cancellation of the expansion to Route 53 in Lake County; the area is now slated to become a green climate corridor. Adelmann chairs the city of Chicago’s Nature & Wildlife Committee, is vice chair of the Center for Humans & Nature and serves on the steering committee of the Chicago Wilderness Alliance.

Mason Awtry

CEO

Wurkwel Ventures

In 2004, Mason Awtry founded Wurkwel Ventures; its businesses focus on space utilization and project management. In 2022, the organization completed an eight-month furniture removal and decommissioning of a 1.8 million-square-foot campus in Northbrook. Using eco-friendly decommissioning processes and sustainable practices, Wurkwel removed 33,748 items from 15 o ce buildings, reusing 67% of those items, recycling 28% and donating 2%; less than 3% reached a land ll. Wurkwel Awtry serves on the board of directors of YPO and is an active member of Hyde Park Angels, an early-stage investor providing nancial and organizational support to startups.

Tony Beyer

Founder and CEO

Tek Pak

Tek Pak’s mission is to reduce its carbon footprint, reaching net zero-carbon emissions by 2033. Under Tony Beyer’s leadership, Tek Pak became a member of the International Molded Fiber Association; its mission is to promote the global use of renewable, recycled and natural-molded ber products. Tek Pak’s R&D department works with pulp formulations to nd sustainable solutions for customers. Unused material/scraps produced onsite are returned to customers for reuse or sent to a local recycler and turned into pellets that are used in extrusion processes and made into carrier tape. Beyer’s other professional memberships include the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (he serves as a board member) and the Valley Industrial Association.

Erika Allen

Co-owner

Green Era Sustainability Partners

Erika Allen is co-owner of Green Era Sustainability Partners, a strategic partner in the 9-acre Green Era Renewable Energy & Urban Farm Campus in Auburn Gresham. e Green Era campus transformed a vacant brown eld site that had been contaminated for nearly 100 years into a renewable energy facility and hub for urban agriculture. e site houses the Midwest’s rst anaerobic digestor, where food waste from local partners becomes renewable energy and nutrient-dense compost. Allen serves on the Clinton Global Initiative Round Table on Regenerative Agriculture & Nature-Based Solutions, the Olive Harvey College Urban Agriculture advisory board, the Illinois Agriculture Equity Commission and the Illinois Leadership Council for Agricultural Education.

Steve Berglund

Founder and CEO

TiEnergy

e millions of railroad ties retired each year can create environmental hazards and safety issues in railyards.

Steve Berglund has led TiEnergy’s expansion to accommodate the removal and recycling of 5,000 of these ties per day, a process that helps railroads operate more sustainably and reduces environmental damage. He recently launched a new carbon reduction program to enhance these sustainability e orts even further. Berglund has developed sustainable strategies in industries with hard-to-recycle industrial materials and invented TieRoc, an aggregate substitute that’s made from grinding ties. is process saves 3.06 pounds of carbon dioxide per tie, helps land lls operate more e ciently and establishes a second life for post-consumer wood waste.

Meena Beyers

Vice president of business and community development

Nicor Gas

Meena Beyers is the organizer behind the Nicor Gas Smart Neighborhood, which, partnered with Habitat for Humanity, is demonstrating net-zero-energy and carbon-neutral a ordable housing. is community features electric and gas service, renewables, batteries and smart devices working together to optimize a ordability and resilience. A rst of its kind for a gas utility, it demonstrates a collaborative solution to move toward net zero in cold-climate regions. Beyers worked for three years on the project, collaborating with researchers, industry partners, community members and nonpro ts. e groundbreaking is scheduled for July. She serves as a board member of the Metropolitan Planning Council, Intersect Illinois and the Women’s Energy Summit.

John Antonoglu

Sustainability lead/aviation engineer

Primera Engineers

John Antonoglu’s most recent work includes the civil design and oversight of the sustainability aspects of the $8.6 billion O’Hare 21 Program. e project’s sustainability goals followed the Sustainable Airport Manual, a guide and rating system developed in 2003 with Antonoglu as a key author. He also helped design an aircraft deicing uid recovery system that captures and recycles uid for reuse. Since 2009, he has administered an employee survey every three years and analyzed data on the rm’s carbon footprint to take ownership in the ght against climate change. Antonoglu is active with the American Council of Engineering Companies and serves on its Environmental and Aeronautics subcommittees.

Deeta Bernstein

Group manager, buildings + sustainability

Cotter Consulting

Deeta Bernstein’s team at Cotter developed a $3.1 billion sustainability program, which has generated close to 100 LEED-certi ed projects to date. e projects have helped reframe sustainability expectations in the city of Chicago and resulted in sustainability and resource savings that continue to bene t both building occupants and the city. Bernstein is active in the Construction Management Association of America, serving on the professional development committee and the sustainability subcommittee. She is also active with the United States Green Building Council, the Building Enclosure Council-Chicago and the Illinois Green Alliance in Chicago.

Jill Brosig

Chief impact officer

Harrison Street

Jill Brosig is responsible for the global strategy and implementation of Harrison Street’s ESG initiative. In 2022, the company made headway against a 2025 portfolio-wide 70% carbon emissions reduction target by achieving 30% of the goal. Activities included installing 300 EV chargers toward a goal of having 10% of parking spaces equipped, and publishing a Climate Action Plan, a ve-year strategy for addressing emissions reduction, climate risks and social impact. e rm already has achieved one-third of its carbon emissions goal, completed a full resiliency and climate-risk-scenario analysis and rolled out more than 250 Fitwel healthy building certi cation projects. Brosig serves on the NAREIM Sustainability Council and the GRI ESG Council.

METHODOLOGY: The individuals featured did not pay to be included. Their profiles were written from the nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive. It includes only individuals for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after a review by editors. To qualify for the list, nominees must serve in a senior leadership role or lead sustainability initiatives at an organization and make a measurable impact on the environment through their efforts. They must live and work in the Chicago area and demonstrate leadership through involvement in professional organizations and civic and community initiatives.

Mit Buchanan Managing director of energy investments

JPMorgan Chase

As a managing director of the energy investments team for the Corporate & Investment Bank, Mit Buchanan is a senior originator with coverage responsibilities for several top-tier J.P. Morgan clients. She has led transactions in the wind, solar, battery and geothermal sectors and has championed green initiatives committed by JPMorgan Chase that are driven by the company’s global energy transition objectives. An example includes the nancing of battery manufacturing facilities considered critical to bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. Buchanan is a board member of the American Council on Renewable Energy and previously served on the board of the American Wind Energy Association, now known as American Clean Power.

Sara Chamberlain Co-founder and managing director Energy Foundry

As a co-founder of a cleantech venture-capital rm, Sara Chamberlain invests in groundbreaking companies across the energy storage, renewables, energy e ciency and grid resiliency sectors, including local rms such as Nanograf, Network Perception, Volexion and Azumo. As her portfolio companies grow, they have the potential to eliminate 2.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually by 2030. Chamberlain also actively invests in and advises other companies with technologies that create a sustainable future, including Intellihot’s tankless water heater, and technology that could save 35% in energy and carbon dioxide. Chamberlain is an adviser to various accelerator programs, including mHub and Cleantech Open, and is on the investment committee for local accelerator Evergreen Climate Innovations.

Jonathan Charak Vice president—emerging solutions director

Zurich North America

Jonathan Charak is a founding member of Zurich North America’s Sustainability Underwriting Team. He researches and develops sustainable insurance propositions for the United States and Canadian markets, explores solutions for risk mitigation and ways to drive strategic priorities. Examples of new propositions include the Impact Re Ltd. sustainability captive; Zurich’s Mass Timber Builders Risk o ering; the entry into renewable energy insurance; the exploration of ESG rating systems for implementation; growth in parametric insurance, including insurance for natural assets; and the development of insurance propositions for carbon and decarbonization. Charak volunteers with the Casualty Actuarial Society on the Capability Model Task Force, which is developing skillsets for the next generation of actuaries.

Nicole Chavas President and COO Greenprint Partners

In the last 12 months, Nicole Chavas led the successful pursuit of two multiyear contracts with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago & Cook County to plan, design and install green infrastructure projects such as rain gardens and permeable pavement on sites across Cook County. Under her leadership, Greenprint prioritizes nature-based solutions like green infrastructure in real estate development and transportation projects. Greenprint projects sustainably manage millions of gallons of stormwater annually, reducing localized ooding, protecting water quality and creating new green spaces. Chavas is a board member of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a member of the Oak Park Climate Action Network and a board member of Bike Walk Oak Park.

Sara Christen

Associate vice president

Landrum & Brown

Sara Christen’s recent accomplishments include the development of a sustainability plan and renewable-energy strategy for the new Guayaquil International Airport in Ecuador; the development of an energy and sustainability master plan for Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport; and a sustainability goal-re nement/feasibility plan for the Terminal Improvement Program at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. She also led the team that developed the Chicago Department of Aviation’s Sustainable Airport Manual, which governs design, construction and everyday functions that lead to sustainable practices. e manual serves as a benchmark for green policy worldwide. Christen was a lead planner for the Airports Going Green conference, supports the North Lawndale Employment Network and maintains O’Hare’s apiary, the rst ever at a U.S. airport.

