Crain's Chicago Business - 11/8/21 by crainschicago

HIGHER ED: Illinois public universities work to close vaccination gap. PAGE 3

JOE CAHILL: Cat’s big chance to escape the mines. PAGE 4

CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 8, 2021 | $3.50

Loyola sits out the hospital merger craze But as rivals bulk up, the three-hospital group risks losing referrals and bargaining power with insurers BY STEPHANIE GOLDBERG Loyola Medicine has reached a strategic crossroads in a consolidating market. Anchored by an academic medical center, Maywood-based Loyola has long stood out in the local market by providing more advanced care than other hospitals in the western suburbs. But its future is less clear as behemoths like Advocate Aurora Health, NorthShore University HealthSystem and Northwestern Medicine build sprawling regional networks with more than three times as many hospitals.

Three-hospital Loyola, by contrast, has been far less acquisitive. Despite access to the deep pockets of parent company Trinity Shawn Vincent Health—a Michigan-based chain with 89 hospitals around the country—Loyola has acquired only one hospital in the past decade. “Being in a market this size with only three hospitals is becoming See LOYOLA on Page 47

For the Blackhawks, an icy road ahead A damning report shows the human cost of one of the greatest turnarounds in sports business history BY DANNY ECKER

UNDER

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Danny Wirtz inherited the model of a successful modern pro sports franchise when he became chief executive of the Chicago Blackhawks last year. Now he has to figure out how to change it. The damning Jenner & Block report published late last month detailing the team’s mishandling of sexual assault allegations against a former coach cast a harsh light on what is widely considered one

of the greatest revivals of a major sports brand. Under the leadership of former CEO John McDonough, the Blackhawks Danny Wirtz won countless industry awards for transforming a historic franchise with alienated fans, languishing ticket sales and See BLACKHAWKS on Page 47

NOTABLES

YOUR VIEW

These 30 vets have forged noteworthy post-military careers. PAGE 35

To keep the Bears in Chicago, partner with them. PAGE 10

11/5/21 4:09 PM

2 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Lightfoot now holds all the cards on casino deal

e it a shopper looking for a new TV, a student searching for the best college or a voter filling out their ballot, it’s good to have choices. Mayor Lori Lightfoot can appreciate that. Thanks to some fine staff work by insiders at City Hall, like Samir Mayekar, and outsiders like attorney Cid Froelich—as well as a little luck—Lightfoot now has the opportunity to sort through no fewer than five bids to develop her prized Chicago casino. In fact, with the nation appearing to slowly, but steadily, recover from COVID-19, this may be the exact right time for such a big dream. Realizing that dream will require some real decisions, though. Lightfoot now has to decide what she really wants. Though details have not been disclosed, I presume all of the bidders are agreeing to a deal that would pay the hefty taxes authorized by law. In other words, the decision isn’t about money for the city per se. Rather, I suspect it’s more about location,

away from any residential area, but still relatively easy to reach. Another is that the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, which owns Lakeside, doesn’t have the approximately $400 million needed to repair and upgrade the half-century-old structure. Turning it over to Bluhm would relieve McPier of that burden, with lease payments providing cash to build elsewhere. An additional plus: Renovating an existing structure likely would fill city coffers with tax revenue years earlier than building from scratch. Lakeside has big downsides. Chicago convention leaders in the past have signaled they’d rather not set up shop next to a casino. That’s still a potential problem, though Las Vegas has handled it. But the other problem, opposition from lakefront preservation types, may have been overstated. Friends of the Parks’ Juanita Irizarry, whose group helped kill the proposed Lucas Museum, says it “would probably stay out of the conversation” if Bluhm merely

GREG HINZ ON POLITICS

repurposed an existing building, rather than using existing park space like Lucas. Hmm! Two other sites presented to the city are nearby. One is the McCormick Place truck marshaling yard on the west side of DuSable Lake Shore Drive. That’s one of the two sites pitched by Bally’s, but it faces strong opposition from the local alderman, Sophia King, 4th, who in her newsletter says she stands with residents who want a largely residential development. “This site should be immediately eliminated” from the casino competition, she wrote. The other is developer Bob Dunn’s One Central project proposed just west of Soldier Field, which another bidder, Hard Rock, likes. Unlike Bluhm, whose business partner Churchill Downs is

trying to get the Bears to move to Arlington Heights, Dunn wants them to stay in a revitalized neighborhood anchored by his project. Dunn’s problem is that One Central is just a dream, with $6.5 billion in needed state subsidies far from assured and any construction years away. Which takes us back to Lightfoot. The one apparent certainty is that the casino is going to go somewhere in the downtown area, either at one of the locations described above or at the Tribune printing plant at Halsted and Chicago. But how quickly, and where? On the lakefront or off, in a new neighborhood or a repurposed older one? Look for Lightfoot to take a little time with this, but not long, with public hearings next month and a decision early next year.

This system determines who holds power

epublican Adam Kinzinger likely will not seek re-election to Congress, but he may run for governor or Senate. Rodney Davis might stay in Congress, meaning he likely won’t challenge Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s re-election bid after all. U.S. Rep. Marie Newman, instead of taking on entrenched Democratic powerhouse Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, is expected to challenge a different fellow incumbent, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, in Illinois’ 6th Congressional District. If you already know where I’m headed with this—a call to reform political gerrymandering—then count yourself among the remap cognoscenti. After all, gerrymandering isn’t some abstract concern: It has real-world consequences, in the form of who gets elected and who does not. Yet millions upon millions of people refuse to care a whit about it. Former Gov. Jim Edgar—who served in an era when majorities in the Illinois Legislature toggled between Democratic and Republican—described why politicians play for keeps when it comes to maps. “That’s the bottom line in Springfield: the map. This idea that Republicans are going to be fair or Democrats are going to be fair, that’s just not true. Not on this issue,” Edgar told host Justin Kaufmann for the Better Government Association podcast “The Madigan Rule.” “They might be fair on everything else. But not on a map.” Events of the last few months bear that out. Democrats in Springfield faced a June 30 deadline for state legislative maps—or risk losing control of the process to Republicans in a coin flip. The map they rushed to approve was built from population estimates, not the actual census headcount. And when the census data did arrive, it

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wider economic development potential and public reaction—and, as I wrote the other day, at least partly over whether the Chicago Bears will continue to call Soldier Field home. The most intriguing pitch so far has come from real estate developer and gambling mogul Neil Bluhm. Bluhm long has been considered the front-runner for the bid, both because of his political closeness to Lightfoot and because of his successful track record of opening casinos elsewhere. Bluhm also had the advantage of pitching the Related Midwest site in the 78 development at Clark and Roosevelt. It’s now projected to be home only to the University of Illinois’ budding Discovery Partners Institute, and while I suspect DPI would rather not be right next to a casino, the land otherwise is empty, which would make for fast construction. Now, however, Bluhm has a second proposal, for the obsolete, dilapidated Lakeside Center at the McCormick Place campus. Lakeside’s plus is that it’s blocks

showed large population variances among districts that made the maps illegal. Democrats nimbly fixed the problem, then delivered state legislative maps that Gov. J.B. Pritzker promptly signed—even though he campaigned in favor of independent map commissions and promised to veto a map drawn by politicians. By the time the Legislature’s redistricting committees began drawing congressional maps this summer, the public had gotten the message: Their input was not wanted. People responded by not participating in the charade. At one hearing, only a single person testified. The end result, approved in late October by the Legislature, is predictable if disappointing. Gerrymandering persists. In the southwest part of the state, the 13th District takes the shape of a skinny sickle with its handle in East St. Louis and running northerly through Springfield and Champaign. The 17th District, arcing from Peoria past Rockford, runs 330 miles long. Jim Lewis, a senior research specialist at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute, said Illinois’ strange-shaped districts are the expected outcome of a system designed to reward partisan gerrymandering. When parties do it, they gain seats. And there is virtually no disincentive to cause them to stop. Besides, the Supreme Court has sanctioned all this, ruling in 2019 that mapmaking is a political process “beyond the reach of the federal courts.” “Everybody does it. That’s just the way mapmaking works. Of course, you’re trying for partisan advantage, and the Supreme Court ceded this a couple of years ago,” Lewis said.

The map approved by the Illinois Legislature’s Democratic supermajorities in both houses last month sought to lock in 14 congressional seats for Democrats, a one-seat increase for the party, and to limit Republicans to only three seats, reducing their count in Washington by two. Independent commissions can be an antidote to partisan gerrymandering. Twenty-one states have them. Some fair-maps advocates propose a national law requiring commissions in every state. The next round of electoral mapmaking will start with data from the

DAVID GREISING ON GOVERNMENT

2030 census. As big a challenge as it would be to bring about national legislation, there’s almost a decade to get it done. And adoption of commissions in nearly half the states shows support is sizable. What’s lacking most is the will, and the resources, to carry on the fight. That won’t come from politicians. It needs to come from people

who demand better—and are committed to make fair maps the objective of a national movement. David Greising is president and CEO of the Chicago-based investigative watchdog Better Government Association.

B E ST I N C L A S S IN OVERALL CLIENT S AT S I FAC T I O N . B E Y O U R B A N K E R ’ S T O P P R I O R I T Y. W I N T R U ST.CO M / P R I O R I T Y

Banking products provided by Wintrust Financial Corp. banks. Source: 2021 Coalition Greenwich Market Tracking Program

11/5/21 2:40 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 8, 2021 3

DENVER ENCROACHES ON CHICAGO’S AIRSPACE

See DENVER on Page 44

SOUTHWEST

Why the Mile High City’s rise should worry O’Hare and Midway BY JOHN PLETZ

DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT is soaring as leisure travel rebounds from the pandemic and work-from-anywhere boosts the Rocky Mountain population. It’s now the fourth-busiest airport in the nation, something Chicago airport officials should be watching. United and Southwest airlines, the biggest carriers at O’Hare and Midway international airports, are expanding in the Rockies. Denver has overtaken Midway as the busiest hub for Southwest, a development likely to outlast COVID-19. Denver also is now Chicago-based United’s third-busiest hub, just behind O’Hare and Houston’s Bush International Airport, according to data from research firm OAG. Before COVID-19, Denver was United’s fourth-busiest hub.

Public universities are trailing U of I in the vaccine race

Installment-payment upstarts like Affirm aim to blow up the credit card lending model. So far, Discover CEO Roger Hochschild isn’t buying it.

And that gap may be tough to close: ‘The level of vehemence relating to objections to vaccine policies and vaccine mandates is really starting to escalate’

BY STEVE DANIELS Discover Financial Services is taking a wait-and-see approach to the rapid growth of “buy now, pay later” payment options available from major retailers. Can it afford to? The Riverwoods-based credit card company has yet to join the growing number of financial players elbowing into the business, which looks increasingly like a game-changing way for consumers to finance big-ticket and even relatively ordinary purchases.

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McLean, Va.-based Capital One Financial, perhaps Discover’s most direct competitor, plans before the end of the year to roll out a buy now, pay later— or BNPL—service with “a select set of merchants,” a spokeswoman says. The program will be a pilot, but CEO Richard Fairbank has made clear he sees BNPL as a threat to Capital One’s core credit card business and wants to be part of the action. Discover CEO Roger Hochschild says he doesn’t see the phenomenon yet hurting his

ALAMY

‘Buy now, pay later’ poses a challenge to old-school cards

company’s business. Indeed, the numbers back him up. Credit card loan balances resumed year-over-year growth in the third quarter after the pandemic reduced consumer borrowing. Loans were up 1% to $70.3 billion. “Right now, I would say we’re not seeing any noticeable impact on revolving loans and believe that we are well positioned to See DISCOVER on Page 45

BY ELYSSA CHERNEY Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive order mandating COVID-19 vaccinations set universal rules for colleges and universities: Steer as many students as possible into inoculations and subject those who don’t to testing at least once a week. Yet of all the state’s public four-year universities, only campuses under the University of Illinois system have achieved a student vaccination rate greater than 90%, according to data

collected by Crain’s. By late October, when students bound by the order were required to have their second dose completed, vaccination rates ranged from a low of 65% at Western Illinois University to about 96% at U of I’s Chicago campus. Illinois State University—the largest school outside the U of I system—reported that 79% of students received their shots, while Chicago State University and Eastern Illinois University saw See UNIVERSITIES on Page 45

11/5/21 4:14 PM

JOE CAHILL ON BUSINESS

This is Caterpillar’s big chance to escape the mines

down 70% since 2015, Bloomberg reports. Asian countries, principally China, are keeping coal afloat for now. But even China seems to acknowledge the inevitable: it recently promised to stop building coal plants in other countries and vowed to start cutting its own consumption in 2026. Morningstar analyst Dawit Woldemariam summarized the implications for Cat’s mining business in a note to clients. “We believe mining markets will have limited upside,” he writes, warning that “the most substantial risk we see is declining investment in mining capital expenditures, given Caterpillar’s exposure to coal, iron ore, copper and gold.” Oil drilling equipment faces similar long-term pressures as the shift to electric-powered vehicles accelerates. On Cat’s recent quarterly earnings call, CEO James Umpleby pointed out that the company could benefit from rising demand for minerals used in renewable energy production, such as cobalt, lithium, graphite and copper. A DECLINE IN FOSSIL FUELS WOULD “The energy transition, I believe, BE A DRAG ON CAT’S GROWTH. represents just an excellent opportunity volatile mining sector at a cyclical for both mining customers and Caterpillar,” Umpleby said. peak in 2011. In its biggest deal Yet forecasts from the Interever, Cat paid a premium buyout national Energy Agency suggest price of $7.4 billion for Bucyrus that growing demand for “energy International shortly before transition materials” won’t offset demand went into one of its plunging coal sales. The organiperiodic nosedives. zation predicts that combined Today, the business faces not worldwide revenue from coal another cyclical slump but a and other energy-related minerlonger-term threat to its viability. als will decline about 6% to $440 The rise of green energy will slash billion between 2020 and 2040. demand for coal, a key driver of The good news for Cat: There’s mining equipment sales. a chance to get out of mining and According to the U.S. Energy oil equipment markets before Information Administration, they become an albatross—if the more than 90% of U.S. coal company moves fast. production goes into coal-fired The businesses are doing electric power plants, a leading well now, as global economies source of carbon emissions. emerge from the pandemic. RisPressure to close coal plants is ing energy demand is driving up increasing as national and local coal and oil prices, which in turn governments around the world spurs equipment sales. impose emission reduction Cat’s mining business posted targets. Some, including Illinois, 32% revenue growth in the third explicitly require the elimination quarter, and demand appears of coal-fired electricity generalikely to hold up for a few years to tion within a couple of decades. come. Woldemariam predicts the Coal consumption in the unit will generate 8% annual sales U.S. energy sector already has growth over the next five years. dropped by more than half since That’s a strong enough outlook 2007, EIA data shows. With more to support a sale or spinoff of the utilities announcing plans to business at a decent valuation. retire coal plants, researchers at Cat should recognize the Platt’s predict coal-fired genercurrent upturn as a temporary ating capacity will fall to half its reprieve, a time-limited opportu2015 level by 2035. nity to escape the financial fallout Similar trends are playing out of the decline of fossil fuels. If elsewhere as countries like GerCat passes up this opportunity, it many slap expiration dates on may have to ride that decline all coal power. Globally, the pipeline the way to the bottom. of planned new power plants is ooner or later, Caterpillar will have to do something about its business units that make equipment for the coal and oil industries. Sooner would be better. Fossil fuels are headed for long-term decline as global action to curb greenhouse gas emissions ramps up. Demand for mining and oil drilling equipment will track that decline, likely turning a big chunk of Deerfield-based Cat’s business into a drag on growth and shareholder returns. Cat doesn’t separately disclose sales figures for mining equipment, which is part of its resource industries group, which reported $7.9 billion in revenue last year. Oil and gas equipment generated $3.7 billion. That adds up to more than a quarter of Cat’s $41.7 billion in 2020 revenue. Together, the businesses are big enough to seriously affect overall performance at Cat, which is known primarily for bulldozers, backhoes and other construction equipment. Cat learned that the hard way after buying into the notoriously

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Why CME turned to Google Here’s the data-driven strategy behind CME Group’s tie-up with the tech giant BY STEVE DANIELS CME Group’s landmark deal to outsource its trading technology platform to Google is aimed at generating more revenue from the data CME amasses as the nation’s near-monopoly on futures trading. But the potential gains for the derivatives giant could come at the expense of its Chicago-based workforce as more of the tech work currently handled in-house is transferred to Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Google. It will take years to see the effects of the arrangement, which also entailed Google making a $1 billion equity investment in CME. The preferred shares don’t give Google a board seat or voting rights. As with virtually all financial services companies, technology cost growth is an issue for CME. From 2016 to 2020, tech costs grew an average annual 29% while revenue grew 8% annually. Some of that was due to expenses tied to CME’s $5.5 billion acquisition of London-based NEX in 2018. But tech now accounts for 10% of CME’s costs, up from just 5% five years ago. Migrating to Google’s cloudbased system, CME said in a Nov. 4 release announcing the deal, will create “real-time data and analytics capabilities” it doesn’t have now. With speed of execution now critical in trading, information is more valuable the more current it is. “This partnership will enable CME Group to bring new products and services to market faster—all in a flexible and scalable environment that will create a wide range of opportunities for

BLOOMBERG

4 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

the marketplace,” CEO Terry Duffy said in the release. He wasn’t available for an interview.

REVENUE FROM DATA

About 20% of CME’s revenues come from data sales to third parties, says Michael Miller, an analyst with Morningstar in Chicago. Peers like Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, get about 50% of their revenue from data. Tapping that source of income is critical for CME, whose fortunes currently depend overwhelmingly on futures trading volumes, Miller says. The Google deal “is about trying to bolster that business,” he says. He notes that other financial firms have transferred their technology to cloud-based third parties and have taken more than five years to complete the process. So CME won’t plunge into the

cloud. The migration will occur over time, with data and clearing moving next year and the remainder of CME’s markets functions at an unspecified later date. The strategic partnership is for 10 years, a sign of how long this might take. Still, reductions in CME’s tech workforce won’t come as a surprise as the arrangement takes hold. CME employs 1,600 technology workers around the world, a spokeswoman says. They make up about 40% of its total global workforce of 4,000. With 1,800 of CME employees in Chicago, it’s fair to say that hundreds of tech workers are local. Whether the deal turns out to be a winner for CME will depend on data product sales growth and whether revenue increases begin to close the gap with the pace of technology expenses. Wall Street barely reacted to the news, with CME shares closing up about 0.06% on Nov. 4.

Fitch upgrades Cook County debt BY A.D. QUIG Ratings agency Fitch has upgraded Cook County’s rating a notch to AA- from A+, putting it in the agency’s “very high credit quality” category. The agency gave the county a stable outlook. Cook County’s upgrade “reflects sustained improvement in its operating results, reserve position and overall resilience.” Fitch expects Cook to mark its seventh fiscal year with a surplus in the general fund, which in turn has boosted the county’s reserves. The city of Chicago received a bump in Fitch’s outlook—not its overall rating—as well as that of the S&P outlook recently (and Moody’s over the summer), but is still sitting just above an overall junk rating. For the first time since 1997, Illinois in July got its first ratings upgrade from S&P but is still considered “lower medium” investment grade. The county is still in midbudget season. Commissioners are considering Cook County Board

President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposal for the 2022 budget year, including her initial plans for how to spend $1 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funds. “We appreciate the recognition of our improvement in operating results, work to increase reserves, sound financial management, notable improvement in pension funding and work to stabilize our health system’s finances,” Preckwinkle said in a statement. “This is the first upgrade under my administration and a testament to the hard work of our finance team and the leadership of the Board of Commissioners. We remain dedicated to building on the progress made over the years of passing balanced budgets and working to secure the county’s financial future.” While the county still carries “high fixed costs for pensions and debt service” and has a more limited flexibility to make cuts because of “its heavily unionized workforce” and weakly funded pensions, the penny-on-the-dollar sales tax hike

boosted funding levels since it was enacted in 2016, Fitch notes in its analysis. The county’s unrestricted general fund balance position is more than $600 million, equal to 38% of operating expenditures and transfers out. That’s a significant improvement from when the reserves totaled just $60 million in fiscal 2014. Preckwinkle has also chipped away at personnel costs by not filling vacancies and natural attrition. The county could see its outlook improve even further if the county’s revenue growth outpaces national inflation, or cuts debt service requirements and retiree benefit contributions to less than 25% of spending. A downgrade or downward outlook revision could come if the county taps its reserves to fill structural deficits, if Cook County Health’s operations weaken and lean more on the general fund or if the county wavers in its annual promise to make supplemental pension payments.

11/5/21 2:34 PM

Prepared to lead a changing world.

Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) delivers the knowledge and network to lead bold,

transformative change. Developing civic leaders has 41

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1 Georgia Alexakis Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP

9 Colleen Desmond Boston Consulting Group

17 Jermaine Harris Chicago Police Department

2 Lindsay Anderson Turing Strategies

10 Mollie Dowling OAI, Inc.

18 Rashidi Hodari Beam Suntory

3 Allison Angeloni Steans Family Foundation

11 Curtis Edwards Aon

19 Ayesha Jaco West Side United

4 Rich Asiyanbi Nicor Gas

12 Tacy Flint Sidley Austin LLP

20 Precious Jacobs Jenner & Block

5 Adnan Assad First Midwest Bank

13 Bethany Florek Greeley and Hansen

21 Julieta LaMalfa Canela Media

6 Andrew Beideman Pritzker Traubert Foundation

14 Melissa Garcia BMO Harris Bank

22 Anna Miran Lee The Chicago Community Trust

7 Peter Delneky CBRE, Inc.

15 Eva Giglio CME Group Foundation

23 Keith Lewis University of Illinois at Chicago

8 Matt DeMateo New Life Centers of Chicagoland

16 David Goldenberg Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

24 Camile Lindsay Illinois Department of Corrections

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never been more critical, and their responsibilities have never been more complex. Through our Signature Fellows Program, we build and strengthen the pipeline of civic leaders who are ready and willing to effectively lead the future. We proudly congratulate the Class of 2021 LGC Fellows.

