Crain's Chicago Business

CRAIN’S LIST: Chicago’s largest privately held companies.

PAGE 20

CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 19, 2021 | $3.50

Pay surges in the C-suite at Blue Cross

BUSINESS CAPITAL GAPS

Execs cash in amid soaring profit at health insurer

WANTED:

ACCESS

TO CAPITAL

JOHN R. BOEHM

Finding credit and cash is a major barrier to Black entrepreneurial success. We examine this hurdle in development and construction in Chicago. PAGE 15

Top brass at Blue Cross of Illinois’ parent company got big raises last year, as health insurers emerged largely unscathed from the economic fallout of a pandemic that hammered other segments of the health care industry.

The biggest winner was former board member David Lesar, who served as interim CEO of Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp. from July 2019 through May 2020. His total compensation surged 172 percent to $16.9 million. Paula Steiner, who left HCSC after stepping down as CEO in July 2019, pocketed $12.6 million last year.

Maurice Smith, who took the helm last June, got a 63 percent boost to $5.9 million, while longtime board Chairman Milton Carroll’s pay jumped 81 percent to $8.9 million.

Lesar and Smith, each of whom served as HCSC’s CEO

ALAMY

BY STEPHANIE GOLDBERG

HCSC headquarters at 300 E. Randolph St. for part of 2020, collected a total of $22.8 million last year. That’s significantly more than competitors paid their top executives during a banner year for health insurers. Anthem chief Gail Boudreaux took home $17.1 million, Humana’s Bruce Broussard got $16.5 million and Cigna’s David See HCSC on Page 39

The last law firm standing

BY STEVEN R. STRAHLER Midsize law firms in Chicago have been disappearing for years. Just since 2005, the dearly departed now interred via mergers inside larger firms include Gardner Carton & Douglas, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, Wildman Harrold Allen & Dixon,

Lord Bissell & Brook and Bell Boyd & Lloyd.

Through it all, another midmarket brand, Schiff Hardin, has remained independent for more than a century, though perhaps not for much longer.

People in a position to know say it is talking merger as the legal industry continues to consol-

idate and leave underperformers like Schiff betwixt and between powerhouses like Kirkland & Ellis and more-focused boutiques.

A spokeswoman says Schiff won’t discuss its outlook, pending a strategic review by a seven-member executive committee that includes a recently named managing partner.

According to a former Schiff partner, Schiff is holding discussions with an East Coast law firm of some 300 attorneys. Negotiations haven’t reached a critical stage, and a deal—if it happens at all—could be several months away. Schiff alums say a merger with one firm or another is likely eventually.

CREDIT

Is Schiff Hardin’s reign of independence, rare among its peers, about to end?

Managing Partner Joseph Krasovec

See SCHIFF on Page 38

NEWSPAPER l VOL. 44, NO. 16 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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4/16/21 4:31 PM

2 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Memo to Chicago biz: The Trib’s worth saving

A

If the Trib is to be saved from the clutches of a voracious hedge fund that would strip its critical news and investigative staff to a shell, it won’t be because of local money.

Instead, it will because of the beneficence of a retired Swiss billionaire named Hansjorg Wyss, who lives in Wyoming. After hearing of the paper’s plight, he decided to try to acquire it and, reportedly, turn it over to a not-for-profit group.

How did “world class” Chicago get to such a point?

Some good people have tried to change things. Like former Trib writer Gary Marx. Along HOW DID “WORLD CLASS” CHICAGO with former colleague David Jackson, he headed GET TO SUCH A POINT? an internal group that in recent months scrounged and other things that go along with the city’s upper-crust watering holes looking for investment cash. ownership.”

“Dozens and dozens” of possible There’s more to it than that. donors here were contacted, with But plain old money, the driving the group eventually compiling an force behind Chicago’s business Excel spreadsheet with a good 150 community, is a good part of the names on it. “No one wanted to reason why the city is on the brink of losing one of its true institutions, take the lead,” Marx says, “and we asked everybody you can possibly the Chicago Tribune. sk Lester Crown why no Chicagoan with big money has come to the rescue of the Chicago Tribune, and the veteran industrialist and civic activist has a remarkably candid answer—the kind of candid answer I guess you can afford to give at age 95.

“I really don’t think anybody wants to go into the newspaper business. It’s the economics,” explains Crown, who didn’t get to be one of the city’s wealthiest people by losing money. Besides, he adds, newspaper owners tend to attract flies. “It’s too much visibility

J

imagine. I don’t understand why.”

Marx won’t name any names. But you can bet Chicago’s richest man, financier Ken Griffin, was on the list. I would have thought Griffin, a conservative not at all shy about throwing his money behind conservative causes, would like to own a paper with a long right-leaning pedigree.

His office declined to comment.

But, in fairness, Griffin has opened his wallet for Chicago parks and a number of other causes.

Another likely suspect is GCM Grosvenor’s Michael Sacks. He’s certainly no stranger to media or government, having virtually had a desk at Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall. But Sacks and a few buddies saved the Chicago Sun-Times from ruin, and that’s another part of the story. Crown is right: There’s only so much money to go around in any town, and the Sun-Times got there first.

Of course, it was another Chicago rich guy, Sam Zell, who did much to get Tribune in its current trouble. Keep in mind that

GREG HINZ ON POLITICS

earlier efforts to stabilize the SunTimes—remember Wrapports— involved such big-in-the wallet folks as Jim Tyree, Michael Ferro, Jim Canning and Joe Mansueto. A lot of money went up in flames in the process.

I’d add City Hall to the list of culpable parties for the Trib’s current peril. Most mayors are in position to play quarterback in saving key civic assets, twisting a few elbows, schmoozing a few major-domos and otherwise dialing for dollars. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot has her hands full just surviving herself these days. The COVID pandemic—and concern about Lightfoot’s performance— have lots of rich folks spending lots more time than usual in Florida nowadays.

Ergo, the Tribune is on the rocks. Even after Jeff Bezos saved and utterly revitalized the Washington Post, billionaire physician Patrick Soon-Shiong scooped up the Los Angeles Times, sports owner Glen Taylor rescued the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, etc., etc., hey, isn’t there anybody here who wants to emulate William Randolph Hearst and Col. Robert McCormick anymore?

Assuming Wyss wins his battle for the Trib, you’ll have another shot, Chicago business community. That not-for-profit is going to need help—financial help. This town will be worse off without the Tribune to kick butt and compete against, and you know it.

Hope springs eternal. Open your wallet already, someone.

Pritzker goes from ‘soak the rich’ to ‘save the rich’

made after the governor first unveiled his tax-the-rich plan in 2019.

Pritzker claimed he was willing to pay an additional $3.7 million in state income tax back then. But, less than 6 months after Illinoisans rejected his plan at the ballot box, he seems to have had an epiphany. Removal of the SALT cap would have saved Pritzker at least $2.5 million based on that same 2019 partial income tax return under current tax rates.

Undoing the SALT cap would almost exclusively benefit the wealthy. Analysis by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy in 2020 found 86 percent of the benefits of removing the SALT cap would go to the top 5 percent of Americans. The bottom 60 percent of earners would receive no benefit.

While Pritzker is advocating for tax relief from the federal government, here at home he’s THE GOVERNOR’S FOCUS SHOULD BE busy pursuing policies that punish ordinary people. He’s gone after $1 bilON POLICY, NOT POLITICS. lion in tax relief that would help 440,000 businesses stay taxable income. The SALT deducafloat. His fiscal year 2022 budget tion’s value tended to increase with a taxpayer’s income, so it was proposal includes nine new taxes worth nearly $1 billion. And the a bigger benefit to the rich. governor also wants to eliminate The letter also claimed the cap a tax credit scholarship program hurts middle-class taxpayers and that gives low-income and workis “untenable” during these dire ing-class kids and families access economic times. Data is clear to educational options. on who benefits from the SALT Rising income inequality is an deduction, so the governor must economic threat—and tax hikes be implying higher taxes on the are a counterproductive way to wealthy also hurt Americans with combat this problem. Tax hikes lower incomes. That’s precisely the argument “fair tax” opponents don’t just hurt the rich; they hit .B. Pritzker is the nation’s richest governor. Still, his failed centerpiece policy proposal—the graduated tax—aimed to soften his image by trying to hike income taxes on high earners.

Pritzker’s “soak the rich” strategy seems to have changed. On April 1, he and six other Democratic governors sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to remove the cap placed on federal state and local tax deductions by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The SALT deduction cap was introduced as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a means to partially fund reductions in federal income tax rates. It is expected to collect roughly $670 billion more from high-income Americans during the next decade.

Previously, individuals who itemized deductions could deduct unlimited amounts of state and local taxes against their federal

job seekers hard along with the middle class. Higher personal and corporate income taxes reduce entrepreneurial activity and harm economic competitiveness. Tax hikes on small business owners reduce job openings as well as the wages of new hires.

That means fewer opportunities, especially for low-income households who take longer to find jobs. Lastly, when the rich move to lower-tax environments and state revenues decline, it’s lower-income families who must make up the difference.

ORPHE DIVOUNGUY ON THE ECONOMY

Pritzker hopes that by undoing the SALT cap he will reduce wealthy Illinoisans’ opposition to higher state taxes and maybe even gain some supporters ahead of next year’s election. But in Illinois, where tax dollars flow to a bottomless pension pit, Pritz-

ker’s focus should be on policy.

Growing jobs for middle– and low-income residents should be the priority—not politics.

Crain’s contributor Orphe Divounguy is chief economist at the Illinois Policy Institute.

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4/16/21 4:09 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 3

Setbacks jeopardize tourism rebound

Tate & Lyle senior scientist Michael Merkley at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Hoffman Estates.

As pent-up travel demand explodes, Choose Chicago is at a crossroads

SWEET DISCOVERY

Food companies see promise in a new sugar substitute with local roots

BY ALLY MAROTTI

LOCAL FOOD MANUFACTURERS are betting on a new sweetener that has roots in the Chicago area and promises to appeal to the crowd of consumers working to reduce their sugar intake.

The sweetener, called allulose, seems almost too good to be true. It isn’t metabolized by the body, does not spike glucose levels or cause tooth decay and has 90 percent fewer calories than regular sugar.

Manufacturers see allulose, which is 70 percent as sweet as sugar, as somewhat of a saving grace as they watch sugar’s dominance wane. Sugar’s share

“WE FIGHT THE BATTLE FOR TRYING TO REPLACE SUGAR WITH OUR CUSTOMERS EVERY DAY.”

of the sweetener market dropped to 39.7 percent in 2020 from 52.5 percent in 2012, according to data from market research firm Mintel. And one in four consumers say low sugar content is the most important factor when shopping for food.

“We fight the battle for trying to replace sugar with our customers every day, and this is an incredible tool that enables that,” says Nate Yates, vice president of global sugar reduction platform at ingredient manufacturer Ingredion. “It makes

Nate Yates, vice president, Ingredion

TATE & LYLE

BY DANNY ECKER Chicago’s tourism industry is desperate for visitors. But the group meant to lead the charge to bring them back is dealing with its own pandemic-induced distress.

As the city prepares for a summer that’s expected to unleash pent-up demand from leisure travelers, Choose Chicago is operating as a shell of its former self: The normal $30 million-plus annual budget for the city’s nonprofit tourism arm— which relies heavily on COVID-19drained hotel tax proceeds—has been slashed to just under $16 million. A wave of layoffs early in the pandemic has left it with less than half of the 81 staff members it had before the crisis, all of whom are still furloughed one day per week.

And if that weren’t shaky enough ground, the group’s chief operating officer just announced he is leaving next month and its board of directors disclosed this month that it won’t renew CEO David Whitaker’s contract when it expires in July, raising the new question of who will lead the city’s tourism promoter out of a crisis that has left the local hospitality sector in tatters.

But that’s just where the challenge begins for Choose, which now has to overcome real and perceived concerns that the city isn’t a safe or inviting place to visit during the pandemic. It’s a gloomy backdrop for local tourism sector stakeholders facing the herculean task of reviving visitation, with hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism-related tax revenue and See CHOOSE on Page 37

See SWEETENER on Page 36

How one hometown firm got burned in two meltdowns Oakmark funds’ Credit Suisse investment leads to Archegos, Greensill pain

BY STEVE DANIELS Archegos, Greensill. These names were unfamiliar a few months ago. Now, they’re investor shorthand for the massive losses banks and the financial system absorb when investment strategies blow up that few before even understood were risky.

Chicago no longer is home to banks of the size or risk appetite to play in that game. But a surprising hometown firm is caught in the storm. Harris Associates, manager of the Oak-

P003_CCCB_20210419.indd 3

mark mutual funds and one of the city’s largest asset managers, is the third-largest holder of Credit Suisse stock. Other big holders include the government of Qatar and one of Saudi Arabia’s largest private investment firms.

Harris portfolio manager David Herro is one of the more prominent international investors in the U.S. and is the firm’s lead on the Credit Suisse investment, which is scattered throughout a number of Oakmark funds. In recent weeks,

Herro has found himself on the defensive, with Credit Suisse reporting billions in losses just on its backing of Archegos Capital Management, the now-defunct vehicle for Asian-American investor Bill Hwang.

He declines an interview for this story, but he’s talked with the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg on his thinking.

In a March 31 television interview with Bloomberg, he acknowledged Credit See HARRIS on Page 37

A BIG BET Chicago’s Harris Associates is a relative small fry among the top holders of beleaguered Credit Suisse Bank. BlackRock is the world’s largest money manager, and the others in the top five are Norway’s central bank, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest private investor groups and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar.

Share TOP HOLDERS OF CREDIT SUISSE STOCK (MILLIONS OF SHARES) BlackRock 9.5% 231.7 Qatar Investment Authority

133.2

5.4%

Harris Associates

133.1

5.4%

Norges Bank

127.3

5.2%

Olayan Group

126

5.2%

Source: Bloomberg

4/16/21 4:31 PM

4 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Caption

ON BUSINESS

“THERE’S TRUTH IN THE STATEMENT THAT CHICAGO AND ILLINOIS DON’T HAVE A POLITICAL PROBLEM, BUT A MATH PROBLEM.”

What Kimberly-Clark’s Chicago move signals business center. Companies still value our deep and diverse talent pool, world-class educational and cultural institutions, and global air travel connections.

The impending arrival of another major consumer branding company also adds momentum to a burgeoning consumer marketing hub west of downtown. An area encompassing the West Loop and Fulton Market has landed the headquarters of fast-food kingpin McDonald’s and snacks goliath Mondelez.

A hothouse of innovation and a hotbed of talent have taken root as these global brand names rub elbows with fast-growing food industry startups like Farmer’s Fridge, Crafty and Tovala. When companies in an industry cluster together, people, ideas and capital circulate continuously and efficiently, helping to accelerate growth.

That’s why tech companies continue to congregate in Silicon Valley. While Chicago may never achieve a similar level of dominance in consumer products, its status as the industry’s leading U.S. hub is becoming hard to deny. And Kimberly-Clark’s move indicates the pandemic hasn’t dimmed the appeal of THERE ARE TEA LEAVES TO BE industry clusters like the one READ HERE IN SEVERAL AREAS. rising west of downtown.

“Chicago provides us an opportunity to grow KimAn emerging consensus holds berly-Clark’s business and will that pre-pandemic work patterns position us closer to our outstandwon’t fully return. Rather than ing retail partners, marketing and almost all workers spending digital agency and other service almost all their working hours in providers,” Kurt Laufer, president the office, many will likely work of U.S. consumer sales for the remotely some or all of the time.

That means fewer people will con- company, said in a statement.

Another reason to cheer the verge on central business districts move: State and city officials on a daily basis.

Kimberly-Clark’s planned move swung into action when Kimberly-Clark showed interest in to the near West Side doesn’t Chicago. The response shows disprove that thesis. But it does a continued commitment to shed light on how far the scales bringing new companies to town. will tip away from office work.

In particular, it begins to answer Apparently, companies such as questions about Mayor Lori Kimberly-Clark expect a signifiLightfoot’s priorities. Predecant share of their employees to spend significant amounts of time cessor Rahm Emanuel bagged several corporate headquarters in the office. moves—usually for downtown— More important for Chicago, but was criticized for what some Kimberly-Clark implicitly conperceived as neglect of outlying firms that location still matters neighborhoods. to businesses seeking an edge in Lightfoot’s agenda emphasizes competitive 21st century markets.

A major publicly traded company economic development in areas that has to justify every penny per that didn’t gain as much from the long boom in and around downshare of spending to Wall Street town. That’s an important objecwouldn’t incur the expense and tive. But overlooking downtown, disruption of moving employees the city’s main economic engine, and operations if geography were would be a mistake. Ultimately, irrelevant to bottom-line success. a win for Chicago’s expanding And Kimberly-Clark wouldn’t have chosen Chicago for its North central business district is a win for the entire region. A dynamic American Commercial Center urban core radiates outward, unless executives believed the city offers advantages unavailable generating opportunity across metropolitan Chicago. elsewhere. Their choice shows Kimberly-Clark’s move to Fulthat COVID-19 hasn’t significantly ton Street is a sign that Lightfoot undermined the drawing power understands this. of Chicago’s unique qualities as a Kimberly-Clark’s plan to open a big office in Chicago is an encouraging sign for the city’s postCOVID-19 prospects.

The consumer products giant behind mass-market brands such as Cottonelle, Kleenex, Huggies and other paper products announced April 13 that it will bring 250 jobs to the Fulton Market District west of downtown. Activities at the new “North American Commercial Center” will include sales, marketing, executive management and other functions.

Well-paid jobs are always welcome, of course. But Kimberly-Clark’s move matters for reasons beyond the short-term impact on local employment.

It comes at a time of deep uncertainty about the future of major business centers around the world. COVID-19 cleared out office hubs like downtown Chicago as companies sent staffers home to protect them from infection. Many staffers embraced the “work-fromhome” lifestyle, sparking debate among experts about whether it might evolve into a “work-from anywhere” paradigm that makes a company’s physical location largely irrelevant.