Environment program co-director

The Joyce Foundation

Elizabeth Cisar leads the Joyce Foundation’s $8.2 million grant portfolio on Great Lakes & Drinking Water, advancing equitable public policies that tackle threats to clean water and water disparities in communities of color. Following the Flint water crisis, Cisar led the expansion of the foundation’s water portfolio to prioritize addressing lead in drinking water and championing the replacement of lead service lines in the Great Lakes region. She also supported funding for organizations working to improve drinking-water a ordability and eradicate inequitable water shuto s; these include the U.S. Water Alliance and We the People of Detroit. Cisar is a liaison for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine’s Environmental Health Matters Initiative.

Training director and fund administrator/adjunct professor IUOE, Local 399 ETF/Illinois Tech

Jim Coates is instrumental in acquiring and diverting large machinery, such as steam boilers, hydronic boilers, deluge- re-sprinkler systems and re pumps, from land lls. is “end of life” equipment is then repurposed to meet the hands-on-training component of Local 399’s Technology Center. About 40,000 pounds of equipment has been reconditioned and converted to training materials to support training programs at a minimal cost. Coates is also a member of BOMA/Chicago’s Decarbonization Task Force, providing education for building members, facilitating the sharing of decarbonization resources and conducting comprehensive review and development of decarbonization-related policies.

Senior vice president and head of ESG Logistics Property Co.

Elena Daniel developed a Net Zero Decarbonization Plan with reduction targets of 50% by 2040 and 100% by 2050. She also published Logistics Property’s second annual ESG Report, incorporating a science-based targets initiative and carbon-risk real estate monitor modeling. She has deployed policies to reduce the environmental footprint through utility management and submetering assets, registering more than 10 million square feet in new LEED-certi ed projects. ese include adding 25 green leases, leading a net-zero commitment by deploying greenhouse gas reductions and electri cation strategies, and going beyond code to build for future readiness. Daniel is a member of the Illinois Green Alliance and the U.S. EPA Energy Star Industrial Working Group.

Since authoring “ e 8 Principles of Green-Village-Building,” Naomi Davis has designed and is executing the plan to build economies in energy, horticulture, housing, tourism and waste. She is using the policies, technologies and practices of the new green economy for two outcomes: First, to build communities as bu ers to the harms of the climate crisis that Black people are especially vulnerable to; and second, to increase the household income of those neighbors through the eight principles. Blacks in Green has been awarded a $10 million EPA Environmental Justice riving Communities Technical Assistance Center grant. Davis also designed a campaign for Illinois Commerce Commission regulatory reform with the People’s Utility Rate Relief Act.

Densham Head of ESG and impact Energize Ventures

Lauren Densham developed Energize’s sustainability strategy and o set operational emissions through a portfolio company, Patch. She ensures that investment and operating decisions track toward nancial and impact returns: In 2022, Energize estimated its portfolio helped enable 9.5 million metric tons of avoided carbon dioxide emissions. She also collaborates with portfolio companies including SINAI, TWAICE, Sourcemap and Patch. Densham helps ensure that Energize o sets its own operational carbon footprint and supports portfolio companies and strategic investors in their decarbonization e orts. In 2022, Densham joined the Chicago Foundation for Women board, supporting investment in women and girls on Chicago’s South and West sides.

Elizabeth Cisar

James Coates

Elena Daniel

Naomi Davis Founder and CEO Blacks in Green

Lauren

Robert Hattier CONGRATULATIONS

“Powering Chicago, IBEW Local 134 and the Electrical Contractors' Association of Chicago & Cook County, is proud to congratulate Robert Hattier’s recognition as a Crain’s 2023 Notable Leader in Sustainability. This endowment illustrates your commitment and dedication toward a more sustainable industry. Congratulations!”

Kelly Dittmann

President and CEO

Sustene Global

Kelly Dittmann leads a women-owned environmental advisory and capital rm that provides clients with the guidance to implement sustainability strategies and initiatives. One speci c example is working with a client on coalto-solar projects in Illinois, which involves acquisition of legacy coal sites; engineering and construction management; facilitating public engagement; and securing agreements with providers. Formerly an executive with Hitachi, Dittmann serves on the executive council of advisers at the Executives’ Club of Chicago, is an advisory board member of St. Anne Parish School and is a park commission member for the village of North Barrington.

Annalise Dum

Vice president, sustainability

Annalise Dum is responsible for guiding global occupier and investor clients in aligning commercial real estate portfolios with organizational ESG goals. She has more than 100 construction projects under her belt and managed certications for more than 20 million square feet of space. Twenty-six of her projects have received certi cations that include LEED Platinum, WELL Platinum, WELL Health-Safety Rating, Fitwel and Energy Star, both at the individual asset and portfolio levels. Key accomplishments in the Chicago market include work on the 2.3 million-square-foot Old Post O ce project. Dum serves on the board of directors of Illinois Green Alliance and volunteers with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group.

Jessica Garascia

Sarah Edwards Environment and sustainability program manager

Cook County Government

Sarah Edwards helped 24 schools install small-scale solar energy systems used for STEM education. She also managed residential renewable energy programs for solar and geothermal, created a program for residents with lower incomes to participate in solar energy and wrote the county’s green- eet policy. Edwards leads the county’s electric vehicle charging-station program, installing public EV stations in under-resourced communities, or “charging deserts,” that often su er from disproportionate exposure to air pollution. She has served as co-chair of the Alliance for the Great Lakes Young Professional Council and volunteers as a Chicago Conservation Corps environmental leader. Edwards also has been a horticulture volunteer at the Gar eld Park Conservatory.

Juanita Garcia

Jamie Ezefili Chief sustainability officer Northern Trust

In 2022, Jamie Eze li was appointed Northern Trust’s rst chief sustainability o cer. She is responsible for managing its corporate social responsibility program along with all sustainability initiatives. She led Northern Trust in reducing its total carbon footprint by limiting and removing all carbon pollution directly linked to its operations from the atmosphere through the purchase of government-regulated carbon permits, thereby achieving carbon neutrality. Eze li also ensured that the bank demonstrated its commitment to sustainability by extending Earth Day activities into a monthlong Earth Awareness schedule; activities included participation in the Great Global Clean-Up. Eze li volunteers with Junior Achievement of Chicago and e Night Ministry.

Doug Farr

Founder and president

Farr Associates Architecture & Urban Design

Doug Farr is the founder of Chicago’s Climate Action Museum. Its mission is to activate a tipping point on climate mitigation through education and direct action. Farr has long been a champion of sustainable strategies via his architectural rm as well as through his two books on climate change. He co-chaired the development of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development and serves on the boards of the Congress for the New Urbanism and Elevate Energy. He co-curated the 2022 Energy Revolution exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Center and launched Carbon Free Chicago in 2020, a 30-year campaign for the equitable transition away from fossil fuels.

Christopher Gersch

Kelly Gilroy

President BlueEarth Deconstruction

Stephen Filyo helped BlueEarth Deconstruction’s building-material reuse and waste-diversion impact grow by 75% in 2022. is e ort resulted in the preservation of more than 3,000 trees’ worth of reclaimed lumber and kept 200 tons of building materials from the waste stream. Filyo also started a reconstruction division within the company that is focused on building with and installing reclaimed building materials. is division aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, sustain the local circular economy and encourage greater reuse within the construction industry. Filyo is a founding board member of Reclaimed Lumber Supply, and his company is a deconstruction partner with various nonpro ts, including Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Reuse Depot and Rebuilding Exchange.

Vice president, general counsel, chief administrative officer and secretary

AAR

Under Jessica Garascia’s leadership, AAR has achieved several rsts on its sustainability journey, including publishing its inaugural ESG report with greenhouse gas emissions data as well as GRI and SASB disclosures in October 2021. In fall 2022, she led management to incorporate climate change risk into the company’s annual risk assessment exercise. Earlier that year, she also brought additional stakeholders to the table to share their perspectives by leading an impact-assessment exercise designed to understand environmental priorities and concerns within the organization. ese e orts helped prioritize sustainability initiatives and mitigate potential risks. Garascia is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and e Chicago Network.

Senior project manager, higher performance and sustainable construction

Pepper Construction

Juanita Garcia helps to advance the carbon-drawdown goals for projects across multiple Pepper markets. She also contributes to the development of Pepper’s ESG framework by facilitating working groups across Pepper’s seven regional o ces. She oversees building-certi cation documentation for more than a dozen projects annually. Garcia also developed a three-month, three-part drawdown-education program for Pepper’s operations, eld and support teams. Her contributions are re ected in Pepper’s drawdown statistics for scal year 2022, which include reducing the environmental impact of the company’s work by more than 463,000 tons of carbon dioxide and more than 69 million gallons of water. Garcia served on the environmental justice subcommittee of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition committee.