32 Kelly Powers Powers & Sons Construction

40 G. Scott Solomon Charles River Associates (CRA)

26 Lindsay Marciniak CCS Fundraising

33 Aaron Quarles, MD Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

41 Grace Song Allstate

27 Beulah McLoyd New Leaders

34 Quinn Rallins Loevy & Loevy

28 Jeff Michalczyk CIBC Bank USA

35 Trisha Rich Holland & Knight LLP

29 Ami Novoryta Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago

36 Dawveed Scully Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

25 Jorge Lopez John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

30 Nicholas O’Conner Locke Lord LLP 31 Rahul Pasarnikar Chicago CRED and CREDMADE

37 Evan Sharp Russell Reynolds Associates 38 Elisabeth Siciliano The Barack Obama Foundation 39 Shawn Smith, MD Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

FULL PAGE

Color: 4/C

42 Chris Steadley Gartner 43 Eric Sussman Reed Smith LLP 44 Garth Walker, MD Jesse Brown Veteran Affairs Hospital and Northwestern Emergency Medicine 45 Owen Washburn JPMorgan Chase & Co. 46 Victoria Watkins Ariel Investments

10/28/21 5:29 PM

6 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Minority contractor secures major job in Fulton Market Related Midwest says it’s a barrier-breaking project for Bowa Construction: The first Chicago high-rise to be constructed by a firm owned by a person of color BY ALBY GALLUN

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Related Midwest is helping a new name break into the upper ranks of a Chicago construction market dominated by big general contractors like Walsh Group and James McHugh Construction. The Chicago developer has picked a minority-owned firm, Bowa Construction, to build its next apartment project, a 43-story tower in the Fulton Market District, in a partnership with Related’s inhouse construction division. It’s a barrier-breaking project, according to Related Midwest: the first Chicago high-rise to be constructed by a firm owned by a person of color. The developer is hoping to raise the bar for the local real estate industry, which in some situations is required by law to set aside a percentage of construction work for minority- or women-led businesses. Chicago-based Bowa has won a lot of jobs that way. But to oversee the big, prestigious downtown projects, developers turn to well-established—and white— names, some founded in the 1800s. “I think it is a message to everyone that the next building can be built this way, too,” Related Midwest President Curt Bailey said of the partnership with Bowa. “If we can do it, everyone can do it.” The project marks a major step forward for Bowa and its president and CEO, Nosa Ehimwenman, who founded the company in 2009. Bowa has completed about $400 million of work over the past five years and now employs about 60 construction professionals, Ehimwenman said. Minority contractors can get work on big, high-profile developments, but it’s often to meet the city’s requirements. Developers that need a zoning change or other city benefits for a project must set aside 26% of the work for minority-owned businesses and 6% for women-owned businesses. Developers do it to check a box, but many aren’t really committed to giving the companies real responsibility so they can win business without government help, Ehimwenman said. Bowa is co-managing the 300unit project, called 900 Randolph, with LR Contracting, Related Midwest’s in-house construction arm. So the arrangement differs from a conventional construction contract, in which a developer hires an outside general contractor to construct a building and manage all the subcontractors that do the work. But Bailey and Ehimwen-

man describe it as a true partnership. “It’s not a diversity ‘check-thebox’ situation. It’s been an organic relationship,” he said. “It’s not a window-dressing situation.” Related Midwest has hired Bowa as the prime contractor for other projects, including a library on Taylor Street in Little Italy and the next phase of its Roosevelt Square housing development on the West Side. Bowa is also the lead contractor on the next phase of Related’s Lathrop Homes redevelopment on the Northwest Side, a project that will cost about $22 million.

FUNDING

At $212 million, 900 Randolph is a lot bigger and more complicated. To pay for it, Related Midwest is borrowing $130 million through Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America, financing coordinated by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, according to the developer. Related Midwest and its joint venture partner, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, are also investing $82 million of equity in the project. “It’s historic that Bowa has been chosen,” said Tom Cuculich, executive director of Chicagoland Associated General Contractors, a trade group that includes Bowa as a member. “It’s a very high-profile project in a very high-profile part of town.” In addition to Bowa’s participation as general contractor, minority-owned businesses will account for 32% of the subcontracting work on 900 Randolph, while women-owned businesses will account for 9%. Efforts to verify Related Midwest’s assertion that Bowa is the first minority-owned contractor to lead, or co-lead, construction of a Chicago high-rise were unsuccessful. The Fulton Market project, however, is a leader in another category: It is one of the first, if not the first, large residential development expected to qualify for a new tax-incentive program created to encourage construction of affordable housing. Part of a sweeping housing bill recently signed into law by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the program gives developers a reduction in their property-tax assessments if they set aside at least 20% of their units as affordable. At 900 Randolph, Related Midwest will rent out 60 apartments at below-market rates. For Ehimwenman, the Fulton Market project fulfills a dream he has had for a while. “You grow up in Chicago, you always want to build a high-rise,” he said.

11/5/21 2:28 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 8, 2021 7

Surprise hit for the CSO: A financial surplus The symphony returned to the black for the first time in five years as expense cuts outpaced revenue loss

JPMorgan Chase names Chicago exec as head of U.S. real estate banking

Michelle Herrick, a member of Crain’s 40 Under 40 class of 2020, will replace Chad Tredway in overseeing real estate banking for the entire country BY ALBY GALLUN JPMorgan Chase’s top real estate banker in Chicago is now in charge of the whole country. New York-based JPMorgan has promoted Michelle Herrick to head of real estate banking, moving her up from market manager for the bank’s central region. It has been a fast rise for Herrick, whom Crain’s selected for its 40 Under 40 list last year. The 40-yearold got hooked on real estate in her first job out of college, as an analyst at Chicago-based LaSalle Bank. She stayed at LaSalle after it was acquired by Bank of America in 2007, joining JPMorgan about four years ago to head up its central region, covering a territory that stretches from Atlanta to Seattle. In her new job, Herrick will report to Al Brooks, the bank’s head of commercial real estate. “I’m thrilled to see Michelle assume this role leading our REB team,” Brooks said in a statement. “She is an excellent leader who is committed to helping our clients with their complex needs by bringing to bear all the firm has to offer to help them succeed.”

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Michelle Herrick Herrick lives in Clarendon Hills with her husband and their three children. She has bachelor’s degrees in accounting and finance from Miami University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. “I’m excited to lead a team of talented professionals that are passionate about helping our clients achieve their goals,” Herrick said in the statement. “Our industry is dynamic and evolving and we have so much to offer our clients to help them stay on offense and best support their business and tenant needs.” Herrick replaces Chad Tredway, who left the bank a few months ago to start a private-equity firm.

staff took in spring 2020 were reduced by half on July 1, 2021. Orchestra members’ pay, including that of Music Director Riccardo Muti, was initially trimmed by 20% and then, in September 2020, by 40%. Since July 1, the musicians have been receiving 85% of

their pay. While the pandemic has prevented the symphony from auditioning new hires for the orchestra, Muti did appoint Jessie Montgomery as the Mead Composer-in-Residence and violinist Hilary Hahn as CSO Artist-in-Residence.

ISTOCK

estate bequests, rose almost 20%, to $53.2 million. This season, in-person proThe Chicago Symphony Orchestra turned a $4.4 million gramming is rebounding, with operating deficit into a $1.6 mil- three to four concerts a week. Aulion surplus by cutting expenses diences are averaging 60% of cadeeper than revenue fell during pacity vs. 82% or 83% previously, the pandemic-struck fiscal year according to Chicago Symphony ended June 30. The black ink was Orchestra Association President the first in five years, a stretch that Jeff Alexander. He commented Nov. 3 in advance of the associaincluded a musicians’ strike. During the most recent period, tion’s annual meeting. After concerts through the first the CSO generated only $316,000 in ticket revenue, compared with nine weeks with “slightly smallthe year earlier’s $12.5 million, er” repertoires and no intermisbecause 194 events were canceled sions, he said, programming is and only 12 concerts staged. But expected to return to normal contributions and other support, after Thanksgiving. As it hires back workers, the CSO said it hoped AS IT HIRES BACK WORKERS, to fully restore salaries for THE CSO SAID IT HOPED TO FULLY staff and orchestra members after pay cuts were iniRESTORE SALARIES FOR STAFF tiated in spring 2020. Those furloughed were mostly AND ORCHESTRA MEMBERS. part-timers like ushers, says Stacie Frank, chief financial minus fundraising expenses, to- officer. About 250 of the CSO’s 600 taled nearly $40 million, as the employees are full time. While squeezing expenses, the symphony’s loyal and in many CSO was able to maintain donor cases deep-pocketed fans rallied. Operating expenses, also re- enthusiasm that included forgoduced by salary cuts and fur- ing refunds of tickets to canceled loughs, fell by nearly half, from performances. Among nearly $67.4 million to $38.5 million. 10,000 donors during the period, Total support, which includes 2,240 were new ones. Pay cuts of 5% to 30% that CSO gifts from endowment funds and

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WEALTH

CHANGING INVESTMENT STRATEGIES THROUGH LIFE Investment needs and strategies change through each stage of your life and career. No matter where you are in your career, there are key priorities to consider.

ROSS COHEN, CFP®

Wealth Advisor 312-588-7788 RCohen@Bartlett1898.com Ross Cohen, CFP® brings extensive experience working with clients on investments, tax planning, estate planning and more. His passion is to help clients align their personal finances and investments to their goals and values, focusing next-generation wealth planning, emerging wealth, retirement planning and investment strategy.

If you were like many people in their 20s, you may have started a retirement account via an employer-sponsored plan, picking a fund that aligns with your target retirement date. You set it and forgot about it. Your financial life tended to be fairly straightforward: you lived slightly below your means as you built emergency savings, paid off debts, and dipped your toe into investing.

In your 30s and 40s, your financial picture is more complex, but it’s the perfect time to reevaluate overall financial strategies to ensure that assets are aligned with goals and values. Your financial situation often changes as life circumstances – a house, spouse, children, aging parents – change. As new priorities emerge, it’s important to create an investment strategy that’s right for your unique needs and adjust as needed. • Marriage and family: It’s important to have open and honest discussions with your spouse about finances. Establishing savings and investment goals helps a new couple make educated financial decisions. Common topics include saving towards a down payment and how much to spend on a home and saving for a child’s education expenses. It’s also a good time to review beneficiaries on retirement accounts and set up an estate plan. • Investments: As earnings increase, the complexity of your overall investments often does, too. It’s important to ensure your investments align with your financial goals. If you’ve changed jobs, moving your 401(k) into an IRA could give you more investment options. It’s important to align your goals and portfolio and not take on unnecessary risks. • Career path: Thinking of changing jobs, or recently made a switch? You’re not alone. The pandemic brought many changes, including rethinking a job or career. If you’re contemplating a change, understand how your benefits may differ from your current employer. Also, be aware of the consequences of leaving if you have unvested money in a profit-sharing plan or company stock. • Aging Parents: Many people in their 30s and 40s are part of the “Sandwich Generation” – those caring for both aging parents and children simultaneously. This can be extremely stressful; you need to figure out how to budget for yourself and a family that spans three generations. A financial plan will help you understand what levers you can pull, and how that will affect your future. As you get closer to retirement, you should begin to focus on what your life in retirement will look like. By envisioning your ideal retirement, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how your assets will cover expenses so you can adjust your portfolio from the accumulation stage to preservation. Hopefully you’ve worked with a financial advisor to create a vision and financial plan for this next chapter in your life. If you haven’t, don’t worry – it’s not too late. What’s most important, no matter what stage of life you’re in, is to find an advisor who understands the crucial needs for every stage of life, can help you build a plan that’s right for you, and work with you through the years as life continues to change.

Bartlett Wealth Management, a wealth management firm with offices in Cincinnati and Chicago and a 120-year legacy, provides customized investment management and financial planning services to its clients. For more information, visit www.bartlett1989.com.

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Auto insurance rate hikes by Allstate are averaging nearly 7% nationwide.

Auto biz wreck spurs Allstate to jack up rates Inflationary pressures have caught up to Allstate with a vengeance, resulting in the worst auto-insurance results in more than a decade BY STEVE DANIELS Allstate is raising auto rates nationally by high single digits. Inflation and supply-chain pressures have caught up to Allstate with a vengeance, resulting in the worst auto-insurance underwriting results in more than a decade in the third quarter. The Northbrook-based insurance giant paid out more than $102 in claims and costs for every $100 in premium it collected in its Allstate-branded auto business. That was the first time since 2016 that it reported an underwriting loss in auto insurance. Allstate, at least for one quarter, also gave up its longstanding status as the most profitable auto insurer among the heavyweights that battle each other. Progressive, the nation’s third-largest auto insurer ahead of No. 4 Allstate, also reported a third-quarter underwriting loss, but it was slightly better than Allstate’s. Wall Street was expecting margin erosion, but not like this. Allstate shares lost more than $9, or 7.2%, on Nov. 4 after the earnings release. As in the past, Northbrook isn’t waiting for more bad news before hiking rates meaningfully. For the first time in memory, Allstate listed in investor slides which states are getting big increases and how much. Overall, rate hikes are averaging nearly 7%. In Texas, a top-four state for Allstate, the company is imposing an 8% average auto rate hike next month. Texas regulators already have objected to Progressive’s more modest rate hike, which awaits a hearing this month. How they

respond to Allstate’s will be interesting to see. Illinois regulators do not have the authority to challenge rate hikes.

‘NEED TO MAKE MONEY’

pressures in the auto business. Used-car prices have soared this year, and ultimately insurance companies pledge to their policyholders that they’ll replace their cars when they’re deemed total wrecks after an accident. He doesn’t believe these inflationary pressures are temporary—an intense debate in Washington and a source of concern for central bankers. “I’m not in the camp that, like, used-car prices are suddenly going to go back down,” Wilson said. “You buy a car for $14,000 that used to cost you $10,000— you’re not thinking it’s worth $10,000. . . .I think the same thing is true when you look at parts prices.” Added Shapiro, “It’s a coverage

CEO Tom Wilson, asked whether a 7% nationwide increase is too high, told analysts Nov. 4, “Being unclear as to where this inflation will sort out, we’re being what we think is fair and appropriate. . . .We need to make money in auto insurance, and we’re going to do that.” “It would be a good situation to get into where we slightly overshot and could dial it back,” added Glenn Shapiro, Allstate president of personal insurance. Regulatory response is a wild card given that auto insurers posted record profits in 2020 when the pandemic kept drivers off the roads. Progressive and Geico have en- “BEING UNCLEAR AS TO WHERE THIS countered resistance in INFLATION WILL SORT OUT, WE’RE some states. Another big question BEING WHAT WE THINK IS FAIR AND is how the rate hikes will affect Wilson’s efforts to APPROPRIATE.” take market share from Tom Wilson, CEO, Allstate archrivals Progressive, State Farm and Geico for the first time in decades—an ini- that doesn’t really have a policy tiative he’s dubbed “transformative limit that’s stated other than the growth.” He’s banking on his rivals value of the vehicle itself. So in real terms our policy limits on to boost rates like he’s doing. So far, Progressive and Geico that coverage went up by 40-plus have moved for price increases, percent with no change in premialbeit not generally at these lev- um. And that’s happening to evels. But State Farm, still the larg- erybody across the industry.” The sharp drop in Allstate’s est U.S. auto insurer and (unlike the other three) not beholden to stock price Nov. 4 comes after stock investors, has imposed lit- a rare year in which it has outtle in the way of price hikes after performed Progressive on Wall double-digit rate reductions na- Street. Before Nov. 4, Allstate shares were up 14% for the year, tionwide last year. At the root of the problem, while Progressive’s had fallen Wilson said, are inflationary about 3%.

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Streets of Woodfield goes on the market BY ALBY GALLUN About six years after buying the Streets of Woodfield shopping center in Schaumburg, Blackstone has decided to sell the property, which may be among those investments it would prefer to forget. The New York-based private-equity firm has hired the Chicago office of Eastdil Secured to sell the 693,000-square-foot shopping center next to Woodfield Mall, according to a person familiar with the decision. Blackstone paid $168.5 million for the property in 2015, but its value has fallen since then, with expected bids closer to $110 million. Many investors have grown wary of shopping centers in recent years as the growth of online shopping has eaten away at brick-and-mortar retail sales, a trend accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. But few large local shopping centers have sold over the past year or two, so it’s hard to know for sure what they’re worth. Properties with high occupancies and necessity-based retail, like grocery stores—

estate investors, with a $411 billion portfolio, also owns the Willis Tower and River North Point office buildings in downtown Chicago. Industry newsletter Real Estate Alert first reported that the Streets of Woodfield is up for sale.

COSTAR

Blackstone has hired a broker to sell the shopping center next to Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. The private-equity giant is expected to lose money on the investment.

Streets of Woodfield, at 601 N. Martingale Road, is about 96% occupied.

...

MANY INVESTORS HAVE GROWN WARY OF SHOPPING CENTERS IN RECENT YEARS AS THE GROWTH OF ONLINE SHOPPING HAS EATEN AWAY AT BRICK-ANDMORTAR RETAIL SALES. considered less vulnerable to online competition—tend to attract more interest among investors. That could work in favor of the Streets of Woodfield. The property at 601 N. Martingale Road is about 96% occupied and includes a Whole Foods Market, according to a leasing brochure. Other major tenants include Crate & Barrel, Dick’s Sporting Goods and AMC Theatres. But the shopping center lost a Carson’s department store when the chain went bankrupt a few years ago. It filled the 143,000-square-foot foot Carson’s space with a Restoration Hardware Outlet but at lower rents, reducing the property’s income and value. Because real estate investors place such a high value on Whole Foods stores, a buyer could profit by acquiring the entire shopping center and then selling off the Whole Foods, which encompasses about 58,000 square feet. Representatives of Blackstone and its Shopcore Properties unit, which manages its 20 millionsquare-foot shopping center portfolio, declined to comment. Blackstone, one of the world’s biggest real

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EDITORIAL

his week’s edition of Crain’s spotlights a subset of the executive world that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: Namely, military veterans in positions of leadership in and around Chicago. It should hardly be surprising that people who served—and continue to serve—in our nation’s defense make excellent managers, decision-makers, team-builders and innovators. After all, these are skills honed to a sharp edge in their military training—and often the very traits that helped them survive in the sorts of dangerous situations that their nonmilitary white-collar colleagues can barely imagine. The veterans spotlighted in this week’s issue embody all of these qualities and more. To qualify for inclusion in this week’s Notable Military Veteran Executives feature, the veterans who were nominated must be serving in a senior-level executive role and have made contributions to advancing the issues that affect U.S. Armed Forces veterans in the workplace or in the Chicago area. The nominees who cleared that bar represent a broad cross-section of the industries that make Chicago the economic powerhouse of the Midwest: from law and finance to health care and engineering, high tech, public policy, nonprofits and beyond. And yet, for all the energy and skill military veterans bring to the civilian workforce, it remains a sad fact that many find it difficult to secure employment when their service to our country concludes. As the COVID pandemic rocked the economy, unemployment

CRAIN’S ILLUSTRATION / GETTY IMAGES

Smart employers are hiring veterans

VETERANS CAN AND DO CONTRIBUTE IN A MEANINGFUL WAY TO CHICAGO’S ECONOMY AND EMPLOYERS OF EVERY STRIPE. rates for veterans increased in 2020, according to the most recent data available. The jobless rate for veterans who served anytime since September 2001— a group referred to as Gulf War-era II veterans—rose to 7.3% in 2020. And re-

cent research shows veterans are 15.6% more likely than nonveteran job-seekers to be underemployed. Organizations that hire veterans report they’ve gained employees with wide-ranging experience and compe-

tencies, bringing subject-matter expertise, years of on-the-job training and advanced skills in such fields as information technology, transportation logistics, supply-chain management and public relations. So why aren’t more of them getting hired? Research by the publication Military. com sheds some light, revealing that many hiring managers and corporate recruiters are still hung up on myths and misconceptions about military service— ranging from worries about the mental health effects of service to a belief that the military doesn’t teach transferable job skills. In many cases, it’s simply a cultural disconnect between the nonveteran employer seeking talent and the veteran hoping to show how what he or she learned in the service can benefit a company’s bottom line. As the honorees in this week’s issue prove, however, those myths were made to be busted. These executives are tackling everything from data and analytics to managing litigation in federal courts to helping clients make intelligent decisions about their investments. They’re proving that veterans can and do contribute in a meaningful way to Chicago’s economy and employers of every stripe. And in today’s tight talent market, smart employers should be doing more to tap this diverse and proven labor pool. Want to get started? A good first step would be to check out the Commercial Club of Chicago’s Veterans Working Group, a learning community dedicated to the topic of employing veterans. As the veterans profiled in this week’s issue can attest, it’s a step worth taking.