P004_CCB_20210419.indd 4

Neal Sales-Griffin, managing director, Techstars Chicago

Seeing Chicago’s problems through an optimistic lens

CRAIN’S FILEPHOTO

JOE CAHILL

CHICAGO COMES BACK

The managing director of Techstars Chicago and a former candidate for mayor talks about the exodus of Black people and investing in struggling neighborhoods’ schools

BY EMILY DRAKE AND TODD CONNOR Chicago Comes Back is a weekly series on ChicagoBusiness.com providing leadership insights to help your business move forward, written by leadership consultants Emily Drake and Todd Connor.

Drake and Connor facilitate Crain’s Leadership Academy. Drake is a licensed therapist, owner of the Collective Academy and a leadership coach. Connor is the founder of Bunker Labs and the Collective Academy and is also a leadership consultant.

Check out previous installments at ChicagoBusiness.com/comesback.

We know Chicago’s recovery begins with us, as individuals— reflection, growth and intention.

From there, we explore how we fit into systems, e.g., education, justice, hiring and recruitment. This week, we talk to Neal Sales-Griffin, managing director of Techstars Chicago, former Chicago mayoral candidate and huge fan of the city, about how his own leadership philosophy has moved his involvement in the equitable comeback we’re working toward.

TODD CONNOR: Neal, I’m so grateful you were willing to chat with us. When it comes to your experience in politics, what came up for me was how, while I think you and other candidates want to be agents of change, it’s hard not to feel like getting involved is confusing at best and frustrating at better and gridlock at worst. What was your experience in 2019 when you ran for mayor?

NEAL SALES-GRIFFIN: There’s tension between wanting to be in and on the field, doing the work and thinking about the systems.

The systematic lens that I look at everything through drove my decision to run. I had intentions to actually do good for the city and forced myself to become educated and aware enough of our issues so I can actually, from a true place of conviction and authority, talk about what needs to change. And I accomplished those things, which was great. I’m happy to say that now. I’m not running for anything, but what I am planning on doing is

presenting and developing plans that I think could save the city of Chicago. So, I can just work on that and get other people excited about it and want to run for office to implement it. The code must be rewritten!

EMILY DRAKE: The code must be rewritten is fun wordplay, given your role at Techstars Chicago and as an investor—though I think you’re talking about municipal code in this instance! Tell us what you see as the code now, and what needs to be rewritten?

NSG: You know what? I’ve read the entire municipal code. And it turns out, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that we do as precedent and convention that is not codified whatsoever. It just happens to be the way things have always been. So that means that when it comes to how committees are assigned and structured or who gets what budget, rules can be shifted or changed with the right political will. There’s truth in the statement that Chicago and Illinois don’t have a political problem, but a math problem, and no solution in sight. What we’re doing is setting up our children and grandchildren to have to pay more in interest from all the money that we’re spending and not being responsible about right now. That’s not cool with me.

TC: We’ve talked a lot in our column the past month about neighborhoods; and the responsibility we have has citizens in an equitable recovery. Clearly, attracting new

revenue is something we need, but with the disparities we have in safety and education across our zip codes (another code!), where do we begin?

NSG: The exodus from Chicago is one I’m watching because it’s primarily middle– and low-income Black residents who are leaving because they can’t afford to be here. They can’t afford the lack of safety, good schools, or opportunities to generate wealth—they don’t have ownership or equity.

And here’s the other thing: In a lot of the communities that are more affluent or vibrant or possibly on a more positive path, there’s a lot of concern, legitimately, about safety, taxation, and school and education improvement. This is a system—it’s all related. If we invest in schools in the neighborhoods that have the most struggle, crime will go down across the whole city.

ED: I want to talk a little about the well-being of our neighbors and why it matters. This is long-term dismantling, rebuilding and reimagining you’re talking about.

What do you think is important for all Chicagoans to consider health-wise?

NSG: I get a lot of feedback that people don’t understand how I can be so positive and optimistic, but the truth of the matter is: it’s just efficient. It makes sense to have an optimistic lens, no matter what cards I’m dealt any given day or any given life. I think we owe it to others to openly share our own struggles with mental health, so they can feel that they have people that they can relate to, and also that they have a means to go about troubleshooting what the issues are, and how they can get help.

And just like with any system, my advice is to start with the smallest and simplest step. We’re definitely moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.

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What are your goals for the museum?

Building inclusive relationships with the community and taking science to the neighborhoods are two goals I have set.

One way to do that is using our science program (the Welcome to Science Initiative), where our mobile van visits different neighborhoods to educate people about the sciences and the museum itself.

What are some personal goals?

I am working on a doctorate in business administration at Grand Canyon University (in Arizona).

What challenges does the museum face following temporary closures during COVID? Getting people back into the museum is certainly on my mind. We have to figure out how we get people back in a safe way; how do we shift our experiences to a hybrid model where you’re not only experiencing the museum in person but at home too.

How has the pandemic impacted the museum?

We lost 100 percent of our earned revenue when we were closed. And while there has been a slight decline in donations (nothing significant), we have been able to maintain.

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Submit Your Event at chicagobusiness.com/submitbigdates21

>

What was the hardest part about leaving Phoenix?

Leaving my dad there was one thing that made coming to Chicago so hard. It has been very difficult considering I cared for him at my home for five years before I placed him in memory care for dementia. I talk to him daily, though, and plan to visit as much as I can.

>

On June 21 Crain’s will be publishing Big Dates 2.1, an update for all non-profit fundraising events taking place July-December 2021.

Submissions are FREE. Deadline is May 21.

How do you feel about heading up the Museum of Science & Industry?

It’s a dream come true for me. I came to Chicago with my former boss in 1999 from the Arizona Science Center, and I fell in love with the museum and the city.

>

Do you have a new 2021 event to share?

By Wendell Hutson

>

NONPROFITS:

Humphrey is the first female and first Black leader of the Museum of Science & Industry, which has a $129 million endowment and $28 million budget. She succeeds David Mosena, who was president of the institution for 23 years. She comes from the Arizona Science Center, which she led for nearly 15 years. In her new role, which Humphrey began in January, the 56-year-old wife, mother and grandmother says she wants to attract more youth and Black and Brown families through community outreach and new exhibits.

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CALL OR CLICK 844-372-7283 • FIREPROTECTIONCONTRACTORS.COM

Chevy Humphrey

>

NEW TAX LAW Allows fire sprinkler system installation and retrofits to be fully tax deductible. The May 2020 Federal COVID-19 legislation has strengthened Small Business Section 179 expensing to include both new fire sprinkler installation and building retrofits. In the past, the cost of a fire sprinkler system upgrade was tax deductible over a 39-year depreciation schedule. With Section 179 expensing, these costs can now be fully expensed in the same year. In the past, small businesses were only able to fully deduct small equipment purchases like computers, and light duty vehicles that were used more than 50% of the time for business only use.

THE TAKEAWAY

What do you think about the pending name change for the museum to the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science & Industry?

We are committed to this name change. We are so grateful for this incredibly generous ($125 million) gift because it will help strengthen the museum’s legacy for future generations.

>

You’ve said working with youth is very important to you. Why? I feel a responsibility to cultivate young people into the world of science.

I hope to be a mentor and inspiration to all young people.

4/16/21 3:37 PM

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 7

COVID relief bill revives affordable-housing project A $41 million plan in McKinley Park that was ensnared in a controversy over a nearby asphalt plant is back on track thanks to a key measure in second federal aid package

BY ALBY GALLUN A stalled $41 million affordable-housing project near a controversial asphalt plant in McKinley Park is back on track after getting a boost from a recent federal coronavirus relief bill.

The Parkview Lofts development ran into a big obstacle last August, when the Chicago Department of Housing denied about $8 million in financing for the project, citing environmental concerns about its proximity to the asphalt plant.

But Parkview’s developers managed to plug most of the funding gap after an important change to a federal housing tax credit program included in the pandemic relief bill was approved in December. The modification allowed the developers, Fifth Avenue Capital Partners and Hispanic Housing Development, to finance more of the project’s costs with Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

“That brought us a lot of additional equity,” says Thomas Brantley, president of Downers Grove-based Fifth Avenue. “That brought us across the finish line.”

Fifth Avenue and Chicago-based Hispanic Housing are converting

P007_CCB_20210419.indd 7

a vintage six-story warehouse at 2159 W. Pershing Road into 120 affordable apartments, part of a two-phase redevelopment also involving the building next door. The buildings sit within the city’s old Central Manufacturing District.

All 120 apartments within the Parkview project will be affordable, available only to households that earn between 30 percent to 80 percent of the Chicago-area median income, Brantley says. That works out to $27,950 to $74,550 per year for a family of four.

The developers filed plans for the project with the Chicago City Council about two years ago, asking the council to change the zoning on the two properties. They also began discussions with the Department of Housing over the financing.

But their timing was bad: Neighborhood and environmental activists were mobilizing against the MAT asphalt plant around the corner, raising concerns about air pollution from the facility. Even though the affordable-housing project faced little opposition and a report found the plant posed no threat to future residents there, the housing department last August decided against funding it, saying it was too

close to the plant.

Assembling financing for affordable-housing developments is notoriously complicated, often with multiple layers of tax credits, government loans and grants. Without the $8 million in funding from the city, Brantley had a hard time putting the pieces together.

But the federal coronavirus relief bill signed by President Donald Trump in December included the solution to his problem—a modification of the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. Under the program in the past, the amount of tax credits available to finance housing projects would float with bond interest rates, which were especially low at the time, a little over 3 percent. A provision in the federal relief bill fixed the tax credit rate at

4 percent, increasing how much equity developers could raise from tax credit investors.

The developers still need the Chicago Plan Commission and City Council to approve a zoning change for the project. Brantley expects the commission to consider the measure at its May 20 meeting, with the City Council taking it up in June.

If IHDA approves its financing for project in July, Brantley aims to begin construction by early 2021.

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8 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Looking for investors? Why now is a great time to turn to angels or venture capital to help out your business.

P008_CCB_20210419.indd 8

crease over the previous year.

VCs also liquidated more than $290 billion via exits last year, and they are eager to reinvest. If you’re looking for early funding, now is a good time to consider angels, VCs and even small business loans through local banks.

LOOKING TO LEND

The Small Business Administration reported that banks lent more than $28 billion to small businesses in the 2020 fiscal year, and that doesn’t count any of the COVID-19 relief money. With low interest rates, banks are even taking chances on businesses with negative cash flow but promising upsides.

Individual investors, too, are on the lookout for opportunities.

Unlike crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, in which businesses tend to reward backers with preorder opportunities or gifts, changes in the law in 2016 make it possible for individuals to purchase shares of private companies through websites such as AngelList and OurCrowd. A little bit from a lot of investors can go a long way.

For so long, those hoping to get

Ira S. Weiss is a clinical professor of accounting and entrepreneurship at the Chicago Booth School of Business and is a partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners.

ISTOCK

W

hen COVID-19 hit, there was a lot of concern about the possible impact of scrapping face-to-face business meetings, particularly among investors in startups, such as angel investors and venture capital. In both cases, personal interactions can tell investors a lot about the founders and executives who are asking for their money.

If angel investors and VCs curtailed their investing last year, it wasn’t readily apparent. In 2020, VCs themselves poured more than $156 billion into the companies they backed, a 10 percent increase from the year before and the fifth year in a row of record investing, according to the National Venture Capital Association. While angel investment is difficult to measure, the Angel Capital Association’s 2020 report put the number as high as $24 billion.

In particular, venture-capital spending has simply exploded, with 2020 representing nearly double what was given to businesses in 2016. And Chicago is a good place to be looking for these investors: VCs doled out $2.8 billion here in 2020, a 21 percent in-

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

a business off the ground either had to deplete their own savings or turn to friends and family. While your parents or friends might be willing to back your dream, you’re

asking them to take a mighty risk with their nest eggs, especially when there are so many eager investors out there right now.

My advice for those interested in pursuing the VC or bank routes is this: Make sure to play up the tech aspect or e-commerce aspects of your company if they exist. The big gains these investors have made in recent years are tied to innovative

software and the ability to connect with customers around the world at the click of a button.

You don’t have to be a tech company, but your tech has to expand your horizons. Grubhub is a food delivery service, but its technology makes it seamless for customers and offers the potential to use it anywhere in the world. That’s appealing to an investor.

4/16/21 4:10 PM

REGISTER NOW FOR CRAIN’S LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SPRING SESSION STARTS MAY 4, 2021

This program is open to executive level and emerging leaders.

Recommendations will be required for all application submissions.

GO TO CRAINSACADEMY.COM FOR FAQS, PRICING OR TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION FOR QUESTIONS: EMAIL CRAINSACADEMY@CRAIN.COM

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10 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

C

JIM KIRK

Mapping a path back to the Loop

JOHN R. BOEHM

I

f you’re like many other business leaders in Chicago, when and how to bring employees back to the office has been top of mind, has caused anxiety, or has been a source of insomnia. Most likely all three. After all, no one likes paying for all that office space sitting idle.

Companies here and elsewhere have struggled with when and if to set a return date. And those who have tepidly decided to do it have in some cases changed plans because of a host of issues, health and safety being first and foremost.

But if you have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone to move first, let me introduce you to Bob Clark.

If you don’t know Clark, he is founder and executive chairman of Clayco, the fast-growing office and industrial builder who moved his company to Chicago from St. Louis a few years back.

He, of course, has a vested interest in seeing workers get back to offices. But he’s also a passionate civic backer here. In fact, he’s downright bullish about this city’s future, as are we. And recently he put a marker, or rather a date, down on getting back to the office. His memo to his team is bold in its frankness. But it’s also practical, and he tells his employees that getting back to the office is an essential step to getting the economy back on its feet.

“The shareholders and I feel like May 10th is the magic date when we want everyone to come back to work in the office,” is how Clark started off his all-staff memo April 9.

The memo points out that vaccinations are widely available, and the expectation is that most employees will get one. “For the few people that have been granted exemptions to the vaccine we will give further instructions in the first week of May.” In tighter spaces, where desks can’t be spread out, Clark says the company will continue to rotate workers in and out.

Masking and other safety protocols will remain in place until the virus is under control, he writes. “We want you to be safe and make sure you are all are keeping each other safe and since the virus is not com-

pletely under control ask that you continue to be vigilant to avoid exposing yourself to people with the virus.”

I asked Clark about whether the company got pushback from employees. Virtually none, he told me.

To be sure, Clayco isn’t alone. Several companies, big and small, have been quietly open this whole time.

And this is only one example of how a city starts to reopen, of course.

Over the next several months, Crain’s Chicago Business plans to cover the city’s anticipated recovery by expanding our

current “Chicago Comes Back” series.

Like we’ve done in leading the conversation around the city’s toughest ongoing issues in our Forum and Equity series, we plan on leading the conversation about how the city will return to its new normal.

Throughout this most difficult year, we have all had our eye on the reopening moment. And this city, with probably the most diverse economy of any major city in the country, has an opportunity to reshape itself into something greater than it was. We must make sure that the comeback is fair and equal. The city’s downtown corridor depends on a deep and sustained investment in our most underserved neighborhoods.

Likewise, that investment depends on a healthy and thriving downtown corridor.

Our coverage will focus on how the whole city can come back stronger.

We plan to cover the recovery across business sectors and neighborhoods. We will look at businesses small and large.

And everything from our most cherished institutions to burgeoning ideas will be considered. Just as important, we will seek ideas from leaders across the city and of course, our readers.

It will be a robust discussion, I promise.

And if it helps to set a comeback path, all the better.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

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Jim Kirk is executive editor and group publisher of Crain’s city business publications.

YOUR VIEW

Here’s what’s on our agenda in Springfield

O

ne of the most important responsibilities of the Illinois General Assembly and the governor is to manage the state’s finances—to provide the services our residents need while balancing the state budget responsibly. After we worked together to achieve a balanced budget in 2019, our state, like all the others, was hit last year by an unprecedented global pandemic that has threatened the health and safety of Illinoisans and strained our state coffers. COVID-19 temporarily interrupted the progress we were making to undo the damage left behind by Gov. Bruce Rauner, who saddled state residents with massive additional deficit spending and caused the state to suffer eight credit rating downgrades in just four years.

Despite the pandemic and also because of it, we worked together last year to use federal CARES Act dollars to help Illinois families in ways that would also have generational impact, like providing child care support that

has become a national model. We created the largest housing assistance program in the nation, so that families suffering financial ruin from COVID wouldn’t lose their homes and landlords would be reimbursed for lost rental income. We also devoted nearly $300 million in small business relief to over 9,000 businesses across 98 counties to keep workers employed and small businesses like restaurants and bars operating.

MORE WORK AHEAD

This work has made a difference for many Illinoisans, but faced with a continuing global pandemic, we knew that more needed to be done.

That’s why we were proud to support federal efforts to help every state in the country build back better. Last month U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and the Democrats in Congress passed President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, providing Illinoisans with extended unemployment benefits and help for housing, child care and health care.

It also provides the state of Illinois with $7.5 billion in one-time support to help put the pandemic behind us.

As the governor and the General Assembly work together to provide COVID relief to all Illinoisans, we also must repair the damage COVID has done to our state’s finances and get Illinois back on track toward fiscal responsibility.

First, we believe it’s important to pay the remaining $2.5 billion of COVID-related Federal Reserve short term debt, and the unpaid bills and borrowing incurred over the last year that allowed us to protect working families from devastating cuts to our public schools, health care and human services, keeping the lights on in the darkest days of the pandemic. In Illinois, we’re all too familiar with how debt and accrued interest can cripple a state budget. Paying off these bills immediately will avoid interest charges and put us in a stronger fiscal position for the future.

Second, at the heart of our agenda are the working families and every-

day Illinoisans who have too often in the past been left out and left behind.

That’s why the ARP funds must also be dedicated to spurring job creation and igniting economic growth. Putting people to work and growing our state’s economy means accelerating our infrastructure plans for rebuilding Illinois, supporting small businesses—our greatest job creators— and making sure our educational and health care institutions thrive.

Over the last year, fiscal discipline and a science-based pandemic response has meant that our state economy and fiscal situation are stronger than expected. In fact, over the last month, investors and credit rating agencies have taken a more positive view of Illinois’ fiscal future. That’s an important signal to workers and job creators that Illinois is on a good path toward a firm fiscal foundation.