Founder and CEO Verde Solutions

Christopher Gersch’s companies have completed more than 2,700 renewable and energy demand projects at businesses in 48 states. ese range from a 5,000-panel, 13roof solar project at the College of Lake County to solar projects at Harts eld-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for DHL. His projects have prevented the release of the carbon dioxide equivalent of 1.4 million metric tons, comparable to about 23 million trees grown over 10 years, or more than 1.5 million pounds of coal burned. Gersch serves as director at large for e Energy Professional Association and has served as an associate professor at the University of Chicago since 2015. He is also the founder of RxSun, a regional residential solar company.

Vice president, sustainable and natural products

Univar Solutions

Kelly Gilroy recently launched Univar Solutions Sustainable Solutions, which helps customers develop and market sustainability in three areas: e Sustainable & Natural Product Portfolio helps customers nd, evaluate and purchase sustainable ingredients and raw materials; Sustainable Formulations helps connect customers to formulators, chemists and engineers developing new sustainable products; and Sustainable Services o erings include low-carbon deliveries, reconditioned packaging and other green formulations. e Sustainable & Natural Product portfolio launched in late 2022 with 100 SKUs, and already has increased to 161 SKUs. Gilroy volunteers at DuPagePads, which provides interim and permanent housing and support services to end homelessness.

Stephen Filyo

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BIG™believesonlyawhole-systemsolutioncantransformthewhole-system problemcommontoBlackcommunitieseverywhere,andoffersour8 Principles asthatsolution.Ourtheoryofchange:implementingThe8 Principlesovertime ina walkableplacewillincreasethehouseholdincomeofresidentsandproduce abufferofresilienceagainstclimatecrisis.

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Nate Greensphan Senior product manager – SaaS products

Redwood Logistics

In March, Nate Greensphan spearheaded a successful e ort to launch Redwood Hyperion, a supply-chain emissions-calculation tool that has become an industry leader. He also repositioned Redwood’s logistics optimization capabilities into the Redwood Eco Advisory, a service launched in March that o ers network studies and solutions to reduce supply chain emissions. is solution provides shippers with greater access to freight emissions visibility so they can more accurately measure, o set, reduce and report on their total emissions footprint. Greensphan participated in Loyola University Chicago’s Supply Chain Management sustainability-focused seminar and was a speaker at the university’s Supply Chain & Sustainability Summit in 2022.

Paul Hunter

Global sustainability manager

Kin + Carta

Paul Hunter is leading a multiyear initiative to save 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. He is responsible for developing and implementing a strategy that includes developing a carbon calculator for digital assets. He also led a team that created an automated measurement of the carbon footprint of webpage visits, is developing a go-to-market strategy around solutions that support decarbonization and is developing a dashboard to track the carbon savings on projects in real time. Hunter is also collaborating with Microsoft and Google to leverage their technologies in driving sustainability outcomes. He’s on the board of Social Enterprise Chicago, an organization that helps Chicago-area ventures that rely on earned-revenue strategies advance positive social change.

Robert Hattier Business representative

IBEW Local 134

Bob Hattier is the IBEW Local 134 business representative specializing in renewable energies. He’s also executive director of the Illinois IBEW Renewable Energy Fund, where he recently led a team providing re safety training focused on renewable energy to Chicago-area re departments. He also oversees the fund’s Craft Apprenticeship program, providing electrical-career opportunities to diverse communities in Illinois. In 2022, 273 trainees were enrolled with a 100% graduation rate, and 77% secured employment. Hattier also oversees a two-week solar energy program for high school students at the Solar Academy. He sits on the North American board of Certi ed Energy Practitioners, serving on its photovoltaic associate and photovoltaic-installation professional technical committees.

Bhini Jain

Senior operational excellence manager

Gilbane Building

Bhini Jain has extensive experience with net-zero and embodied carbon projects. She serves as the Chicago o ce leader of Gilbane’s Corporate Sustainability Council, which promotes green construction and business practices companywide and provides resources to employees working on a project with LEED targets. Her environmental goals include achieving carbon neutrality, sending zero waste to land lls and reducing potable water use by 40% by 2040. Most recently, Jain organized an initiative with Illinois Green Alliance’s Green Mentorship Program by partnering with a local school district to discuss the importance of water conservation with 400 third- and fth-grade students across ve elementary schools. Jain volunteers with Rebuilding Together and the ACE Mentor Program.

Amina Helstern Senior regenerative design advisor

Perkins & Will

Amina Helstern leads the Chicago Studio’s regenerative design e orts and strategic actions. Helstern, who co-created Perkins & Will’s Living Design Framework, is its Living Design knowledge manager and leads the energy performance reporting for the American Institute of Architects’ 2030 Commitment project. She also collaborated on the development of an enhanced 2023 rmwide Green Operations Plan that aligns global sustainability commitments with day-to-day operations and leads the studio’s implementation of data collection requirements. Helstern is an active member of the Illinois Green Alliance, a membership-driven nonpro t that works to promote green buildings and sustainable communities and was a founding member of the Living Future Regional Member Community for Illinois.

Alex Ty Kovach

Executive director

Lake County Forest Preserve District

Alex Ty Kovach leads one of the top conservation agencies and the second-largest forest preserve district in Illinois. He is responsible for 31,053 acres of natural land, 209 miles of trail and dozens of cultural, historic and recreational facilities. Recent accomplishments include the planning and construction of four net-zero-energy buildings, the restoration of hundreds of acres across multiple preserves, and $4.6 million raised for a new endowment to bene t the Forest Preserves in perpetuity. Under Kovach’s leadership, sustainability is now included in every other aspect of the organization’s work. Other e orts include reducing mowed turf across multiple preserves, transitioning to hybrid passenger vehicles and introducing electric light-duty maintenance vehicles.

Neena Hemmady

Vice president, support services

ComEd

Neena Hemmady is responsible for ensuring that ComEd sites use carbon-free electricity. She’s also led an aggressive e ort to electrify the company’s extensive eet of vehicles and equipment and is working to strengthen biodiversity in the company’s service territory by restoring wildlife habitats along ComEd’s transmission rights of way. Hemmady is the executive sponsor of ComEd’s Eco-Team, an employee resource group that coordinates the activities of environmentally aware individuals in the company. She is on the board of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights and is on the steering committee for Equality Illinois.

Sanjeev Krishnan

Chief investment officer and senior managing director; member of the builders vision leadership team

S2G Ventures

Sanjeev Krishnan leads S2G’s investment strategy with $2 billion in assets under management. He’s guided the rm through the construction of a 90-company portfolio and, most recently, helped launch a $300 million special opportunities fund to address needs in climate-tech nancing. He recently led S2G Ventures’ commitment to advancing a global transition to net-zero or negative carbon emissions by 2050 through the Venture Climate Alliance. He’s also championed the development of S2G’s Impact Measurement & Management approach to regularly measure the positive and negative impacts of its portfolio. Krishnan also helped develop an Impact Playbook to help companies manage the e ect of their products/services on the planet.

David Hovey Sr. CEO Optima

At the Optima Verdana community, David Hovey Sr. incorporated innovative sustainable features and technology with the end goal of achieving Green Globes building certi cation. e nearly all-electric community uses lower-carbon green concrete in its superstructure, energy-e cient variable refrigerant ow for the HVAC system, and induction cooktops and outdoor electric grills within units. Optima Verdana will be the rst Chicagoarea building to use the rm’s proprietary vertical landscaping system. Planters will remain green year-round while providing evaporative cooling, re-oxygenating the air, reducing smog and detaining stormwater. Hovey is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, serves on the board of the Mies van der Rohe Society and is a sustaining fellow of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Lindsey LandwehrFasules Director, sustainability

Turner Construction

Lindsey Landwehr-Fasules has been working with the Obama Presidential Library team toward LEED Platinum and SITES Silver certi cations by implementing material transparency, soil health, biodiversity, waste diversion and energy e ciency measures. She has helped launch sustainability initiatives such as Turner’s Fleet Electri cation program and road maps to reduce waste on jobsites by 80%. Landwehr-Fasules manages subject matter experts and knowledge networks in the areas of circularity, embodied carbon, resilience and job-site operations carbon reduction. Working closely with Turner’s chief sustainability o cer, the experts and knowledge networks are operationalizing carbon-reduction initiatives, including equipment electri cation, embodied carbon baselining, jobsite fuel tracking and carbon value-engineering. Landwehr-Fasules is on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED BD+C consensus committee.