Christopher Berry and Justin Marlowe are with the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Almost no one believes that public funding of sports stadiums is a prudent investment. The evidence is clear: Publicly financed stadiums are a losing proposition for taxpayers. This logic applies equally well in Arlington Heights as in Chicago. The real difference between the two locations is in the ownership structures they

offer. In Chicago, the Bears are tenants and must seek approval from their landlord, the Chicago Park District, for any significant changes to the stadium or other aspects of the game-day experience—approval that has been hard to come by—while having no control over the surrounding property. In Arlington Heights, the Bears could build—and own—a modern stadium with surrounding dining, retail and entertainment options. That’s a powerful reason to decamp. To compete with Arlington Heights, Chicago needs to be creative. The city cannot sell Soldier Field to the Bears or to anyone else. But there are ways the city could make Soldier Field as economically exciting for the Bears as the suburbs by sharing some of the risks and rewards of ownership. The first is a long-term lease. We don’t mean a lease for the 10 days per year when the Bears play home games. We mean a year-round exclusive lease that would give the Bears organization the right to oper-

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Chicago Business, 150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601, or email us at letters@chicagobusiness.com. Please include your full name, the city from which you’re writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes.

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YOUR VIEW

he Chicago Bears’ recent agreement to buy Arlington International Racecourse has been a public relations fiasco for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and it threatens to get a lot worse. After dismissing the Bears’ early expression of interest in the property as “a negotiating tactic” and gratuitously denigrating the team’s on-field performance, she risks becoming not just the mayor who lost the Bears, but the mayor who drove them out of town. We hope it doesn’t come to that, because the problems confronting the Bears at Soldier Field are solvable with creativity and a bit of entrepreneurial spirit. Rather than seeing the Bears as adversaries in a game of chicken, the city ought to consider partnering with the team. So far, the mayor has cast the Bears’ potential departure as a story about public subsidies, as if her only tool for retaining the team is to throw taxpayer money at them. But subsidies are not the first-order issue.

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ate and profit from concerts, conventions and other sporting events at the stadium. In exchange for that right, the lease could obligate the team to maintain and upgrade the stadium through ticket revenue, naming rights, gambling and other revenue. The Bears would have the incentive and the tools to maximize their own revenue, and Chicagoans would have a steady revenue stream from lease payments. If properly designed, these lease payments would be much greater than Soldier Field’s current “game day” revenue. That’s a net gain for taxpayers. Two of the NFL’s marquee venues—AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.—both follow this public-owned, team-operated model. A more ambitious option would be to create a public-private partnership to develop a new—possibly domed—stadium. This would mean parting with historic Soldier Field, but we suspect most Chicagoans would rather part with the building than the

Sound off: Send a column for the Opinion page to editor@ chicagobusiness.com. Please include a phone number for verification purposes, and limit submissions to 425 words or fewer.

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • November 8, 2021 11

YOUR VIEW Continued team. In this model, the public would continue to own the underlying land, but the Bears would be a partner in the stadium and the development around it. Historic preservation, green space and other concerns could be negotiated. Iconic elements, such as the colonnade, could be preserved as symbolic elements in a new stadium project. The publicly owned parcels surrounding Soldier Field are likely inadequate to support a large commercial development. In that case, why not partner with Bob Dunn’s proposed One Central project, which envisions 1.4 million square feet of entertainment, restaurant and retail options on the land immediately west of Soldier Field? Shared amenities, infrastructure and foot traffic could make both projects even more viable. Transferring responsibility for Soldier Field and surrounding land to a partnership with

a profit-making incentive would create spillovers to the residents of Chicago above and beyond keeping the Bears. This model would surround the new stadium with lucrative, rent-paying retail, office space, dining, hotels and other development. For proof of concept, look no further than the multifaceted development that will surround SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, home to the Rams and the Chargers. Back in the NFC North, the Packers have developed a hotel, retail space, dining and even itletown dea sledding hill in their successful T velopment next to Lambeau Field. Team-controlled developments like this are part of the modern pro sports business model. However, no NFL team has yet to do this type of development on publicly owned land. But, then again, Chicago’s lakefront is unlike any other piece of publicly owned land. Public-private partnerships don’t need

massive, direct taxpayer subsidies, but they do need other forms of public support. If the land remains publicly owned, it also remains exempt from property taxes. A development of this scale would also require improvements to surrounding streets, transit and other infrastructure. These are important considerations. But the case for supporting a large-scale entertainment district is stronger than the case for subsidizing a stand-alone stadium. This partnership would undoubtedly encounter legal, political and financial challenges. Most notably, the public-trust doctrine makes new development along the lakefront difficult. This is one reason a public-private partnership to develop the Lucas Museum died on the vine. But Soldier Field has a couple of advantages in this regard. First, a stadium already sits on the land in question and it is already used for private purposes; neither fact

would change. Second, while the Lucas Museum would have gotten to use public land essentially for free, our proposal is for the Bears to pay market rates to use the land, which would generate genuine public benefit in the form of increased revenue for the city. The Bears’ posturing to leave for the suburbs may seem like a threat. But it’s really a chance for Chicago’s leaders to parlay Soldier Field’s unparalleled lakefront location and rich history into a one-of-a-kind, modern NFL fan experience and an improved lakefront attraction for all Chicagoans. All of this presumes that the relationship between the Bears and the city is not already too far gone to be salvaged. In this regard, we suspect that self-interest will trump emotion on both sides if an economically viable deal is on the table. It’s not too late for Lightfoot to transform this standoff from a fiasco into her signature achievement.

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Chief executive officer KC Crain Group publisher/executive editor Jim Kirk Associate publisher Kate Van Etten Editor Ann Dwyer Creative director Thomas J. Linden Assistant managing editor/columnist Joe Cahill Assistant managing editor/digital Ann R. Weiler Assistant managing editor/news features Cassandra West Deputy digital editor Todd J. Behme Deputy digital editor/audience and social media Robert Garcia

Threats to

data privacy and security put every enterprise at risk. At the same time, data use and analytics present tremendous opportunity.

Digital design editor Jason McGregor Associate creative director Karen Freese Zane Copy chief Scott Williams Copy editor Tanya Meyer Contributing editor Jan Parr Political columnist Greg Hinz Senior reporters Steve Daniels, Alby Gallun, John Pletz Reporters Elyssa Cherney, Katherine Davis, Danny Ecker, Stephanie Goldberg, Ally Marotti, A.D. Quig, Dennis Rodkin, Steven R. Strahler Contributing photographer John R. Boehm Researcher Sophie H. Rodgers General manager, product and technology Kevin Skaggs Director of research Frank Sennett Director of custom media Sarah Chow Production manager David Adair Account executives Claudia Hippel, Christine Rozmanich, Bridget Sevcik, Laura Warren, Courtney Rush, Amy Skarnulis People on the Move manager Debora Stein Project manager Joanna Metzger Digital designer Christine Balch CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. Keith E. Crain Chairman Mary Kay Crain Vice chairman KC Crain Chief executive officer Chris Crain Senior executive vice president

I help you balance the two, with real-world, pragmatic, risk-aware guidance and advice. I work with organizations and their in-house counsel, helping them stay current, compliant, and proactive through strong data governance strategies and programs. Protecting their vital business data along with the customer and stakeholder data under their care. Creatively building and enhancing legal structures that support revenue-generating data use enabled by cutting-edge technologies. Negotiating licensing, cloud, outsourcing, and IT agreements while preserving important relationships. Spotting issues and developing creative solutions for managing the sheer volume of data, the rapidly evolving technology, The complex and varied global laws and regulations, and the increasingly sophisticated threats. The real world of data privacy and security can be gray and murky. I make it clearer. I also make it fun and rewarding. I’m RYAN SULKIN. I’m on your team.

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MANUFACTURING THE MODERN SUPPLY CHAIN AS A COMPETITIVE EDGE

There is a ground swell of movement, a robust dialogue relating to the architecture of the modern supply chain. We are collaborating more than ever with engaging partners across industry and functional boundaries to figure this out. We cannot predict the path for reshoring production–in some industries it can be 60% of the total inventory. We do know that we have to be different, that we have to think globally and execute locally.

DAVID BOULAY President IMEC dboulay@imec.org

DAVID BOULAY is president of IMEC, a public-private partnership committed to driving growth through enterprise excellence. He holds a bachelor’s degree in operations management, an MBA and a doctorate in workforce development.

There will be some tough decisions ahead. Who will hold the inventory? What’s a reasonable safety stock? How many vendors will participate in the network? Will concepts like Lean, Pull Systems, and Kanban go away? Probably not. As business systems become more sophisticated and we collaborate up and down the supply chain, we will gain new insights and find ways to manage inventory and control costs. Can everything we need be last minute delivery with limited inventory in the supply chain? Again, probably not, and nor should it. Organizations will need to invest in technology, resources, and potentially capital to reinforce the supply chain.

Supply chain, that once sleepy topic that never gained the same stardom as leadership, operations, or Madison Avenue glamour from the marketing department, has risen to the top as a predictor of company success. What can we do to leverage our supply chain as a point of strength, a differentiating superpower that emboldens our competitiveness? We can be more prepared. We can require more reactive capacity in the network. We can seek out strategic partners poised to pivot and provide essential raw materials, parts, and equipment. We can ready ourselves like world class companies do with crisis planning events that test our process for design and capability. We can listen. We can learn. We can take action.

We cannot predict the path for reshoring production–in some industries it can be 60% of the total inventory.

One thing we cannot do, however, is go backwards. Rather, let’s take up the courage and fortitude to drive change, think differently, and challenge each other to change paradigms. Illinois manufacturers, you have achieved the amazing, largely due to supply chain prowess. By redefining the status quo, reinventing for greater confidence, rebalancing using KPIs, and being crisis-resilient… together we will truly emerge more competitive. This article is an excerpt from the book Made in Illinois: A Modern Playbook for Manufacturers to Compete and Win. To purchase this book or learn more, please visit: https://www.imec.org/made-in-illinois-playbook/ About IMEC

IMEC is a team of improvement specialists and technicians dedicated to providing organizations in Illinois with the tools and techniques to create sustainable competitive futures. The experienced hands-on team at IMEC works closely with its clients to plan critical business improvements in the areas of Leadership, Strategy, Customer Engagement, Operations, and Workforce. IMEC, Illinois affiliate of the U.S Commerce NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) National Network, has demonstrated a return on investment that exceeds 19:1. This is made possible as organizations become more effective and efficient and together with IMEC excel toward enterprise excellence. For more information, visit imec.org.

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COSTAR GROUP

In many industries, the pandemic stretched the supply chain beyond reasonable expectations and yet we have found creative ways to make it work. In other industries, we have been operating with diminished needs and looking for ways to repurpose and pivot.

The Corridors I & II buildings in Downers Grove

A nearly $100 million bet on west suburban offices Pending deals by a New York firm to buy four buildings in Downers Grove is one of the boldest wagers since the COVID-19 pandemic began that brighter days are ahead for high-quality properties in the suburbs BY DANNY ECKER An East Coast real estate investor that was buying up west suburban office buildings before the COVID-19 pandemic has come back for more, striking deals to spend close to $100 million on four Downers Grove properties. New York-based Group RMC is finalizing contracts to buy three buildings in the Corridors office park at the intersection of Interstates 88 and 355 in the western suburb as well as the Highland Landmark III office building a few miles away, according to sources familiar with the agreements. Group RMC is buying the properties through two deals: The firm is under contract to pay more than $43 million for the Corridors I & II buildings at 2651-2655 Warrenville Road and is also poised to pay close to $55 million combined for Corridors III at 2650 Warrenville Road and Highland Landmark III at 3010 Highland Parkway in the western suburb, sources said. The pending purchases amount to one of the most ambitious bets on the future of the suburban office market since the start of the public health crisis, which has slowed new leasing activity and spurred a slew of sublease listings and space cutbacks with the rise of remote work. Investors have mostly been wary of making big wagers on the future of offices, as many companies rethink their workspace needs and soft demand drives up the concessions and incentives landlords need to shell out to lure or retain tenants. But Group RMC is part of a recently growing pool of buyers betting brighter days are ahead for suburban offices, particularly those updated with amenities that will help companies compel employees to want to work from an office rather than home. All four of the buildings they are buying fall into that category, though two are fully leased and two will pose a leasing challenge. A Group RMC

spokesperson couldn't be reached. The purchase of Corridors I & II stands to net a big gain for a joint venture of Houston-based Transwestern Investment Group and Stamford, Conn.-based Soundview Real Estate Partners, which bought the adjacent buildings out of distress in 2013 for about $23 million. The five-story buildings, which total nearly 302,000 square feet, were half empty at the time. Transwestern and Soundview, which did not provide comments on the pending sales, spent an undisclosed amount on renovations after buying the buildings, including lobby, gym and conference center updates, according to a flyer from the Chicago capital markets team at Jones Lang LaSalle, which is marketing the buildings for the owners. The improvements helped the joint venture lure a series of new tenants to the buildings, which are now 100% leased with a weighted average lease term of more than seven years, according to the flyer, a measure of tenants' remaining lease commitments. The leasing success allowed the owners to refinance the properties in mid-2019 with a $37.1 million loan, according to DuPage County property records. Oak Street Health and Citgo are among the largest tenants in the building and each have new leases that began this year and run through mid2032, according to the JLL flyer.

ACQUISITIONS

Cash flow from those buildings could help Group RMC fund leasing commissions for the other two properties it is picking up. Corridors III and Highland Landmark III are 70% leased combined, with occupancy slated to drop to 55% by July, according to a flyer from the Chicago capital markets team at Cushman & Wakefield, which marketed the properties for sale. The seller, a venture of Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, bought the buildings from Columbia

Property Trust in 2015 as part of a seven-property portfolio deal. Lone Star, which couldn't be reached for comment, has spent $12.3 million on capital improvements and leasing commissions at the buildings since then, according to the Cushman flyer, including $1.3 million in move-in ready offices at Highland Landmark III. But the properties have collectively lost tenants during their ownership tenure. Longtime Corridors III tenant PNC Bank is the largest user and anchor, with 125,000 square feet, according to the flyer. Group RMC knows the west suburban office market well. The company paid almost $250 million in 2018 alone to acquire a series of office buildings in the area, including the Executive Towers West complex in Downers Grove and the 1.1 million-square-foot Westbrook Corporate Center in Westchester. Its latest pending acquisitions come against a very different backdrop, as COVID-19 has pushed suburban office vacancy to an alltime high of 26.5% at the end of the third quarter, according to data from JLL. But the eastern portion of the East-West Corridor submarket that includes the Downers Grove buildings has an average vacancy of 22.1%, and the vacancy among the highest quality—or Class A—buildings in that submarket was just 20.3%, the lowest of all suburban submarkets tracked by JLL. Group RMC's deals come as another big New York investor makes a similar bet: Opal Holdings is under contract to pay around $55 million for the Highland Landmark II office building, which will be 91% leased at the beginning of 2022. Despite the building being close to fully leased, that sale is poised to mark a significant loss for the seller: Hawaiian real estate firm James Campbell paid $62 million for the building in 2014 and spent another $12 million on capital improvements and leasing commissions, according to a marketing flyer.

11/5/21 2:26 PM

UNION INVESTMENT

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 8, 2021 13

DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!

57-65 E. Oak St., Chicago

Rare sale of Oak St. property to German fund sets record BY ALBY GALLUN The New York landlord that lured Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels and Le Colonial to Oak Street has sold their home to a German investment fund, the biggest sale of a Chicago retail property since 2016. Jenel Management sold the 28,800-square-foot development at 57-65 E. Oak St. to a fund managed by Hamburg-based Union Investment Real Estate, according to a Union Investment statement. For Union, the deal represents a vote of confidence on the future of Oak Street, a high-end shopping destination that has held up, and even flourished, during the coronavirus pandemic. “East Oak Street is the No. 1 destination in Chicago for luxury goods and fashion,” Kseniya Merritt, head of retail investments North America in Union Investment’s New York office, said in a statement. “Due to the demand for space, vacancies are historically low and rents are stable.” Union paid $120 million for the property, according to a person familiar with the transaction. A Union spokeswoman declined to disclose a price, and a Jenel executive did not return phone calls. For Jenel, the sale wraps up a process that began in 2015, when it bought a four-story building at 5965 E. Oak St. About three months later, it bought the building next door, at 57 E. Oak. Jenel tore down both structures and developed the current three-story building on the site, leasing its space to Chanel and Van Cleef, two luxury fashion brands that moved there from North Michigan Avenue, and Le Colonial, a Vietnamese restaurant that moved there from Rush Street. More recently, Jenel signed a lease for its only remaining storefront with a fourth tenant, Moncler. The Italian maker of high-end ski wear plans to move there from its current store at 33 E. Oak. Property sales of any size are rare on Oak Street: A building hasn't traded on the street since 2018, when L3 Capital paid $23 million for a Northern Trust branch at 120 E. Oak. "Properties along Oak Street rarely become available, and 57-65 East Oak represents best-in-class tenancy, state-of-the-art construc-

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tion, ample frontage, visibility and an irreplaceable location,” Keely Polczynski, senior vice president in the Chicago office of CBRE, said in a statement from CBRE. Polczynski brokered the sale. The CBRE statement did not disclose what Union Investment paid but said it was the highest price for a Chicago retail property since 2016. Three big Chicago retail properties sold in 2016, including the store space in the Sullivan Center in the Loop, which fetched $147 million, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New Yorkbased research firm. At $4,165 per square foot, the Oak Street deal would rank as the third-highest price per square foot ever paid for a retail property in Chicago and also set a new record for Oak Street, according to Real Capital.

NET GAIN

The sale also generated a gain for Jenel. The firm paid $70.4 million for the two buildings it demolished and spent tens of millions more on construction. Jenel’s total cost for the project was $105.9 million as of December 2019, according a report that month on the project’s debt from DBRS Morningstar, a unit of Chicago-based research firm Morningstar. The debt, a $60 million mortgage, was scheduled to come due this month. Though wealthy shoppers have kept Oak Street boutiques busy during the pandemic, Jenel didn’t skate through the public health crisis. Le Colonial, the property’s biggest tenant, didn’t pay rent in April and May 2021, according to a DBRS Morningstar report in August. The restaurant, Chanel and Van Cleef all negotiated rent deferrals with Jenel last year, something that was common in the retail sector in the pandemic’s early months. But all three tenants were paying rent as of August this year, according to DBRS. Jenel “has sufficiently weathered the negative effects of the pandemic and has achieved its business plan by leasing up the property to four tenants on longterm leases,” the report says. “The subject is expected to continue to benefit from its proximity to the Magnificent Mile and other luxury retailers, restaurants and bars in the immediate area.”

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The American Diabetes Association®’s Illinois Chapter is excited to announce the 2022 Chicago Tour de Cure Chairperson: Dr. Kimberley Darey, CMO & VP of Medical Affairs at Elmhurst Hospital

“I am beyond excited to be part of the ADA’s mission to help the 1.4 million people in Illinois living with diabetes thrive. I challenge other Illinois executive leaders to take a stand and join our efforts at Tour 2022.” www.diabetes.org/chicagotour

11/5/21 2:28 PM

14 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Advertising Section To place your listing, visit www.chicagobusiness.com/peoplemoves or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

ARTS / ENTERTAINMENT

LAW

REAL ESTATE

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

10 Management, Chicago

Golan Christie Taglia LLP, Chicago

Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC, Chicago

Renovo Financial, Chicago

Mesirow, Chicago

10 Management, a Chicago-based boutique model & talent agency, is pleased to announce the promotion of Jaclyn Hergott to Director of Lifestyle. Hergott joined 10 Management in 2018 to launch the On-Camera, Lifestyle, and Influencer divisions as a talent agent. Starting her career as a child actor and transitioning into a New York talent agent into adulthood, Hergott brings over two decades of industry expertise to 10 Management.

Margherita Albarello joins GCT as a partner in the firm’s Employment Law Group, focusing her practice in all areas of employment law. Margherita represents clients before state and federal courts in matters pertaining to the Fair Labor Standards Act, Equal Pay Action violations and misclassifications, trade secret litigation and False Claims Act/ Whistleblower Protection Act. She also frequently serves as an independent investigator for employers in matters regarding wrongful workplace conduct.

LP is pleased to welcome Kelly Booker as a partner in the firm’s Real Estate Group. She represents clients in corporate real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions, financing transactions, joint ventures, restructurings, commercial real estate development and construction, commercial leasing, and mezzanine financing. She also represents REITs and other companies in the acquisition, disposition, leasing, and financing of properties leased to the federal government.

Eric Workman, formally the SVP of Lending, has just been named Renovo’s Chicago Managing Director. Since 2014, Eric’s played a key role in Renovo’s growth to over $1B in originations by working with local real estate investors who rehab single and multi-family projects and rental properties. “Eric has amassed a wealth of knowledge across all facets of Chicago real estate, making him uniquely qualified for the role,” said Daniel Rosen, Chief Lending Office and Co-founder of Renovo Financial.

Tiffany Irving, CFP®, has joined Mesirow Wealth Management as Senior Vice President, Wealth Advisor. Tiffany brings over 20 years of experience providing comprehensive wealth planning services and customized asset allocation strategies to high net worth individuals, families, and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining Mesirow, Tiffany held roles at BMO within their Private Wealth group and US Trust.

NON-PROFIT Merit School of Music, Chicago Adrienne Thompson has been appointed Vice President for Enrollment & Student Services at Merit School of Music. Previously the Project Director for Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative as well as the Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Talent Development Program, she is a nationally-noted champion for excellence and equity in classical music. Thompson will lead Merit’s efforts supporting recruitment of new students, awarding of financial aid, and ensuring a vibrant experience for all.

EDUCATION Chicago International Charter School, Chicago Chicago International Charter School (CICS) is pleased to welcome Kris Cheung as our Chief Executive Officer. Kris brings more than 10 years of experience from two well-regarded charter networks where he helped create more highquality opportunities for students. In his new role, Kris will continue to elevate CICS as a leader in providing excellent, innovative and equitable educational experiences to Chicago’s communities. CICS is serving more than 7,400 students at 13 campuses across Chicago.