We need to stay the course by managing our state and federal funds responsibly and we are committed to doing so.

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.

P010-P011_CCB_20210419.indd 10

C

J.B. Pritzker is governor of Illinois

Peo

Don Harmon is Illinois Senate president.

Emanuel “Chris” Welch is speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.

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.

4/16/21 3:42 PM

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Early childhood support key to addressing inequity

C

rain’s examination of deep racial disparities in household wealth did a great job of delving into their causes and several possible answers (“The wealth gap: How it happened, and what can be done,” March 12).

For me, this observation stood out: “Education is a key piece of the equation, and disparities begin early.” The article cited literacy disparities that are apparent by fourth grade and what they indicate for kids’ chances of success.

Yet such disparities are already forming well before school entry. In Illinois, only 23 percent of Black and 17 percent of Latino kindergartners were fully prepared for school in literacy and language, early math and social-emotional development in fall 2019. That compares with 35 percent of their white peers, according

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 Jan Parr Assistant managing editor/ Joe Cahill columnist Assistant managing editor/digital Ann R. Weiler

to the State Board of Education.

Addressing those challenges during kids’ earliest years of life can lead to better school outcomes—and can be especially powerful in helping children of color, notes a recent report from the ReadyNation network of business leaders. The report emphasizes that high-quality, early interventions can also translate into better workforce and economic outcomes.

Consider that early learning initiatives can help boost participants’ future earnings by 8 percent, in the case of Chicago’s own Child-Parent Centers, and 11 percent, in the case of Head Start programs.

Crain’s stresses that improving education alone is insufficient to fill the racial wealth gap; other supports are necessary, too.

Although 3 out of 5 Illinoisans live in a child care desert, lacking the capacity that working parents need, that number climbs to at least 2 out of 3 in Latino communities. Furthermore, the early childhood workforce itself is overwhelmingly reliant on women, and disproportionately on women of color.

Stepping up our training and compensation of these essential workers—upon whom so many other business sectors depend— represents a vital, overdue investment in the well-being of Black and Brown households.

The Education & Workforce Equity Act, championed by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and signed into law last month, takes several important steps to strengthen early learning initiatives.

A bipartisan commission, appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, recommends greatly improving the future of pre-K, child care and birth-to-3 programs statewide: a road map toward systemic improvements that prioritize the equity and adequacy of programs’ funding while also streamlining their governance with a single state-agency focus.

Corrosive racial wealth gaps have developed over the course of generations. It will take years of hard work to close them. But stronger early childhood supports are undeniably part of the answer—and the time to act is now, using the statewide commission’s report as a guide.

CHRISTA MARKGRAFF Vice president of operations, Nicor Gas

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MINORITIES IN COMMERCIAL BANKING NOMINATION DEADLINE: MAY 28 PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 19

Crain’s Notable Minorities in Commercial Banking feature will list minorities who are managing people and millions –if not billions– of dollars at some of Chicago’s largest commercial banking institutions.

Nominate at ChicagoBusiness.com/NotableNoms

4/16/21 3:42 PM

12 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

High-profile Chicago biz figures depart ComEd board

Former Chicago Fed President Mike Moskow and two others quietly exit, leaving the scandal-tarred utility with no independent board members from its home city while its CEO is paid like 2020 was a good year

BY STEVE DANIELS Last year was arguably the worst in Commonwealth Edison’s storied history—a year of disgrace as the utility admitted to a scheme over nearly a decade to influence thenHouse Speaker Michael Madigan for favorable legislation by paying his allies and friends via contracts with outside lobbyists that often required no work.

Perhaps coincidentally, highprofile Chicago business figures are stepping off the utility’s board.

Three elder statesmen of the local business scene—former Chicago Federal Reserve President Michael Moskow, former Chicago Urban League CEO James Compton and former Schiff Hardin Managing Partner Peter Fazio—aren’t standing for re-election, according to the utility’s proxy, filed April 9.

ComEd disclosed in December that A. Steven Crown, a general partner at Chicago’s Henry Crown & Co., was leaving the board. The exits now of Moskow, Compton and Fazio leave no Chicagoans on

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the utility’s board other than insiders—ComEd CEO Joe Dominguez and Chris Crane, CEO of ComEd parent Exelon.

The three left the board under a policy adopted in 2019 for all of Exelon’s utilities that board members should retire after they turn 75, Mike Moskow according to the proxy.

However, Philadelphia-area businessman Nicholas DeBenedictis, also an Exelon director, will remain on the ComEd board even though he now is 75. ComEd asked him to stay on “to assist with the transition and onboarding of new directors and provide for consistent oversight,” according to the proxy.

ComEd has a search ongoing to identify future board members.

In the meantime, Dominguez was paid for 2020 like the scandal never happened. He received $2.5 million in cash, Exelon stock and other benefits, according to an April 9 ComEd Securities & Exchange Commission filing. That was essentially the same package as the $2.6 million Dominguez was paid in 2019—his first full year as ComEd CEO.

This happened despite the fact that some of the wrongdoing laid out by federal prosecutors and not disputed by ComEd took place while Dominguez was CEO and with his knowledge.

ComEd and Exelon repeatedly have pinned the blame for the corruption on a small number of executives no longer with the utility.

Dominguez’s predecessor as CEO, Anne Pramaggiore, late last year was charged with conspiracy and other alleged crimes. Fidel Marquez, former senior vice president of governmental affairs for ComEd, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy and is expected not to receive jail time under a deal with prosecutors. Pramaggiore has said she’s innocent and is fighting the charges.

In its proxy summing up 2020 and how it affected compensation for its leaders, ComEd barely mentioned the deferred-prosecution agreement it struck with federal prosecutors in July. The agreement, ComEd said, “focused on unacceptable actions taken by a small number of former ComEd executives.”

In a statement to Crain’s, ComEd elaborates: “The investigation concluded that Joe Dominguez did not engage in wrongdoing, and the companies have full confidence in the integrity of ComEd’s current leadership team, including Joe.” Otherwise, 2020 was a good year, ComEd adds.

An unnamed ComEd executive—who a source familiar with the matter says was Dominguez— met in early 2019 with Marquez and Michael McClain, the longtime friend of Madigan who served as ComEd’s primary outside lobbyist in Springfield and is the focus of much of what prosecutors allege in terms of serving as a middle-man between ComEd and Madigan’s political organization.

McClain, too, has been charged with conspiracy and other crimes and has pleaded not guilty.

According to the November indictments of McClain and Pramaggiore, the purpose of the meeting was to get the ComEd executive (Dominguez) to sign off on another year of contracts with Madigan’s friends and allies in a year in which ComEd wanted Springfield to approve a 10-year extension of its lucrative annual formula rate.

The arrangements went forward.

Dominguez never has addressed those particulars.

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 13

Downtown office vacancy sets another record high

New buildings, new subleases and more companies shedding space keep driving up the empty square footage, giving headaches to office landlords trying to really understand how the circle fits the square,” says Reaumond, who has worked on major downtown leases for Uber, Groupon and Salesforce, among other companies.

Landlords have to think differently about the types of concessions they offer to entice companies to make a commitment to real estate amid post-COVID uncertainty, Reaumond says. Beyond traditional incentives like free rent, for example, deals signed this year will need to include a lot of options for tenants to grow or shrink as they rediscover their workspace needs.

BY DANNY ECKER More than a year into the COVID-19 crisis, the numbers are still getting worse for downtown office landlords.

After the worst quarter of demand in 11 years and with newly developed buildings adding more inventory to the central business district, the downtown office vacancy rate at the end of March rose to a record-high 18.6 percent, according to data from brokerage CBRE. That was up from 18 percent at the end of 2020, which at the time marked the highest share of empty office space downtown in CBRE’s 14 years of available data.

Even as local COVID-19 vaccinations pick up speed and more corporate leaders eye returning to offices later this year, the data shows the ongoing fallout from a pandemic that may change companies’ workspace needs for good. Landlords that were riding high with companies clamoring for urban offices before the crisis have now spent more than a year watching tenants try to shed swaths of space on the sublease market—many thinking they won’t need as much in the future with more employees working from home.

There are still more questions than answers about COVID-19’s long-term effect on office demand.

But for now it’s a tenants’ market as companies hunting for space are flush with options and pushing landlords for more leasing flexibility than ever before, says CBRE Vice Chairman and tenant adviser Paul Reaumond.

“The name of the game for landlords and tenants right now is around creative dealmaking and

during the first quarter.

Some of the impact from those new deliveries was offset by the state of Illinois buying the vacant 445,000-square-foot building at 555 W. Monroe St. for its own future downtown offices. But there’s still

a lot more space in the works, including BMO Tower next to Union Station and Salesforce Tower at Wolf Point. About 3.9 million square feet of offices are under construction downtown, 34 percent of which has been pre-leased, according to CBRE. Reaumond says companies spent the first quarter discussing more concrete plans to return to offices this year, and he expects that will

translate to more leases getting signed over the next nine months.

Some small deal activity has already started to show, with digital design and development company Codal signing a 16,000-square-foot lease at the Old Post Office and the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society subleasing 30,000 square feet from research firm Gartner at 350 N. Orleans St.

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SPACE TO FILL

Big move-outs and few moveins during the first quarter drove up the share of empty space in the city, with companies vacating nearly 627,000 square feet more than they occupied, according to CBRE. United Airlines was a key contributor when it recently gave back close to 150,000 square feet at Willis Tower as it adjusted to having a much smaller workforce than it had before the pandemic.

The total negative net absorption, the change in the amount of space leased and occupied compared with the previous period, marked the biggest loss of demand since the first quarter of 2010.

Giving landlords more headaches are newly developed buildings that were finished last quarter: CBRE reported a 260,000-squarefoot office building at 320 N. Sangamon St. in the Fulton Market District was recently finished but has yet to announce any tenants, while another 450,000-square-foot partially leased building at 800 W. Fulton Market also came online

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MORE SPACE, LESS DEMAND Companies collectively vacated a big swath of office space during the first quarter, driving up the downtown office vacancy rate to another record high.

DIRECT VACANCY VS. TOTAL VACANCY Direct vacancy 19%

Total vacancy

18.6%

18 17 16 15 14 13

16.7%

12 11 2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

DEMAND IN SQUARE FEET, BY QUARTER

AN ARCHITECTURAL MASTERPIECE

792,337 737,068

500,000

552,881

549,090

149,659

287,945

266,481

216,073 192,976 145,773 112,720 49,148 37,360 7,361

−178,372 −202,688

2008

428,284

420,973 253,431

-500,000

605,861 592,328

−140,672

511,201 490,286 391,140 347,365 313,415 268,627

99,993

524,992 459,667 459,466 329,018

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194,492 173,258 110,356

−9,227

−68,405 −133,665

−119,200

C E L E B R AT E D & R E I M A G I N E D V I S I T O U R SA LE S GA L L ERY TO EXPERIENC E TH E RES IDENC ES

−263,031

−359,606 −461,303 −499,956

−514,019

2010

−704,543

Source: CBRE

P013_CCB_20210419.indd 13

2012

2014

2016

2018

−626,751

tribunetower. com

312 .967. 3700

2020

Note: Demand is measured by net absorption, which is the change in the amount of leased and occupied space compared with the prior period.

4/16/21 4:10 PM

14 APRIL 19, 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

ACCOUNTING / CONSULTING

FINANCIAL SERVICES

LAW

LAW

TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

John Kasperek Co., Inc., Calumet City

Hunken Ewing Financial Group, Chicago

Dussias Wittenberg Koenigsberger, Chicago

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Chicago

Meridian Group International, Deerfield

HEFG announces that Peter Hoopis, CLU®, ChFC® CLF®, President of Hoopis Group, has formed an alliance with their firm, with a strategic focus on agency growth.

Peter brings 25 years of financial services industry experience. He began his career as an intern at Northwestern Mutual and grew into a leadership role, Managing Director. Thereafter, he was appointed to General Agent and President, Mass Mutual’s downtown Chicago office. In this role, Peter earned achievements for growth, development, and leadership.

Dussias Wittenberg Koenigsberger LLP is pleased to welcome back former partner Christine M. Harney as of counsel, serving clients in family law matters. Christine has extensive experience in dissolution of marriage proceedings, including negotiating and litigating complex forensic accounting and business valuations around the division of multi-million dollar estates and asset portfolios, as well as child support arrangements and other key issues.

Taft welcomes partner Gary Jungels to the firm’s Business practice.

Gary focuses on venture capital, private equity, fund formation, and joint ventures. He represents fund sponsors and their principals in the structuring, negotiating, and closing of both general and industryspecific global and domestic funds, including venture capital, later stage growth equity and private equity funds.

Gary also has extensive experience in venture capital financings.

Meridian Group International, a leading global information technology services and equipment leasing company, announced the appointment of Juan Pablo Reyes (JP) as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. JP brings over 30 years of experience and leadership in technology, financial services, and private equity. JP will lead the company’s financial, accounting, treasury, credit risk, and tax functions, as well as provide strategic and data-driven leadership to support Meridian’s strategic goals. He will focus on strategy, investments, and execution of Meridian’s overall financial objectives helping to set global strategic direction as well as metric-based objectives for meeting short and long-term goals for the company.

John Kasperek Co., Inc. is pleased to announce the addition of Katie Marr, CPA, to the team.

Marr will join JKC as a Senior Associate. She will primarily perform auditing and consulting engagements for Chicago Southland governmental clients including municipalities and schools. Marr earned her BS in Accounting from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame. She brings 14 years of experience in the field providing accounting consulting and leading audits encompassing operational, financial, IT, and other risks.

BANKING

LAW

Illinois Bank & Trust, Naperville

Laner Muchin, Ltd., Chicago

Illinois Bank & Trust is proud to announce that Christopher Paige has joined their Commercial Banking team, as President, Chicagoland Market. Chris has been in banking for nearly three decades.

He has spent his entire career in the Chicagoland area. Chris has a vast knowledge of commercial lending and his goal has always been to put the customer’s needs first. Chris works with a variety of businesses and is looking forward to continuing to serve the Chicagoland area.

Laner Muchin is proud to welcome associates Jolianne S. Alexander and Amber N. Lukowicz to the firm. Jolianne counsels employers on employee relations issues arising under the Illinois Alexander Human Rights Act and Title VII, among other employment statutes.

She litigates claims at the administrative, trial, and appellate levels, and has argued before the Illinois Supreme Court on a novel issue pertaining to Lukowicz disability discrimination under Illinois law.

Amber focuses her practice on defending employers in labor and employment-related claims from the initial report through litigation or settlement. She regularly performs discrimination and sexual harassment internal investigations and defends employers in OSHA investigations and NLRB charges.

INFORMATION / DATA TECHNOLOGY 27Global, Chicago CONSTRUCTION BEAR Construction, Chicago BEAR Construction has hired Paola Sprenzel to lead Business Development across BEAR’s portfolio, including interior, healthcare, technology, new construction, industrial, pharmaceutical, and building specialties.

With a background in global business development and design, Paola’s leadership will advance BEAR’s continued growth across the United States. Paola previously oversaw global business development for Unispace.

27Global is proud to welcome Senior Vice President of Client Services Michael Rapken.

A technology executive with experience in the manufacturing, telecom, transportation and health care industries, Rapken has a track record of success aligning IT strategy with corporate goals and will expand the company’s footprint across Chicago, Dallas and other markets nationally.

To order frames or plaques of profiles contact Lauren Melesio at lmelesio@crain.com or 212-210-0707

27Global is proud to welcome Garrett Chumley as Business Development Manager.

With a background in strategic program development, including launching successful channel, sales and marketing programs for cloudoriented tech companies, Chumley will institute and guide strategic business development initiatives to fuel 27Global’s expansion across Chicago, Dallas and other markets nationally.

The Coleman Foundation named Thomas D. Trinley as CFO/COO. Tom has over 30 years of experience in finance, investment management, organizational development, and strategic communications in the non-profit sector which he brings to this newly created role. The Coleman Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that invests in increasing the personal empowerment, selfdetermination, and well-being of Chicago area residents.

WHAT’S YOUR COMPANY’S NEXT MOVE?

Discovery Partners Institute, Chicago

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Chicago 27Global, Chicago

The Coleman Foundation, Chicago

TECHNOLOGY

LAW

INFORMATION / DATA TECHNOLOGY

NON-PROFIT

Jaimin Shah has rejoined Taft’s Chicago office as an Intellectual Property associate. Jaimin has experience in all phases of patent litigation involving a wide range of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, smartphone messaging apps, digital data compression systems, oil drilling, fire-resistant glass flooring, and packaging machinery.

Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) is pleased to announce that Jennifer Foil and Eric Lugo have joined the DPI team.

Jennifer Foil, Ph.D., joins as the director of Foil workforce education.

Foil’s work is focused on increasing Chicago’s digital talent supply and driving representative economic growth in the region.

Eric Lugo joins as the director of external relations and leads DPI’s efforts to build Lugo partnerships with business, workforce systems, civic initiatives, and community-based organizations to develop job-ready technology talent and an inclusive tech ecosystem.

Create your own business headlines with Companies on the Move For more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com ChicagoBusiness.com/ CompanyMoves

CRAIN’S CRAIN’SCHICAGO CHICAGOBUSINESS BUSINESS• •APRIL APRIL19, 19,2021 2021 15

VENTURE CAPITAL: Working to remove structural opposition. PAGE 16 GOOD IDEAS: An established developer partners with an East Garfield Park firm. PAGE 17

BUSINESS CAPITAL GAPS

COMMUNITY VOICES: Bankers, put your money where your mouth is. PAGE 18

WANTED: ACCESS TO CAPITAL Finding credit and cash is a major barrier to Black entrepreneurial success. We examine this hurdle in development and construction in Chicago. BY JUDITH CROWN LENNOX JACKSON HAD ENJOYED SUCCESS in 16 years as a developer, building affordable and market-rate housing on the South Side, including a gated community of 18 condos and townhouses in Bronzeville and 21 single-family homes in South Shore.