Howard Learner President and executive director

Environmental Law & Policy Center

Howard Learner is responsible for the strategic leadership, policy direction and nancial platform of the Environmental Law & Policy Center’s work promoting clean energy development solutions, advancing transportation innovations and preserving the Midwest’s natural resources. He directs the center’s litigation, lobbying and legislative initiatives. Among recent wins was a consent decree with the owners of the former ArcelorMittal (now Cleveland-Cli s) steel mill in Burns Harbor, Ind. Learner also helped with the e ort to get the Illinois General Assembly to enact stronger public health protections for migrant farmworkers against errant pesticide spraying. Learner serves on the board of directors of the Great Lakes Protection Fund and was appointed to the post by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Patty Lloyd Director of sustainability Leopardo Cos.

Patty Lloyd leads corporate ESG operations and project sustainability e orts, including client ESG requirements, third-party green building and health and wellness rating systems. She has extensive project work experience with notable LEED projects such as Radio Flyer’s $15 million headquarters, the Ravenswood Station $43 million multistory retail development, Fulton West and numerous health care projects, including the University of Chicago’s Child Care Development Center and Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group’s medical campus. Lloyd sits on the steering committee of Building Green’s Sustainable Construction Leaders network and founded the Chicago Sustainable Construction Leaders group. Lloyd has also been a local leader of the International Living Future Institute since 2020.

Jenny Lynch Partner, sustainability and ESG services

Deloitte & Touche LLP

Jenny Lynch advises companies across a range of industries on the measurement and management of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of decarbonization strategies, the assessment of climate impact risks and opportunities, and the evaluation of sustainable incentives and nancing. In this way, companies can bring clear and transparent ESG information to the capital markets. She helps lead a national team of sustainability professionals, including greenhouse gas emissions specialists, environmental scientists and climate specialists, as well as CPAs who work to merge environment with nance. Lynch co-leads Deloitte’s Chicago Green Team and has served as a judge for Deloitte’s national Audit Innovation Campus Challenge, which has focused on ESG for the past two years.

Rhianne Menzies Director, ESG Brookfield Properties

Rhianne Menzies leads the ESG strategy development and implementation for more than 130 U.S. retail centers. Building upon historic successes with solar, LED upgrades and building analytics, she has widened the portfolio’s sustainability goals over the last year, expanding to 12 from four targets with a focus on decarbonization, water reduction, DE&I, community impact, volunteerism and transparent reporting. As ESG lead, she heads the waste reduction program, a collaboration with tenants and brokers that has increased diversion from land lls to 45% from 37%. Menzies also helped 57 assets achieve green building certi cations with IREM CSP, making Brook eld one of the rst property owners to adopt the standard. Menzies is a volunteer mentor at iMentor Chicago.

ample to see tomorrow transformed.

Thank you for advocating to make a positive impact on our planet and future generations, and congratulations on being named one of the Crain’s 2023 Notable Leaders in Sustainability.

Juanita Garcia, Senior Project Manager High Performance and Sustainable Construction

THE ESTIMATED TOTAL PAY FOR A CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER IN THE U.S. IS $106,521 PER YEAR, WITH AN AVERAGE SALARY OF $81,407 PER YEAR.

GLASSDOOR

Clayco

Sean Moran leads the integration of lean construction and sustainability in Clayco’s Chicago o ce. He led one of the company’s largest national development clients to utilize low-carbon concrete in all construction projects, resulting in an average embodied carbon reduction of 14% compared to the national baseline. He’s currently leading a LEED Platinum warehouse that’s 66% more energy-e cient than the building code, and he will be overseeing the engineering, procurement and construction of a developers’ largest solar array in the Midwest. He’s a board member of the Illinois Green Alliance, a committee member of the Sustainable Construction Leadership Network and a mentor with Illinois Green Schools.

Mike Nicholus Global environment operations director Accenture

Mike Nicholus’ team has reduced total Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 68% since 2016; renewably sourced 97% of Accenture’s electricity in 2022; launched a climate resiliency program that’s focused on water risk; and is working to eliminate single-use plastic in o ces by 2025. Working with Accenture Enterprise Risk colleagues, Nicholus determined that the most signi cant climate-amplied risks were related to water scarcity and extreme weather events. He brokered a connection to the World Resources Initiative and its Aqueduct tool, enabling company risk professionals to identify o ces with exposure to water-related risks. Nicholus also launched the Naperville Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, which is developing the Sustainable Naperville 2036 plan.

Francesca Olivier Vice president, global ESG Medline

In 2020, Francesca Olivier established the Sustainable Packaging Lab, a cross-functional facility that reduced waste by 455,000 pounds in its rst year. She has integrated sustainability at virtually all Medline facilities; this includes a 3 million-square-foot rooftop solar installation that has reduced carbon emissions by an estimated 27,941 metric tons. She is building a decarbonization strategy to support global tracking and reporting of greenhouse gas data and is analyzing opportunities to reduce Medline’s carbon footprint. She’s also grown Medline’s sustainability team, transitioning the now six-person team to an ESG model in 2021. Olivier is an active participant in several industry groups, including Practice Greenhealth and Health Care Without Harm.

John Oxtoby

Senior vice president, director of ESG investing Ariel Investments

John Oxtoby works with portfolio managers and analysts to evaluate the ESG risks and opportunities in current and prospective investments. His team engaged portfolio company ADT on setting greenhouse gas emissions goals and pursuing electri cation of its vehicle eet. Additionally, Oxtoby encouraged ADT to join Ceres’ Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance to support its eet electri cation strategy as it would mitigate climate risk and save money on gasoline while reducing maintenance costs and noise pollution. ADT launched a pilot with Ford F-150 Lightning electric trucks the following year. Oxtoby co-hosts sustainability events with e Nature Conservancy and serves on the investment committee of the Hyde Park Art Center.

John Pady

Chief expansion officer

Community & Economic Development Association of Cook County

John Pady is chief expansion ocer at the Community & Economic Development Association of Cook County. Working in partnership with internal and external stakeholders and through the CEDA Funded Green Generation program, he developed an intergenerational service-learning curriculum focusing on sustainability advocacy and workforce development, emphasizing equity for students of color. Green Generation developed an initiative targeting the disinvestment issues within underserved communities, creating opportunities for high school students to gain skills in sustainability and energy industries. ese programs also involved partnerships with organizations such as Urban E ciency Group and the University of Illinois. Pady serves on the board of the Building Performance Institute.

Rush University Medical Center

As part of a two-member environmental sustainability team, Katie Pittman leads e orts to measure and minimize Rush’s environmental footprint. In 2022, she implemented an organic-waste collection project at the medical center’s central kitchen that diverted 71,000 pounds of organic waste from land lls. She’s been instrumental in reuse programs that kept 43,700 pounds of furniture, single-use medical devices and o ce supplies out of land lls last year, a 95% increase from 2021. She’s been recognized for incorporating sustainability and resilience into Rush’s operations as well as for cutting mercury use from the organization and patient care. Pittman is communications director of the Chicago Sustainability Task Force.

Founder and principal APMonarch Architecture

Alicia Ponce runs her rm with a mission to design healthy environments for future generations by reducing carbon emissions from buildings and designing indoor environments with healthy air quality and thermal comfort. She earned the highest level of sustainability for her rst project, Exelon Corporate Headquarters, 55th Floor, a project that runs on 100% renewable energy and earned LEED Platinum. She also led her team of sustainability consultants for the University of Chicago Keller Center, to earn LEED Platinum and the Living Building Challenge Petal Certi cation, the rst on campus. Ponce is a board member of United Way of Metro Chicago and a founding board member of the Climate Action Museum.

Associate director, packaging R&D

Kraft Heinz

Linda Roman leads a packaging R&D team driving a virgin plastic reduction commitment across Kraft Heinz globally and developing solutions such as a microwavable ber-based cup for Mac & Cheese. Other initiatives include advancing Kraft Heinz’s move toward a more circular economy, spearheading a pilot in collaboration with the nonpro t Materials Recovery for the Future to demonstrate the use of roof board made from recycled exible lms. Roman is a judge for Packaging Europe’s Global Packaging Sustainability Awards and represents Kraft Heinz on the TRP Film & Flexibles recycling coalition steering team, the Closed Loop Partners composting consortium and the CGF Plastic Waste Coalition.

CEO

LanzaJet

Jimmy Samartzis leads a team focused on creating clean energy alternatives by cultivating new partnerships and advocating for the adoption of sustainable aviation fuel globally. LanzaJet has already produced more than 300 million gallons of the fuel to date, with plans to accelerate and support the U.S. government’s goal of 3 billion gallons by 2030. In the past year, Samartzis’ LanzaJet team announced new partnerships with Airbus, the Australian government, British Airways, Indian Oil and Qantas, among others. Additionally, Samartzis led the team in the construction of the world’s rst alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel commercial production plant in Soperton, Ga. Samartzis is on the board of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Charlie Saville led sustainability consulting for Pinnacle XXIV, a net-positive carbon and energy project named Green Building Initiative’s Project of the Year while earning a three (out of a possible four) green globes rating from the organization. It features one of the Midwest’s largest photovoltaic systems, designed to o set 100% of the building’s energy. Saville also facilitated the integration of ventless clothes dryers into ComEd’s Energy Conservation Measure program by providing research proving that the switch supports greater energy e ciency within the multifamily housing industry. Saville serves as a subject matter expert on renewable energy systems for the park district of Oak Park.