LAW Taft Law, Chicago Taft welcomes Erica Ruggieri as an associate attorney in the Real Estate practice. She represents clients in transactions related to the acquisition, disposition, leasing, development, and financing of commercial real estate.

ENGINEERING

LAW

H.W. Lochner, Inc., Chicago

Taft Law, Chicago

Chicago-headquartered H.W. Lochner, Inc. named Terry A. Ruhl, P.E., F. ASCE, DrBA, chief executive officer, effective January 3, 2022, following the retirement of current president and CEO Jeanne Cormier. Mr. Ruhl, a 32-year A/E industry veteran, brings to the role extensive leadership and infrastructure development experience and currently serves as Board Chairman of Lochner following the recapitalization of the company in July 2021.

Taft is pleased to announce that associate attorney Elizabeth Winkowski has joined the firm in the Litigation practice. Prior to joining Taft, Elizabeth served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Susan H. Black in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and as a staff attorney for the Eleventh Circuit. She brings substantial research and writing experience to Taft.

CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM I DECEMBER 7, 2020 I

THE TAKEAWAY

Suzanne Yoon

> What’s your favorite sport? Today, it would be golf. Previously, I would do anything that had me running around. I just enjoy games generally.

As a spectator? It’s a tie between pro football and my boys’ baseball games. I’m an unfortunate lifelong Bears fan.

You also fish? I fish a lot because becau causee my my husba husb hu band is a die-hard die-hard hard d fisherman. fis fisherma fi herm herman an. So it’s partly just going going along for husband the he ride ride, r de but b t I do d enjoy eenjo n it. it.

PROMOTE.

What’s your best catch catch? atch? h? My largest fish was a 60-pound 60-po ound sail sail-fish caught in the Florida Keys, KKeeys, eys, aand the he hardest catch was a 660-pound 6000-pound tuna from the he Gulf side of Mexico. Mexico. xico.

Why not?

What’s What’ W hatt’’s one ha one of y your favorite things about about K ore o rea ean an culture culture? ltu Korean I still illl love love ve Korean oreean food. The focus on education orean du ation a o aand and ffamily amilyy values. valu va lues lu ues es. s My M mother h was definitely de d fi i l a ““Tiger Tiger M om m.” TThere here was a lot of discipline in the house. Mom.”

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Reprinted with permission from Crain’s Chicago Business. ness. © 2021 Crain Communications on ns Inc. ns IInc nc. n All A All rights ghts hts reserved. reser res reserved erv rv www.chicagobusiness.com/ m/ m/sec m /sect c on/reprints. ction/reprints. n/reprints. reprints. eprints. s. #CB21042 #CB2 #CB21 #CB210 B210 B 2 42 42 Further duplication without permission is prohibited. Visit www.chicagobusiness.com/section/reprints.

What makes you tick? I come from an immigrant family and was raised by a single mother after my father passed away in an armed robbery when I was 10. I’ve never taken a single thing for granted in my life.

What’s your call on working remotely in the COVID-19 era? We started to go back into the (downtown) office in October—we took a vote, and it was unanimous everyone wanted to be back in.

When you have an afternoon to yourself, how do you spend it? Sometimes I clean. I like to keep my life simple—I like to simplify; I’m a purger. For relaxation, I’m into mediation, yoga and working out.

What did your mother otherr d do o for fo a living? would shifts director She was a nurse who ho wou woul ld sometimes ometim work work two tw wo shif fts ts a day. Today, she’s direct or off homee business. nursing for a nursing g hom business.

Reprinted with permission from Crain’s Chicago Business. © 2021 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. Visit www.chicagobusiness.com/section/reprints. #CB21042

Thresholds is thrilled to welcome Dee Atkins as our new Chief of Community Engagement and Equity. Atkins is a Certified Diversity Professional with 20 years of experience in corporate social responsibility, nonprofit development, and community outreach. She has previously worked in leadership roles at Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare, Marillac St. Vincent Family Services, and Mercy Home for Boys and Girls. Atkins will lead Thresholds in building partnerships with peer organizations, elected officials, and local neighborhood groups to promote health equity and racial justice in the communities they represent. Thresholds is a mental health and substance use treatment provider serving 7,000 clients annually.

#25 Overall #18 Small Businesses #25 Overall #18 Small Businesses #25 Overall #18 Smallll Businesse Businesses es

You’re one of the few women leading a private-equity firm anywhere in the U.S. Is that a lonely role? I don’t think it is, because I have such a good network of other women. It’s not like it was five years ago, or 10 years ago.

remotely in tough times: cash for office equipment and child care, additional PTO to deal More than a year into pandemic, mostt officewith workers are still d do doing o oing ing ngg theirr thing th t g ffro from rom om with COVID challenges. Once again thisthe year, Crain’s partnered Best are Companies lunches, tablea tennis aand ngets nd dh happy appy ppy py hou hours mo m moot home, making perks Group to survey employees and office identify the like 100 catered Best Places to Work, list that p with ways to suppor rt the rt ttheir heeir troops h t ops p wo w o orrk orkin orking rrkin kkiiin ngg n But the best companies came up support working more competitivepoints. each year. uipment and child care,, additional addi dit d iti tionall PT tional PTO TO to TO to dea d al remotely in tough times: cash for office equipment deal dw itth B Best Comp Co om mpanies p with COVID challenges. Once again this year, Crain’s partnered with Companies o Wor W Wo ork, a list tthat h hat att ggets Group to survey employees and identifyy the 100 Best Places to Work, more competitive each year.

Thresholds, Chicago

Fast Radius, Chicago Fast Radius welcomes Julie Springer as Chief Marketing Officer and Prithvi Gandhi as Chief Financial Officer. Springer brings more than 30 Springer years of experience in marketing for fastgrowing, technologydriven companies, most recently as the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at TransUnion. During her time at TransUnion, Springer led marketing Gandhi through TransUnion’s initial public offering in 2015. Gandhi has more than 25 years of financial leadership experience for public organizations such as Zebra Technologies and Dover Corporation. Most recently he served as Interim CFO at Owens Corning. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly ten years at Morgan Stanley working in technology mergers and acquisitions.

Feature your latest milestones, launches, partnerships, awards and more in Crain’s

For more information, contact Debora Stein at dstein@crain.com or submit directly to

CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM/ COMPANYMOVES

TECHNOLOGY Planmeca USA. Inc., Hoffman Estates

Yoon, 45, is founder and managing partner of Chicago private-equity firm Kinzie Capital Partners, which invests in lower midmarket consumer, manufacturing and services companies. Her parents brought her to the U.S. from South Korea when she was a baby. She was raised in the Chicago area. Today, she lives in Ukrainian Village with her husband and three sons.

More than a year into the pandemic, most office workers are still doing their thing from home, making office perks like catered lunches, table tennis and happy hours moot points. But the best companies came up with ways to support their troops working remotely in tough times: cash for office equipment and child care, additional PTO to deal with COVID challenges. Once again this Crain’s most partnered Bestare Companies More than a year into theyear, pandemic, officewith workers still doing their thing from Group to survey home, employees andoffice identify thelike 100catered Best Places to Work, list that gets making perks lunches, table atennis and happy hours moot more competitivepoints. each year. But the best companies came up with ways to support their troops working

NON-PROFIT

TECHNOLOGY

SHARE YOUR C O M PA N Y ’ S JOURNEY

women equity? Is there a future forr wo omen in private priv eq quiity? t I see more women in private privvaaatte eq equity than ther re have have been, been, be en,, soo I think thin tthi th hink inkk it’s itt’ss getget g ge there have modest. ting better. The inroads oads h ave been b modest.

Reprinted R eprinted with permission permission n from f om Crain’s Chica fro Chicago aggoo Business. ago Busines Busi Busines Bu Business i s. © 2 in 2021 021 021 Crain rain n Communications Communicatio ommunicatio Inc. All rights rrig res rese reser reserved. errv rvveeed d. Fu urther duplicatio on w itho out pe permission p e is prohibited hib bi d. V Visitt www. Visit www.chicago www.chicagobusiness.com/section/reprints. www.chicagobusiness.com/section/r www.chicagobusiness.com/sect www.chicagobusiness.com/section/reprints .chi hicagobusiness.com/section/rep agob obusiness.com/section/reprints. b sines ine com/section/reprint m/section/reprints. / ti tio /re i t #C ##CB21015 B2 B21015 210 10 015 15 5 Further duplication without prohibited.

For more information contact: Lauren Melesio • Director, Reprints & Licensing lmelesio@crain.com • (212) 210-0707

Rose Canonaco is the newly elected Chair of the Board for AgeOptions. She joined the board in September 2018. She has over thirty years’ experience in Human Resources and has worked for both privately held and publicly traded organizations in all areas of HR. Since December 2018, she has been VP of Human Resources at Planmeca USA, Inc. Throughout her career, she has developed and led HR functions, building high performance teams that support achievement of strategic growth initiatives.

11/2/21 4:56 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 8, 2021 15

UNDER

FORTY elia Ramirez, state representative for Illinois’ 4th District, was in Springfield just a few months when she passed her first major piece of legislation, to strengthen the state’s homeless prevention program in 2019. Ramirez “hit the ground running,” says House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch. Despite being short on seniority, she landed on Welch’s leadership team earlier this year. But not long before, she’d taken 12 years to get an undergraduate degree from Northeastern University. That was because she was also working full time at what is now known as the Center for Changing Lives in her home base of Logan Square/Humboldt Park. That’s the organization where Ramirez’s parents first received supportive housing when they arrived from Guatemala (her mother had crossed the border pregnant with Delia at the time). She began volunteering at the organization—which offered food, shelter and casework—and rose from working in what was essentially the mailroom at age 17 to becoming the executive director at 21. Politics wasn’t on Ramirez’s mind until her organization lost out to another, better-connected developer on a bid to develop supportive housing along Milwaukee Avenue. “I said, ‘I need to go work at a coalition that challenges elected officials and runs policy campaigns,’ ” she says. After a twoyear stint as deputy director at the Community Renewal Society and saying “hell no” to running for office multiple times, Ramirez jumped in the race to succeed state Rep. Cynthia Soto in 2018. She quickly established herself as an authority on issues close to her heart: housing, health care and public schools. Ramirez spearheaded the House bill to establish an elected board for Chicago Public Schools. It was a political tightrope that soured her relationship with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, but delivered on a years-long demand from constituents and a key campaign promise. Next on Ramirez’s list: paid leave for women like her who have experienced pregnancy loss. She carries with her words her mom shared over the phone after Ramirez passed her first bill. “She said, ‘I’m proud of you, mija, now don’t forget where you come from. You’ve got a lot more to do.’ Then hung up,” Ramirez recalls, laughing.

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on so much of life in Chicago and beyond, but it hasn’t stopped the young Chicagoans in our 40 Under 40 class of 2021 from doing great things. They’re in new industries— marijuana, cryptocurrency, solar energy— and old-line businesses—banking, health, logistics. They’re running their own firms and also making an impact at corporate giants. Many of this year’s honorees are committed to equity at their firms; one has made it his mission to hire the disabled. They’re creative thinkers thinking big, innovating in whatever field they’re in. They’re keeping Chicago moving during this tough time. Read on for more. Photography by John R. Boehm

Delia Ramirez 38 | State representative

—A.D. Quig

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11/4/21 4:04 PM

16 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

UNDER

FORTY

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS 2021

Tim Schumm 37 | President, Lucas James Talent Partners

Priya Parrish 37 | Partner, chief investment officer, Impact Engine riya Parrish was into social impact investing before it was a thing. As an undergrad at Babson College, Parrish studied the role corporations played in the history of social movements, such as ending apartheid in South Africa. “I came out of the closet in college, which led me to see the world in different ways and see that our system doesn’t treat people the same way in terms of opportunity,” she says. She landed a job at KLD Research & Analytics, a pioneer in evaluating investments based on socially responsible investing criteria, where she helped launch the first iShares exchange-traded fund based on the environmental, social and governance metrics of individual stocks. She returned home, where she convinced Chicago-based Northern Trust to offer ESG investment products in 2006. “She put the sustainable ESG mutual fund on the map a decade before it caught on in the mainstream market,” says John Hoeppner, head of U.S. Stewardship and Sustainable Investments at Legal & General Investment Management America, who worked with her at Northern Trust. Parrish is now chief investment officer at Impact Engine, an investment firm that provides capital to startups tackling big problems and making money along the way. One example is Footprint, which is attacking waste and our dependence on plastics in food packaging. She remains a trailblazer, launching a $31.5 million private-equity fund to provide money for companies at later stages, something that’s been missing from social-impact investing. Parrish has long charted her own path. She grew up in suburban Bartlett, where her parents ran an ashram. She applied to the Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy without telling them. “It sounded hard to get into and interesting.” While at IMSA, she did website design for restaurants, which led to a series of entrepreneurial endeavors that helped her pay her way through Babson, including storage and food-delivery ventures and a business selling dehydrated apple chips. In her spare time, Parrish unwinds with music. “I play a bunch of instruments: cello, guitar, bass, hand drums. I try to learn a new instrument every few years.” —John Pletz

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ith fast-growing, Chicago-based tech clients such as Clearcover, Jellyvision, Project44, SpotHero and West Monroe Partners, Tim Schumm has propelled Wheaton-based Lucas James Talent Partners to a projected $11.25 million in revenue for 2021. It’s a quantum leap from Schumm’s first full year in business in 2019, when revenue hit $1 million. Starting with a dozen part-time workers, Schumm now has more than 100 employees in 15 states, 90% of whom are full time. He brought nearly a decade of work experience in recruiting to his venture from Maryland-based Aerotek, a major player in the market. “I saw that their traditional model, which at least 90% of the industry uses, is broken,” he says. “We help our clients expand their in-house talent acquisition on an as-needed, cost-friendly basis.” Rather than charging a commission per hire, Schumm bills hourly or weekly, which he says saves his clients 40% to 60%. “We become an extension of our clients’ HR departments,” says Schumm, which worked to his advantage during the 2020 COVID crisis. Before launching Lucas James, Schumm worked as a consultant and business coach to tech companies while honoring his noncompete agreement with Aerotek. In 2020, when the country rocketed from the lowest unemployment to the highest since the Great Depression, companies were laying off their in-house recruiters, and Schumm already had relational capital in the tech sector. “We sold our butts off; 75% of our base is tech companies now,” he says. Angela Allen, formerly with Cielo, a major global recruitment outsourcing firm, joined Lucas James from the start as an advisory board member and investor. “I walked away from our initial conversations thinking, ‘Whatever this guy does, he’s going to be successful,’ ” Allen says. “He is smart, hardworking and determined to be successful no matter the challenge.” Schumm’s ambition stems in part from his commitment to help support his autistic brother, who lives in Wheaton with their parents. “One day, my other brother and I will be his only support system.” Schumm also lives in Wheaton with his wife, Stephanie, and their two young sons. Yes, Lucas and James. —Laura Bianchi

Martin Suchara 39 | Computational scientist, Argonne National Laboratory t Argonne National Laboratory, Martin Suchara is tackling one of physics’ most vexing problems: how to exploit the power of quantum mechanics in computing and communication. A breakthrough would enable computations beyond the reach of today’s most powerful computers and offer the tantalizing possibility of ending data breaches with a nonhackable internet. Like an aeronautical engineer in a wind tunnel, Suchara is using a simulator to test sensing and communication procedures for two quantum computers under development, directing research by a team of 20 at Argonne, Fermilab and elsewhere. “In any network, you have to have some control scheme. That needs to be developed for the quantum internet,” says Eric

Chitambar, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign associate professor in electrical and computer engineering who is collaborating with Suchara. “They put a lot of trust in him to do that.” Quantum computing offers so much promise because it can perform calculations simultaneously or complex ones in reasonable times by utilizing quantum bits, or qubits, some as small as atoms or photons. Compared with classical computing’s off-on binary system, qubits can help crack useful optimization problems like designing the best delivery routes. Investors are showing confidence in the work Suchara and others are doing. Venture capital flowing into quantum computing jumped tenfold between 2016 and 2020, according to PitchBook. With researchers at IBM, Suchara has developed decoders that have cut down on stubbornly high error rates in the new technology. With networks the big challenge is figuring out how to communicate over distances. Early telegraphers solved

the problem with relays, but “you can’t copy quantum information,” Suchara says. Suchara grew up in Prague and came to the United States to major in computer science at the California Institute of Technology. After getting a doctorate at Princeton University, he worked at IBM and AT&T Labs before joining Argonne in 2018. —Steven R. Strahler

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Michelle Mbekeani 32 | Senior legal and policy adviser, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office t takes grit and resilience to challenge the values of the institution you work for, day in and day out. That’s Michelle Mbekeani’s reality. She embraces it. It’s why in 2018, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx hired the self-described “outsider” who has been publicly critical of the criminal justice system to advise her on addressing its inequities and reforming it. Mbekeani has spoken and written widely about how you can’t “reform” a system that is accomplishing what it was designed to do: marginalize and disproportionately incarcerate Black and Brown people. But you can’t dismantle a system without understanding it, intimately knowing it from the inside, and then rebuild it for the better. That’s in part why she accepted what she calls the “inside job” when Foxx offered it. “In some ways, I had been preaching to the choir,” she says of her previous jobs as a civil rights lawyer and social justice advocate. Mbekeani co-wrote recent legislation prohibit-

ing law enforcement officers from using deception while interrogating suspects under the age of 18. She worked behind the scenes to convince the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police to change their stance from “nay” to “yea” without altering the bill’s language or pushing away its core supporters. The bill passed with overwhelming support in both legislative bodies. Mbekeani’s skill for finding common ground is why she’s effective, says Foxx. “Michelle is so connected to the work and has found a way to bridge relationships across the spectrum,” she added. She recently brought together leaders from the city’s police and teachers unions, the

mayor’s office and Chicago Public Schools to brainstorm ways to plug the flow of children—primarily, children of color—from school to prison. Next year, at her alma mater, the University of Chicago Law School, she'll give a speech on how and why state governments should turn away from government contracts that make mass incarceration profitable for privately run prisons. Mbekeani, a former Miss Black New York 2011 and college rugby player who was born and raised in Oak Park, says she has no plans to run for elected office. “I feel like when you enter into politics, there’s other work you have to do to remain in office,” she said. Remaining a private citizen allows Mbekeani more time to satisfy her inner legal geek. “I really enjoy reading statutes, especially the criminal code,” she says. “There’s weight in every word.” —Corilyn Shropshire

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36 | Chief financial officer, Lime

t might seem crazy for an exec to jump to a scooter-based, rideshare company in the midst of a pandemic that brought commuting and social interaction to a halt. But Lime CFO Andrea Ellis called it “a really great time to join the business” when she accepted the position 18 months ago. “We literally shut down the business in all but five markets,” she said. “It was a challenging time. But what we could control was managing and getting much more disciplined on costs. That is something I was definitely integral in helping to oversee.” This year, as things returned to something resembling normal, Ellis said, “We ended up having our best quarter ever last summer,” posting a profit for the first time. San Francisco-based Lime, which operates in 200 cities in 30 countries globally, had ample resources to weather the

shutdown, Ellis says. Twice as large as the closest competitor, it boasts what she calls “an unmatched distribution platform” in its phone app and “exclusive integration” with Uber, as well as Google Maps. With an ambition to “own all trips under 5 miles,” Ellis says, it develops its own hardware, and its 200 million trips give it the data to target consumer demand. Ellis grew up in the southern suburbs and attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, going on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, followed by a stint at Goldman Sachs. Even as she touts Lime as a young firm with a big footprint, she sees similarities with her previous job at behemoth Restaurant Brands International, where over the course of five years she rose to the position of being named general manager of Popeyes’ Central Division.

As a big corporation moving nimbly as it melded Burger King with Tim Hortons and Popeyes, Lime and RBI shared qualities of a startup, especially in the tendency to “value talent over tenure.” “I don’t think you find many people able to cut across such different corporate structures—or corporate experiments,” said Neil Kumar, CEO of biotech firm BridgeBio, which added Ellis to its board in August. Kumar also lauded her “tremendous problem-solving acumen” and “the ability to reduce a problem to its working parts.” Ellis, who lives with her husband and son in River North, emphasized hiring women and people of color and estimates that of the 75 people on her financial team, 70% are women, “which is kind of unheard of, largely in finance and particularly in tech.” —Ted Cox

39 | Senior vice president, Prologis onathan Rudersdorf didn’t fit the mold of an ambitious college graduate heading off to the big city for a glamorous job. Initially, he thought he’d move back to Omaha, Neb., and become a dentist like his dad and brother. Instead, after graduating from Marquette University, Rudersdorf—his friends call him Rudy—decided to do what seemed like more fun: to move to Chicago, where many of his friends were headed. He got a job that was decidedly unglamorous, working for his Uncle John’s construction equipment rental business, O’Leary’s Contractors Equipment & Supply, on the city’s West Side. “I was picking up the leftovers from the guard dogs at night,” he recalls. “And then I was greasing construction equipment, and operating and servicing and delivering construction equipment.” Rudersdorf works in an office now, but he brings a blue-collar ethic to his job as head of operations for the Central region at Prologis, the world’s largest industrial landlord. He oversees more than 190 employees and 200 million square feet of space in arguably the hottest real estate sector today. Demand for warehouse space is booming as e-commerce and logistics companies expand and as all kinds of corporations reconfigure their supply chains. Yes, industrial real estate is in vogue. Rudersdorf made the jump to real estate in 2007, interviewing for a research analyst job in CBRE’s Oak Brook office. He remembers the interview, arriving in his O’Leary’s truck and changing in the parking lot from his T-shirt and jeans into a suit his parents bought for him. He got the job. Rudersdorf jumped to industrial brokerage at CBRE from there. He spent a lot of time cold-calling companies, walking into their offices and asking if their lease was coming up. “They’d say, ‘No, it’s coming up in two years,’ and I’d run back to my car and write down, ‘This tenant’s lease is up in two years, call them.’ It was a ground attack,” he recalls. He was good at it—so good that Prologis noticed and hired him away from CBRE. “People gravitate towards him because he’s such a personable guy,” says his former boss, Traci Buckingham Payette, executive vice president at CBRE. “When he comes into a room, he is a natural leader.”