But the 2008 recession wrecked his balance sheet. He had to set aside his business, Urban Equities, take a salaried position for a few years and then relaunch.

Jackson is among a group of ambitious Black developers looking to grow their businesses and make an impact but face daunting challenges raising capital and equity. They often come from families of modest means and typically don’t have the nest egg to get started. Tapping friends and family for money isn’t an option. As a result, it takes a long time to build capacity, first raising capital and then waiting for a payout, one project at a time.

“Some people start at the 50-yard line in life.

Others start at the goal line, 100 yards back,” Jackson says. “I had made it up to the 50-yard line, but I got pushed back into the end zone again.”

Only 6 percent of area construction firms are owned by Black entrepreneurs, according to a 2018 study by Next Street and the Community Reinvestment Fund, and there are fewer developers to take on the larger risk of envisioning, funding and marketing a project.

Access to capital was a top need, the study found.

One of the biggest barriers to Black and minority entrepreneurship stems from long-held beliefs by banks and other financial institutions that these entrepreneurs are higher-risk candidates, according to research by William Towns, an adjunct lecturer of social impact at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and managing director of a privateequity fund at 4S Bay Partners that targets

Bill Williams of KMW Communities has done millions of dollars’ worth of deals in his 16-year development career but found landing capital always to be a struggle.

See CAPITAL on Page 18

JOHN R. BOEHM

SPONSORS

16 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Changing the look of venture capital

CO

P s e

Reform efforts are helped by a growing number of large corporations pledging to invest in racial equity investment—which last year totaled a record $156 billion—was brought In nine years, Donnel Baird has into the spotlight last year, amid grown his Brooklyn startup into a global protests against systemic racgreen-energy powerhouse, retrofit- ism sparked by the police killings of ting thousands of urban buildings. George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

About two-thirds of VC investors This month the company landed a $63 million investment backed said the Black Lives Matter moveby Goldman Sachs and American ment changed their investment strategy, according to a survey of 80 Family Insurance.

The 39-year-old entrepreneur investors released by Morgan Stangrew up in an apartment in Bed- ley in November.

SoftBank and Andreessen ford-Stuyvesant, where on many winter nights his parents left the Horowitz, two of the world’s top technology investors, launched oven on and open to provide heat.

That’s the type of multifamily funds dedicated to companies building his company, BlocPower, founded by people of color and now targets for installing electrical women. Crunchbase, a platform upgrades. Using software to op- that tracks venture investment, betimize the process, the company gan adding data about founders’ makes energy retrofits more af- race and ethnicity to its database for fordable for older buildings, cutting the first time.

Yet Black startup founders still regreenhouse gas emissions and creating jobs for local laborers in the ceived just 2.4 percent of the $12.3 billion in U.S. venture investment process.

Building owners bought into the between October and December, idea, but winning over venture-cap- according to an analysis of Crunchbase data by Hallo, a jobs recruiting ital investors wasn’t easy.

“Traditional VCs did not give us platform focused on diversity.

New diversity-focused funds the time of day,” Baird says.

BlocPower eventually won over from major firms likely will help top firms Andreessen Horowitz and get investment to a broader range Kapor Capital as investors, but Baird of startup founders, but they might says he went through about 200 re- represent only a small step in adjections while raising the company’s dressing larger issues.

“Black men represent 2 percent of first investment round.

That didn’t surprise Baird, he says, venture capitalists, and Black womas he knows the dismal numbers for en don’t even rank as a percentage Black startups: Just 1 percent of the point,” says Jillian Williams, an infounders of U.S. firms that received vestment principal at Anthemis, an venture capital between 2013 and early-stage startup investor. “There is a relationship to that and the 2017 were Black.

“If you believe, as I believe, that companies that are getting funded.”

Williams is the New York lead for human beings have an even distribution of talent regardless of gen- BLCK VC, a national effort to double the number of Black men and women in “THE MOST POWERFUL THING . . . IS venture investment 2024. The New York HAVING ACCESS TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE.” by chapter recently partTony Lashley, founder, Marine Snow nered with Anthemis and Lerer Hippeau, der or race, then venture capitalists one of the city’s largest venture inshould be investing something like vestors by deal volume, on an on50 percent of their money in women line fellowship program into venand people of color,” Baird says. “So ture capital for Black professionals something is wrong there. It is an in the finance and tech sectors.

The program—which BLCK VC extremely unpleasant experience to go and negotiate investment with plans to present twice each year— an industry structurally opposed to hopes to create a pathway to venture investor jobs, particularly as investing in me.”

Today a growing group of inves- firms pledge to hire more Black and tors is working to remove the struc- female investors.

“A proven effective way to diversitural opposition Baird described, by changing the look of venture capital fy networks, the pipeline of startup itself. Currently only 14 percent of founders and, ultimately, investVC partners are women, and just 6 ments is to have a more diverse pool of investors,” Williams says. percent are Black or Latino.

Technology investors also must Reform efforts are helped by the growing number of large corpo- reckon with their preconceived rations pledging to invest in racial notions of what successful startup founders look like, says Gayle equity.

The unequal distribution of VC Jennings-O’Byrne, a co-founder of

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

P015-P019_CCB_20210419.indd 16

COURTESY OF KARJEAN LEVINE

Two-thirds of VC investors said the Black Lives Matter movement changed their investment strategy.

Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne co-founded a venture-capital fund focused on women of color. the WOCstar Fund, a venture firm focused on companies owned by women of color.

“Do we keep doubling down on the same types of founders for innovation, or do we cast a wider net?”

Jennings-O’Byrne says. “We are still not doing enough of that in the finance world.”

By staying within a narrow focus, she says, investors are missing out on the best returns. That’s part of the opportunity she sees for her fund.

“I know these entrepreneurs with great ideas that are just undercapitalized, and that part is heartbreaking,” she says. “But there is also the capitalist in me—the Wharton grad and JPMorgan investment banker— seeing this arbitrage situation, economics 101. You look for things that are undervalued, and you invest in them.”

Jennings-O’Byrne and her co-founder, Pialy Aditya, are raising WOCstar’s first dedicated fund.

They have partnered with the New York City Economic Development Corp. to invest $35 million in startups led by women in the next half-decade.

Companies with diverse founders outperform all-white founding teams by 30 percent when they go public or are acquired, according to an analysis last year of about 20

years’ worth of company data by the Kauffman Fellows Research Center.

Diverse firms have less access to venture capital in early stages, the report found, but the companies that do get funding typically go on to raise the most money in subsequent rounds.

By overlooking founders from diverse backgrounds, “you are losing out on productivity,” says Henri Pierre-Jacques, a managing partner of Harlem Capital Partners.

Pierre-Jacques launched Harlem Capital in 2018 with Jarrid Tingle, his roommate at Harvard Business School. The two had been making small angel investments in startups for three years by that point and decided to formalize into a fund, which they could use to channel money to diverse founders during the early stages of their companies.

Harlem Capital’s goal is to invest in 1,000 diverse founders during the next 20 years.

Because investment firms rarely add new partners, Pierre-Jacques says, “the fastest way to change the industry is having these early-stage funds, particularly run by diverse general partners.”

Harlem Capital recently attracted a trio of major corporations to its cause. Apple invested $10 million last month. The tech giant also

plans to support Harlem Capital’s internship program aimed at introducing women and people of color to the VC industry.

Both Bank of America and PayPal invested late last year in Harlem Capital.

Major corporations have pledged more than $45 billion toward racial equality efforts since last year, according to the 100K Pledge, a website that tracks such public commitments.

BlocPower’s Baird has started to invest in technology on his own. He says he is part of a rising cohort of Black startup founders taking their hard-earned success raising capital and making investments in others who look like them.

“It’s that founder-to-founder, angel investment that can create and expand a new cohort of Black tech companies,” Baird says. “It’s going to take this wave of Black founders investing in the next wave, who then get introduced to the VCs.” Baird’s first angel investment was in Marine Snow, a song-streaming service focused on social interactions between music lovers. The company was founded by Tony Lashley, an MBA student at Columbia Business School. Baird graduated from the school and now mentors budding entrepreneurs there.

Lashley—a former marketing and operations leader at Spotify— says he has taken his “bumps and bruises” in the process of raising money for the streaming platform, which he hopes to take live after a seed-funding round. The really important part of the investment from Baird, he says, is the potential doors it can open with investors.

“The most powerful thing in the venture industry, if not all life, is having access to the right people,” Lashley says. “Women and people of color traditionally do not have the same access that others do.”

Ryan Deffenbaugh writes for Crain’s sister publication Crain’s New York Business.

4/15/21 3:03 PM

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 17

COMMUNITY VOICES

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Helene Gayle is a member of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, which is a sponsor of Crain's Equity.

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hen the pandemic struck just over a year ago and stopped our economy in its tracks, Congress responded with the largest small-business loan program in U.S. history.

When it concludes this May, the Paycheck Protection Program will have provided $784 billion in forgivable loans to nearly 4 million small businesses. Yet a shockingly small percentage of those loans have gone to Black- and Latinx-owned small businesses.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, which administers the PPP, of the 996,000 loans that included information on the borrower’s race, 71 percent of the money went to white-owned businesses.

Only 12 percent of Black- and Latinxowned small businesses received the full assistance they requested. Ninety percent of minority and womenowned businesses did not get any loans under PPP. The state of Illinois responded to the pandemic with its own emergency program for small businesses, Business Interruption Grants, or BIG. A full 90 percent of the program’s re-

cipients listed the owner’s race. Data shows that white business owners received 55 percent of the state’s grant funds. Black business owners received just 6 percent.

Why the disparity? One might think that, especially under a government program, such assistance would be far more equitable. Certainly, Black- and Latinx-owned businesses didn’t need the help any less. If anything, many of those businesses had greater needs as they are located in communities where the economic impact of COVID has been felt the most.

However, in designing the PPP, Congress decided to make the federal loans available through private-sector lenders such as banks. Many minority-owned businesses lack established relationships with banks. Therefore, banks ended up providing loans primarily to their larger commercial clients.

There was no risk to the banks. The funds were supplied by the federal government and were fully forgivable.

Yet, as with many other aspects of American society, COVID and its economic impact revealed long-standing inequities. One of those is the difficulty that many Black- and Latinx-owned

GETTY IMAGES

Pandemic-inspired small-business loans expose inequities businesses face in accessing capital.

A recent Federal Reserve survey cited in the New York Times found that 80 percent of Black or Asian American small-business owners said their companies were in weak financial shape, compared to 54 percent of white business owners. Owners from all other demographics listed their main challenge as low customer demand. Black owners cited a different barrier: access to credit.

At the Chicago Community Trust, we focus on growing the household wealth of Black and Latinx individuals and families as a part of our goal of closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap.

One of the main strategies for accomplishing that goal is building and supporting entrepreneurs of color and minority-owned small businesses. Their success requires, among other things, adequate access to capital. But as the PPP experience demonstrates, a larger share of capital

is going to white entrepreneurs and small-business owners, while many of their counterparts of color lack the capital they need to survive and grow.

This is not a problem just for those small businesses or the communities they serve; it has a negative impact on our entire regional economy. It is in our collective interest to help Black and Latinx entrepreneurs and small-business owners to succeed.

That requires an acknowledgment that historic lending practices must change and that banks, regulators and legislators must better understand and serve the needs of Black- and Latinx-owned businesses.

It shouldn’t take an emergency like COVID to open our eyes to the inequities built into our economic system. Now that the picture is clear, however, we can take the actions required to bring more fairness to that system—and more growth and prosperity to our region’s economy as a whole.

COMMUNITY VOICES

Mentorship turned partnership: A model

D Michael Drew is founding principal of Structured Development.

espite the pandemic, last year Chicago’s skyline was dotted with construction cranes—yet none of these projects was led by minorities, notes the Chicago Emerging Minority Development Initiative, despite Chicago’s population being nearly one-third African American and one-third Latinx.

How can that be? Chicago’s long history of racism and segregation is one reason. Additionally, many developers of color do not have ready access to a network of investors, relationships with lenders or the opportunity to gain experience on larger, more complex projects.

That’s why our firm, Structured Development, established a joint venture with Fain’s Development, a Black-owned development firm based in East Garfield Park, one of many Chicago neighborhoods where gentrification has threatened to displace longtime residents. As equal partners, Structured and Fain’s will develop a portion of the second phase of Harrison Row Townhomes, a new community at Harrison Street and Francisco Avenue that will ultimately include as many as 50 affordable for-sale townhomes, making homeownership attainable to low-income and working-class

P015-P019_CCB_20210419.indd 17

families in East Garfield Park.

When we bought the parcel to build Harrison Row in 2019, Ald. Walter Burnett introduced us to Kevin Brinson and Quentin “Q” Addison, principals of Fain’s and lifelong residents of East Garfield Park. As self-taught contractors with a 15-year track record, Brinson and Addison had successfully grown the business but lacked the experience and connections needed to establish Fain’s as a developer.

We offered to mentor them during the first phase of Harrison Row, which broke ground in 2020 and was completed last month. Through regular touch points, the Fain’s team was able to observe firsthand how the units were designed, built and marketed, with each residence set aside for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, as required under the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance.

For Structured, the mentorship turned partnership with Fain’s has been as much about learning as it is about teaching. Harrison Row marks our first development in East Garfield Park, which is located in the same ARO pilot area as our other ongoing project, the Shops at Big Deahl, a mixed-use, mixed-income development at 1450

N. Dayton St. Many of our completed developments, including the adjacent New City complex, are located in and around the Clybourn Corridor. So while we’re experienced developers, we’re newcomers to a neighborhood like East Garfield Park.

Therefore, we knew the technical input from Brinson and Addison as longtime contractors, combined with their broader perspective as East Garfield Park residents, would be invaluable in creating housing that considers the needs of the surrounding community. Thanks to their suggestions, we transitioned from the three-story plans used in phase one to two-story plans in phase two and are incorporating modular construction elements to expedite delivery.

In serving as a partner, not a protege, Fain’s shares in the risk associated with any real estate development, as well as the rewards—both financially and in terms of knowledge gained from the experience. Structured will introduce Fain’s to its lender, co-sign as guarantor on the construction loan and provide the initial required funding of the joint venture, including the land at cost, until financing and revenue become available.

Fain’s will share equally in the fee revenues and profit and losses generated by the project. More importantly, upon completion, Fain’s will have enhanced its credit history, secured banking relationships, built a portfolio and participated in every step of the development process so that the firm can go on to identify and pursue its own projects, either independently or as part of another joint venture.

In celebrating the ribbon cutting of Harrison Row’s first phase, Ald. Burnett cited the proverb, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” As established developers in a historically homogeneous industry, it is our responsibility to be champions of diversity so that minority firms are not only represented on project teams, but also leading their own.

While some of these efforts have centered on exposing younger generations to career paths in real estate, with the goal of deepening the talent pool coming out of universities, the partnership with Fain’s shows there’s a lot that can be taught outside of the classroom, for the benefit of all parties involved and the communities that house our developments.

4/15/21 3:03 PM

18 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

CAPITAL

De

Continued from Page 15

minority businesses in the region.

Much lending is based on relationships, and there aren’t a lot of minorities in private equity and venture capital, Towns notes. “People invest in the communities they know, in the areas they have experience,” he says.

When the developers succeed and move to larger projects, say from single-family homes to multiunit buildings, they face a new set of skeptical lenders. “You’re almost starting again,” Towns says.

Bill Williams of KMW Communities has done millions of dollars’ worth of deals in his 16-year development career but found landing capital always to be a struggle.

Sometimes loan terms would be too stiff, or there would be a restrictive covenant, a higher interest rate or a demand that the developer raise more equity. “The rejection is more nuanced,” Williams says.

Building on the South and West sides most often requires a subsidy to compensate for the higher risk of investing in lower-income neighborhoods. There are tools available that can go into the “capital stack” to fund a project, such as tax credits, tax-in-

dollars lent for housing purchases between 2012 and 2018, 68.1 percent went to majority white neighborhoods, while just 8.1 percent went to majority Black communities and 8.7 percent went to majority Latino neighborhoods.

The lending landscape may be improving in the reckoning following George Floyd’s killing a year ago. Banks and nonprofits have announced initiatives to advance racial equity and to specifically support minority entrepreneurs.

JPMorgan Chase in February committed $200 million to a venture with Ariel Investments to help fund minority-owned businesses.

The Chicago Community Trust launched a fund to help developers with early-stage costs.

“The banks are starting to loosen up a bit,” Williams says. “If we’re able to provide a return to investors and transform communities, this can be an inflection point.

“It’s up to us to turn the page so we don’t return to the old status quo.”

THE ART OF THE CAPITAL STACK

One of the most successful Black developers is Leon Walker, whose company DL3 Realty is known for the “IF YOU’RE WORKING ON THE SOUTH breakthrough EngleSquare shopping OR WEST SIDES, YOU ALREADY HAVE wood center with a Whole Foods, Starbucks and A RED FLAG FROM LENDERS.” Chipotle.

Philip Beckham, developer Walker moved back to Chicago in 2000 from a crement financing and opportunity lucrative job with JLL in Los Angezones. But they can be difficult to nav- les. He used working capital from igate and not always easy to come by. his family’s education business to The competition for federal tax cred- convert a child care facility to a reits awarded by state and city agencies tail center in Roseland. is fierce, developers say.

His next deal, a 27,000-squareAnd mortgage lending—the loans foot medical office building near that enable developers to sell their Roseland Community Hospital, projects—historically was con- was more of a stretch, and Walker strained. An analysis last year by started assembling a patchwork of WBEZ and City Bureau found that of capital from different sources. He

attended a conference in Washington, D.C., to learn about New Markets Tax Credits, which were new at the time. He says he was the first to use them in Chicago for new construction.

Walker went on to incorporate tax credits in the funding of other South Side projects, including the $20 million Englewood Square, which opened in 2016. It came together with a funding mashup that included tax-increment financing and funding from the Chicago Community Loan Fund, PNC and the Chicago Development Fund.

Walker even raised $500,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. “I want-

ed to see if crowdfunding could be a durable piece of our capital stack in future deals,” he says.