Katie Pittman

Sustainability coordinator

Alicia Ponce

Linda Roman

Jimmy Samartzis

Charlie Saville Principal and director of sustainabilit y FitzGerald

Sean Moran

Senior project manager

Julia Stamberger CEO

The Planting Hope Co.

In 2022, Julia Stamberger’s strategic expansion e orts led to shelf presence for Planting Hope brands in more than 10,000 grocery stores and 60,000 distribution points. In February she guided e orts to make Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk the rst plant milk worldwide to earn an Upcycled Certi ed designation. e sesame milk is also water-conscious, requiring 95% less water than almond milk and 75% less than oat milk. She also led e orts to use degradable packaging on the Mozaics veggie chips brand, tackling a persistent issue of packaging waste in consumer packaged goods. Stamberger was recently elected to the board of the Plant Based Foods Association.

Lauren Stone Director, ESG

Walgreens

is year, Lauren Stone’s team overhauled its greenhouse gas statement while increasing emissions and energy-consumption reporting. She ensures that Walgreens provides comprehensive annual reporting around its goals and reviews opportunities to update goals based on the company’s priorities. Under her leadership, Walgreens published its rst ESG report and was one of the rst companies to implement the Global Reporting Initiative Universal Standards, delivering the highest level of transparency for organizational impacts. Her team also launched Walgreens’ rst Climate Scenario Analysis, evaluating the company’s climate-related nancial risk. Stone serves on the Council for Jewish Elderly associate board and mentors Baumhart Scholars at Loyola University Chicago.

Tim Swanson

Founder, president and CEO

Inherent Homes

Tim Swanson is responsible for all aspects of Inherent Homes, a nonpro t business that develops sustainable and a ordable manufactured homes for placement on cityand county-owned land in an underserved community on Chicago’s West Side. ese homes are adjacent to a CPS elementary school to create a sense of place while creating workforce training for justice-involved young adults learning trades such as carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and sustainability. e company’s homes use smart-home technology throughout with all-electric Energy Star appliances, high-performance water systems, an airtight enclosure, Energy Star windows, air puri cation systems and energy monitoring; they are also solar power ready. Swanson serves on the boards of Archeworks and the West Central Association.

Eric Tritch

Vice president of supply chain and support services University of Chicago Medicine

Eric Tritch oversees all supply chain operations, environmental services and patient-transportation operations as well as a cross-functional group working to reduce, reuse and recycle products throughout University of Chicago Medicine. e team uses data to choose organizational initiatives that are most environmentally impactful and meaningful. Over the past year, the health system has diverted roughly 25,000 single-use products and upward of 7,000 pounds of waste from local land lls. Tritch and the team have focused on reducing medical-waste volumes, greening operating rooms and procedural areas, reducing energy and water consumption, and ensuring that construction activities (such as a planned $815 million cancer center) include green spaces, the e cient use of energy and sustainable materials.

NOTABLE SPOTLIGHT with Megan Zack

Crain’s 2023 Notable Leader in Sustainability

How do you de ne sustainability?

What was your career path?

As an industry champion for sustainable design, Megan Zack aims to demystify the sustainability process and help clients realize their goals. She believes in sustainable practices that are achievable and affordable without compromising design.

Zack is a Registered

Architect, LEED AP & WELL

AP. She is currently the Chief Sustainability Of cer at Wight & Company, an integrated design / build rm with of ces in Chicago, Darien, and Denver. Wight works across multiple market sectors and partners with clients on all aspects of projects, from master planning through construction.

Sustainability is a holistic concept, intertwining economic, environmental, and social goals to create thriving and resilient communities. Sustainable development meets the needs of current generations without compromising those of future generations. Everyone plays a role in sustainability. It’s about making smarter choices.

Why is sustainable building design important?

Sustainable design minimizes the impact of the built environment on our world. Our goal at Wight is to design & build better buildings that are better for the planet and healthier for the people that inhabit the space.

How did you get interested in sustainability?

I grew up in a household where we talked a lot about the environment. My parents were both scientists, so I understood from a young age the impact human behavior can have on the environment. I wanted a career that was both creative and scienti c. I quickly realized the scienti c side of architecture is sustainability.

Early in my career, I worked on Parc Huron, the rst LEED Gold certi ed highrise residential building in Chicago. I was studying for the LEED AP exam at that time and was able to incorporate sustainable elements into the project before we knew it was going to be LEED certi ed. When project goals changed mid-design, we were able to attain certi cation without an increase to the budget or the schedule.

What is your role in the design process?

Our Sustainability team of four includes myself, a wellness expert, a sustainability analyst, and a building performance engineer. We are integrated into the entire design and build process for every major project. My team works with Wight’s internal teams and our clients to create sustainability goals and use energy & daylight modeling tools to help guide decisions.

How do you measure results?

We track our projects through our commitments to AIA 2030, MEP 2040 & SE 2050. We also look at operational and embodied carbon and use energy

modeling tools to help clients understand how projects perform and to help them make smarter choices during design. My favorite measure is seeing a client that is proud of their project. It’s inspiring to walk into a school and see students eating lunch next to a beautiful, green living wall and breathing healthy air.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

I am most proud of my position as Chief Sustainability Of cer — not because of the status but because of the impact I can make. My job is a call to action to all 200 employees at Wight, and, through them, the clients they support and the communities they live in. Everybody’s job is a climate job. It’s a team effort.

Any advice for business owners?

Ask what you can do to make smarter choices. Even small changes have an impact. Create an attainable goal for your building or business and, when you reach that goal, create another one. You don’t have to go from doing nothing to achieving net-zero all at once. Just move the needle a little bit at a time and you’ll get there.

THE AVERAGE SALARY FOR A GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY EXECUTIVE IN THE U.S. IS $239,090; THE RANGE TYPICALLY FALLS BETWEEN $192,990 AND $304,590. SALARY.COM

Bryan Wagner Environmental policy and program manager Illinois Tollway

Bryan Wagner and a sta of environmental professionals manage a range of tollway e orts related to wetland mitigation, noise mitigation, stormwater management, chloride reduction and landscaping improvements. He coordinates agency relationships with local, state and federal regulatory agencies, facilitates partnerships with environmental advocacy organizations and enlists research institutions to support the tollway’s sustainability policy. A recent accomplishment is an e ort (part of the tollway’s landscape master plan) to plant the equivalent of 58,000 trees. rough the Move Illinois program, Wagner has directed the restoration and preservation of more than 750 acres of land and the construction of nearly 70 miles of bioswales. He also guides stormwater management and chloride reduction practices.

Mark Weber Chief operating officer Federal Signal

Mark Weber leads Federal Signal’s sustainability e orts with oversight over consumption-reduction goals, eet-electri cation initiatives and the production of its ESG report. Since 2021, he oversaw a 14.4% decrease in electricity consumption in kilowatts per dollar revenue and a 10.3% decrease in water consumption in gallons per dollar revenue. Weber also leads Federal Signal’s electri cation initiatives; 20% of the overall R&D budget is allocated to this e ort. Since 2021, he has led the launch of a full-size, all-electric street sweeper, a fully electric Rugby Vari-Class platform dump body and a new Switch-N-Go system on an electric chassis. Weber is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Jane Wilberding Senior mobility manager

HNTB

Jane Wilberding’s work focuses on carbon-emissions reduction by planning for the increased presence of active transportation, working with the Chicago Department of Transportation to expand the Divvy bike-share network across the city. She’s also developing an electric vehicle plan with Cook County and CDOT, identifying the infrastructure needed to support EV adoption. is work includes connecting with community members, transportation leaders and government o cials to identify opportunities to make EVs more accessible to communities, particularly in underserved communities that have barriers to EV adoption and infrastructure. Wilberding is a co-founder and board member of the Parking Reform Network and also serves as vice president of internal a airs for the Chicago Central Area Committee.

Gabriel Wilcox Director of sustainable design

Krueck Sexton Partners

Gabriel Wilcox oversees sustainable design integration throughout KSP’s portfolio, with a goal of net-zero emissions by 2030. Last year the rm tracked an average of 69.2% energy reduction, with a third of those projects exceeding American Institute of Architects reduction targets or achieving net-zero energy. Wilcox focuses on a regenerative framework for all projects, which requires extensive collaboration with engineering partners. He’s pushed the envelope on project sustainability goals beyond LEED Platinum certi cation and toward Zero Carbon certi cation. He works with the nonpro t International Living Future Initiative as co-leader of the Illinois Regional Member Community. Wilcox is also a member of the AIA Chicago COTE + 2030 Knowledge Community.