Kam Buckner 36 | State representative; chair, Illinois House Black Caucus

—Alby Gallun

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Cate Costa

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t takes an unusual type of politician to win an election and then thrive in an Illinois legislative district that runs from south of Hyde Park through the South Side and up to the Gold Coast. Ex-state Sen. Barack Obama was one; Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell (a former state rep) was another. The latest in that position is Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner, chairman of the 26-member Illinois House Black Caucus. “I told the caucus that I didn’t want to be in a symbolic role for symbolic success,” the former University of Illinois football defensive lineman and DePaul University Law School alum says. “We need to find a way to get things done.” In other words, pragmatism, not mere fiery rhetoric, as was the case with some of his predecessors. That Buckner has done. “He’s a star,” says political consultant and strategist Pete Giangreco. When Gov. J.B. Pritkzer needed someone to handle his big energy package this session, “He picked Kam,” Giangreco says. “He moves around in a lot of different rooms.” Consensus-builder Buckner has played a crucial role in, for instance, passing a major criminal justice reform package this year, boosting school funding and sharply critiquing the slow rollout of opportunities for minorities in the burgeoning legalized cannabis business. But despite the focus on equity, this son of a law enforcement officer and a teacher is not easily stereotyped. Asked if Chicago’s ongoing wave of street violence requires tougher penalties, he says: “The laws we have are sufficient. But we’ve got to start holding these (criminals) to task. Our neighborhoods are being held hostage by a small group.” The name of Buckner—a staffer for former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and ex-director of government and neighborhood relations for the Chicago Cubs— comes up a lot in discussions about the future. Like a run for mayor some day? “I’ve heard that more than once recently,” he says. “I’m totally focused on what I’m doing (in Springfield) now.” —Greg Hinz

he didn’t realize it at the time, but a five-month stint aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship laid the groundwork for Cate Costa’s career empowering budding entrepreneurs. Fresh out of college, Costa took a job in the ship’s small revenue department and got a taste of what it was like to be in charge. She hired employees, oversaw marketing and ran daily operations until she was ready for her next move. “I was 22, and I wanted to continue to have that level of autonomy, and who gives that to you? Nobody but startups and nonprofits,” says Costa, whose job these days involves managing JPMorgan Chase’s $350 million philanthropic pledge to minority-owned businesses across the world. In that role, she’s developed a national framework to expand the bank’s Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, which operates in five U.S. cities, including Chicago, and has connected more than 1,200 Black-, Latino- and women-owned businesses to $40 million in affordable capital. The early experience at sea led Costa to her next job at a venture-capital-backed startup in D.C., which then motivated her to pursue an MBA at Howard University. That’s where the Maine native began connecting with funders and small businesses at the school’s Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Innovation—a fitting work-study job. Costa’s work since then has spanned the private, government and nonprofit sectors. With each opportunity, she tries to quash systemic barriers for entrepreneurs. She’s advised company founders through her own consulting agency, served more than 500 local Black business owners as director of entrepreneurship at the Chicago Urban League and helped lead the state’s Business Enterprise Program, which gives government procurement opportunities to business owners from underrepresented backgrounds. Emilia DiMenco, who heads the Chicago-based Women’s Business Development Center, met Costa just after her move to Chicago in 2016 and has been trying to hire her ever since. “I’ve managed people since 1986—hundreds of them, probably thousands—but she just has all the qualities that you want in a work colleague,” DiMenco says of Costa. “She’s capable, she’s committed, she’s smart, she’s innovative . . . I can’t find enough adjectives.” —Elyssa Cherney

PHOTOS BY JOHN R. BOEHM

35 | Vice president, JPMorgan Chase

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Melissa Garcia 34 | Head of U.S. business relationship management, BMO Harris Bank elissa Garcia knew early on she wanted to work in finance. Starting at age 15, she worked part time at a furniture store at 47th Street in Brighton Park where her mom was employed. She handled forms and applications, seeing customers seeking to buy nursery furniture, for example, at times get rejected for financing. It sparked her interest. “What steps would be next for these customers?” she says she wondered. “Who’s going to help them? How are they going to be able to finance this?” A Southwest Side native who went to high school in south suburban Frankfort and played varsity basketball for Lincoln-Way East, Garcia has spent most of her career at BMO Harris. Her rise there has been rapid. Starting as a retail banker in the Chicago suburbs, in 2014 she became market president responsible for all 15 branches in the city of Milwaukee. After three years, she came back to Chicago, running another 15-branch network in the suburbs. BMO Harris promoted her to head of U.S. mortgage sales in April 2019. Not even a year later, in January 2020, she was named head of relationship management for BMO Harris’ business banking unit—again a national role, with 96 bankers catering to owners of businesses with up to $10 million in revenue reporting to her. A few months after that, she helped lead the provision of more than 28,000 Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses after the pandemic struck. “The bank has incredible confidence in her ability to lead,” says Chris Michalski, a supervisor of Garcia’s at her first banking job with Wells Fargo and now head of retail for BMO Harris for Indianapolis, Kansas and Missouri. “Every assignment we’ve given her, she’s adapted to. Those leadership skills are very transferable.” She’ll get a chance now to have an impact on what inspired her to be a banker in the first place. She and her team will spearhead BMO Harris’ $300 million initiative to finance female-, Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses throughout all its markets. The goal: Increase the bank’s roster of 21,500 such customers to 40,000 by 2025. —Steve Daniels

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38 | Partner, Chicago Ventures fter starting her career in communications and marketing, Lindsay Knight “serendipitously” fell into venture capital in 2014 after a meeting with Victoria Willer, the wife of Chicago Ventures partner Kevin Willer. “Ten minutes into lunch, she’s like, ‘You should quit your job and come work at my husband’s new firm,’ ” recalls Knight, an Ohio native who graduated from Miami University in 2006. Chicago Ventures, one of the most active local funds, has invested in startup success stories like G2, Cameo and SpotHero. After seven years at the firm, Knight has been promoted three times and this past March became a partner at the firm. Her primary task? Fundraising millions for the firm’s future funds. Working in VC every day, Knight noticed how few women and people of color there were in the industry. To address it, Knight founded Chicago:Blend in 2018. The organization, modeled after a similar program in New York, works to diversify Chicago’s VC and startup industry. She’s starting to make some headway: Their data shows that out of 588 employees at 92 VC firms with Chicago offices in 2020, about 68% were men and 81% were white, compared with 75% male and 86% white in 2018 among 354 employees from 71 firms. “We have an opportunity to be the most inclusive and diverse startup ecosystem in the world because of the makeup of the city,” Knight said. “Blend is serving as good social pressure for VCs around town.” Stuart Larkins, the founder and general partner at Chicago Ventures who hired Knight, said her work with diversity and inclusion has opened his eyes to some of his own blind spots as an investor. “She’s pushed me, and pushing me pushes everybody else on the team, and it trickles down to our portfolio companies as well,” Larkins said. Knight is also a board member at Lookingglass Theatre and a Kauffman fellow, a prestigious development program for long-term VC leadership. “We’re starting to see all of our investments hit an inflection point . . . and I would like to be around to see it,” Knight says. “That’s the route for now.”

Joe Flamm 35 | Chef/owner, Rose Mary alf a year in, Joe Flamm’s Fulton Market District restaurant Rose Mary has become one of the hottest spots in town. Reservations to try the “Top Chef” winner’s Adriatic food fill up 60 days in advance. Though Flamm always leaves some tables open for walk-ins in hopes of making someone’s day. “People have appreciated that it’s super-approachable and not overly serious,” Flamm says. “It’s just supposed to be fun.” Flamm, who made a name for himself as executive chef at Michelin-starred Spiaggia, lives for that crowded, bustling restaurant atmosphere. He comes from a family that cooks—homemade ravioli was always served alongside the Thanksgiving turkey. A night in a brimming restaurant reminds him of the days spent rolling pasta with his cousins, when the kids outnumbered the adults and chaos ensued. Rose Mary opened in April and serves Italian and Croatian food. It is Flamm’s first restaurant, inspired by his Italian heritage and his wife’s Croatian roots. But he has known for years he wanted to branch out on his own. He worked at Art Smith’s Table FiftyTwo while attending Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, at Stephanie Izard’s Girl & the Goat in its early days and at Bill Kim’s BellyQ. At Spiaggia, which recently closed, he worked his way up from sous chef to executive chef under Tony Mantuano. That one was a long shot, Flamm says. He had no experience with fine dining or Italian, and Spiaggia was the epitome of both. “Tony gave me a shot and I ended up spending 5½ years there,” he says. “I told him when I took the job, this wasn’t forever for me. I want to open my own restaurant. He said, ‘I support that.’ ” Flamm was at Spiaggia in 2018 when he won “Top Chef.” He says Mantuano cried when he told him. But his first call was to Izard, herself a former “Top Chef” winner. “He’s the first person that has worked for me that has risen up and done his own thing, and I feel so proud of him,” Izard says. “It’s fun to see him doing him.” —Ally Marotti

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—Katherine Davis

Samara Hernandez amara Hernandez isn’t someone who minces words. “I want the next Chicago unicorn to be founded by a woman of color,” says the founder of venture-capital fund Chingona Ventures. The fund takes its name from a slang term for bad-ass woman. Hernandez was born in Mexico; her family moved to Rogers Park when she was 6. Her parents worked minimum-wage jobs, starting at a suburban country club. She recalls tagging along with her dad, who was an accountant in Mexico, as he cleaned offices at night. A self-described “free-school-lunch kid” who earned an engineering degree at the University of Michigan, Hernandez went to work at Goldman Sachs, selling the firm’s products to financial managers during the Great Recession and the market meltdown that followed. She made the leap into venture capital after getting an MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business, going to work at

37 | Founder, Chingona Ventures

Chicago-based MATH Venture Partners. “She has great tenacity,” says Troy Henikoff, managing director at MATH, recalling a complicated deal involving one of its investments when Hernandez was relatively new to venture capital. “It was really difficult to model the returns,

even for an experienced investor,” Henikoff says. “She was like a pit bull: She wouldn’t give up until she knew it backward and forward. She laid the groundwork for a lot of the infrastructure we used to model companies afterward.” The first investment she led for MATH was Liveoak Technologies, a software maker based in Austin, Texas, that later was acquired by DocuSign for an undisclosed price. She soon launched her own fund, raising $6 million, seeing an opportunity to invest in overlooked founders. Hernandez made 27 investments in her first fund, with an average check size of $100,000 to $250,000. She is finalizing a $40 million second fund. “I wanted to be the first check to invest in companies, founders and industries that didn’t fit the traditional mold. How we’re going to change things is by having people who look different writing checks.” —John Pletz

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—Stephanie Goldberg

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Rashard Johnson 39 | President, Advocate South Suburban and Advocate Trinity hospitals

PHOTOS BY JOHN R. BOEHM

or 13 consecutive weeks last year, nearly every patient admitted to the two Advocate Aurora Health hospitals Rashard Johnson leads were being treated for COVID-19 symptoms. The South Side and south suburban communities that Johnson’s hospitals serve were among the hardest hit early in the pandemic, when little was known about the virus and its long-term effects. “To be able to band together (at the hospitals) and uplift each other during this pandemic—I’m more proud of that than anything else within my career,” says Johnson, president of Advocate Trinity in Chicago and Advocate South Suburban in Hazel Crest, comprising 436 beds, 2,000 employees and more than $400 million in annual revenue. Since taking the helm in 2018, Johnson has improved safety measures, as well as physician attraction and retention, contributing to the lowest hospital readmission rates across all of Advocate Aurora’s 26 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin. Both of his facilities are among the 25 top hospitals in Illinois, according to U.S. News & World Report. Beyond Johnson’s ability to quickly absorb information and apply learnings to whatever situation he’s facing, the way he cares for patients and their families sets him apart, says John Brandecker, a director at the Veterans Integrated Service Network who worked with Johnson at Miami’s Jackson Health System. In health care, “we always put patients first, and he lives that every day.” Seeing how the pandemic has affected lives and exacerbated long-standing health disparities, Johnson says he’s more focused than ever on making medical care more accessible—particularly for the 900,000 people living on Chicago’s South Side. To transform health care in the area, Johnson’s team has joined forces with 12 other local organizations to form the South Side Healthy Community Organization. Its goal is to add clinicians to address unmet chronic disease and behavioral health needs, in addition to improving maternal and infant health. “Being an inner-city kid born and raised in (Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood), it resonated with me to have an opportunity to make a generational impact on the community,” says Johnson, who lives in Naperville with his wife and four children. In Liberty City, “violence was there, food deserts, single-parent households. All those things help shape my perspective, who I am as a leader, and my ability to impact those who are vulnerable, because I understand that environment.”

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Stephanie Gorecki 37 | Vice president, product development, Cresco Labs t 14, Stephanie Gorecki was making money stitching tiny sleeping bags for Beanie Babies. At 17, she was selling garden plants at garage sales—and sampling pot, though “because of restricted access, it just wasn’t part of my life,” she says. It is now. The food industry veteran is at one of the biggest emerging companies in cannabis, leading Cresco’s fast-growing edibles business—gummies, lozenges and other smokeless products—while Illinois and other states legalize sales. Gorecki has tripled the number of brands and increased volume sixfold, to about 10% of Cresco’s annual revenue, which is headed toward $1 billion. Relying on her Big Food experience, most recently at Chicago’s Newly Weds Foods, she has overhauled production and looked to develop beverages and other products. “She’s all about innovation,” says Dirk Beekman, Newly Weds’ chief technology officer. When some customers called for colored versions of Newly Weds breadcrumbs, the company balked because food colorings stained equipment and bled into regular production. Gorecki figured out how to add the hues afterward. “She was told several times, ‘You can’t do this—it won’t work,’ ” Beekman recalls. Gorecki joined Cresco in 2019 and

was promoted last year. She knows competition is coming from consumer packaged-goods companies but believes it remains years away. “Without a doubt, these large CPG companies have a cannabis team on site and are vetting out potential acquisitions. They can’t afford not to,” she says. Cresco has plants in more than 13 states, with almost half producing edibles. Gorecki, who says she wasn’t a rebellious teen while growing up in Villa Park, was content to follow a career path similar to that of her parents, Karen Berger, a chemical engineer, and Rick Berger, a now-retired metalworking fluid chemist. After majoring in biology at Arizona State University, she joined Flavorchem, a flavor and fragrance producer in Downers Grove, where she handled aromatic compounds called terpenes (a high concentration of which are in marijuana) that foreshadowed her days at Cresco. Now, she’s focused on reducing cycle times and other production efficiencies, as well as the shelf life and “feel state” of Cresco products. “Potency is not everything,” she says, adding with a virtual wink, “We do have to test everything we sell. That’s part of our job.”

tiating, Blackburn and Kokonas never met in person, but the pair talked constantly on the phone or over Zoom. It didn’t take long for Blackburn to gain the entrepreneur’s trust with the warm personality, diligence and peace-brokering ideology that makes him a go-to dealmaker in complex transactions. A day after Blackburn joked about being the “happiest chubby guy in Chicago who gets to eat at Alinea,” Kokonas sent him two duck confit potpies from the restaurant’s temporary comfort-food menu that debuted during the pandemic. “Throughout the process and negotiations, many of which lasted 24/7, Jonathan was always there, prepared, and presented a calm presence,” Kokonas said in an email. “He also wasn’t afraid to say what he was unsure about—always the sign to me of a smart person and a good counsel.” Affectionately known as “J.B.” to many of his clients, Blackburn says the most rewarding part of his job is helping company founders achieve their potential, even when it requires providing more emotional support than legal knowledge.

onathan Blackburn likes to be in the room where it happens. And as a partner in Sidley Austin’s corporate practice who advises some of the city’s most successful startups, including GoHealth and Home Chef, he wants everyone to leave that room feeling good. “I’m sort of like the consummate people pleaser,” Blackburn, 38, says from a glassy conference room at Sidley’s downtown office, where he’s worked for more than a decade since graduating magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School. His biggest test came when that room turned completely virtual. From a computer by the treadmill in his basement this year, Blackburn led the high-profile sale of Tock, the restaurant management platform developed by Alinea co-owner Nick Kokonas, to website giant Squarespace, a speedy deal of more than $400 million that involved cash and stocks. It closed in less than three months as Squarespace prepared to go public this spring—and just in time for Blackburn, who needed to convert the space into a nursery for his second child. During those arduous weeks of nego-

—Elyssa Cherney

Jonathan Blackburn 38 | Partner, Sidley Austin

—Steven R. Strahler

Jonathon Spagat 37 | Creative director for Rit Dye; co-founder of Breakfast for Dinner he summer of 2016 was the perfect time for Jonathon Spagat to buy a fabric dye company, but he didn’t know it then. Back then, Spagat just wanted Nakoma Products, the company he founded with his father, to own a consumer product that led its category. Nakoma’s main brand at the time was Endust, a furniture product competing with Pledge. Along came Rit Dye. The century-old brand was originally used to revive color, before the fashion industry sold consumers on faded clothes.

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Rit had a moment in the tie-dyed 1960s, but in recent years was relegated to craft aisles. Rit’s parent company was bankrupt, the brand was up for auction and Nakoma placed the winning bid. Spagat went to work. He redid Rit’s packaging, revamped its website and keyed in on what became his bread and butter: telling consumers how to use it. “So much feedback I got was, ‘This is a really intimidating product. I’m going to ruin my clothes,’ ” he says. “But it’s so easy. The focus has really become about education.” Spagat started working with photog-

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Daniel Polotsky and Benjamin Weiss

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Polotsky, 27 | Co-founder and chief adviser Weiss, 26 | Co-founder and CEO CoinFlip

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itcoin was a little-noticed digital currency company in 2014 when Daniel Polotsky, an undergraduate at Northwestern University, decided he wanted to buy in. He quickly found that trading the coins was no easy matter. “It was a nightmare,” Polotsky recalls. “You had to find a seller and then meet somewhere literally in person. You gave them cash right there while they checked on your identity. I figured there had to be a better way.” In short order, Polotsky, together with Ben Weiss, a former classmate from Deerfield High School, found that better way. While still in college—Weiss at Vanderbilt University—they started up CoinFlip, which focuses on selling bitcoins and other digital currencies in ATMs. From its start in 2015, CoinFlip has mushroomed to become the fastest-growing company around Chicago. It now operates 3,000 ATMs in the U.S., and revenue this year may reach $100 million. This year Polotsky gave up the CEO title to Weiss, who had been chief operating officer, to step back and come up with new ideas to keep CoinFlip growing. Titles haven’t meant much to the duo since they first bonded as sophomores in a Spanish II class. Weiss grew up in Bannockburn, the son of a real estate developer, and briefly considered a career in law. Polotsky, who grew up in Highland Park and then Deerfield, is the son of Russian immigrants—his mother is a physician. In the early years, the partners ran CoinFlip out of their dorm rooms. Neither one had tech skills of note, and they admit they’ve never been able to predict the yo-yo movements of crypto valuations in the marketplace. But they could see early on a rising interest among amateur investors in trading beyond dol-

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Daniel Polotsky, left, and Benjamin Weiss

rapher Evan Sheehan to create content around Rit. (They later created content agency Breakfast for Dinner, too, with Alex Wallbaum.) They cranked out projects and photographed the process, so consumers could see how it was done. They did monochrome campaigns. They shot Spagat’s mom’s bridge partner, Judy, wearing a pink-and-blue, tie-dyed sweatsuit and holding a mimosa. When COVID hit, and consumers collectively decided tie-dying would be the perfect way to kill quarantine time, Rit was ready. The dye flew off shelves. Retailers upped orders. Rit leaned in. It did partnerships with Jaden Smith, Converse and Levi’s. Revenue went to $19.5 million in 2020 from

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$12.7 million in 2019. “(Spagat’s) superpower is identifying trends and being on the pulse of what’s next,” says Rachel Liverman, founder and CEO of New York-based facial company Glowbar. The two have been friends and entrepreneurial confidants since they attended Tulane University. She says it wasn’t just luck and timing that worked in his favor, though. It was hard work, coupled with vision. “He struck gold by reinventing Rit Dye pre-pandemic,” she says. Spagat says he always has his eye on the next trend. He just found out you can dye roller-skate wheels and Crocs shoes. “Who knows what’s next?” Spagat says. —Ally Marotti

PHOTOS BY JOHN R. BOEHM

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lars and euros. They were determined to build a business that could thrive whether bitcoin moved up or down on any particular day. Now the pair are taking bold steps to take the company, which is based in Chicago and has 194 employees, to a much larger scale. First, they are planning to go international, starting with Canada by the first quarter of 2023, likely followed by England and Australia. In the meantime, Polotsky has moved CoinFlip beyond ATMs by starting up an over-the-counter trading desk to buy and sell digital currencies in larger denominations. Most ATM transactions fall under $1,000, he observes, while big institutional groups are devoted to buyers of $100,000 and more. CoinFlip is taking aim at the middle. “By going after the $5,000 customer, we’re expanding to a more sophisticated audience,” Polotsky says. Big paydays lie ahead. CoinFlip has caught the attention of outside investors, though none have gotten to first base so far. The company has grown until now on its own cash flow, so there is no hurry. An initial offering of public stock is likely, the pair say, but that may take a couple of years. Polotsky thinks the company can expand its current count of ATMs fivefold to surpass 15,000 in the U.S. alone. Foreign markets could get even bigger than that. Machines may not matter eventually: The company is working on a new app that will act as a digital “wallet,” allowing customers to buy and sell anywhere from their mobile phones. “We’re constantly looking for niches where cryptocurrency is underserved,” Weiss says. “The market overall is going to get much bigger.”