Making the case for Starbucks was a challenge. A conventional demographic study of the neighborhood at the time showed the average household income within a one-mile radius was less than $29,000, compared to the citywide median income of $62,000.

But when you look deeper, you find that there are 1,000 families that make more than $50,000 a year, and “they can afford a cup of coffee every day,” Walker says.

“Then the lights go on.”

Black developers also have

found success teaming with well-capitalized white companies.

A partnership also paved the way for developer Philip Beckham III to launch 43 Green, a mixed-use apartment and retail project near the 43rd Street Green Line stop in Bronzeville. Beckham teamed with Habitat’s affordable-housing management and community development arm. Groundbreaking is planned for late summer.

Beckham founded development firm P3 Markets in 2018 after years of running his family’s school bus business. “If you’re working on the South or West sides, you already have a red flag from lenders. If you

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COMMUNITY VOICES

Bankers: Put your money where your mouth is

T

o the CEOs of the nation’s banks, especially the “market leaders” in Chicago—Jamie Dimon (Chase), Greg Carmichael (Fifth Third), Stephen Steinour (Huntington), William Demchak (PNC), Andrew Cecere (U.S. Bank) and Brian Moynihan (Bank of America)—the organized peoples’ institutions of United Power for Action & Justice have one focused request: Invest in large-scale, affordable home construction in four distressed communities of Chicago, instead of issuing more press releases.

We specifically ask you to help us build or renovate enough “rooftops” in North Lawndale, Roseland, Back of the Yards and Chicago Lawn that they attract new homeowners to areas where Chicago has bled population for

P015-P019_CCB_20210419.indd 18

aimed at “systemic decades. economic and racial Help us build decent, inequities in small busiquality, affordable homes ness, affordable housing, for working families and and workplace developindividuals where now sit ment.” thousands of empty lots or shuttered buildings. w PNC Bank committed Help us change the realimore than $1 billion “to ty on the ground, a reality help end systemic racism largely created by racist From left: Rochelle Foster, North Lawndale Homeand support economic patterns and practices owners Association; Kevin Sutton, North Lawndale empowerment of African of how lending has been Community Coordinating Council; and Amy Totsch, Americans and low- and controlled by the govern- lead organizer at United Power for Action & Justice. moderate-income comment and financial sector munities.” billion over the next four years in the Second City for decades. to address “economic and racial In the aftermath of the murder w Huntington Bank announced a inequality accelerated by a global of George Floyd and the protests “$20 Billion Community Plan to pandemic.” that followed, many of your finanHelp Boost Economic Opportucial institutions announced major nity Throughout Its Seven-State commitments to the nation’s w U.S. Bank announced $116 Footprint,” with $7.5 billion cominner cities: million annually to “Blackmitted toward affordable housing owned-or-led businesses and and home ownership. organizations,” with $15 million w Bank of America promised $1

w Fifth Third Bank pledged $8.75 million “to support small businesses and the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.” w JPMorgan Chase announced $30 billion over the next five years specifically allocated toward Black and Latino communities.

That’s about $52 billion total, give or take a billion.

We are now one-third of the way through 2021. While we were encouraged by your 2020 parade of promises, the religious and other people’s institutions in our communities have good reason to wonder whether your announcements—like so many that financial institutions have made after other catastrophic incidents—will be real. So far, we have not seen

4/15/21 3:03 PM

any e is go reali Th bank been done and o with loan borh

with nies. the ham d-use near stop med using y deaking

ment years l bus n the eady f you

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 19

What it is: Funding for residential, commercial and mixed-use projects on the South and West sides Launched: September 2020 Seeded: $1.8 million Received: 46 submissions Funded: 10 projects Grants awarded: $718,500 Average grant size: $71,500 Average project size: $11.7 million Estimated market value of 10 projects: $105 million

JOHN R. BOEHM

we never would have been able to participate.”

Tax credits and other kick-starter incentives are valuable for projects on the South and West sides, but Williams says he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed for these ZIP codes.

“The South and West sides need to be built up, but I want to have a crane in the sky downtown. The real money is made when you’re participating across different markets.”

Williams figured the solution would be to raise a fund in the $80 million to $100 million range so that he wouldn’t have to scramble each time an opportunity came along.

Adding leverage to that base would provide sufficient resources for transformational projects, he says.

Even then, he was frustrated when investors suggested he limit the size of the fund and stick to smaller projects, which he views as less profitable. But in recent weeks Williams was encouraged by his contacts at Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Clayco’s investment banking arm and the family office 4S Bay Partners, who have expressed interest in investing in his fund. He hopes to assemble a hybrid model that would focus some projects in

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any evidence that your rhetoric is going to translate into concrete reality and meaningful change.

The topic of where Chicago banks don’t lend in Chicago has been highlighted in fine reporting, done so clearly by Linda Lutton and others at WBEZ last summer, with the tagline “For every $1 banks loaned in Chicago’s white neighborhoods, they invested just 12

P015-P019_CCB_20210419.indd 19

cents in the city’s black neighborhoods and 13 cents in Latino areas.”

In the discussion since that report of what your banks could do, you have circulated many ideas: helping people get more mortgages, providing homebuyer assistance and one bank’s suggestion of bringing a “bank bus” into a community where there is no local branch bank.

nership launched its first cohort of emerging developers who are paired with experienced developers from the ULI community.

Another initiative that aims to advance minority developers is the Chicago Emerging Minority Developer Initiative, or CEMDI, launched last year by Leon Walker, attorney Graham Grady and Gwendolyn Hatten Butler, president of real estate investment company Capri Investment Group. The group aims to “source and build a pipeline of community-focused developers from African-American, Latinx and other minority communities to participate in commercial real estate development projects citywide,” including projects under the Invest South/West initiative.

One promising developer identified by CEMDI leaders is Floyd D. James Jr., who has worked as a general contractor on single-family home additions and renovations as well as projects for the Chicago Housing Authority. He’s aiming to build single-family homes and two-flats in North Lawndale, Englewood and Bronzeville with smart technology that controls energy use.

Rooftop hydroponics would enable residents to grow food in neighborhoods short on supermarkets.

James says he is seeking investors and is working with several aldermen in the hope of getting help from the city in the form of donated vacant lots. A spokesman for the Chicago Department of Planning & Development says the city works outside the RFP process to help small minority developers that don’t have capacity, part of the broader initiative to revitalize the South and West sides.

For his part Jackson says he is eager to cultivate other developers “who look like me.” More soldiers are needed in the quest to rebuild depressed neighborhoods, he says, adding, “I can show you how to do this, and how to get beyond the 50-yard line.”

Thanks for the gestures, but shame on you for not being there already. These “solutions” overlook a major, gaping hole in bank logic: There is a lack of decent product— that is, affordable homes—for people to buy in our communities.

We simply do not have decent, quality housing on a large enough scale to help significant numbers of individuals and families to put your offered “lending products” to use. We need rooftops to do that.

United Power for Action & Justice and its member religious and civic institutions in Chicago have set out to rebuild or reclaim at least 1,000 homes on the West Side and 1,000 homes on the South Side of Chicago. Homes that are affordable and accessible to African Americans, Latinx, young and working-class people, and others who have been frozen out of the Chicago real estate market.

We need owner-occupied homes—not just rentals—that can help families and individuals build wealth and equity through

homeownership. We need homes built at a scale that will spark deep renewal in our neighborhoods that have waited for generations to reclaim their communities for themselves—not for gentrifiers, flippers or speculators.

How could your banks help?

Now? Today? In 2021? Our proposal is to start by pooling together enough money to establish a zero percent interest, non-recourse, revolving loan fund to finance the construction or reclamation of new, decent, affordable owner-occupied homes at the scale needed to bring about permanent, community-controlled revitalization.

A revolving fund of a mere $25 million of the “$52 billion-witha-B” your banks promised last year would allow us to start building the first 250 homes in North Lawndale this year (yes, in 2021) and continue to build or reclaim 250 homes a year in the four communities on the West and South sides we have targeted. An additional $10 million could provide no-interest second

mortgages with reasonable liens to reduce the initial cost of purchasing these homes, especially for first-time homeowners.

And we will do this in neighborhoods where the indigenous leaders and their institutions have already proven their commitment to organize for and seek improvements in jobs, education, health care, retail outlets and public safety for the long haul. But first we need those rooftops.

We in United Power for Action & Justice and the mayor and housing commissioner of the city of Chicago are ready to build or reclaim these homes. Are you, the six CEOs of the banks whose promises are listed above, ready to make your corporate rhetoric real in Chicago? We’re coming to ask. Will you meet with us, or will you send your PR people to explain that a revolving fund of $25 million in zero percent construction loans is just too much for your bank to risk in helping us reclaim our communities?

SPEEDING UP THE CYCLE OF PHILANTHROPY

Source: Chicago Community Trust

come in by yourself as a Black or Brown developer, it’s difficult,” he says. “If you come with an established joint venture, everything is OK.” Williams of KMW also has had luck connecting with deep-pocketed firms. He’s a partner in the joint venture development of a 6.3-acre Cabrini Green site that’s led by El Paso, Texas-based Hunt Development. Williams is leading the for-sale housing component of the project.

“The partnership is mutually beneficial,” he says. “They needed a diverse team. Without the balance sheet of the Hunt company,

Jackson, the developer, also is encouraged by recent developments.

He expects to receive $90,000 from the Chicago Community Trust Pre-Development Fund for the initial stages of a $7 million mixed-use project in Austin, a partnership with the nonprofit Austin African American Business Networking Association. Located on Austin’s Chicago Avenue corridor targeted under the city’s Invest South/West program, the project proposes 30 condos and 10 retail spaces. It’s not competing under the initiative’s formal request-for-proposal process.

The pre-development fund was seeded last year to help minority developers with upfront expenses such as land acquisition, site planning or architectural drawings.

These are critical funds because lenders want to see detailed plans before they commit to funding a full project, “a cake that’s ready to be served,” as Jackson puts it.

“For a long time, people like Lennox and the nonprofits were saying to us, ‘Why doesn’t philanthropy support pre-development? You support the other parts of development,’ ” says Michael Davidson, senior director of community impact for the Chicago Community Trust. “I didn’t have a good answer.

So we created a fund (seeded with $1.8 million) and named it. We figured if we promoted it, maybe other foundations would also begin to support pre-development.”

Davidson says he’s speaking with banks about the pre-development fund. “I don’t know if we’ll get money from them, but they get it,” he says. “If we get corporate philanthropy from banks, that’s

terrific. But we need changes on the commercial side of the bank.

Systemic changes need to happen.”

The major banks have made encouraging announcements postGeorge Floyd. JPMorgan Chase’s $200 million commitment with Ariel is part of its $30 billion drive to advance racial equity. The partnership, Ariel Alternatives, aims to raise more than $2 billion to invest in Black and Latino-owned firms.

Earlier, Bank of America pledged $200 million to minority entrepreneurs, businesses and funds out of a $1 billion commitment to advance racial equity. BMO Financial Group pledged $300 million toward expanded resources for minority-owned small businesses, part of a $5.1 billion commitment to counter the racial wealth gap.

Developers need funding, but they also need faster decisions.

“I need to get in and get out in a reasonable window,” Jackson says.

“That enables me to come up with a formula where I can scale and repeat as much as possible.”

Philanthropy usually moves slowly, Davidson acknowledges.

“We’ve tried to move off our cyclical pattern, the typical refrain of ‘come back to us this summer after we meet with our board.’ ” Davidson’s team now meets every other week to review proposals and writes checks every other month. “That’s very fast and doesn’t allow us a lot of time for due diligence,” he says.

“It’s important for us to know we’re not giving money to a project that’s going to fail. But if philanthropy can’t take risks, who can?”

One program to advance minority developers was launched last year by LISC Chicago and Urban Land Institute Chicago. The partnership, Yield Chicago, aims to identify, mentor and fund entrepreneurs of color who have plans to develop projects in their South and West Side neighborhoods. Funded

by JPMorgan Chase and the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, the part-

depressed neighborhoods but also enable him to tap emerging areas such as Woodlawn and Humboldt Park, as well as the broader market. “They’re listening,” Williams says of the potential investors.

w CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST PRE-DEVELOPMENT FUND

Developer Lennox Jackson, left, of Urban Equities and Michael Davidson of the Chicago Community Trust.

4/15/21 3:03 PM

20 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

w UPS AND DOWNS TOP 20 COMPANIES BY INCREASE IN REVENUE FROM 2019 Celebrity Home Loans

260.0%* 211.8%*

Guaranteed Rate Voyant Beauty Neighborhood Loans

188.5% 138.3%

ShipBob 115.6%* Grecian Delight Foods |Kronos (World Foods 114.3%1 Holdings) MoLo Solutions 112.4% Loop Capital Markets The Federal Savings Bank

88.4%* 86.9%

OSM Worldwide (One Stop Mailing)

86.0%

Citadel Securities

76.3%e

Culligan International

72.8%e

AIT Worldwide Logistics

68.5%

Bounteous

61.4%*

SDI Presence

59.9%

Vista Trans

59.9%

Hickory Farms

50.0%e

Medix Staffing Solutions

48.2%

Becknell Industrial

47.8%*

VillageMD

45.2%*

20 COMPANIES BY DECREASE IN REVENUE FROM 2019 -30.2%* -31.8% -32.5%* -33.3% -33.5%

2

William A. Randolph Edward Don & Co. Interior Investments QST Industries Motor Werks Auto Group

-33.8%e

Chicago Bears Football Club

-34.9%

Launch Technical Workforce Solutions

-37.5%*

Parent Petroleum Inc.

-39.2%e

Gibsons Restaurant Group

-39.2%e

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises

-40.0%e

American Hotel Register Co.

-40.4%e

White Lodging

-46.5%3

World’s Finest Chocolate

-56.5%4

Chicago White Sox

-58.5%*

Continental Motors Group

-59.9%e

TPS Parking Management

-62.0%e

Flying Food Group

-64.0%e

Prospect Airport Services

-64.1%

First Hospitality

-65.4%

4

Chicago Cubs Baseball Club

e = Crain’s estimate. * = Company estimate 1. 2019 revenue figure represents Grecian Delight only.

2. Decrease reflects sale of four dealerships. 3. From Candy Industry. 4. Estimate from Forbes.

Source: Crain’s list

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 20

CRAIN’S LIST

CR

CHICAGO’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES

Ranke

3

3 3

Ranked by 2020 revenue. e = Crain’s estimate (in gray). * = Company estimate.