Jessica Wollmuth

EY Americas climate change and sustainability services deputy leader

Ernst & Young LLP

For one Chicago-based Fortune 500 manufacturing client, Jessica Wollmuth developed a corporatewide sustainability strategy that included public targets for decarbonization, health and safety performance, and diversity. It also included an aggressive decarbonization road map and implementation e orts across 18 operating companies that account for manufacturing decarbonization, electricity use and value-chain greenhouse gas emissions as well as public-facing sustainability reporting. In recent years she has been instrumental in winning and delivering work for 20 U.S. clients that is driving sustainable impact. Wollmuth volunteers with Cluster Tutoring Program (now called Learning Edge), which contributes to the lives of Chicago-area K-12 students from Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.

Liz (Lewis) Wrona Director of impact & engagement Climate Vault

Liz (Lewis) Wrona leads Climate Vault’s Partner Program, collaborating with organizations that are committed to sustainability. She’s helped grow the program by 185% since the organization’s launch, directly helping to raise $13 million in donations and reduce one million tons of carbon dioxide. She provides Scope 1, 2, and 3 assessments, protocol guidance (GHG, SBTi) and education about carbon dioxide removal. She led the development of Climate Vault’s inaugural Impact Report published in 2023 and helps contextualize how Climate Vault’s impact supports disadvantaged and low-income communities. Wrona is a member of Loyola’s Women in STEM committee and a member of Climate Reality Chicago. She also speaks with students about careers in sustainability.

Chief

Wight & Co.

Megan Zack is implementing a series of checkpoints at Wight & Co. to ensure every project incorporates sustainable best practices. She is aligning sustainability strategies across disciplines and expanding industry leadership by advocating for buildings that are net positive.

Zack is also updating the 2020 Wight Sustainability Standard for distribution in 2024. e update will include strategies to reduce embodied carbon, track life-cycle assessments and add transportation goals. Zack is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Illinois Green Alliance, the Chicago Building Advocacy Collaboration and Building Green Sustainable Design Leaders, and is an Illinois Green mentor (on the committee that launched the program in 2020).

INDUSTRY WEEK

Amp Americas

Grant Zimmerman is focused on growing the market for renewable natural gas and other carbon-negative renewable products. He was instrumental in setting up Amp’s RNG project in Darlington, Wis., which is expected to convert 90,000 gallons of dairy waste per day, resulting in carbon reduction of 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. Under his leadership, Amp Americas’ operations eliminated more than 1.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year, the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars o the road for a year. Zimmerman oversaw development of the rst ve pathways for dairy renewable gas-to-vehicle fuel projects for California’s Low Carbon Fuels program. He is on the board of the RNG Coalition.

COO of production and delivery

Milhouse Engineering & Construction

Joseph Zurad is responsible for the planning, design and construction of about 400 active projects. Recent accomplishments include designing two passive-house multifamily housing units that use a small percentage of the energy required in a conventional building. He also led his team in retro-commissioning the engineering services for 333 West Wacker Drive, a 1.1 millionsquare-foot all-electric commercial building that reduced energy consumption and improves the indoor environment. Zurad led Milhouse’s work on the CAMBI ermal Hydrolysis Plant Mechanical Design project, which enhanced the digestion process for sludge treatment at a wastewater treatment plant, reducing volume while generating sucient methane gas to fuel three 4.5-megawatt generators.

Megan Zack

sustainability officer

Grant Zimmerman CEO

Joseph Zurad

BY 2022, 95 OF THE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES HAD A CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, AND THE NUMBER OF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICERS TRIPLED IN 2021 ALONE.

Sisters’ Mackinac quest: A race for family honor

win back in the family would be so surreal, it would be an absolute honor.”

‘THE CROWN JEWEL OF GREAT LAKES SAILING’

The Chicago Yacht Club’s Race to Mackinac, first held as an informal competition between friends in 1898, is the longest annual freshwater yacht race in the world. It stretches from the Chicago Lighthouse just east of Navy Pier to the southern edge of Mackinac Island.

“The Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac trophy is like the crown jewel of Great Lakes sailing,” Christina O’Rourke, 35, said, “and it has been for over 100 years because that race is a true test of skill and a true test of bravery.”

It commands such respect in part because the weather patterns on Lake Michigan can be so unpredictable. “That’s why sailors from all over the world come to Chicago every summer to do this race to Mackinac,” she said. “It’s like a bucket list race for a lot of sailors from all over the place.”

“It is our club’s signature event,” said Chicago Yacht Club race chair Sam Veilleux. “It brings that prestige and just knowledge of the club and the Great Lakes to Chicago.”

Nearly 250 boats are registered to compete in this year’s race, which begins the morning of July 22. Competitors range from casual weekend sailors from around Chicago to professional crews who flock to the city from across the country.

“The people that do this race, it’s really the whole spectrum of the sailing community,” Veilleux said. “Many of them are doctors, lawyers, engineers, CEOs or members of the Chicago business community or the Detroit business community.”

100 YEARS LATER, INTRUDER QUESTIONS LINGER

John Paul O’Rourke maintained his innocence through the accusations of foul play. Bitter about the outcome, he fought back against the disqualification — which came more than two months after the race — and filed an appeal of the ruling to the Lake Michigan Yachting Association. The governing body, however, refused O’Rourke’s protest on the grounds that he breached procedure in filing his appeal directly to the heads of the committee rather than its delegates.

Some in the Chicago sailing community have remained skeptical of the official explanation behind the disqualification. It’s entirely possible that O’Rourke did in fact fail to submit the proper measurements, but it’s also plausible that outside forces influenced the ruling. Perhaps the CYC did not take kindly to an underdog from another club winning their flagship race. Or maybe a big-name businessman with money on the race saw an opportunity to tip the scales.

In a letter to O’Rourke some 15 years after the race, a commodore writing from the host club appeared to acknowledge the peculiarity of the 1923 race: “Dimly I remember some kind of mixup which you had with our race committee and while I forget the circumstances, I remember it as one of those things which are not happening so much nowadays.”

That, too, was the narrative passed down through generations of the O’Rourke family.

“Meghan and I grew up hearing all these different versions of that story about what really happened,” Christina O’Rourke said. “Today, all the yacht clubs in Chicago all really collaborate to support the sport. But, back then, there were some serious rivalries, so there are some lasting questions about the way that this all went down.”

ANYONE CAN WIN

For many in the Chicago sailing community, the Mackinac race is something of a family affair. Just as the O’Rourke sisters recount stories of their great-grandfather on the Intruder, others trace their racing roots back to relatives of their own. Some families can spend decades — even a century — pursuing a win.

“A big part of what drew both of us to the sport is growing up hearing these legends and lure of the race to Mackinac and knowing that our great-grandfather had done this,” Christina O ’Rourke said.

“This is a generational thing,” Veilleux added. “I know of people that sailed together with their

granddad, dad and kids . . . I look forward to taking my daughters sailing and then hopefully taking them on this race when they’re older.”

While some families will set sail alongside each other, the O’Rourke sisters will be going up against one another — albeit with the shared goal of bringing a section flag back to the family.

As for their chances, this race — it seems — is anyone’s to win.

“Christina’s boat is doing very, very well this season,” said Meghan O’Rourke, 34, an elementary school teacher who lives in Humboldt Park.

Her sister quickly responded, “I already know that if it’s certain conditions, Meg’s boat is favored for sure.”

“That’s the great thing about this race,” said Veilleux. “Anyone that has their boat properly prepared and crew that is ready for this and that knowledge of Lake Michigan and knowledge of the Great Lakes can go out and win this race.”

The sisters know it’s a long shot. They each already have five Mackinac Races under their belt, yet the O’Rourke family still can’t lay claim to a win — at least not officially.

But that’s just all the more motivation to keep racing.

“It’s like a lifelong goal,” Christina O’Rourke said. “I hope that it’s this year that we at least walk away with some section flags for Meg and I, but at the end of the day I’m not going to be mad about making this a lifelong pursuit. I could find a lot of joy in making this a lifelong pursuit.”

MACKINAC

Nearly 250 boats are registered to compete in this year’s race, which begins the morning of July 22.

COURTESY OF CHRISTINA O’ROURKE

Pramaggiore lays out array of arguments in appeal of ‘ComEd Four’ verdict

Lassar and other Pramaggiore attorneys attended as well, came up April 18 during cross-examination of Pramaggiore and was the subject of strenuous objections by Lassar.

e prosecution implied in its questions of her that Lassar had ended that session abruptly after Pramaggiore rst heard a recording of a pivotal February 2019 conversation between her and Fidel Marquez, ComEd’s head internal lobbyist, who had agreed to cooperate with the FBI and U.S. attorney’s o ce. “You and your counsel ended the interview, correct?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker, who cross-examined Pramaggiore. Leinenweber instructed jurors to disregard that, but Pramaggiore’s appeal says the damage was done, calling it “extraordinarily prejudicial.”

of the jury did as well.”