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Chad Bronstein 34 | CEO, Fyllo ounded in 2019, Chicago-based Fyllo discovered a niche in the burgeoning cannabis industry by concentrating on compliance with the hyperlocal regulation that new legal weed and CBD firms were facing. “I saw a huge opportunity in the space,” said Chad Bronstein, who founded the company. “Our focus was to destigmatize the industry and focus on the value-add of cannabis as an industry.” But along the way, Fyllo (pronounced FEE-loh) also began compiling a lot of data on cannabis consumers (entirely HIPAA-compliant, of course), which other firms, such as client Uber Eats, are clamoring for. CBD and adult-use cannabis customers were found to be early adopters, gamers and millennials—“a very desirable audience,” Bronstein said, one that spends money on leisure pursuits. Fyllo has raised $60 million and has 169 employees at six regional offices, with revenue estimated by CB Insights at $56 million a year. Mitch Kahn, who sold his Grassroots Cannabis firm in an $830 million merger shortly after joining the Fyllo board, identified Bronstein early on as an up-andcomer for “his energy, his confidence, his passion. He stepped away from a kind of clear career path he had going (in advertising) making a fair amount of money. It takes a certain kind of person to step away from that and to follow your passion.” Bronstein, a Miami University grad with a major in sociology, worked at Adconion Media Group and Amobee before striking out on his own. Kahn says Bronstein’s leadership style is classic entrepreneur. “He has certainly surrounded himself with incredible talent on the technical side, on the sales side, on the operations side.” The company also brought Bronstein to the attention of former National Hockey League star Daniel Carcillo, who was looking for help in starting a firm focusing on traumatic brain injuries. He got in touch with Bronstein through LinkedIn, and that led them to form Wesana Health, which is pioneering the use of psychedelics to treat brain injuries and mental illness. It’s raised $22 million in its first six months as a public company. That fits Bronstein’s self-definition as a “serial entrepreneur,” but he calls himself a “big family guy” first. He lives in Oak Brook with his wife and 5-year-old son. —Ted Cox

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Juatise Gathings 31 | Director, regional operations, Discover Financial Services

n July 2020, in the midst of the pandemic and the unrest following the killing of George Floyd, Juatise Gathings told her boss at Discover Financial Services she was leaving the company she’d worked and thrived at for nine years. It was nothing against Discover. “I had nowhere to go, didn’t really have any strong, concrete plans,” she says. “I just felt this hankering to do more with my skill sets and talents.” She wanted to do something about what was roiling American society and considered a nonprofit. Her boss asked her to stay on while she was figuring out her next move. Two months later, she was asked to spearhead Riverwoods-based Discover’s plans to open a call center on Chicago’s South Side. “Instantly, I said, ‘Absolutely. I’ll do it,’ ” she says. Gathings this year launched one of Discover’s most ambitious initiatives ever: the conversion of a former Target store in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood into a call center that plans to employ 1,000 on the South Side. The native of Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood is off to a fast start. The plan for 2021 was to hire 130; 150 have been hired and the number will be close to 200 by year-end, Gathings says. The Chatham center so far in 2021 is topping Discover’s other call centers in Utah, Arizona, Ohio and Delaware in customer satisfaction. “We’ve been able to tap into a high caliber of people,” Gathings says. “I know how much talent resides on the South Side. We got over 3,500 applications for 120 jobs.” Gathings began her career at Discover at age 21 in Arizona with a part-time job calling customers to promote more usage of the Discover card. She rose rapidly into managerial roles, coaching and working with call-center employees. “There are some people who just kind of transcend,” Matt Johanson, Discover senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, says of Gathings. Gathings knows there’s a lot more work to do. “Our story is still being written,” she says. But the excitement on 87th Street is building. “The beauty of having 80% of our folks living locally is that the money they make working at Discover won’t be taken out of the community.” —Steve Daniels

Kanav Kariya 25 | President, Jump Crypto hen he was a junior in college five years ago, Kanav Kariya landed an internship at Jump Trading Group, a competitive quantitative trading firm founded by former Chicago Mercantile Exchange traders. This year, he was tapped to be president of the firm’s newly launched division, Jump Crypto, at the ripe age of 25. As president of Jump Crypto, Kariya leads a team of 100 and manages every aspect of Jump’s foray into the world of cryptocurrency. The crypto division, which Kariya says Jump has invested billions of dollars in, is building software infrastructure and tools for blockchain ecosystems and cryptocurrencies. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Kariya grew up wanting to join the Army. But as a teenager, he got into video games and decided he instead wanted to pursue computer science. He immigrated to the U.S. at 18 to study computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the alma

mater of Jump co-founders Bill Disomma and Paul Gurinas. Soon after, Kariya found himself at Jump Trading when the firm was ramping up its cryptocurrency business. “I was fortunately one of the early interns working on the platform that’s now grown into the crypto divisions that we have here at Jump,” Kariya says. “That internship really sparked a deep interest in the cryptocurrency space. I’m extremely excited about the crypto space overall. I very much hope to stay here and help grow this business.” Along the way to running Jump’s crypto division, Kariya worked in multiple divisions, including development, research, sales and trading, where he impressed his colleagues. “He was becoming such a critical component to putting the deals together, it was almost like we weren’t doing many deals without having him involved,” says Mike Cahill, head of digital assets and business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Jump Trading, who has

worked closely with Kariya for the last two years. “He was filling so many responsibilities that it was really impressive.” —Katherine Davis

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Nakhia Crossley 37 | Senior manager, public policy, Sunrun hen she was in college in the 2000s, Nakhia Crossley thought she might get into the entertainment business. First, she thought maybe as an MTV VJ. Then, while obtaining a law degree in Southern California, she considered representing entertainers. In the end, she wound up in a far less glamorous field—energy—but her experience of most of the past three years gave her a front-row seat to what some might have deemed entertaining. She led the region that includes Illinois for the national solar-power industry lobby as state lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker wrangled over a wide-ranging energy bill that would determine whether there was a future here for solar, which had stalled out. The bill—stymied for months largely due to unrelated conflicts between unions representing power plant workers and environmental groups—finally passed in September. In between, there were moments when many of those involved gave it up for dead. “What a nail-biter, right?” she says. Crossley’s job as Central Region director and counsel at the Solar Energy Industries Association was to keep her coalition, which opted not to ally with either warring party, together with a consistent message. Strategically, the decision had been made early in the process to push for what turned out to be hundreds of millions in ratepayer cash each year to develop new renewable power projects in Illinois. Some members of the coalition wanted to join with the greens; most wanted to forge their own path. In the end, the industry’s message that there was no future for solar in Illinois without the measure resonated with policymakers. Barry Matchett, regional head of external affairs at solar developer Clearway Energy Group, credits Crossley’s “patience and consistent leadership. Convening and holding together a group of more than 50 renewable companies was a gargantuan task, and she did it with her professionalism and cool demeanor.” Before the leadership role at the solar association, Crossley worked four years as an attorney at the Illinois Commerce Commission—her introduction to energy pol-

icymaking. She’s also a leader within her field locally, serving as president of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago. Crossley could use her government-relations skills in most industries, but she says she’s got the energy bug. She just took a job leading Midwest policy for San Francisco-based Sunrun, the nation’s largest residential solar provider. “The pivotal moment for me was something very small,” she says. “I was working at the ICC and I was out in the Loop, going to a meeting or lunch or something. And it occurred to me that what I was working on was going to help every single person I passed on the street. And for some reason, something clicked in me and I thought, there’s something to this. It’s something I should stick with.” —Steve Daniels

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Alyssa Jaffee 37 | Partner, 7wireVentures

Paul Reaumond 38 | Vice chairman, CBRE aul Reaumond would prefer not to talk about his status as one of Chicago’s go-to office brokers for major corporate clients. Like the roughly 25 million square feet of leases he negotiated on behalf of companies like Salesforce, Uber, Groupon, Gogo, Sprout Social and Echo Global Logistics. Or the fact that his body of work made him the youngest tenant rep across all of CBRE to be named a vice chairman, the real estate services giant’s highest broker title. The spotlight-averse Lake Forest native is even reluctant to take much credit for the complex path he helped navigate on behalf of Discover Financial Services with a developer, aldermen, community groups and state legislators to orchestrate the company’s lease earlier this year of a shuttered Target in the Chatham neighborhood for a call center—a deal that is slated to bring as many as 1,000 jobs to the South Side and could serve as a blueprint for other big companies in Chicago channeling dollars into disinvested areas of the city. “He’s a deal maker” in a sometimes contentious world of egos in big real estate transactions, says Leon Walker, whose DL3 Realty is redeveloping the former Target. “He’s a great advocate for his client, but he also keeps the big picture in mind.” The Indiana University graduate would rather direct your attention to his job as president of the Reaumond Foundation, a charity he and his siblings formed in 2018 after their father, Robert, died of pancreatic cancer at 59. The foundation raised more than $1 million in its first 18 months, funds it is deploying to grants for “outside of the box” pancreatic cancer research and helping offset patient expenses, including providing affordable housing for families that relocate to Houston for treatment at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The foundation is aiming to set up similar accommodations at other top cancer hospitals nationwide. “We’re trying to think about solving a hard problem differently,” says Reaumond, who wears blazers lined with the foundation’s logo. “It is what I wake up and think about every day.” —Danny Ecker

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Jen Walling 39 | Executive director, Illinois Environmental Council n certain circles, lifelong environmental advocate Jennifer Walling is known as a Republican whisperer. For a decade, the 39-year-old Darien native, a Democrat, has led the Illinois Environmental Council—an umbrella group representing more than 100 green and community organizations—despite coming from a “super, super politically conservative” family. As a lobbyist in Springfield, her ability to tease out common ground has led to bonding over soil conservation with pro-Trump state representative and farmer Chris Miller and a shoutout from Republican former Gov. Bruce Rauner for her work on a bill mandating drinking water testing in day cares and schools. “I just really believe in the ability of people to change and go down a scale of agreement,” Walling said, “particularly when you’re kind to them, you listen to them, and you learn what things benefit them.” This year, Walling’s attitude as a lead

negotiator helped win bipartisan approval of the state’s massive energy overhaul, putting Illinois on a path to go 100% carbon-free by 2050. As a teen, Walling had her political awakening when she observed a bid-rigging scandal related to a DuPage County recycling contract, while she was a volunteer at a composting and recycling education organization called SCARCE in Glen Ellyn. She went on to receive three degrees in six years, including in law and environmental science, at the University of Illinois, and rallied classmates to create a student sustainability fee, which still exists today. After she worked briefly as an attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center, former state Sen. Heather Steans hired Walling, then 28, as her chief of staff. Despite “a lot of skepticism” at hiring Walling to run IEC so young, Steans said, she soon proved to be “adept beyond her age.” Walling has helped mend the fractures

between environmental groups since 2011, building a coalition that was key to pushing through the energy bill, Steans continues. "She doesn't have a lot of ego," she says, rare in Springfield. Next up for Walling: making sure future governor’s offices live up to the promises within the bill. “The wrong people can take the best policy and tear it to shreds, or can take the worst policy and make it the best.” —A.D. Quig

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ike many venture capitalists, Alyssa Jaffee only started to really consider VC as a career path while in business school. Now, five years after graduating with an MBA from the University of Chicago, Jaffee is a partner at 7wireVentures, a local firm focused on the health care sector, founded by Glen Tullman and Lee Shapiro, two prominent Chicago entrepreneurs and investors. Jaffee has worked on several 7wire deals, such as its recent investment in obsessive compulsive disorder treatment app NOCD, as well as funding rounds for Zerigo Health and Jasper Health. 7wire cuts initial checks for $4 million to $6 million and will invest about $10 million to $15 million over the life of a startup. “The best thing about my job is that I get to see the future every day,” says Jaffee, who grew up in Deerfield with four siblings. “It’s addicting.” Before 7wire, Jaffee was an investment associate at Healthbox Global Partners and Hyde Park Angels, and later was a senior associate at Pritzker Group Venture Capital. She even spent time on the other side of the deal table as a startup founder when she was at U of C. She co-founded TransparentCareer, a data platform for compensation and careers, which won U of C’s 2016 New Venture Challenge, raised nearly $1 million, and was sold to RelishCareers in 2018. “I’ve been watching her career blossom,” says Shapiro, who first met Jaffee more than 10 years ago. “She prioritizes people and relationships so well that it’s made her a very successful investor.” The road hasn’t been without its bumps. Early observers tried to discourage her from pursuing VC, saying she didn’t have the right background. Aside from her MBA, Jaffee has a bachelor’s degree in business marketing and Spanish literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked in consulting before going to business school. “I was not an investment banker, and a lot of people told me at the time, 'Because you don’t have banking experience, it’s not going to work out,’ ” Jaffee says. “Obviously, it did.” —Katherine Davis

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Sarah Hamilton 39 | Managing director, Kivvit ith degrees in foreign policy and international politics from Georgetown and New York universities, respectively, Sarah Hamilton may have been well set up to be a diplomat or an attache. Instead, she’s landed in a field that’s intrigue-filled in its own way: high-level media management, the business of getting the world to do what you want—from behind the scenes. If you’ve heard of the huge Lincoln Yards development on the North Side, watched as Illinois turned in a better-than-expected performance in the 2020 census or caught the Olympics, you’ve seen the work of Hamilton, a managing director at Kivvit, a Chicago-based public affairs company.

Chicagoans might know Hamilton best as the onetime spokeswoman for former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel dubs her “a consummate professional who has a laser focus of what’s in front of her and a keen eye for what lurks on the periphery.” Hamilton’s activity in politics and government well predates Emanuel. The daughter of a suburban teacher and a trader at the Chicago Board of Trade, Hamilton says it was “happenstance” that she ended up in domestic politics. “I was bored” in school, she says, so when an internship with the Clinton Foundation opened up, she grabbed the chance. A few years later, she was handling national press advance for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 race

for president, which led to a stint as press secretary for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. From there it was to Emanuel and then Kivvit, co-founded by David Axelrod, the strategist who helped Barack Obama beat Clinton. “I always loved a challenge,” she says. “Consensus building and figuring how to get to ‘yes’ is something I’ve always enjoyed.” It’s her work for U.S. volleyball, gymnastics, hockey and other sports federations that she’s most proud of, says Hamilton, a competitive volleyballer and biker herself. “Helping them navigate the (media) process and tell their story, I’ve enjoyed that.” —Greg Hinz

Kyoko Crawford 39 | Co-founder and CEO, SkinIO fter running a New York Citybased technology development consultancy for more than a decade, Kyoko Crawford started thinking about launching something tangible—a product she could bring to life. Around the same time in 2014, Northwestern Medicine skin cancer specialist Dr. Jean-Christophe Lapiere told a patient about his idea to remotely monitor high-risk individuals using smartphone cameras. The patient was Crawford’s father-in-law, who introduced the pair shortly thereafter. “I thought, ‘There’s a there there. This is something that can actually work and matter and impact lives,’ ” says Crawford, co-founder and CEO of SkinIO. Since launching seven years ago, Crawford and Lapiere, SkinIO’s cofounder and chief medical officer, have worked to make early skin cancer

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detection more accessible. The business has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, as dermatologists faced a post-lockdown backlog and demand for virtual care surged. The dermatology startup now has about 90 customers nationwide, including Cleveland-based MetroHealth System and a Chicago-based airline— among other large employers looking to control health care costs and improve outcomes through skin cancer screening. “When you look at entrepreneurs, the determination to succeed is what sets apart people who are successful and people who are not,” says Peter Smith, SkinIO board chair and investor. Crawford “has a great work ethic, and she really commits herself to the project and the team,” Smith says. “Everybody sees how determined she is to make things work.”

SkinIO, which has raised more than $6.5 million, counts Citadel’s Ken Griffin and former Walgreens executive Stewart Wasson among its investors. But raising seed funding to hire an engineering team and build the technology in-house was no easy feat. Crawford was pregnant when she first started pitching investors and didn’t raise a dime until six weeks after her son was born in May 2015. Crawford, who lives in Bucktown with her husband and two children, is hopeful that the industry is making more space for women and people of color. “The time for compartmentalizing people is over,” Crawford says. “It’s more about the ‘ands’ in our lives than the ‘ors.’ ” —Stephanie Goldberg

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Anthony Del Rio 36 | President and executive director, Rush Health or Anthony Del Rio, whose mom worked three jobs to support him and his siblings growing up in Stone Mountain, Ga., an office job was the ultimate goal—a way to achieve financial security. Now he’s president and executive director of Rush Health, which comprises four hospitals and more than 2,300 affiliated providers. The organization aims to improve efficiency and quality of care by tying payments to patient outcomes, among other factors. One way it does this is through an accountable care organization intended to reduce Medicare spending. “We need to get away from fee-forservice,” in which doctors get reimbursed for each medical service provided, Del Rio says. “It creates a system that isn’t really focused on improving overall health.” Rush’s value-based payment model also helped the system financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people avoided nonemergency care and fee-for-service revenue took a

34 | Co-founder and CEO, Paladin

hit. Under Del Rio’s leadership, the 30,000-member accountable care organization last year saved Medicare a total of $19.8 million, $9.6 million of which was returned to the organization. Carl Bergetz, chief legal officer for the Rush University System for Health, recalls Del Rio’s commitment to the nonprofit’s mission—“to improve health, save lives, and deliver health care and education to the community”—during his initial interview. “He said that’s what was driving him and it’s 100% true. And he stayed with Rush, even though he’s the type of guy who could have made it a way station.” And as a Mexican American in a

leadership position, Del Rio says his responsibilities extend far beyond the scope of his job. “You have to focus on diversity and actively engage groups because they have been marginalized,” he says. Del Rio is married to Dr. Jennifer Seo, who serves as chief medical officer at the Chicago Department of Public Health, which has guided the city through the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair, who met as interns at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in Atlanta, live in North Center with their two children.

who was surprised at the player’s lack of mobility in the shoulders and hips. “He told me I was only using 60% of my body capability,” says Kane, who shed 12 pounds and enjoyed the most productive season of his career at the age of 30. “People in hockey expect to be banged up all the time, but I feel great now. Ian’s some kind of body genius.” Teammates followed suit, including Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat. (Other clients include Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, Denver Nuggets shooting guard Jamal Murray and members of the U.S. Women’s National Hockey team.)

With his long black hair, cargo shorts and quiet confidence, Mack looks more like the frontman of a ’70s arena rock band than a fitness guru. But with a degree in exercise physiology and biomechanics, and 17 years of studying the human body, Mack continues bringing in neurologists, osteopaths and anyone else who can help him innovate. “We need to look forward,” Mack says. “Every five years, we should be apologizing to these athletes for the way we used to train them.”