Prior rank

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

3

Type of business

1

1

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE CO. Bloomington

309-766-2311 StateFarm.com

Michael L. Tipsord Chairman, president, CEO

$78,900.0* -0.6%

200 57,500

Insurance, banking and mutual funds

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

2

HEALTH CARE SERVICE CORP. Chicago

317-690-4734 HCSC.com

Maurice Smith President, CEO

$47,000.0 21.8%

7,889 23,995

Health insurer

3

REYES HOLDINGS LLC Rosemont

847-227-6500 ReyesHoldings.com

J. Christopher Reyes M. Jude Reyes, Co-chairmen

$28,000.0* -17.6%

2,700 29,400

Food and beverage distributor

4

ALDI U.S. Batavia

630-879-8100 ALDI.us

Jason Hart CEO

$20,242.0e 9.2%

2,200e 15,975e

Grocery chain

6

MEDLINE INDUSTRIES INC. Northfield

847-949-5500 Medline.com

Andy J. Mills, President Charlie N. Mills, CEO

$17,500.0 25.9%

4,800 27,000

Manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies

5

TOPCO ASSOCIATES LLC Elk Grove Village

847-676-3030 Topco.com

Randy Skoda President, CEO

$15,300.0 5.5%

415 509

7

HAVI GROUP LP Downers Grove

630-353-4200 HAVI.com

Frank Ravndal CEO

$9,712.9e -11.3%

700 10,000

Supply chain, sourcing and marketing

9

ACE HARDWARE CORP. Oak Brook

630-990-6600 AceHardware.com

John Venhuizen President, CEO

$7,762.0 27.8%

966 7,250

Retail hardware cooperative

16

CITADEL SECURITIES Chicago

312-395-2100 CitadelSecurities.com

Ken C. Griffin, Founder Peng Zhao, CEO

$6,700.0e 76.3%

NA NA

8

OSI GROUP LLC Aurora

630-851-6600 OSIGroup.com

Sheldon Lavin Chairman, CEO

$6,100.0* -3.6%

2,146 19,800

Developer of fast-food, foodservice and retail food items

13

CITADEL Chicago

312-395-2100 Citadel.com

Ken C. Griffin CEO

$6,000.0e 36.4%

650 2,200

Hedge fund

12

KEHE DISTRIBUTORS LLC Naperville

630-343-0000 KeHE.com

Brandon K. Barnholt President, CEO

$5,500.01 19.6%

NA 5,4672

Distributor of specialty, fresh, natural and organic products to retailers

13 14 15

11

THE WALSH GROUP LTD. Chicago

312-563-5400 WalshGroup.com

Daniel J. Walsh, Matthew M. Walsh, Co-chairmen

$5,380.0 8.5%

1,500 8,000

General contractor, designbuilder, construction manager

14

KIRKLAND & ELLIS LLP Chicago

312-862-2000 Kirkland.com

Jon A. Ballis Chairman

$4,830.03 16.3%

1,600 4,930

Law firm

18

CLAYCO INC. Chicago

312-658-0747 ClayCorp.com

Robert G. Clark Executive chairman

$3,808.0 17.2%

1,040 2,600

Real estate development, architecture, engineering, design-build, construction

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

17

KOCH FOODS INC. Park Ridge

847-384-5940 KochFoodsInc.com

Joseph C. Grendys CEO

$3,600.0 0.0%

1,250 13,300

Supplier of fresh and frozen poultry

21

NAPLETON AUTOMOTIVE GROUP Oakbrook Terrace

630-530-3955 EdNapleton.com

Edward F. Napleton President

$3,347.3 10.5%

985 3,500

Auto dealerships

61

GUARANTEED RATE COS. Chicago

773-290-0505 Rate.com

Victor Ciardelli III President, CEO

$3,200.0* 211.8%

2,000* 9,000*

Mortgage lending and financial services

20

HEARTHSIDE FOOD SOLUTIONS LLC Downers Grove

630-967-3600 HearthsideFoods.com

Chuck Metzger CEO

$3,145.0 1.1%

2,517 10,088

Food contract manufacturing

15

AMSTED INDUSTRIES INC. Chicago

312-645-1700 Amsted.com

Stephen R. Smith Chairman, president, CEO

$3,062.9 -24.4%

440 11,700

Industrial components manufacturer

24

MADISON INDUSTRIES Chicago

312-277-0156 Madison.net

Larry Gies Founder

$2,908.1 6.7%

930 12,030

Industrial holding company

22

BAKER MCKENZIE Chicago

312-861-8000 BakerMcKenzie.com

David Malliband, Chicago office managing partner

$2,900.0 -0.7%

515 11,991

Law firm

23

INLAND REAL ESTATE GROUP OF COS. Oak Brook

630-218-8000 InlandGroup.com

Daniel L. Goodwin Chairman, CEO

$2,800.0e 0.0%

680e 1,070e

Commercial real estate, investment, property management, leasing

24 25

28

HUB INTERNATIONAL LTD. Chicago

800-432-2558 HubInternational.com

Marc I. Cohen President, CEO

$2,705.2 12.6%

731 13,425

Risk, insurance, employee benefits, retirement and private wealth

224-737-7000 Alight.com

Stephan Scholl CEO

$2,700.0 5.9%

2,084 15,858

Cloud-based provider of integrated digital human capital and business solutions

New ALIGHT SOLUTIONS LLC Lincolnshire

Supplier to supermarkets and food-service companies

Market-making firm

26

19

FOLLETT CORP. Westchester

800-365-5388 Follett.com

Todd A. Litzsinger Chairman, president and acting CEO

$2,674.0 -15.2%

1,915 4,959

Educational content and technology solutions provider

27 28 29 30

27

RSM US LLP Chicago

980-233-4710 RSMUS.com

Joseph M. Adams CEO, managing partner

$2,600.0 -6.8%

1,450 12,503

Audit, tax and consulting services focused on the middle market

29

FERRARA Chicago

773-243-4300 FerraraUSA.com

Todd Siwak CEO

$2,500.0* 4.2%

3,000 6,000

Sweet packaged goods

31

TRUE VALUE CO. Chicago

773-695-5000 TrueValueCompany.com

Chris Kempa CEO

$2,494.2e 11.0%

500e 2,500e

Retail hardware cooperative

30

SIDLEY AUSTIN LLP Chicago

312-853-7000 Sidley.com

Larry A. Barden, Chairman, management committee

$2,462.9 5.4%

625 3,643

Law firm

4/15/21 2:16 PM

3 3 3 3

3

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5

5 5 5 5

5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6

or of

nd

mar-

e

h, ts to

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estnt,

nefits, h

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der

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e

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 21

CRAIN’S LIST CHICAGO’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES Ranked by 2020 revenue. e = Crain’s estimate (in gray). * = Company estimate.

Prior rank

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

Type of business

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

31

25

HEICO COS. LLC Chicago

312-419-8220 HeicoCompanies.com

Emily Heisley Stoeckel Chairman

$2,400.0 -9.4%

616 8,300

Metal processing, construction, industrial products and cargo control

32 33

26

CC INDUSTRIES INC. Chicago

312-855-4000 GreatDane.com

William H. Crown President, CEO

$2,301.4e -10.8%

451e 7,698e

Diversified manufacturing and distribution

847-803-4888 NetworkDistribution.com

Alan R. Tomblin President, CEO

$2,235.0* 10.5%

183 207

Distributor of janitorial, foodservice, packaging and printing products

New NETWORK DISTRIBUTION Schaumburg

34

38

BERLIN PACKAGING LLC Chicago

800-723-7546 BerlinPackaging.com

William J. Hayes President, CEO

$2,100.0 29.2%

236 1,669

Hybrid packaging supplier providing plastic, glass and metal components

35 36 37 38

35

NEWLY WEDS FOODS INC. Chicago

773-489-7000 NewlyWedsFoods.com

Charles T. Angel President

$2,030.0 8.0%

1,085 4,350

Manufacturer of food coatings and seasonings

32

WIRTZ CORP. Chicago

312-943-7000 WirtzCorp.com

W. Rockwell “Rocky” Wirtz, Chairman

$2,000.0* 0.0%

1,200 2,500

Beverage distribution, real estate, Chicago Blackhawks

33

FRANK CONSOLIDATED ENTERPRISES INC. Des Plaines

847-699-7000 Wheels.com

Daniel Z. Frank President, CEO

$1,994.0 0.2%

NA 805

847-821-9630 MATHoldingsInc.com

Steve W. Wang Chairman, CEO

$1,950.0* 2.6%

334 14,000

Manufacturer and distributor of automotive and consumer products

GRANT THORNTON LLP Chicago

312-856-0200 GrantThornton.com

Mark Sullivan, Office managing principal, Nichole Jordan, Central region managing partner

$1,920.0 1.1%

932 8,752

Audit, tax and advisory services

New MAT HOLDINGS INC. Long Grove 34

40 41 42 43 44 44 46 47 47 47 50

37

BDO USA LLP Chicago

312-856-9100 BDO.com

Wayne Berson CEO

$1,808.0 10.2%

822 8,063

Accounting, assurance, tax and advisory services firm

36

TTX CO. Chicago

312-853-3223 TTX.com

Thomas F. Wells President, CEO

$1,614.7 -4.6%

565 1,799

Provider of rail cars and freight management services

39

THE MCSHANE COS. Rosemont

847-292-4300 McShane.com

Molly McShane CEO

$1,598.7 -0.6%

90 400

Real estate development and construction services

41

MAYER BROWN LLP Chicago

312-782-0600 MayerBrown.com

Paul W. Theiss Chairman

$1,520.0 2.4%

835 3,672

Law firm

708-482-8881 VoyantBeauty.com

Richard McEvoy CEO

$1,500.0 188.5%

3,518 324

External manufacturer of beauty and personal care products

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

49 companies Manufacturing

48 companies

Construction/architecture/ engineering

37 companies Business services

53

WEBER-STEPHEN PRODUCTS LLC Palatine

847-934-5700 Weber.com

Chris Scherzinger CEO

$1,500.04 -3.1%5

NA NA

Manufacturer of barbecue grills

40

BOLER CO. (HENDRICKSON) Woodridge

630-773-9111 Hendrickson-Intl.com

Matthew J. Boler Chairman, president, CEO

$1,413.3e -9.8%

160e 6,000e

Manufacturer of truck and trailer suspension systems

46

CONVERGINT TECHNOLOGIES Schaumburg

847-620-5000 Convergint.com

Ken Lochiatto CEO

$1,400.07 9.4%

233e 5,0007

Integrator of security, fire alarm and life-safety systems

79

CULLIGAN INTERNATIONAL CO. 847-430-2800 Rosemont Culligan.com

Scott G. Clawson President, CEO

$1,400.0e 72.8%

260e 7,500e

Residential and commercial water filtration systems

45

INFORMATION RESOURCES INC. 312-726-1221 Chicago IRIWorldwide.com

Andrew M. Appel President, CEO

$1,400.0 7.7%

850 4,080

Consumer and retail market research firm

52

MCDERMOTT WILL & EMERY LLP Chicago

312-372-2000 MWE.com

Michael L. Boykins, Office managing partner Ira J. Coleman, Chairman

$1,381.8 17.9%

499 2,065

Law firm

44

CLUNE CONSTRUCTION Chicago

312-726-6103 CluneGC.com

David L. Hall CEO

$1,336.0 -0.3%

246 658

General contractor

630-570-3050 Sirva.com

Tom Oberdorf Chairman, CEO

$1,330.0e -5.0%

NA NA

Relocation and moving services

e

New SIRVA INC. Oakbrook Terrace

COMPANIES BY INDUSTRY

Automotive fleet management

39

New VOYANT BEAUTY Hodgkins

w WHAT THEYMIX DO INDUSTRY

32 companies Food/beverage

27 companies

Wholesale/distribution

23 companies Financial services

22 companies

Logistics/transportation

22 companies Tech/telecom

43

DUCHOSSOIS GROUP INC. Chicago

312-586-2110 Duch.com

Craig J. Duchossois Executive chairman

$1,321.7 -1.5%

800 6,100e

Access control products and private equity

49

WILLIAM BLAIR & CO. Chicago

312-236-1600 WilliamBlair.com

John R. Ettelson President, CEO

$1,294.0 6.7%

1,183 1,576

Investment banking, investment management and private wealth management

42

KEARNEY Chicago

312-648-0111 Kearney.com

Alex Liu, Chairman, managing partner

$1,290.1e -7.9%

320 3,700

Management consulting firm

48

PEPPER CONSTRUCTION GROUP Chicago

312-266-4700 PepperConstruction.com

J. Stanley Pepper Chairman, CEO

$1,255.8 0.2%

762 1,080

General construction and construction management

89

AIT WORLDWIDE LOGISTICS Itasca

800-669-4248 AITWorldwide.com

Vaughn Moore President, CEO

$1,220.0 68.5%

363 1,719

Freight forwarder and logistics provider

14 companies

51

ROHRMAN AUTOMOTIVE GROUP Arlington Heights

847-991-0444 Rohrman.com

Ryan V. Rohrman President, CEO

$1,203.78 0.4%

NA NA

Auto dealerships

11 companies

64

ZS ASSOCIATES INC. Evanston

847-492-3600 ZS.com

Chris Wright CEO

$1,175.0* 17.5%

550 8,550

Professional services firm

76

AHEAD INC. Chicago

312-924-4492 Ahead.com

Daniel Adamany CEO

$1,108.5* 30.8%

210 1,046

IT products, cloud solutions and strategic consulting

56

DUPAGE MEDICAL GROUP Downers Grove

630-469-9200 DuPageMedicalGroup.com

Steve Nelson, CEO Paul F. Merrick, Chairman

$1,100.0 0.0%

4,486 4,506

Health care provider

58

READERLINK LLC Oak Brook

708-356-3600 ReaderLink.com

Dennis E. Abboud Sr. Chairman, president, CEO

$1,060.5 -0.5%

304 1,209

Book distributor

Consumer products/services

312-784-6001 RyanSG.com

Patrick G. Ryan Chairman, CEO

$1,018.3* 33.1%

467 3,256

Specialty insurance organization

Arts/entertainment/recreation 2 companies Education

708-371-0900 GriffithFoods.com

Brian L. Griffith Chairman

$1,000.0e -7.8%

700 4,500

Food ingredient developer and manufacturer

New RYAN SPECIALTY GROUP Chicago 57

GRIFFITH FOODS GROUP INC. Alsip

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 21

e

18 companies Retail

17 companies Automobiles

Law

Health care

11 companies Real estate 10 companies Insurance 10 companies Media/marketing 8 companies 4 companies

1 company Utilities Source: Crain’s lists

4/15/21 2:16 PM

22 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

◗ WHERE THE MONEY IS REVENUE BREAKDOWN BY INDUSTRY

CRAIN’S LIST CHICAGO’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES Ranked by 2020 revenue. e = Crain’s estimate (in gray). * = Company estimate.

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

64 64

50

INSTANT BRANDS9 Downers Grove

847-233-8600 Ben Gadbois Corporate.InstantBrands.com CEO

$1,000.0 0.0%

150 2,300

Kitchen products company

70

KLEIN TOOLS INC. Lincolnshire

847-821-5500 KleinTools.com

Thomas R. Klein Sr. Chairman; $1,000.0* Thomas R. Klein Jr., Mark P. 7.0% Klein, Co-presidents

275 2,000

Manufacturer of professional hand tools and protective equipment

64

64

PANDUIT CORP. Tinley Park

708-532-1800 Panduit.com

Dennis Renaud President, CEO

$1,000.0* 0.0%

1,222 4,663

Manufacturer of industrial, electrical and network infrastructure products

68 69 70

55

OLD WORLD INDUSTRIES LLC Northbrook

847-559-2000 OWI.com

Charles Culverhouse CEO

$993.0e -10.3%

225e 300e

Products for the automotive and heavy-duty trucking industry

69

CROWE LLP Chicago

312-899-7000 Crowe.com

Stuart J. Miller Office managing partner

$983.3 3.3%

898 38,15410

62

WINSTON & STRAWN LLP Chicago

312-558-5600 Winston.com

Thomas P. Fitzgerald, Chairman, Linda T. Coberly, Chicago managing partner

$981.2 -3.1%

564 1,651

71 72 73

63

POWER CONSTRUCTION CO. LLC 312-596-6960 Chicago PowerConstruction.net

Terry Graber CEO

$975.0 -3.4%

340 340

Construction management and general contracting firm

71

SRAM LLC Chicago

312-664-8800 Sram.com

Ken Lousberg CEO

$974.0 5.4%

150 3,600

Bicycle components manufacturer

72

S&C ELECTRIC CO. Chicago

773-338-1000 SandC.com

Anders B. Sjoelin President, CEO

$950.0* 6.7%

2,050 3,500

Manufacturer of electric switching, protective and automation products

74

81

SEKO WORLDWIDE LLC Itasca

800-228-2711 SekoLogistics.com

William J. Wascher Chairman

$928.0* 16.0%

120 2,000

Freight forwarding, logistics, freight transportation and e-commerce shipping

75 76 77 78

84

BAKER TILLY Chicago

312-729-8000 BakerTilly.com

Alan D. Whitman Chairman, CEO

$919.6 21.8%

357 4,003

Advisory, tax and assurance services firm

64

HOLLISTER INC. Libertyville

847-680-1000 Hollister.com

V. George Maliekel President, CEO

$915.3e -8.5%

470e 2,728e

Medical devices and supplies

80

FCL BUILDERS LLC Itasca

630-773-0050 FCLBuilders.com

Michael J. Boro President, chairman

$915.0* 13.7%

112 216

Design-build general contractor

64

MACLEAN-FOGG CO. Mundelein

847-566-0010 MacLean-Fogg.com

Barry L. MacLean Chairman

$900.0 -10.0%

390 3,350

Manufacturer of components for automotive, industrial and utility industries

79 80

60

MIDLAND PAPER CO. Wheeling

847-777-2700 MidlandPaper.com

Michael Graves President, CEO

$859.0 -16.4%

192 528

Distributor of printing paper and packaging materials

75

TRUSTMARK Lake Forest

847-283-1500 TrustmarkBenefits.com

Kevin R. Slawin President, CEO

$853.0 -2.5%

628 2,400

Employee benefits, administration, and health and fitness management

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92

77

SHURE INC. Niles

847-600-2000 Shure.com

Christine Schyvinck President, CEO

$845.0e 0.0%

990e 2,760e

Manufacturer of microphones, headphones and audio electronics

73

DANIEL J. EDELMAN INC. Chicago

312-240-3000 Edelman.com

Richard W. Edelman President, CEO

$840.0 -5.8%

476 4,966

Communications marketing

74

SPENCER STUART Chicago

312-822-0080 SpencerStuart.com

Ben Williams CEO

$837.1 -4.9%

135 2,235

Executive search and assessment

107

REDWOOD LOGISTICS Chicago

844-467-3396 RedwoodLogistics.com

Mark A. Yeager CEO

$804.0 27.0%

400 760

94

WEATHERTECH DIRECT LLC Bolingbrook

630-241-0715 WeatherTech.com

David MacNeil CEO

$800.0 14.3%

1,741 1,763

Manufacturer of car floor mats and other automotive accessories

106

NOW HEALTH GROUP INC. Bloomingdale

630-545-9098 NowFoods.com

Jim Emme CEO

$798.0 25.9%

991 1,521

Manufacturer of natural products

85

THOUGHTWORKS INC. Chicago

312-373-1000 ThoughtWorks.com

Guo Xiao President, CEO

$795.0* 7.0%

180 7,926

Software consultancy

82

TANDEM HR INC. Westchester

630-928-0510 TandemHR.com

Salo Doko, President, chief operating officer

$791.8 -0.3%

117 117

91

PARTS TOWN (PT HOLDINGS LLC) Addison

800-438-8898 PartsTown.com

Steve Snower CEO

$788.4 9.6%

665 2,192

Restaurant equipment parts distribution and services

98

PREGIS LLC Deerfield

877-692-6163 Pregis.com

Kevin Baudhuin President, CEO

$780.0 15.6%

400 2,500

Protective packaging

54

EDWARD DON & CO. Woodridge

708-442-9400 Don.com

Steven R. Don President, CEO

$768.2 -31.8%

500 1,100

Distributor of food-service equipment and supplies

83

HALO BRANDED SOLUTIONS INC. Sterling

815-625-0980 Halo.com

Marc S. Simon CEO

$764.7 -2.9%

47 1,778

Distributor of promotional corporate products and employee recognition services

59

O’NEIL INDUSTRIES INC. Chicago

773-755-1611 WEONeil.com

Brian G. Ramsay, CEO John A. Russell, President

$763.4 -26.2%

138 450

47

WHITE LODGING Merrillville

219-472-2900 WhiteLodging.com

Ken Barrett President

$750.0e -40.4%

1,209e 7,000e

Hotel ownership, development and management

97

F.H. PASCHEN S.N. NIELSEN & ASSOCIATES LLC Chicago

773-444-3474 FHPaschen.com

James V. Blair President, CEO

$732.0 8.0%

1,230 1,310

General contractor, construction management

127

ENDURANCE WARRANTY Northbrook

866-918-1438 EnduranceWarranty.com

Paul Chernawsky CEO

$732.0* 43.9%

384 675

Automotive extended warranty provider

93

CARL BUDDIG & CO. Homewood

708-798-0900 Buddig.com

Robert J. Buddig CEO

$720.0 2.1%

1,900 2,200

Maker of lunch meat, snack meats, barbecue meats and ribs

92

SEYFARTH SHAW LLP Chicago

312-460-5000 Seyfarth.com

Tracy Billows, Cory Hirsch, Chicago co-managing partners

$717.0 0.0%

565 1,769

Law firm

Prior rank

$131.04 billion Insurance

$53.62 billion

Food/ beverage

$52.38 billion

Manufacturing Manuacturing

$35.08 billion

Wholesale/ distribution

$34.21 billion Retail

$27.14 billion

Financial services

$26.47 billion

Business services

$25.94 billion Construction/ architecture/ engineering

$11.47 billion

Logistics/ Transportation

$8.96 billion Tech/telecom

$16.98 billion

Law

$9.31 billion

Automobiles

$6.47 billion

$4.64 billion

Real estate

$3.04 billion

Media/marketing

$2.76 billion

Arts/entertainment/ recreation

Health care

Consumer products/services Education

Source: Crain’s lists

$3.47 billion

$0.89 billion

$0.09 billion

Utilities

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 22

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

93 94 95 96 97 98

Type of business

Accounting, consulting and technology Law firm

9 10 10

10 10

10 10

10 10 10 10 11 11

11 11

11 11 11 11 11

Logistics platform company

HR outsourcing firm

General contractor, construction management

4/15/21 2:16 PM

11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

13 13 13

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 23

◗ HOT MARKETS

Prior rank

al quip-

eleccture

e and ry

and

ac-

tchtion

s,

ser-

es

99 100 101

105

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

EXP Chicago

312-616-0000 EXP.com

Mark Dvorak President, COO

$715.0* 12.6%

250 3,580

847-825-1800 ShopNapleton.com

Paul Napleton, William Napleton, Presidents

$707.08 NA

NA NA

New NAPLETON AUTO GROUP Rosemont

s, ronics

g

ment

ats sories

ducts

s dis-

equip-

coryee

ent

meats,

Engineering, architecture, design and consulting services

42.6%

Financial services Logistics/transportation

Auto dealerships

22.5% 11.0%

Health care

630-893-1600 Fellowes.com

John E. Fellowes II President, CEO

$701.5 5.2%

473 1,672

Manufacturer and distributor of office equipment, furniture, air purifiers and mobile phone accessories