More broadly, the appeal repeats arguments defense attorneys made throughout the trial, focused on how ComEd’s responses to Madigan’s numerous requests for favors — including what turned out to be years-long, no-work jobs for key associates — constituted ordinary lobbying activity that court precedents have determined isn’t criminal.

“Anne Pramaggiore was convicted of nine felonies for conduct that violates no law and is commonplace in American society — accepting job recommendations from public officials without any expectation that the public official will do anything in return,” the filing states. “If what Ms. Pramaggiore did was bribery, any executive who has accepted a job recommendation from a public official has paid a bribe. Any

“IF WHAT MS. PRAMAGGIORE DID WAS BRIBERY, ANY EXECUTIVE WHO HAS ACCEPTED A JOB RECOMMENDATION FROM A PUBLIC OFFICIAL HAS PAID A BRIBE. ” — Court ling in Anne Pramaggiore’s appeal

In fact, according to Lassar’s filing, the two sides agreed to end the meeting. Referring to notes his office took of the meeting, Lassar told prosecutors then that he needed time to discuss the recording with Pramaggiore. The filing then quoted Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu as saying, “I think that’s best. . . .I would encourage you to take this time to think through that. We’re done here today.”

“This statement demonstrates that Ms. Pramaggiore did not unilaterally end the interview,” Lassar’s filing concludes.

REPEATS TRIAL ARGUMENTS

Referring to a Crain’s article at the time, the filing says, “The government’s question gave the improper impression that Ms. Pramaggiore was guilty because her attorneys supposedly ended the interview after the portion of the Feb. 18, 2019, call was played. Press reporting on the trial came to this conclusion, so it is likely that members

public official who has made a job recommendation has committed bribery. And any judge who has recommended a clerk to a law firm with cases before the court has solicited a bribe.”

“How is it possible that such unremarkable conduct is punishable as criminal bribery?” the document goes on. “Were the bribery statutes amended to become strict-liability crimes stating that no one with business before a public official is ever permitted to give anything of value to him? Did the Supreme Court overturn decades-old precedent holding that convicting someone of bribery requires proof of a quid pro quo and that providing things of value to public officials to foster goodwill is legal?

No. In this case, the government inflamed the jury with repeated and explicit claims that Ms. Pramaggiore bribed Mr. Madigan while shirking the burden of proving the quid pro quo that makes a gift into a bribe.”

In the lead-up to the trial, Leinenweber rejected defense

arguments that an explicit quid pro quo had to be proven to convict Pramaggiore and the other three — former ComEd executive and lobbyist John Hooker and former outside lobbyists Michael McClain and Jay Doherty. Lassar’s filing acknowledges that the 7th Circuit, which is likely to hear this appeal once Leinenweber rules on the motions, has previously ruled against requiring a quid pro quo. But the defendants are teeing up the issue for the Supreme Court because other appeals circuits have ruled differently.

MONTHS-LONG DRAMA

The most obvious problem, the filing states, with not requiring proof of an explicit legislation-for-favors trade with Madigan lies in the monthslong drama within ComEd and Exelon over the appointment of Juan Ochoa to ComEd’s board at Madigan’s request.

“(Pramaggiore) acted with full transparency, sharing the fact that Mr. Ochoa was recommended by Mr. Madigan with Exelon’s General Counsel Tom O’Neill (an experienced white-collar defense attorney), Exelon’s Chief Legal Officer Bill Von Hoene (another experienced white-collar defense attorney), her successor Joe Dominguez (a former prosecutor), and the ultimate decision-maker, Exelon CEO Chris Crane, none of whom raised a concern that ComEd would be bribing Mr. Madigan by appointing Mr. Ochoa,” the filing says. “She never expected that Mr. Madigan would do anything for ComEd in return for Mr. Ochoa’s appointment, never asked him for anything in connection with Mr. Ochoa’s appointment and never learned that anyone else asked him for anything in connection with Mr. Ochoa’s appointment. . . .Ms. Pramaggiore’s conduct is not only indistinguishable from that of Messrs. O’Neill, Dominguez, Von Hoene, and Crane, none of whom were charged in this case or accused of being members of a bribery conspiracy, it is no different from anyone who has accepted a job recommendation from a public official — all of whom are threatened with

prosecution and incarceration under the government’s boundless reading of this statute.”

During closing arguments, Bhachu’s explanation of why Pramaggiore was the only current or former ComEd or Exelon executive on trial for their role in the bribery scheme was that none of the others “had the full picture.”

Crane retired as Exelon CEO at the end of last year. Dominguez now is CEO of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group, a power-generation company Exelon spun o last year as a separate company. Von Hoene has retired. O’Neill is a partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago.

Instead of proving a quid pro quo, prosecutors had to show under Leinenweber’s rulings that Pramaggiore acted with “corrupt intent,” providing things of value to Madigan in order to win his backing for lucrative legislation in Springfield. Lassar in the filing asserts that Pramaggiore was never proven to be acting with “corrupt intent.”

“To the extent Ms. Pramaggiore was even involved in the underlying conduct, the evidence showed her conduct was consistent with the legal and unremarkable intent to hire people because she believed they o ered value and to foster goodwill with Mr. Madigan,” the ling states. “ is is not criminal.”

JURY INSTRUCTIONS

e appeal lays out a series of issues the defense has with jury instructions and says Leinenweber improperly excluded some defense suggestions, which the ling says were based on precedents in the 7th Circuit.

It also says the judge improperly excluded evidence Pramaggiore wanted to present in her defense. at included a series of emails in June 2012, more than a year after the scheme allegedly began, Pramaggiore sent to others within the company requesting an investigation of ComEd’s lobbyists and their activities. In one such email, included in the ling, Pramaggiore wrote, “I want to make sure we have done everything we can (including a broader investigation if need be) to insure we have protected the company

against exposure to public embarrassment or worse.”

“If Ms. Pramaggiore had the corrupt intent to bribe Mr. Madigan by paying (associates) Mr. Olivo and Mr. Nice, who were in fact being paid at that time, or if she were in a conspiracy to bribe Mr. Madigan, she would never have suggested that non-conspirators such as Mr. O’Neill and (Exelon General Counsel Darryl) Bradford be involved in an investigation into the activities of ComEd lobbyists,” the ling states.

Lastly, the appeal references one of the trial’s most striking moments. Dominguez, called as a defense witness by Pramaggiore, got into a skirmish with prosecutor Bhachu over Dominguez’s own 2019 meeting with the feds. Bhachu threatened Dominguez (“ at might not work out well for you”) after the latter began speaking of something Bhachu said to him during the meeting.

Lassar objected, but Leinenweber never ruled on the objection, the ling states. Instead, Bhachu asked the question differently, and Dominguez took a much less confrontational approach.

“ e government’s threat worked,” the appeal states. “After this exchange, the government simply continued questioning Mr. Dominguez without a ruling on the objection. Mr. Dominguez never completed his testimony concerning what the government actually said to him during that meeting, even though — contrary to the government’s unsupported contention — his answer may very well have been admissible. . . . e court’s failure to rule on Ms. Pramaggiore’s objection or to provide any curative instruction left the jury with the wrong impression that Mr. Dominguez was not permitted to testify on that topic and without the ability to consider the testimony he would have given had he not been threatened. Had the jury heard Mr. Dominguez’s complete answer, it may have found the government’s presentation of its investigation less credible, creating reasonable doubt.” e U.S. attorney’s o ce has until Sept. 8 to respond to the appeals. Hooker, McClain and Doherty also are appealing.

Outcome Health’s Rishi Shah and feds wrangle over former CEO’s assets

between Shah and federal prosecutors over his assets, which has been going on for three years.

Now that Shah and fellow Outcome Health executives

Shradha Agarwal and Brad Purdy have been convicted of defrauding customers and investors, prosecutors are asking U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin to allow them to seize Shah’s assets that were frozen

before trial.

The government is looking to win forfeiture of millions in cash and investments belonging to Shah that it says can be traced to the fraud in which the company overbilled pharmaceutical advertisers, inflating the company’s financial results as it raised nearly a half-billion dollars in funding from investors such as Goldman Sachs and Google.

Prosecutors also want au -

thority to garnish other assets that could be necessary to cover restitution they’ll seek when Shah is sentenced in the fall. He’s facing up to 30 years in prison.

FIGHTING FORFEITURE

Shah’s attorneys are fighting prosecutors’ efforts, arguing that the government froze assets that weren’t related to fraudulent activity involved in the case. They also contend

that the government can’t seek forfeiture of any assets until final judgment, or sentencing, is complete.

“A criminal defendant has a constitutional right to use ass ets derived from noncriminal sources to support his defense,” they said in a filing. “The government has denied him that right for more than three years.”

Prosecutors aren’t buying it.