—Stephanie Goldberg

Ian Mack 34 | Owner, Tomahawk Science s a high schooler, Ian Mack used to sneak into Syracuse University’s men’s basketball weight room so he could work out. One morning, the strength and conditioning coach caught him in the act. “He was so impressed with how clean I left the space, he offered me a job,” Mack recalls. Seventeen years later, Mack has landed on the cutting edge of fitness with Tomahawk Science, his innovative Near West Side “sports science consultancy.” Tomahawk’s stable of elite athletes, most from the NHL and NBA, are looking for any advantage they can find on the competition—even if it means flying in the face of old rules. Gone are the squat racks groaning with clanking weights and pumpedup trainers pushing clients beyond their limits. Instead, Mack’s 50 clients have bought into Tomahawk’s “movement-based approach” unlocking muscle elasticity and mobility. This can mean anything from plyometrics and crawl patterns to hip stabilizations and “band walking” designed to maximize balance and stability. It’s equal parts performance technology, advanced data collection and integrative human movement engineered to spark faster recovery and lengthen careers, and it seems to be working. A prime example is Patrick Kane. After a down 2017-18—the Blackhawks’ star right wing’s 11th season in the NHL—Kane began training with Mack,

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s one of the few Latinas in Chicago who have raised capital for their startups, Kristen Sonday has seen firsthand how difficult it is for underrepresented founders to get the attention they deserve. Sonday is co-founder and CEO of Paladin, “a legal tech company helping law firms across the globe operate more efficient pro bono programs,” and a co-founder and general partner of LongJump, a micro-venture capital firm launched last year to invest in Chicago’s Black, Latino and female entrepreneurs. Born and raised in Summit, N.J., Sonday graduated from Princeton University, where she studied politics and Latin American studies. Before startups and investing, Sonday worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, extraditing fugitives from Mexico and Central America back to the United States. “That was probably the coolest job I’ll ever have,” Sonday said. “That’s where I saw how complicated our judicial system is to navigate and realized the value of having a lawyer by your side.” Paladin helps attorneys manage pro bono work with a software that connects them with clients, assigns work to attorneys and reports the impact their work has. Paladin has facilitated more than 17,000 pro bono connections for its clients, including law firms like Dentons, Clifford Law Offices and Holland & Knight, as well as the legal teams for Verizon and Dell. “Kristen is an incredible person, CEO and business leader— full stop,” said Logan LaHive, who admitted Paladin into the 2017 class of Techstars Chicago when he was the organization’s managing director. “They were a company I went to battle for and aggressively recruited.” Paladin has raised $4 million from investors since launching in 2015. If Sonday were a white man, would she have raised more by now? “Yes,” she says. “That’s why I’m so passionate about LongJump.” While there’s a growing group of micro-VC funds in Chicago, LongJump stands out because of its mission and high-profile limited partners. The $5 million fund has backing from local techies like Tastytrade co-founder Kristi Ross, Sprout Social CEO Justyn Howard and Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. LongJump has invested in four startups, cutting average checks of about $100,000. —Katherine Davis

—Jeff Ruby

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Will Kerr 33 | President, Edge Logistics

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ife didn’t go quite as planned for Will Kerr, who grew up in Glencoe dreaming of becoming a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In love with the action and intensity, he pivoted as a senior at DePaul University when the Merc took trading online. Things have worked out pretty well. Seven years ago, Kerr, with partner Jordan Lanyi, launched Edge Logistics, a third-party freight brokerage company, in the back of a double-wide trailer in a parking lot along Brooklyn’s East River. “We had an extension cord for power, no bathroom or air conditioning,” says Kerr, company president. “But we had a great view of Manhattan and we did $1 million in the first quarter.” Not bad for a 26-year-old who raised money from family and friends to kick-start his company. Now headquartered in a 7,000-squarefoot building on the Chicago River, the firm expects revenue to top $130 million in 2021. He has expanded to Los Angeles, Detroit and New York—as well as to Colombia—and employs 110 people. The company landed on Inc. magazine’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies list in 2018 to 2021 and was a Crain’s Fast 50 the past two years. “We always knew Will was going to be great,” says Steven Hausman, who helped finance the budding operation as founder and CEO (now retired) of Texas-based Triumph Business Capital. “It’s almost freaky, the insight he has into the freight brokerage business.” Kerr developed his chops after college while working at Chicago’s Echo Global Logistics, a major player in the $12 trillion global logistics industry. “I had no idea how it worked, but I learned on the job and fell in love with the business,” he says. “We were in a big technological wave, and I saw a lot of opportunity.” Kerr capitalized on both by developing the company’s Capacity app, a digital freight matching platform that connects trucking companies and shippers to expedite bidding, booking and updating shipments. He plans to launch a new app by January allowing customers to interact with Edge more easily, enabling him to scale up more efficiently. After hours, you might find Kerr golfing, boating, cheering on the Bears or spending time with his wife and their 1-year-old son at home in River North.

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Grant Milstead 36 | Vice president, digital technology, United Airlines f you’ve made your United Airlines flight, even though you were running late, you can thank Grant Milstead. As vice president of digital technology, Milstead oversaw ConnectionSaver, which allows United to wait for passengers for a few minutes if necessary and still get to their destinations on time. “It saves thousands of connections a day we otherwise would have missed,” Milstead says. COVID-19 left airlines scrambling to use technology to remake everything from boarding a plane to ordering food onboard, which put Milstead’s team front and center. “Our backs were against the wall,” says Jason Birnbaum, United’s senior vice president of digital technology. Milstead “seized the opportunity to reimagine what the post-pandemic travel world could be.” In addition to rolling out apps for contactless check-in or ordering food, Milstead’s team developed software, using artificial intelligence, to help international travelers keep track of COVID-19 requirements that vary country by country and handle necessary docu-

mentation of their health information. “We put it together in 90 days,” says Milstead, who joined United six years ago from General Electric, where he was named chief information officer of GE Capital’s rail-services business before he was 30. Birnbaum, who also worked at GE, says Milstead gained attention as “someone who could make things happen.” But he’s also known to begin staff meetings with games to break the ice. Milstead, who grew up in Downers Grove, got his start in technology in high school, helping develop a web-based product for schools to schedule facilities and referees for games. He headed to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study computer science and was selected to participate in a two-year leadership program that paired technology and business students. “He wasn’t someone who was always trying to get attention or looking to score points,” says John Clarke, who ran the program and now is associate dean for graduate programs at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business. “Because he was thoughtful, other people around him became confident. He was happy to lead, even if he wasn’t the appointed leader.” —John Pletz

Ricardo Regalado

39 | Founder and CEO, Rozalado Services

uring his first few years as founder and CEO of Chicago-based Rozalado Services, Ricardo Regalado’s company didn’t generate nearly as much excitement as, say, a tech startup. Meeting Regalado for the first time, people would say, “You own a cleaning company?” “I took a risk in a very unsexy industry,” he says, and now he’s cleaning up. In eight years, Regalado, 39, has built an $11 million commercial cleaning and maintenance company with nearly 700 employees, accounts in 28 states and satellite offices in Detroit, Philadelphia, Wheaton and Elgin. Rozalado’s annual revenue ranks in the top 1% of the country for the cleaning industry. When he began fending off acquisition attempts, Regalado knew he had made it.

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Rozalado Services, the janitorial service, is the mother ship. It gave birth to numerous offshoots, including Roza Contractors & Maintenance, RPG Holdings for commercial real estate purchases and Route, a two-sided tech and data marketplace designed to help cleaning companies grow. Recently he acquired Janitorial Store, a learning management system and educational website for the cleaning industry. Armed with a marketing degree from Columbia College Chicago and a stint in mortgage lending, Regalado started by purchasing a small commercial cleaning franchise in 2012. “My wife, father, aunt and cousin all quit their day jobs and worked 12 to 16 hours a day practically for free, surviving on Dunkin’ Donuts and Jimmy John’s,” he says. “Initially

I considered it as a side hustle that my wife would run, and I would find another career.” Instead, Regalado discovered the potential for growth during his first industry convention and decided to go independent and go big. He sold his franchise accounts in 2015 and launched his own brand. The risk paid off in larger clients, including Chicago’s Oak Street Health, which has ballooned from a handful of local health clinics to 100 nationwide since contracting with Regalado for cleaning, supplies, maintenance and light construction. “His ability to adapt and grow his business alongside ours has been remarkable,” says Pryce Williams, Oak Street’s facilities manager. “Their level of service is unmatched.” —Laura Bianchi

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Sharone R. Mitchell Jr. 38 | Cook County public defender harone R. Mitchell Jr. knew he wanted to work in criminal defense since the sixth grade. His teacher at Ralph H. Metcalfe Community Academy had set up an “elaborate courts system” within the classroom to adjudicate offenses like talking in class. “I was good at it. I got to get my friends off,” he recalls—including one found not guilty of instigating a fight. Decades later, Mitchell, 38, now leads one of the largest criminal defense firms in the country: the 700-staff Cook County Public Defender’s Office. He’s among the youngest tapped to lead the office, and one of few who first served on the front lines as a public defense attorney himself. Born and raised on the South Side to a librarian and a truck driver, Mitchell studied political science at the University of Illinois and law at DePaul University, then worked cases at 26th and California as an intern at the public defender’s office. He recalled locking eyes in the courtroom bullpen with a grade school classmate awaiting a hearing. They compared notes about their similar upbringings but vastly different fortunes. “I knew that kid was a good kid,” Mitchell says. “I decided that was the spot for me.” Mitchell later got an offer to work full time in the PD’s office, where he stayed a little over six years. Fed up with the structural inequities in the system, around 2016, he Googled “criminal justice reform” and came upon the nonprofit Illinois Justice Project. “Everybody in this gig learns that the cruelty and the dysfunction sometimes can be a feature and not a bug.” Paula Wolff, the Illinois Justice Project’s policy adviser, says from the time he was hired, it “was clear that he was a superstar” and a “thoughtful, tactical, enormously committed and passionate” attorney. She credits Mitchell with spearheading a successful effort to end the use of cash bond for pretrial release statewide, and says he was “instrumental” in ensuring lawmakers set aside cannabis revenues for anti-violence grants. Less than a year into running the PD’s office, Mitchell plans to push for a bigger budget to ease his workers’ caseloads and for his office to play a key role in addressing Chicago violence. “I would love to have a conversation about what works,” he says.

Kyle Nakatsuji 36 | Founder and CEO, Clearcover f Kyle Nakatsuji had been a better lawyer, the insurance business might look a little differ-

ent. Nakatsuji quickly grew restless in his first job out of law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when Peter Gunder offered him a job helping launch a venture-capital fund at American Family Insurance. “I got an MBA at the same time I went to law school,” Nakatsuji says. “I got passionate about startups along the way. I think everyone would agree I was a crappy lawyer.” Nakatsuji convinced the insurer to invest in video-doorbell startup Ring, which was later acquired by Amazon for $1 billion. He later convinced his former employer to back his car insurance startup, Clearcover, which he co-founded in 2016. “He was one of the key hires who started American Family Ventures,” says his former boss, Gunder, who declined to say how much the company made on the Ring deal. Nakatsuji convinced the insurer to say yes after “Shark Tank” famously said no to Ring. “He was visionary, smart and knew how to make money, and he had the courage to follow his convictions.”

Nakatsuji believed he could carve out room for a new car insurance company amid giants such as Allstate, State Farm and Geico by creating a low-cost, low-hassle, millennial-friendly product and a low-touch, high-tech business model. The Chicago-based company has grown to more than 300 employees and sells in 19 states. It has raised $330 million. Nakatsuji, who grew up in a Milwaukee suburb, went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and played football for a year before leaving for University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where he continued playing. In law school, he briefly took up boxing. “I started sparring seriously with people who were in better shape than I was. I wanted the competition and the contact. Thankfully, logic took over before I could get seriously hurt.” He wasn’t necessarily looking to be an entrepreneur. “I was an athlete. So I enjoyed competition and risk, and I had drive,” he says. “Business was the best outlet for the things I like to do. If you work with founders a lot, you get that itch.” —John Pletz

—A.D. Quig

Lindsey Senn 34 | Executive vice president of finance and development, Fifield indsey Senn thought she was going to major in accounting at the University of WisconsinMadison. Then she took her first real estate class. “It was so much more interesting,” she says. Senn never looked back, stepping on a path that led her to Fifield, one of Chicago’s most prominent developers. Since joining the firm in 2013, she has worked on $575 million worth of apartment projects, playing key roles in the development of the Sinclair, a 390-unit tower in the Gold Coast, and E2, a 352unit project in Evanston. Growing up in Minneapolis, Senn gravitated to math and science in school and worked as an analyst for an industrial developer in her first job out of college. But

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she was wary of becoming a “numbers monkey,” wanting a career that required right-brain and left-brain thinking. Senn has achieved that at Fifield, demonstrating a judgment that goes well beyond her core financial skill set. Fifield founder and CEO Steve Fifield describes her as “a financial genius” who “doesn’t get lost in the numbers.” She’s also found an outlet for her creative side: At the Westerly, a 188-unit building in River West, she secured a nationally recognized, local street artist named Sentrock to create vibrant murals along the walls of the building. “I’m most comfortable in Excel,” Senn says. “But there’s a part of me that loves creativity and artistic things. I really like real estate because it offers a little of both.”

Seeing a project from conception to reality is especially gratifying. “Putting one of these together takes an incredible amount of fortitude, hard work and overcoming obstacles,” she says. “I would be giddy like a child in a candy store just to see the project under construction.” As a woman in an industry led mostly by men, Senn sees a role for herself to help increase the ranks of women in her field. She has been active in the University of Wisconsin’s mentorship program, encouraging young female graduates to pursue careers in development. Senn herself is following the path of Fifield President Erin Spears, a member of the Crain’s 40 Under 40 class of 2015. —Alby Gallun

PHOTOS BY JOHN R. BOEHM

wife reer.” poustry ndent nts in e risk hicaoned o 100 galae and

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32 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

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Gregory Stellatos

FORTY

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS 2021

39 | Co-founder, Go Grocer t the dinner table, most families discuss what was learned in school that day. Gregory Stellatos’ family talked about how much to charge for a hamburger. Stellatos’ parents are Greek immigrants, and from them he learned their work ethic. His mother rose at 4 a.m. to run a restaurant. His dad ran a bar. Those lessons came in handy when Stellatos, at age 24, co-founded Go Grocer with his older brother. Within two months of dreaming up the idea for a neighborhood grocery packed with organic food and alcohol, the brothers signed the lease for the first Go Grocer in Bucktown. The brothers, only 16 months apart in age, still lived at home and had one car between them. They learned as they went, bootstrapping their fledgling business and building out their workforce as profits allowed. “I tell people our biggest asset was the fact that we had no money, because you had to learn everything from the ground up. You can’t buy your way out of problems,” Stellatos says. “We had to outthink problems and outwork them.” Stellatos handles the grocery buying, while brother Paul Stellatos makes liquor purchases and real estate plays. The two are close—they live next door to each other. Gregory was once a model; Paul buys his clothes at Target. Gregory is a night person; Paul prefers mornings. Their opposite personalities mesh well in business, Paul Stellatos says. When they commuted together in the early days, Gregory would grab some shuteye in the front seat of the car while Paul opened. Paul would sleep late at night while Gregory closed. “That way, we made it work,” Paul Stellatos says. “There was really no other way of doing it.” That was 2008. Fast-forward to 2020, when COVID-19 forced consumers to depend more than ever on grocery stores. Go Grocer, with 16 locations, did $9 million in revenue. The company is on track to do $20 million in 2021 and projects revenue will top $40 million in 2022. Go Grocer recently launched on-demand delivery via an app. Gregory Stellatos expects Go Grocer will have 50 Chicago locations by the end of 2022 and expand to other cities. The boost in revenue from COVID expedited the growth. “The pandemic was our VC infusion,” he says.

Adam Olalde 36 | Co-founder and CEO, Xtreme Xperience

—Danny Ecker

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—Ally Marotti

Brad Nardick

32 | President, the Bazaar

hen Brad Nardick went full time at the family business, the Bazaar, a closeout liquidator of retail products, he started an internship program for 10 special learning students from a nearby school. “By the third day, there were probably three kids left,” he says. “I didn’t really know how to support people who learn differently.” That changed when Nardick found Understood, a New York nonprofit that supports families with disabilities, which placed a full-time behavioral therapist and business consultant on Bazaar’s team. “That’s when we started to hit our stride,” he says. Nine years later, Nardick is the CEO of the River Grove-based company his grandfather founded in 1960, and nearly one-third of the 150 employees are people with disabilities or special needs or who were formerly incarcerated. Hiring and retaining these workers has become central to Nardick’s management. The commitment to inclusive hiring is

partly personal: Nardick says he had trouble learning in school and “spent a lot of time with learning specialists,” but always knew there was a job waiting for him in the family business. For others who don’t have that safety net, “I wanted to build a really robust, inclusive work experience.” “I don’t think of inclusive hiring as a program,” says Nardick, who lives in the West Loop with his girlfriend, Sylvie Chandra, and their shiba inu puppy. “It’s part of the DNA of the company.” He estimates that in the past six months, only one of the company’s more than 40 inclusive employees has left. “These aren’t people who are getting job offers every week,” he said. “They’ve had doors shut in their faces all their life. We’re willing to figure it out with them.” Though Nardick declines to give figures, he says 2020 revenue was up about 15% from 2019. Aaron Jones, an account manager at Cara Collective, a Chicago employment development program for low-skills work-

PHOTOS BY JOHN R. BOEHM

dam Olalde was working for an upstart luxury car rental service in 2011 when he noticed many of the customers interested in taking spins in a Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz or Lamborghini weren't 1 percenters, but rather average Joes willing to pay to ride in high-end sports cars. He started renting them out for one-hour test drives in Chicago for $99 a pop, then graduated to renting the closed-circuit Autobahn Country Club racetrack near Joliet for customers to take the cars on joyrides for $159 each. It was the birth of Xtreme Xperience, the company Olalde now runs across 40 racetracks with a staff of 300 that generated $15 million in sales last year. With a fleet of exotic cars worth nearly $10 million—"my 401(k) is very mobile, and I hand it out to customers on a frequent basis," Olalde says—the company hosts racing weekends around the country with tens of thousands of customers who speed around tracks alongside professional instructors. The Miami University graduate had to scramble when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down tracks and racing events for a few months, while vehicle maintenance and insurance costs continued. Olalde used the break to explore new business lines that have broadened the company's customer base, including packages that allow customers to drive supercars through scenic destinations on open roads across the country to experience the "lifestyle" of owning the cars. "He's not afraid to try something and say it didn't work so well," says Dave Galowich, chairman at executive coaching company Vistage, who oversees a group of business leaders that includes Olalde. "A lot of leaders I see get into analysis paralysis. Adam knows where that sweet spot is of stopping the analysis and saying, 'Let's do a trial and see how it works.' " The Elmhurst native's newest project, meanwhile, adds steak to his sizzle. He signed on last year as a financial backer of Adalina, a high-end Italian restaurant that opened in June in the Gold Coast.

ers, has seen Nardick in action. “I saw him use sign language to communicate with one employee, and I saw him physically help another one,” Jones said. “He’s a really cool guy who connects with the differently abled folks in his warehouse.” —Dennis Rodkin

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 8, 2021 33

This home feels like a treehouse A 1970s home designed by eminent Chicago architect Harry Weese sits on a riverbank in DeKalb. ‘Anywhere you are in this house, you can see the outdoors.’ BY DENNIS RODKIN

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ANDREW MILLER PHOTOGRAPHY

“A

nywhere you are in this house, you can see the outdoors,” Molly Green says, “whether you’re looking at trees, the river, the pool or the sky, it’s always there.” Eminent Chicago architect Harry Weese designed this DeKalb house in 1977 for Nancy and Tom Roberts Jr. Tom Roberts was the second-generation CEO of DeKalb Agricultural Association, the agricultural seed hybridizer later known as DeKalb Genetics. The Greens bought the house from those original owners about 18 years ago. With their three children now grown, the couple is moving to Florida. They’ll put the house, on Arrowhead Lane in DeKalb, 66 miles west of downtown Chicago, on the market last week, priced at $899,000. Represented by Tanya Hamilton and Michele Miller, Chicago-based agents with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty, the 5,800-square-foot house has four bedrooms. The house sits above the banks of the Kishwaukee River’s South Branch. Its 4½-acre site is part of a small neighborhood set among riverside golf courses and a forest preserve, which keeps the view out Molly Green’s circular office window lush and tranquil.

11/5/21 2:35 PM

IN-PERSON EVENT

REAL ESTATE FORUM

Tuesday, Nov. 16 | 7:30 - 9:45 a.m.

Making Chicago “the Hollywood of the Midwest” Derek Dudley, a producer and entertainment executive whose shows include “The Chi” Showtime series, is preparing to build a major film studio in South Shore that could employ hundreds of people in the neighborhood amid a boom in video an film production. Join Crain’s Senior Reporter, Alby Gallun, in a conversation with Dudley and Loop Capital Chairman and CEO James Reynolds Jr., who is raising the capital for the project. Both grew up in South Shore, so it’s more then just a business deal. Dudley and Reynolds will discuss their plans for the campus, how it could provide an economic boost to South Shore and how the city can capitalize on insatiable demand for video and film production space nationwide.

Featured Speakers

Derek Dudley Producer

James Reynolds Loop Capital

Moderator

Alby Gallun Crain’s Chicago Business

Corporate Sponsors

#CrainsRealEstate @CrainsChicago Questions? Contact ccbevents@crain.com

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2021

MILITARY VETERAN EXECUTIVES These 30 veterans have forged remarkable civilian careers following their military service. Many have applied skills learned in the armed services to positions in engineering and construction. Some forged careers in law, investments and technology, while others have dedicated their careers to providing social services to fellow veterans. Whatever their position, they go out of their way to help those who served. They’re active in their company’s veteran resource groups and help in

recruiting. Lawyers provide pro bono assistance to veterans navigating legal quagmires to claim benefits. Executives speak to veterans organizations and participate in panel discussions. They also coach veterans in transition to civilian careers, helping them identify the skills and experience that would be valuable to employers. Just as they were helped in adjusting to life after service, they lend a hand to those coming next. By Judith Crown and Lisa Bertagnoli

GETTY IMAGES

METHODOLOGY: The veteran executives featured did not pay to be included. Their profiles were drawn from nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive. It includes only veterans for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after an editorial review. To qualify for the list, the executives must be serving in a senior-level role and have made contributions to advancing the issues that affect veterans in the workplace or in the Chicago area.

MIR ALI

JAMES BLAND

DONALD BONDS

JOHN P. CALAMOS SR.

CHRISTIAN CAÑAS

Partner Schiff Hardin

Partner NextGen Growth Partners

Chief transit operations officer Chicago Transit Authority

Director of operations LaSalle Network

A partner in Schiff Hardin’s litigation and dispute resolution practice, Mir Ali manages commercial litigation and contract disputes. In May 2020, Ali participated in one of the nation’s first Zoom trials and has since conducted numerous Zoom depositions and court proceedings. Ali was selected for Army Special Forces (Green Berets), serving as a Special Forces detachment commander and completing two combat tours in Afghanistan in 2005 to 2007. Ali recruits veterans and works to ensure that the firm is responsive to issues specific to those joining private practice after serving in the armed services. He also represents pro bono veterans unjustly denied benefits earned from military service-connected disabilities. Ali launched a nationwide network of volunteer legal professionals who provide legal support to Afghans seeking evacuation to the United States.

James Bland this summer joined NextGen Growth Partners and leads on several active investments for the private-equity firm that supports entrepreneurs in acquiring lower middle-market businesses. Bland is a field artillery captain in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve who serves as the civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army for Illinois. In this position, Bland advances the priorities of the Army and veterans in the state. The position affords him a three-star general protocol rank. Also this summer, Bland was appointed to the Glenview Village Board to fill a vacancy. Before joining NextGen, Bland was a partner at Clear Springs Capital, a family office that acquires and grows founder-owned businesses with veteran talent. At NextGen, Bland seeks to recruit veterans to lead acquired companies.