102 103

88

STAMPEDE MEAT INC. Bridgeview

800-353-0933 StampedeMeat.com

Brock Furlong President, CEO

$700.0e 3.7%

1,075e 1,625e

Meat processor

94

ELKAY MANUFACTURING CO. Downers Grove

630-574-8484 Elkay.com

Ric Phillips President, CEO

$670.0 15.5%

451 2,271

Manufacturer of sinks, faucets, water delivery systems, bottle fillers, commercial interiors

104 105

110

ENSONO Downers Grove

866-880-8611 Ensono.com

Jeff VonDeylen CEO

$652.4 9.4%

462 2,436

Information technology managed service provider

100

KATTEN Chicago

312-902-5200 Katten.com

Gil M. Soffer, Chicago managing partner and cochair, litigation department

$646.6 -3.5%

450 1,103

Law firm

106 107 108 109 110 111

78

EMPIRE TODAY LLC Northlake

844-519-1850 EmpireToday.com

Keith Weinberger CEO

$643.5 -21.5%

404 1,439e

Carpet, flooring and window treatment installation

-1.0%

Business services

86

GRAYCOR Oakbrook Terrace

630-684-7110 Graycor.com

Melvin Gray Non-executive chairman

$640.8 -13.2%

85 543

Construction services

-1.3%

Retail

108

BRAKE PARTS INC. McHenry

800-323-0354 BrakePartsInc.com

Rick Woodside, VP of global operations - braking

$640.0 3.9%

269 4,919

Manufacturer and distributor of automotive brake products

-2.2%

Food/beverage

103

EMKAY INC. Itasca

630-250-7400 EMKAY.com

Gregory L. Tepas Vice chairman

$632.0 -1.7%

145 167

Corporate vehicle leasing and fleet management

133

W.S. DARLEY & CO. Itasca

630-735-3500 Darley.com

Paul C. Darley Chairman, president, CEO

$629.0 28.5%

85 310

Manufacturer and distributor of tactical and firefighting equipment

112

ABT ELECTRONICS INC. Glenview

847-967-8830 Abt.com

Ricky Abt, Jon Abt, Michael Abt, Billy Abt Co-presidents

$615.0e 4.2%

1,650 1,650

Retailer of consumer electronics and major appliances

$610.9 4.6%

88 732

Sales, marketing and distribution of building products

e

e

111

PARKSITE INC. Batavia

630-761-9490 Parksite.com

Ron Heitzman CEO

109

CCC INFORMATION SERVICES INC.11 Chicago

312-222-4636 CCCIS.com

Githesh Ramamurthy Chairman, CEO

$600.012 -0.8%

60013 1,78013

Technology and AI for the automotive, insurance and collision repair industries

114 115 116 117 118

New HENIFF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS Oak Brook

877-436-4331 Heniff.com

Robert J. Heniff President, CEO

$598.4 8.8%

e

NA 1,700e

Liquid bulk transportation services provider

$593.0 4.0%

886 1,005

Manufacturer of processed meats and cooking oils

$592.315 -24.6%

NA 5,00015

Health care; physical therapy

119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 131

113

ED MINIAT LLC South Holland

708-589-2400 Miniat.com

David J. Miniat Chairman

99

ATI HOLDINGS INC.14 Bolingbrook

630-296-2223 ATIPT.com

Labeed Diab CEO

116

BLACK HORSE CARRIERS Carol Stream

630-690-8900 BlackHorseCarriers.com

Kenneth Landego President, CEO

$591.6 5.5%

810 3,820

Transportation and logistics

117

COMPSYCH CORP. Chicago

312-595-4000 ComPsych.com

Richard A. Chaifetz Chairman, CEO

$589.3e 6.0%

1,215 1,396

Employee assistance, behavioral health, wellness and absence management programs

102

ADDISON GROUP Chicago

312-424-0300 AddisonGroup.com

Thomas B. Moran CEO

$587.0* -7.3%

224 997

Consulting, contract and direct hire staffing

68

AMERICAN HOTEL REGISTER CO. Vernon Hills

847-743-6002 AmericanHotel.com

Angela M. Korompilas President, CEO

$582.0e -40.0%

375e 700e

Distributor and provider of hotel supplies and services

173

THE FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK Chicago

312-738-6000 John Calk TheFederalSavingsBank.com Chairman, CEO

$579.9 86.9%

827 1,761

Mortgage lender

132

BRIGHTSTAR GROUP HOLDINGS INC. Gurnee

866-777-7110 BrightStarCare.com

Shelly Sun CEO

$569.0 16.1%

67 88

129

ALDRIDGE ELECTRIC INC. Libertyville

847-680-5200 AldridgeGroup.com

Kenneth Aldridge Chairman

$565.6 12.9%

640 1,266

122

SMS ASSIST LLC Chicago

312-698-7000 SMSAssist.com

Marc Shiffman President, CEO

$530.0* 0.0%

574 727

Facilities maintenance contracting

126

WATERTON Chicago

312-948-4500 Waterton.com

David Schwartz Chairman, CEO

$529.0 3.9%

871 1,461

Real estate investment and management

124

VI Chicago

312-803-8880 ViLiving.com

Randal J. Richardson President

$517.6e -1.2%

322e 2,168e

Developer, owner and manager of senior living communities

144

MCHUGH ENTERPRISES Chicago

312-986-8000 McHughConstruction.com

Patricia H. McHugh Chairman

$514.4 14.5%

530e 560e

130

FORT DEARBORN CO. Elk Grove Village

847-357-9500 FortDearborn.com

Kevin Kwilinski CEO

$511.0e -2.7%

362e 1,650e

118

ROYAL BUYING GROUP INC. Lisle

630-986-5416 RoyalBuying.com

Robert W. Juckniess Chairman

$506.1e -8.1%

53e 53e

Negotiates marketing programs for gas stations and convenience stores

115

MAZZETTA CO. LLC Highland Park

847-433-1150 Mazzetta.com

Thomas J. Mazzetta CEO

$501.0e -11.0%

23e NA

Importer of frozen seafood

ALERA GROUP INC. Deerfield

888-253-7288 AleraGroup.com

Alan J. Levitz CEO

$500.0* 23.8%

274 2,157

Insurance and wealth management firm

312-465-7900 VillageMD.com

Tim Barry CEO

$500.0* 45.2%

221 1,609

Provider of technology, operations and staffing support for primary care physicians

150

New VILLAGEMD Chicago

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 23

Education

9.2%1

Tech/telecom

8.9%

Insurance

8.7%

Real estate

7.7%

Consumer products/services Manufacturing Law

112 113

ction

anty

Type of business

FELLOWES INC. Itasca

r and

ess

AVERAGE CHANGE IN REVENUE,

BY INDUSTRY FROM 2019

101

actor

ts for utility

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

5.4% 3.0% 2.0%

-2.2%2

Utilities

-2.9%

Wholesale/ distribution

-3.0%

Automobiles

-3.2% -5.6% -39.0%

Construction/ architecture/ engineering Media/marketing Arts/entertainment/ recreation

1. Represents two companies. 2 Represents one company.

AVERAGECHANGE CHANGEININEMPLOYEES, EMPLOYEESBY AVERAGE (GLOBAL),FROM

BY INDUSTRY INDUSTRY DECEMBERFROM 20192019 22.3%

Financial services Consumer products/services Health care

15.4% 14.8% 10.5%

Tech/telecom Logistics/transportation

8.4%

Arts/entertainment/ recreation

7.7%2 6.3%

Insurance

Home health care, medical staffing, franchising Electrical and foundation contractor

Construction services Product labels

Real estate

1.3%

-0.2%

Wholesale/ distribution

-1.1%

Food/beverage

-1.6%

Business services

-1.6%

Manufacturing

-1.7%

Construction/architecture/engineering

-1.8%

Retail

-2.3%

Automobiles

-6.6%

Media/marketing

-7.1%

Law

-7.3%1

Education

-16.3%2

Utilities

1. Represents two companies. 2 Represents one company.

Source: Crain’s lists

4/15/21 2:16 PM

24 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

WHO WORKS WHERE ◗w LOCAL INDUSTRY JOBS LOCAL EMPLOYEES BY INDUSTRY AS OF DEC. 31

CRAIN’S LIST CHICAGO’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES Ranked by 2020 revenue. e = Crain’s estimate (in gray). * = Company estimate.

Prior rank

33,157

Food/beverage

25,610

Manufacturing

13,734

Health care

13,183

Construction/ architecture/ engineering

12,287 Retail

11,837 Business services

11,021

Financial services

10,583

Insurance

7,599 Law

7,085

Tech/telecom

6,880

Wholesale/ distribution

5,110

4,042

Logistics/ transportation

2,863

Media/marketing

2,0061

Education

1052

Utilities

Real estate

3,977

Automobiles

2,169

Consumer products/services

4011

Arts/entertainment/ recreation

1. Represents two companies. 2 Represents one company.

Source: Crain’s lists

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 24

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

Type of business

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

133

136

ARCO/MURRAY NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION CO. Downers Grove

331-251-2726 ArcoMurray.com

Brad Dannegger President

$496.5 4.8%

315 315

Design and construction, specializing in commercial

134 135 136 137 138 139 139

141

BOB LOQUERCIO AUTO GROUP Streamwood

773-728-5000 BLAutoGroup.com

Robert Loquercio President

$480.88 5.8%

NA NA

Auto dealerships

90

MOTOR WERKS AUTO GROUP Barrington

847-381-8900 MotorWerks.com

Paul D. Tamraz, Chairman Mick Austin, President, CEO

$479.016 -33.5%

320 320

Auto dealerships

773-342-6300 McGrathImports.com

Michael J. McGrath President, CEO

$478.7 -4.2%

566 566

Auto dealerships

New MCGRATH IMPORTS Chicago

16 16

16

120

SENIOR LIFESTYLE CORP. Chicago

312-673-4333 SeniorLifestyle.com

Jon DeLuca President, CEO

$478.1e -12.4%

556e 7,224e

Owner, operator and developer of senior living communities

140

RAJA FOODS LLC (PATEL BROTHERS) Skokie

847-675-4455 RajaFoods.com

Rakesh Patel President

$463.0e 0.7%

170e 753e

Retailer and importer of Indian foods

121

MERIDIAN GROUP INTERNATIONAL INC. Deerfield

847-964-2700 TheMeridian.com

Jeff Murray CEO

$460.0* -13.5%

120 734

Information technology services provider and equipment lessor

87

PARENT PETROLEUM INC. St. Charles

630-584-2509 ParentPetroleum.com

Ryan M. Fuelling President

$460.0* -37.5%

284 284

Wholesaler and retailer of gasoline, diesel, lubricants and other petroleum-based products

141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157

143

CLOVER IMAGING Hoffman Estates

866-734-6548 CloverImaging.com

Jim Cerkleski Executive chairman

$457.0e 1.6%

NA 5,099e

Recycler and remarketer of printer cartridges

138

PORTILLO’S HOT DOGS LLC Oak Brook

630-954-3773 Portillos.com

Michael Osanloo President, CEO

$450.0 -4.3%

5,550 6,500

Restaurant owner and operator

145

JENNER & BLOCK LLP Chicago

312-222-9350 Jenner.com

Randy E. Mehrberg Co-managing partner

$446.3 -0.4%

488 829

146

ATHLETICO PHYSICAL THERAPY 630-572-9700 Oak Brook Athletico.com

Ron Rodgers CEO

$432.0e -0.5%

2,800e 5,360e

172

@PROPERTIES (AT WORLD PROPERTIES LLC) Chicago

312-506-0200 AtProperties.com

Thaddeus Wong, Michael Golden, Co-CEOs

$423.8 30.8%

324 371

123

CAREERBUILDER LLC Chicago

773-527-3600 CareerBuilder.com

Irina Novoselsky CEO

$418.5e -20.6%

600e 1,300e

158

HIGHTOWER ADVISORS LLC Chicago

312-962-3800 HightowerAdvisors.com

Bob Oros CEO

$408.3* 18.4%

164 840

Financial services and wealth management

147

EMPLOYCO USA INC. Westmont

630-286-7356 Employco.com

Rob W. Wilson President

$404.0e -4.7%

NA NA

Human resources outsourcing

149

FLEXERA SOFTWARE LLC Itasca

847-466-4000 Flexera.com

Jim P. Ryan President, CEO

$400.017 -1.7%

NA NA

Software and IT asset management

148

SKENDER Chicago

312-781-0265 Skender.com

Justin Brown President, CEO

$389.5 -7.1%

185 189

General contracting, construction management

104

LETTUCE ENTERTAIN YOU ENTERPRISES INC. Chicago

773-878-7340 LEYE.com

Kevin J. Brown, CEO R.J. Melman, President

$386.1e -39.2%

3,830e 5,454e

156

UNITED SCRAP METAL INC. Cicero

708-780-6800 UnitedScrap.com

Marsha E. Serlin CEO

$379.0 3.8%

312 505

Metal buyer and recycler

134

PREMIER DESIGN & BUILD GROUP LLC Itasca

847-297-4200 PDBGroup.com

Michael Pacini President

$376.6* -23.0%

50 85

Design-build general contractor

139

TEMPEL STEEL CO. Chicago

773-250-8000 Tempel.com

Cliff Nastas President, CEO

$374.0e -19.8%

263e 1,516e

Manufacturer of magnetic steel laminations

154

PATRICK DEALER GROUP Schaumburg

847-605-4000 PatrickCars.com

Hanley Dawson IV President

$371.0e -3.6%

442e 442e

Auto dealerships

152

SAFEWAY INSURANCE CO. Westmont

630-887-8300 SafewayIns.com

Christopher Hidalgo Chairman, CEO

$363.2 -7.8%

105 502

Property and casualty insurance

128

BULLEY & ANDREWS LLC Chicago

773-235-2433 Bulley.com

Allan E. Bulley Jr. Executive chairman

$355.0* -29.4%

375 375

Construction management, general contracting, concrete and masonry restoration

158 159 160 160 162 163

New MR. BULT’S INC. Burnham

708-868-0059 MrBults.com

James Bult CEO

$351.0e 8.7%

NA NA

Long-haul waste transportation

Law firm Orthopedic rehabilitation services Real estate brokerage firm Online recruiting and job listings

Restaurant owner

188

LOEBER MOTORS INC. Lincolnwood

847-675-1000 LoeberMotors.com

Michael Loeber President

$350.8 32.7%

140 140

Automotive dealerships

170

TEMPERATURE EQUIPMENT CORP. Lansing

708-418-3062 TECMungo.com

R.F. “Skip” Mungo President, CEO

$350.0* 11.1%

435 450

Wholesale distributor of HVAC products

159

WEST MONROE PARTNERS LLC Chicago

312-602-4000 WestMonroe.com

Kevin J. McCarty Chairman, president, CEO

$350.0 6.7%

779 1,360

Business and technology consulting firm

153

ALDEN MANAGEMENT SERVICES INC. Chicago

773-286-3883 TheAldenNetwork.com

Randi Schlossberg-Schullo President

$344.2e -12.0%

4,850e 5,100e

Health care and senior living provider

163

BINNY’S BEVERAGE DEPOT 847-933-7600 (GOLD STANDARD ENTERPRISES Binnys.com INC.) Niles

Michael Binstein CEO

$343.4e 1.9%

NA NA

Retailer of wine, spirits, beer, cigars and related gifts

164 165

174

MAGID GLOVE & SAFETY MAN- 800-867-1083 UFACTURING CO. LLC Romeoville MagidGlove.com

Greg Cohen CEO

$335.0 8.8%

458 1,131

Manufacturer and distributor of personal protective equipment

151

TERLATO WINE GROUP LTD. Lake Bluff

847-604-8900 TWG.com

William A. Terlato President, CEO

$325.0* -18.8%

130 310

Wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages production, marketing and sales