“Considering that Shah had ac-

cess to more than $20 million in unrestrained assets, including more than $11 million in a bank account five months before trial, and considering Shah’s spending habits and high-end lifestyle over the past five years, he cannot credibly claim he needed the non-traceable portion of the restrained assets — which amounted to roughly $4.9 million at the time of indictment — for attorney’s fees,” they said in the filing.

SHAH from Page 1

NU board faces reckoning amid hazing scandal

Dearborn co-president Timothy Sullivan. Among 78 life trustees are megadonor Patrick Ryan of insurance broker Ryan Specialty Group and fellow billionaires real estate mogul Neil Bluhm and industrialist Lester Crown.

eir actions will largely determine whether the hazing scandal that led university President Michael Schill to re football coach Pat Fitzgerald on July 10 is a momentary setback or a permanent blemish on the school. To meet the challenge, experts say trustees must determine the extent of the problem, impose appropriate accountability and establish policies to prevent anything similar from happening again.

“You’ve got to take the moral high ground,” says Donald Heller, a retired provost and vice president of academic a airs at the University of San Francisco, a former professor at Penn State University and a consultant. “You can’t sit and dither back and forth.”

Of course, Northwestern is far more than its athletic program, but there’s no denying that sports generate more headlines than academics, and persistent problems in athletics can re ect poorly on the university as a whole. Northwestern can get past this episode if it moves decisively, says William E. “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor emeritus of the University System of Maryland and former president of e Ohio State University.

“ e short-term fallout will likely be profound, including signicant embarrassment for all associated with the university, a blow to the institution’s image and reputation, a drop in donations, di culty in recruiting student-athletes, a decline in the competitiveness of sports teams, and major lawsuits, all resulting in a substantial nancial loss for the institution,” Kir-

wan says. “With strong action by the university, however, the university will rebound.”

Schill’s decision to re Fitzgerald — just days after the school announced he’d be suspended for two weeks without pay during the summer — made it look like the board and administration didn’t have a game plan, says Drumm McNaughton, an Albuquerque, N.M.-based consultant specializing in higher education governance, strategy and mergers.

In the wake of Fitzgerald’s ring, it remains unclear how long the hazing was going on and whether similar practices have been happening elsewhere in the athletic program. To answer those and other questions, some experts recommend that the board hire an independent investigator or appoint a commission.

A Northwestern spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

One of the few trustees to speak publicly is ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon, a Northwestern alumnus and native Chicagoan. Interviewed on ESPN Chicago, Wilbon said it’s disappointing to see “a climate that allows (this behavior) and players who will indulge it.” Calling Schill’s initial punishment of a two-week suspension “inadequate,” Wilbon added he’s willing to cut the president slack because he’s new on the job.

POTENTIAL COSTS

Nevertheless, Schill and the board could face millions of dollars in legal costs, a possible breach of contract lawsuit by Fitzgerald and charges by victimized student-athletes. Hazing is illegal in Illinois, and the school in 2016 established a hazing prevention task force composed of students and professional sta , suggesting that the problem isn’t new. e

university even solicits donations for “hazing prevention.”

In addition, an NCAA investigation could be in the o ng, experts say. Recruiting athletes — always a challenge for Northwestern coaches because of the school’s high academic standards — could become more di cult. And there could be a dip in alumni giving. e scandal also has sparked calls for Northwestern to table an $800 million plan to build a new football stadium, nanced largely by a bequest from Ryan.

e university launched an independent investigation late last year into a whistleblower’s claims about hazing in football. e report by former prosecutor and former Illinois Executive Inspector General Maggie Hickey says that while the investigation didn’t nd evidence that the coaching sta knew about ongoing hazing, there were opportunities for them to discover and report the hazing.

Based on the Hickey report, the university announced the twoweek suspension July 7, which critics derided as a wrist slap. e next day, after details of the hazing appeared in e Daily Northwestern student newspaper, Schill wrote that he may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction. “I focused too much on what the report concluded he (Fitzgerald) didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known,” the president wrote. On July 10, he red Fitzgerald.

e questions raised by the Hickey report are likely to lead to a wider investigation, particularly as allegations have surfaced in connection with the Wildcats baseball program. Northwestern red head baseball coach Jim Foster on July 13.

“Getting someone from outside to look at it from a broader perspective sends the message that the university is serious,” says McNaugh-

ton, who notes that Penn State after its child sex abuse scandal hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh. “ ey will want someone well-respected, who can determine the extent of the problem and whether big changes are needed,” he says, adding, “that’s what the public and accreditors like to see.”

Another approach could be the appointment of a high-level commission with respected faculty to review the hazing and the entire athletic program, Kirwan says.

ELITE STATUS

e hazing scandal is a particular embarrassment to Northwestern because of its elite status among the nation’s universities. It had avoided the sordid dramas of Penn State and also Michigan State, where the campus sports doctor was convicted of sexually assaulting women and girls, including Olympic gymnasts. “ is is supposed to be an enlightened intellectual institution,” O’Connor says. But if the board and administration get to the bottom of the scandal and are forthcoming and transparent, it shouldn’t sustain long-term damage, he adds.

Still, Northwestern has joined the ranks of highly respected insti-

tutions damaged by bad behavior in their athletic programs. Yet with so much money in college football, there’s a big incentive for the university to clean up its act and get back in the game. “It is hard not to be cynical about the future,” says Murray Sperber, emeritus professor at Indiana University and a critic of the excessive money in college sports. “ ey are part of the huge Big Ten TV contract. ey will hire an NFL-type coach and he will get them to .500 and avoid hazing. e students and alumni will enjoy the party scene around the games. And everyone will forget Fitzgerald until they honor him at halftime in about 10 years.”

In the meantime, the board needs to learn from the lessons of other scandalized schools — move quickly and be forthcoming, observers note.

“Sadly, this is yet one more example of how the excesses of athletic programs bring signi cant damage to otherwise highly respected institutions,” Kirwan says. “ e failure to better align athletic programs with the purpose and mission of our nation’s major colleges and universities is a collective and signi cant failing of university leadership.”

GTCR’s monster deal for Worldpay doesn’t mean it’s becoming another KKR

at isn’t to say lending has normalized. is deal might have been done with two banks a few years ago, Cohen says, instead of six.

“ e leveraged lending market is open to a select group” of (target) companies, he says.

In this case, the loan was about four times Worldpay’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Equity is accounting for about half the deal’s value, with debt taking up the rest.

These are conservative terms. The banks were willing to take on more debt than they did, Cohen says, but GTCR wanted more cash flow available for future investments in the business. Less leverage on a buyout

like this potentially dampens returns on it, but it saves the company from becoming too encumbered by debt to invest during economic slowdowns.

Payments is a part of thenancial-services landscape GTCR knows well. In 2009, the rm looked at acquiring Worldpay, then the payments-processing unit of Cincinnati-based Fifth ird Bancorp, when Fifth ird looked to sell it. But GTCR owned a competitor — National Processing Co. — and opted to sell it to the Worldpay predecessor after Fifth ird joined up with another private-equity rm.

Charles Drucker, CEO of what later was renamed Vantiv and then nally Worldpay, grew to know GTCR well as the two vied for acquisitions through the

HOW TO CONTACT CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

2010s.

“We have looked at or bid on every asset Charles has bought over the past 15 years,” Cohen says.

After three years away, Drucker is returning to run Worldpay. He will join as CEO when GTCR’s deal closes, expected by the rst quarter.

Vantiv went public in 2012, changed its name to Worldpay after acquiring a London-based company with that name in 2018, and was sold to FIS in 2019. Drucker left soon thereafter.

Since the sale to FIS, Worldpay largely has sat out the active consolidation in the fragmented payments processing business, according to a report by William Blair analyst Cristopher Kennedy. Publicly traded rivals have done no fewer than 10 acquisi-

tions in that time frame, while Worldpay did two.

GTCR intends for that to change and has allocated $1.25 billion for future Worldpay dealmaking under Drucker’s leadership. “I think it’s going to be a success without M&A,” Cohen says. “But that (M&A) is absolutely the path we intend to execute on.”

“Despite the underperformance as compared to its peers, we continue to view Worldpay as a strong merchant acquirer asset that represents a diversified global distribution platform,” Kennedy wrote. “Worldpay has leading market share worldwide, with nearly $2 trillion of volume on its platform, and we believe this scale provides advantages over its global peers and local regional-based

acquirers.”

Growth for payment processors is expected principally in e-commerce, where the need for secure and simple payment methods is on the rise. Worldpay’s management previously forecasted e-commerce could generate half the company’s revenues within three years, according to Kennedy. It accounts for 30% now.

As for GTCR’s nancial services targets, the rm likes commercial insurance brokerages — long a favorite industry for private-equity rms because of steady cash ows — and mortgage technology rms, in addition to payments processing, Cohen says.

With lots of dry powder, GTCR has billions more with which to hunt.

Potentially caught in the middle of the scandal is the university’s prized $800 million project to build a new Ryan Field.

ALAMY