At the CTA, Donald Bonds directs bus and rail operations, with responsibility for 8,500 employees, or 80% of the workforce, 1,400 in-service railcars and 1,800 buses. Bonds led efforts to maintain full service throughout the pandemic. Although ridership plummeted during the pandemic, CTA provided more than 250,000 daily rides, a lifeline to transit-dependent riders on the South and West sides. Bonds served as an Army chief warrant officer and worked in military vehicle maintenance and logistics. He began at CTA as a maintenance worker and climbed through the ranks to senior leadership. Bonds helps recruit veterans to the agency. The transit agency offers a military occupational classification resource on its hiring site so veterans and active-duty military can learn how their military duties are applicable to CTA positions.

Founder, chairman and global chief investment officer Calamos Investments

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Industry pioneer John P. Calamos Sr. founded Naperville-based Calamos Investments in 1977, launching one of the first convertible mutual funds in 1985 and an early liquid alternative mutual fund in 1990. The firm manages more than $40 billion. Calamos served in Vietnam as a forward air controller, recording more than 400 combat missions, and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. After five years on active duty flying B-52 bombers and 12 years in the Reserves flying A-37 fighters, he retired as a major. Calamos has backed Operation Support our Troops-America, a

Naperville-based nonprofit with programs that include veterans’ assistance. He’s provided the Calamos hanger at DuPage Airport to the DuPage Veterans Foundation to host fundraisers. He’s a life trustee of Illinois Institute of Technology, where he established endowed chairs in philosophy and business.

As operations director at the employment agency, Christian Cañas helps streamline sales and recruitment practices and also oversees the data and analytics team. Cañas served in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan for two tours as a member of the Bastogne Brigade and earned a number of awards. He joined LaSalle Network in 2020 and started the firm’s veteran hiring initiative to help veterans and their partners find employment. The program provides educational webinars to veterans and companies hiring veterans. Cañas led internal training for more than 200 recruiters on how to help veterans adjust their résumés and find skills to help transition their careers from military to civilian life. Before joining LaSalle Network, Cañas was COO at search firm Quick Leonard Kieffer.

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36 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

MEGAN EVERETT

STEVEN GAYTAN

THOMAS GEMMELL

TAD GERLINGER

CORNELIUS GRIGGS

GLE

Veterans program director Robert R. McCormick Foundation

Chief operating officer Monterrey Security Consultants

Shareholder Polsinelli

Orthopedic surgeon Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush

President and CEO GMA Construction Group

Megan Everett oversees strategy and grant-making for the Veterans Program. She manages a $3 million grant portfolio in partnerships with veteran and community organizations in Chicago and Illinois. Everett was commissioned as a surface warfare officer from the Cornell University Naval ROTC program in 2000. She served aboard two ships and deployed twice to the Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the pandemic, Everett coordinated with the USO Illinois to support the National Guard and Team Rubicon to launch COVID testing sites. She also teamed with the Travis Manion Foundation for food insecurity and Thresholds on issues of financial insecurity. She’s increased the number of organizations funded at McCormick focusing on employment, student veterans and wellness from 12 to nearly 50.

At the onset of the pandemic, Monterrey Security was tapped by the city of Chicago and other partners to provide security services to critical locations, including alternative housing for first responders, homeless shelters and testing locations. When event operations ended, Steven Gaytan oversaw the retraining and reassignment of event security personnel to meet the surging needs of clients in health care and human services. Gaytan joined the Marine Corps shortly after 9/11 and was deployed to Iraq three times. He subsequently served as a drill instructor at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. In his first 60 days at Monterrey Security, Gaytan launched a veterans hiring program. This initiative recruits veterans in transition and identifies roles to match their skill set and experience level.

At Polsinelli, Thomas Gemmell leads the firm’s unmanned systems and advanced robotics practice and co-leads the aviation practice as well as the transportation and logistics practice. From 1984 to 2008, Gemmell served as an F-15 fighter pilot, but also in the Air Force Reserves as a military lawyer and liaison officer to the U.S. Air Force Academy. He fought in the first Gulf War, with 37 combat missions, and retired as a lieutenant colonel. Gemmell is involved in veteran service projects through the American Legion and his Air Force Reserve unit. Through his work with the nonprofit Bunker Labs, Gemmell is a mentor to veteran entrepreneurs in developing their businesses in unmanned aircraft systems. Gemmell joined Polsinelli in 2016 from Husch Blackwell, where he was a partner.

Dr. Tad Gerlinger runs a jointreplacement practice, including knee and hip reconstruction. He is an associate professor at Rush University, director of the Adult Reconstructive Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center and a member of the Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush management committee. During the pandemic, Gerlinger shifted treatment to outpatient surgery centers. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, having served four tours as a combat surgeon, one each in Kosovo and Iraq and two in Afghanistan. He was awarded a Bronze Star. Gerlinger is a member of the VA’s referral network, providing joint replacements to underserved veterans. He mentors medical students interested in military medicine, teaching the next generation of military doctors. Two sons followed Gerlinger to West Point and pursued Army careers.

In the past six years, Cornelius Griggs has expanded operations from Illinois to Texas, North Carolina, New York and Virginia, solidifying GMA as a national general contractor and design builder. GMA serves as the prime contractor in a joint venture for the O’Hare International Airport Modernization Program. Griggs served in the Army during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, completing tours in Qatar and Iraq. Earlier this year, Griggs launched GRE Ventures, a real estate investment company that focuses on developing affordable housing with commercial spaces. GRE Ventures recently was awarded a project under the city’s Invest South/ West program. The $32 million mixed-use project in Lawndale will include apartments, townhomes and a community center. Griggs is a commissioner on the City of Chicago Community Development Commission.

Glob leade Gree

2021

VETERAN EXECUTIVES

Congratulations

GLEN JOHNSON All of us at Greeley and Hansen congratulate Glen Johnson on being named one of Crain’s 2021 Notable Veteran Executives.

Glen Johnson, PE

Global Practice Leader, Solid Waste engineering

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consulting

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 8, 2021 37

GLEN JOHNSON

TREVOR LEEDS

JOHN MAJEWSKI

NICOLE MANDEVILLE

JASON MEADOR

Global solid waste global practice leader Greeley & Hansen

Vice president and consulting division manager Primera Engineers

Senior vice president, asset management Invenergy

Director Cook County Office of Contract Compliance

Head of group captives Zurich North America

Engineer Glen Johnson specializes in water, wastewater and solid waste, and designs projects for labs, hospitals, industrial facilities and other buildings. He is serving as senior program manager for New York City’s Marine Transfer Stations, designed by Greeley & Hansen for the New York City Department of Sanitation. Johnson enlisted in the Army as a combat engineer, and after attending Officer Candidate School, he continued in the Engineer Corps as a bridge company commander. He was in command of six active duty

Trevor Leeds joined the engineering firm in 2020 and accepted the leadership role of the team he wouldn’t meet in person for months. He’s grown his team by 25% and increased year-over-year profitability. Leeds joined the Air Force and volunteered in the Honor Guard, providing final military honors for veterans. He was deployed to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and other locations. For a time, he was based at the 74th Tactical Air Control Squadron at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. While on active duty, he developed secure site communications plans before advancing to a civilian career in telecommunications. He spent eight years as a communications engineer before transitioning into management consulting. Leeds helps unemployed or underemployed veterans identify the military skills they can translate to civilian careers.

At Invenergy, John Majewski leads a team providing asset management, operations and energy management services to North American owners of wind, solar and storage power plants. Despite force majeure claims, supply chain disruptions, lockdown orders and quarantines, Majewski’s team kept customer renewable power plants operating safely. From 2002 to 2006, Majewski was a surface warfare officer on the USS Oak Hill based in Norfolk, Va. He subsequently was assigned to the Army and served as an electronic warfare officer in Iraq. Majewski was a founding co-chair of the Invenergy Veterans Network, an affinity group that coordinates with nonprofits to support the veteran community. He’s championed the hiring of minority and women veterans for field jobs as well as corporate roles for which veterans often are overlooked.

Nicole Mandeville oversees a staff of 10 responsible for increasing opportunities for minority, women and veteran businesses to participate in Cook County contracts. Before joining Cook County this fall, Mandeville was associate deputy director for the Business Enterprise Program at the Illinois Department of Central Management Services. There, she increased the vendor pool to include minority- and women-owned businesses as well as businesses owned by people with disabilities. Earlier, Mandeville was senior program manager at the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Mandeville joined the U.S. Army Reserves as a junior in high school and served from 1988 to 1996. During her freshman year in college, she deployed to the Persian Gulf in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort with the 308th Civil Affairs Group.

er.

and up to 180 reserve soldiers. Over the last 20 years, Johnson has helped family support groups for military units activated for service. He has served on the military detail to honor veterans at burial services and guided young people on the decision to enlist.

At Zurich North America, Jason Meador manages the insurer’s $2 billion (gross written premium) group captives business, which includes member-owned, agency and fronted captives. Meador’s team added three captives in 2020 and two so far this year, delivering financial results that exceeded plan. Meador enlisted in the Navy at age 18 and became qualified to operate a nuclear reactor a year later. He rose to program manager at Naval Reactors headquarters in Washington, D.C. At Marquette University, he was in the Navy ROTC and was chosen his senior year to lead 120 Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps students. Meador is a member of the Veterans Engagement Team at Zurich, a group that participates in recruiting events for veterans. Meador speaks about his Navy service, networks and coaches veterans seeking career help.

CONGRATULATIONS

TO LAURENT “LT” THERIVEL President and CEO of UScellular We applaud LT for being named a 2021 Notable Veteran Executive by Crain’s Chicago Business and for his ongoing commitment to supporting veterans in our company and community. He is a model for empowerment, collaboration and coaching. We thank him for his leadership excellence.

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38 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

ROBERT MORRISON

BRAD PURTELL

JACK RIVES

LARUE ROBINSON

Retired CEO and corporate board member Quaker/Kraft

Vice president, services business development Invenergy

Executive director American Bar Association

Partner Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Robert Morrison was chairman and CEO of both Kraft Foods and Quaker Oats, retiring as vice chairman of PepsiCo in February 2003. While at Kraft, he initiated a program to recruit veterans, several of whom went on to become CEOs of other public companies. A captain in the Marines, he was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart in 1965 for service in Vietnam. A supporter of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, he also received the Semper Fidelis Award from the Corps’ Scholarship Foundation. Morrison has been a member of the boards of the Urban League of Chicago, the United Way of Chicago, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the Commercial Club and also was a Museum of Science & Industry trustee.

Brad Purtell is responsible for key customer relationships for operations and management services for renewable generation facilities across the United States and internationally. He’s launched third-party services business, supported expansion of services business into Mexico and contracted on more than 7,500 megawatts of new services in less than three years. He founded the Invenergy Veterans Network in 2017 to help with recruiting, employee engagement and community outreach to Invenergy veterans as well as external organizations. He was the founding sponsor of the Veterans Advanced Energy Project in 2017 and led several fundraising efforts to support organizations such as Hiring Our Heroes, Navy/Marine Corps Relief Society, Team Rubicon and Fisher House Foundation. Purtell was a Naval nuclear electrician’s mate submariner on the USS La Jolla.

Following a 33-year career as a military attorney and judge advocate in the Air Force, where he was the first lieutenant general in the history of any military service’s JAG Corps, Jack Rives began serving as the American Bar Association’s executive director, focusing on membership, nondues revenue and budgeting. He oversaw a comprehensive task force on the legal needs arising out of the pandemic, led the launch of the ABA Racial Equity in the Justice System website and secured cooperation from more than 50 law schools for the Legal Education Police Practices Consortium. As a member of the Legal Services Corp.’s Veterans Task Force, he plays a vital role on the Task Force Implementation Group, which improves collaboration between the VA, Legal Aid and the veterans they serve.

LaRue Robinson is a litigation partner, managing trials and investigation matters in federal and state courts. In 2020, he headed an internal investigation of reported workplace racial mistreatment and was co-counsel in a pro bono case with the ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund regarding South Carolina’s absentee voting laws. At Willkie, he leads efforts to increase the recruitment of veterans and, more broadly, helps former JAG Corps lawyers transition to the private sector. He joined the Army as an ROTC scholarship recipient and rose to the rank of captain. After law school, he joined the Army JAG Corps, serving as lead administrative and labor law attorney for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, military magistrate for Fort Knox and lead prosecutor for the 3rd Chemical Brigade.

HIPOLITO “PAUL” ROLDAN CEO Hispanic Housing Development Corp.

Hipolito “Paul” Roldan’s Hispanic Housing Development Corp. has developed more than 4,500 affordable apartments and townhouses for families and elderly residents of several Hispanic communities. He also oversees Tropic Construction, a residential and commercial builder. In 2020, Hispanic Housing launched its affordable home purchase program and announced its first redevelopment project in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. A Vietnam veteran (1965-67) who was awarded a Bronze Star with “V” Device for combat duty, Roldan received a 1988 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” for his work in community development. His 53rd housing project is named after “The Borinqueneers,” the first Hispanic military unit (and Korean War unit) awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. It will serve as rental housing at 1045 N. Sacramento Ave. for veterans on the Northwest Side.

STRATEGIST.

Congratulations to NGE Intellectual Property partner Mike Turner on his wellearned recognition as one of Crain’s 2021 Notable Military Veteran Executives.

MOTIVATOR.

Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Mike served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and now shares his experience as a veteran and legal advisor to mentor young military officers, particularly those interested in law.

INFLUENCER.

RON

www.nge.com

Dedicated to our societal goal of justice for all, Neal Gerber Eisenberg proudly provides pro bono services to veterans in our community. To learn more about our commitment to serving the most vulnerable members of our community and the impact of our efforts please visit www.nge.com/CSR

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • NOVEMBER 8, 2021 39

RONALD SEYMORE Principal—Enterprise Performance Management and Analytics Practice lead KPMG

Ronald Seymore leads the Enterprise Performance Management and Analytics Workday practice within the KPMG Technology Enablement practice, advising clients on monitoring the performance of business strategies. He is a leader of the KPMG Chicago Veterans Network, helping veterans transition out of the military, volunteering at food banks and partnering with the KPMG Network of Women for a clothing drive to dress military spouses for interviews. He also is on the boards of the Latin School of Chicago and

the Comer Foundation’s Network for Young Adult Success. Seymore enlisted in the Marine Corps, won a Naval ROTC Marine option scholarship and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant; later he was awarded a Naval Achievement Medal and obtained the rank of captain.

JOANNA GARCIA SOHOVICH CEO Chamberlain Group

JoAnna Garcia Sohovich guides Chamberlain Group’s strategy and is leading the company through a technology transformation. Considered one of very few female veteran CEOs in the Chicago area, she champions diversity, equity and inclusion through business resource group creation, employee videos (in English and Spanish) and coffee chats engaging groups of 10 to 7,000 ONETeam members. More than a third of her leadership team are veterans. A Naval Academy graduate, Sohovich is a Six Sigma master black belt and Design for Six Sigma-certified. She serves on the U.S. Naval Academy board of trustees and is a member of the Nominating & Governance Committee. Sohovich is an independent director at Barnes Group, a member of YPO Gold Chicago and a member of the Committee of 200, an invitation-only membership organization of female business leaders.

LAURENT THERIVEL

MIKE TURNER

FERNANDO VALLES

President and CEO UScellular

Partner Neal Gerber Eisenberg

Program director, Veterans Project Thresholds

Laurent Therivel is president and CEO of UScellular, the country’s fourth-largest wireless carrier. Taking over in the pandemic, he led the company almost entirely virtually while restructuring the executive team and, in April 2021, launched a new brand focused on “locally grown wireless.” A captain in the Marine Corps, he served as a communications officer in various locations in Southeast Asia. He’s involved with UScellular’s Veterans & Associates Leading Organizational Results Associate Resource Group, which provides insights, support, guidance and

As co-chair of Neal Gerber Eisenberg’s industrial and manufacturing focus group, Mike Turner represents clients in intellectual property matters. A registered patent attorney and himself a patent holder, Turner earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering at West Point and served overseas in a Corps of Engineers combat unit. Through the West Point Society of Chicago, he networks with junior military officers transitioning out of active service. As a member of the Tudor Society, a group of West Point graduates who are leaders in the civilian legal community, he

resources in the recruitment and transition of veteran associates. Therivel recently hosted an open forum for associates to have a safe place to talk about and share their concerns with the events happening in Afghanistan.

helps fund and create internships for West Point law department cadets. Turner practices education law in a pro bono capacity for parents of special needs children, helping them obtain access to education, and is the author of “Raising Special Children.”

Fernando Valles heads Thresholds’ Veterans Project, a program for veterans with trauma and severe mental illnesses that provides housing, case management, psychiatry, substance use treatment and other holistic services. He served 12 years as a Navy petty officer and was deployed to Iraq three times. He started his career at Thresholds in 2010 as a community support specialist, carrying a caseload of civilian clients with serious mental illness. In partnership with the Chicago Botanic Garden, Valles established a nationally recognized horticultural-therapy program, co-created a Chicago Humane Society program that matches rescue dogs with veterans suffering from PTSD, partnered with local VA hospitals on new housing initiatives and worked with the McCormick Foundation and Boeing to help launch a citywide initiative to assist veterans affected by COVID-19.

Congratulations, Ron Seymore On being named as a Crain’s Chicago 2021 Notable Military Veteran Executive. Thank you for your leadership of our Enterprise Performance Management and Analytics Workday practice and your dedication to inclusion and diversity at KPMG. Your strong moral compass, keen sense of integrity and exemplary leadership style shaped by the Marines are a true asset to our people, clients and community. Learn more about our innovative business solutions and careers at kpmg.com.

© 2021 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG global organization of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a private English company limited by guarantee. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The KPMG name and logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of KPMG International.

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40 NOVEMBER 8, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

MELISSA VENTRONE

GILBERT VILLEGAS

TODD VIRGIL

DAVID WAGENER

JIHAN WALKER

Member and leader of the Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Privacy Business Unit Clark Hill

36th Ward alderman City of Chicago

Senior director, SaaS channel and strategic integration Zebra Technologies

Partner Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

Partner Jones Day

Todd Virgil leads a team that’s responsible for the strategy, development and partner management of Zebra’s software as a service channel as well as the go-to-market practice, including diligence, target identification and integration around mergers and acquisitions and Zebra Ventures. He is responsible for introducing military outplacement firms into Zebra’s recruiting methodology. Virgil also advised on the integration of military leadership principles and lessons into the company’s talent development programs. For the past two years, he’s served as the council chair of VETZ, Zebra’s inclusion network for veterans and their allies. Virgil was an Air Force captain who led the projects division of a military IT systems integration and test facility and commanded a squadron of 73 military members at an Air Force research lab.

David Wagener represents borrowers and lenders in financing transactions across a range of industries. He’s also a member of the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee and played a pivotal role in developing educational programming on racial inequity. He represents veterans pro bono in claims for disability compensation. Wagener was an infantry rifle platoon leader in Afghanistan with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and an infantry rifle company executive officer in Iraq. He’s a board member and storyteller with 2nd Story, an organization that promotes DEI through personal stories. “Heart of Nowhere” is available on 2nd Story’s website and shares his experiences in Afghanistan. Wagener is also a member of the associates board at Steppenwolf Theatre, where he is a member of the education committee of the board of trustees.

Recognized nationally as a cybersecurity lawyer, Melissa Ventrone has been instrumental in creating a legal consulting group for cybersecurity services, Asset360.com. As the pandemic forced companies to rely more on networks of remote workers, cyber and ransomware attacks increased significantly. Ventrone and her team saw a 51% increase in new clients over an 18-month period. Her military experience—she retired as a major after 21 years in the Marine Corps—with multiple deployments prepared her to assist companies, particularly during negotiations with those holding data and systems hostage. She volunteers as an ombudsman at Employer Support of the Guard & Reserve, mediating employment-related disputes. She’s also a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas was a Marine colonel who was deployed to Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Elected in 2015 to the Chicago City Council, he founded its Veterans Caucus; he also chairs the Committee on Economic, Capital & Technology Development and the City Council Latino Caucus. Villegas worked with colleagues to create a veteran business enterprise program to offer the same bid incentives offered to minority- and women-owned businesses. He’s also passed legislation focused on opportunities for veteran-owned businesses. Most recently, he led the charge to ensure that the $8.5 billion O’Hare International Airport Modernization Plan included an oversight commission to ensure that hiring practices include veterans. Additionally, he works with other veterans organizations, including the Chicago Marines Foundation and Veteran Housing.

Jihan Walker is a trial attorney focused on the defense of individual and class-action product liability lawsuits. She’s taken on a leadership role at Jones Day during the pandemic, hosting weekly training sessions on various litigation topics; she also led a panel discussion in June 2020 for 600 attendees on steps corporations can take to advance diversity, equity and inclusion. A member of Jones Day’s Chicago Office Diversity and Pro Bono committees, Walker organized a judges panel for female attorneys in Chicago. Walker was in the Army JAG Corps, including service in combat zones representing soldiers in southwestern Afghanistan and at forward operating bases. She later became a prosecutor and a defense attorney and later served as an appellate attorney representing the United States in court-martial appeals.

SERVICE • TEAMWORK MANAGING RISK The principles that John P. Calamos, Sr. honed while serving in the U.S. Air Force have guided our investment process and business mission for over 40 years. To all those who have served or are serving in the military, Calamos Investments extends our deepest gratitude.

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