166 167

185

OPPFI18 Chicago

312-212-8079 OppFi.com

Jared Kaplan CEO

$323.0 20.5%

521 541

Financial technology platform

165

LEOPARDO COS. INC. Hoffman Estates

847-783-3000 Leopardo.com

Michael T. Leopardo President, CEO

$320.1 -4.5%

321 342

Construction, general contracting, design-build and development services

4/15/21 2:16 PM

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17 17

17 18 18 18

18 18 18 18 18

18 18 19 19 19

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 25

◗ LOCATION, LOCATION

Prior rank

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

g

r, ci-

or of ment

olic ket-

rm

actop-

Type of business

235 Cook

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

168 168

160

CAMPAGNA-TURANO BAKERY INC. Berwyn

708-788-9220 Turano.com

Joseph M. Turano President

$320.0 -7.0%

741 1,084

Maker of baked goods and breads

177

THE JEL SERT CO. West Chicago

630-231-7590 JelSert.com

Ken Wegner President, CEO

$320.0* 6.7%

900 1,100

Manufacturer of beverages, dessert mixes, medicinal foods and supplements

168

155

SKIDMORE OWINGS & MERRILL Chicago

312-554-9090 SOM.com

Xuan Fu, Jonathan Stein, Adam Semel Managing partners

$320.0 -16.3%

260 1,200

Architecture, engineering, urban planning, sustainable design, interior design

171

237

OSM WORLDWIDE (ONE STOP MAILING LLC) Glendale Heights

847-233-9999 OSMWorldwide.com

James Kelley President

$319.7 86.0%

80 150

Parcel shipping carrier serving companies that ship directly to consumers

172 173 174

166

MESIROW FINANCIAL HOLDINGS INC. Chicago

312-595-6000 MesirowFinancial.com

Richard Price Chairman, CEO

$317e -5.0%

375 486

Financial services

169

CHICAGOLAND AUTOMOTIVE GROUP Lisle

630-852-7200 Horst Korallus ChicagolandAutoGroup.com President

$306.0e -3.6%

358e 358e

Auto dealerships

142

CHICAGO BEARS FOOTBALL CLUB INC. Lake Forest

847-295-6600 ChicagoBears.com

George H. McCaskey Chairman

$300.0e -33.8%

250e 250e

National Football League team

174 174

176

CHICAGO BULLS Chicago

312-455-4000 Bulls.com

Jerry M. Reinsdorf Chairman

$300.019 -0.3%

151 156

National Basketball Association team

242

GRECIAN DELIGHT FOODS| KRONOS (WORLD FOODS HOLDINGS)20 Elk Grove Village

847-364-1010 GDKFoods.com

Peter Parthenis Jr. President, CEO

$300.021 114.3%

500 500

Manufacturer and marketer of Greek and Mediterranean foods

COOK COUNTY

174 178

167

UNIVERSAL SCRAP METALS INC. Chicago

312-666-0011 USMRecycles.com

Jason I. Zeid CEO

$300.0e -6.3%

235e 280e

Scrap metal recycling

Reyes Holdings

204

SUTTON AUTO TEAM Matteson

708-720-8000 SuttonAutoTeam.com

Karen M. Ford, Dealer manager, Nathaniel K. Sutton, President

$295.5* 25.1%

97 270

Auto dealerships

179 180 181 182

171

TY INC. Oak Brook

630-920-1515 Ty.com

H. Ty Warner Chairman, CEO

$292.0e -6.2%

NA NA

Manufacturer of toys and collectibles

179

BERGLUND CONSTRUCTION CO. 773-374-1000 Chicago BerglundCo.com

Fred Berglund President

$285.0* 0.0%

205 315

General contractor and construction manager

Havi Group

196

BEAR CONSTRUCTION CO. Rolling Meadows

847-222-1900 BEARCC.com

Jim Wienold, President George H. Wienold, CEO

$280.1 10.2%

246 246

General contractor and construction manager

Ace Hardware

218

ILLINOIS BONE & JOINT INSTITUTE LLC Des Plaines

847-375-3984 IBJI.com

Andre Blom CEO

$280.0e 37.3%

NA NA

Independent physician-owned musculoskeletal health system

KeHE Distributors

183 184 185 186 187

178

LINCOLN PROVISION INC. Chicago

773-254-2400 LincolnProvision.com

James J. Stevens Jr. President, CEO

$279.9e -2.8%

98e 122e

Meat processing, export, carcass fabrication

168

HILL GROUP Franklin Park

847-451-5000 HillGrp.com

Jim B. Hill President

$277.0e -12.9%

885e 885e

HVAC building systems and maintenance

Aldi U.S.

New MOLO SOLUTIONS Chicago

847-306-3557 ShipMolo.com

Andrew Silver CEO

$274.0 112.4%

281 301

Third-party logistics provider

OSI Group

187 187 190 191 192 193 194

71 DuPage

33 Lake 11 Kane 6 Will 6 McHenry 2 Lake, Ind. Note: Excludes companies outside the seven-county area.

145

companies are based in Chicago. Itasca has the next most with 12. Both Downers Grove and Oak Brook have 11, while Elk Grove Village has eight.

THE THREE LARGEST COMPANIES IN EACH OF SIX AREA COUNTIES By 2020 revenue

Health Care Service Corp.

$47.0 billion $28.0 billion* Topco Associates

$17.5 billion DUPAGE COUNTY $9.7 billione $7.8 billion $5.5 billion1 KANE COUNTY $20.2 billione $6.1 billion*

189

GUARANTEE TRUST LIFE INSURANCE CO. Glenview

847-699-0600 GTLIC.com

Richard S. Holson III Chairman, president, CEO

$271.0 2.7%

286 294

Life and health insurance

192

ATLAS TOYOTA MATERIAL HANDLING LLC Elk Grove Village

847-678-3450 AtlasToyota.com

Allen C. Rawson President, CEO

$270.0* 5.0%

380 450

Distributor of Toyota material handling equipment

184

BALDWIN RICHARDSON FOODS 866-644-2732 CO. Oakbrook Terrace BRFoods.com

Eric G. Johnson CEO

$270.0 -0.7%

21 354

Manufacturer of sauces and condiments

Alight Solutions

847-541-1080 SG360.com

John A. Wallace Jr. President, CEO

$270.0e -10.0%

NA NA

Direct mail and marketing services company

MAT Holdings Klein Tools

New SEGERDAHL (SG360) Wheeling

Parksite

$0.6 billion LAKE COUNTY $2.7 billion $2.0 billion*

161

EXECUTIVE CONSTRUCTION INC. Hillside

708-236-3300 ECIBuild.com

John F. Blacketor CEO

$265.0* -22.1%

149 149

General contracting and construction management

164

AVANT Chicago

800-712-5407 Avant.com

James Paris CEO

$264.7* -16.4%

228 419

Financial technology company

214

BECKNELL INDUSTRIAL La Grange

708-443-9300 BecknellIndustrial.com

Dan Harrington President, CEO

$262.7* 47.8%

54 83

Real estate development firm focused exclusively on industrial buildings

96

FLYING FOOD GROUP LLC Chicago

312-243-2122 FlyingFood.com

David L. Cotton CEO

$260.0e -62.0%

325e 3,800e

Meals and snacks catering for airlines and global retail partners

Gary Lang Auto Group

162

COOPER’S HAWK WINERY & RESTAURANTS Downers Grove

708-215-5674 CHWinery.com

Tim McEnery CEO

$255.0e -24.7%

550e 1,250e

Winery, modern casual restaurants, tasting rooms, artisan markets, wine club

Other World Computing

AC

n-

COUNTIES WHERE THE PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES ARE BASED

194 196

194

VEDDER PRICE Chicago

312-609-7500 VedderPrice.com

Michael A. Nemeroff President, CEO

$255.0 0.0%

414 576

Law firm

240

MEDIX STAFFING SOLUTIONS INC. Chicago

886-446-3349 MedixTeam.com

Andrew Limouris President, CEO

$253.7 48.2%

140 478

Health care, life sciences, technology and engineering/construction staffing

197 198 199 200

199

MIRACAPO PIZZA CO. Elk Grove Village

847-631-3500 MiraCapoPizza.com

Steven Kunkle President

$252.2e 4.1%

469e 469e

Frozen-food processor

206

ITSAVVY LLC Addison

877-487-2899 ITsavvy.com

Michael A. Theriault CEO

$251.3 12.1%

125 225

IT products reseller and technology services provider

200

TYSON MOTOR LLC Shorewood

815-741-5530 TysonMotor.com

Anthony H. Blake President

$250.2* 8.7%

83 83

Auto dealerships and real estate

183

VISTEX INC. Hoffman Estates

847-490-0420 Vistex.com

Sanjay Shah CEO

$248.4 -10.7%

312 1,579

Enterprise software and services provider

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 25

$1.0 billion* MCHENRY COUNTY Brake Parts

$0.6 billion $0.2 billion $0.1 billion* WILL COUNTY WeatherTech Direct

$0.8 billion ATI Holdings

$0.6 billion Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing

$0.3 billion e = Crain’s estimate. * = Company estimate. 1. From Moody’s Source: Crain’s lists

4/15/21 2:16 PM

26 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

CRAIN’S LIST CHICAGO’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES

◗ LARGEST EMPLOYERS TOP 20 COMPANIES BY TOTAL FULLTIME EMPLOYEES AS OF DEC. 31

Ranked by 2020 revenue. e = Crain’s estimate (in gray). * = Company estimate.

Prior rank

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

Type of business

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

201 202 203 204

186

VENTURI RESTORATION22 Wheeling

262-437-7400 VenturiRestoration.com

Mark San Fratello CEO

$247.6e -7.4%

95e 777e

Disaster restoration, reconstruction and renovation

190

RTC INC. Rolling Meadows

847-640-2400 RTC.com

Richard Nathan CEO

$245.6e -6.0%

38623 NA

Retail merchandising products and services

198

TONY’S FINER FOODS ENTERPRISES INC. Itasca

630-735-6760 TonysFreshMarket.com

Tony Ingraffia President

$245.1e 0.5%

815e 815e

Retail grocery

210

LAKESHORE RECYCLING SYSTEMS (LRS) Morton Grove

773-685-8811 LRSRecycles.com

Alan T. Handley CEO

$244.1* 14.2%

1,200 1,200

Waste management

205 206 207 208 209

222

BAIRD & WARNER INC. Chicago

312-644-1855 BairdWarner.com

Stephen W. Baird President, CEO

$241.8 22.3%

394 394

Real estate services; mortgage, title and real estate sales

201

EN ENGINEERING LLC Warrenville

630-353-4000 EnEngineering.com

Steve Knowles CEO

$240.0* 4.3%

600 1,850

Engineering, consulting and automation services

175

DOALL CO. Wheeling

847-495-6800 DGISupply.com

Michael L. Wilkie Chairman

$239.0 -20.9%

131 420

Industrial supplies distributor, machine tool manufacturer

203

GONNELLA BAKING CO. Schaumburg

312-733-2020 Gonnella.com

Robert Gonnella President

$238.0* 0.0%

500 674

Manufacturer and distributor of bakery products

114

CONTINENTAL MOTORS GROUP 708-716-4497 Hodgkins ContinentalMotors.com

Cheryl Nelson, Jay Weinberger, Joel F. Weinberger Owners

$235.0* -58.5%

350 350

Auto dealerships

210 211 212

193

PLS FINANCIAL SERVICES INC. Chicago

312-491-7300 PLS247.com

Dan Wolfberg, Bob Wolfberg, Co-presidents

$232.8* -8.9%

693 3,516

215

MILLENNIUM TRUST CO. Oak Brook

800-258-7878 MTrustCompany.com

Gary Anetsberger CEO

$231.0 11.1%

NA NA

Financial services

207

SENTINEL TECHNOLOGIES INC. Downers Grove

800-769-4343 Sentinel.com

Timothy Hill, Robert Keblusek, Brian Osborne Co-presidents

$229.4 10.5%

329 536

Technology design, deployment, support and integration

213 214 215 216 217 218

209

CHAPMAN AND CUTLER LLP Chicago

312-845-3000 Chapman.com

Timothy P. Mohan Chief executive partner

$226.7 4.4%

315 405

Law firm

261

HICKORY FARMS INC. Chicago

800-433-6005 HickoryFarms.com

Diane Pearse CEO

$225.0e 50.0%

NA NA

Food gift retailer

179

PARIS PRESENTS INC. Gurnee

847-263-5500 ParisPresents.com

Bill George CEO

$222.3* -22.0%

NA NA

Manufacturer and distributor of cosmetic accessories

201

STEINER ELECTRIC CO. Elk Grove Village

847-228-0400 SteinerElectric.com

Richard A. Kerman CEO

$222.0e -7.5%

390e 390e

Electrical and industrial supplies, automation products, generators

211

SCHULZE & BURCH BISCUIT CO. Chicago

773-927-6622 SchulzeBurch.com

Kevin M. Boyle President, COO

$220.0 4.0%5

300 700

Contract manufacturer and marketer of pastries and snacks

235

RIM LOGISTICS LTD. Roselle

224-306-5700 RimLogistics.com

Robert J. Mueller IV, President, Robert J. Mueller III, Chairman, CEO

$219.3 24.3%

144 234

Freight forwarding, distribution, logistics, supply chain, import, export

219

205

ENERGY DISTRIBUTION PARTNERS (EDPO LLC) Chicago

312-254-5950 EDPLP.net

Thomas E. Knauff CEO

$217.0 -7.7%

22 564

Residential and commercial marketing and distribution of propane and light fuels

197

BIGGERS CHEVROLET/ISUZU INC. Elgin

866-431-1555 BiggersChevy.com

Jim Leichter President, CEO

$216.0 -11.8%

145 145

Auto dealership

250

PARAGON MICRO INC. Lake Zurich

847-719-8406 ParagonMicro.com

Jeff Reimer CEO

$208.0 26.4%

71 96

Computing hardware, software and services provider

260

BURWOOD GROUP INC. Chicago

312-327-4600 Burwood.com

Mark Theoharous CEO

$207.0 37.1%

74 190

IT integration and consulting firm

708-250-2696 MattLaricyGroup.com

Matt Laricy Managing partner

$203.5 11.9%

14 14

Real estate

35,266

220 221 222 223 224 225 225 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234

Source: Crain’s lists

235

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

57,500 Crowe

38,1541 Reyes Holdings

29,400 Medline Industries

27,000 Health Care Service Corp.

23,995 OSI Group

19.800 Aldi U.S.

15,975e Alight Solutions

15,858 MAT Holdings

14,000 Hub International

13,425 Koch Foods

13,300 RSM US

12,503 Madison Industries

12,030 Baker McKenzie

11,991 Amsted Industries

11,700 Hearthside Food Solutions

10,088 Havi Group

10,000 Guaranteed Rate

9,000* Grant Thornton

8,752 ZS Associates

8,550 e = Crain’s estimate. * = Company estimate. 1. Includes international membership firms.

THESE COMPANIES ACCOUNT FOR: 363,021 of all 772,612 employees on the list, or 47%1.

$240.3 billion of all $454 billion in revenue, or 52.9%.

1. The list does not include employment data for every company.

Together, the companies above employ this many local workers.

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 26

New AMERICORP LTD. Chicago

Check cashing and related services

243

IHC CONSTRUCTION COS. LLC Elgin

847-742-1516 IHCConstruction.com

David J. Rock CEO

$201.6 20.0%

160 160

General contracting, construction management and design-build

220

CLIMATE PROS Glendale Heights

630-893-8511 ClimatePros.com

Todd Ernest President, CEO

$200.0e 0.6%

NA NA

Commercial and industrial refrigeration and HVAC

231

HALLSTAR Chicago

312-554-7400 Hallstar.com

John J. Paro Chairman, CEO

$200.0* 8.0%5

100* 250*

Specialty chemical supplier for beauty and industrial sectors

221

FIDELITONE INC. Wauconda

847-487-3300 Fidelitone.com

Josh Johnson CEO

$197.1 -0.9%

100 750

Supply chain management

194

HENRICKSEN & CO. INC. Itasca

630-250-9090 Henricksen.com

Russell Frees President, CEO

$191.0e -25.1%

110e 228e

Contract office furniture dealer

223

ADVANTAGE CHEVROLET OF HODGKINS Hodgkins

708-231-4618 HodgkinsChevrolet.com

Desmond A. Roberts President

$190.5e -3.6%

178e 178e

Auto dealerships

208

MINER ENTERPRISES INC. Geneva

630-232-3000 MinerEnt.com

David W. Withall CEO

$188.0e -13.7%

120e 380e

Manufacturer of rail car components

228

GEORGE SOLLITT CONSTRUCTION CO. Wood Dale

630-860-7333 Sollitt.com

James Zielinski, John D. Pridmore, Presidents

$187.4e 0.0%

64e 64e

General contractor, construction manager

187

WILLIAM A. RANDOLPH INC. Gurnee

847-856-0123 WARandolph.com

Anthony Riccardi President

$185.0* -30.2%

80 80

Construction, general contractor

244

SIKICH LLP Chicago

312-648-6666 Sikich.com

Christopher L. Geier CEO, managing partner

$184.2 10.0%

313 957

Accounting, technology and advisory services

217

TUTHILL CORP. Burr Ridge

630-382-4900 Tuthill.com

James G. Tuthill Jr. Chairman

$184.0e -9.9%

128e 538e

Manufacturer specializing in pumps, meters and other rotating equipment

212

ENESCO LLC Itasca

630-875-5300 Enesco.com

Todd L. Mavis CEO

$181.0e -13.8%

195e 693e

Designer and marketer of gifts and collectibles

4/15/21 2:16 PM

23 23 23 23 23 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 27

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 27

◗ SMALL LOCAL PRESENCE

Prior rank

236 237 238 238 238 241 242 243 243 245 246 247 247 249 249 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 266 268 269 270 271 272

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

COMPANIES WITH THE SMALLEST PERCENTAGE OF LOCAL EMPLOYEES, 2020 Type of business

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

226

HINSHAW & CULBERTSON LLP Chicago

312-704-3000 HinshawLaw.com

Peter D. Sullivan Chairman

$180.5 -6.7%

232 612

Law firm

252

MNJ TECHNOLOGIES DIRECT INC. Buffalo Grove

847-634-0700 MNJTech.com

Susan L. Kozak CEO

$180.2 10.6%

101 113

Valued-added IT reseller and managed services provider

368

CELEBRITY HOME LOANS24 Oakbrook Terrace

630-572-8200 CelebrityHomeLoans.com

Pete Gabrione COO

$180.0 260.0%

230 950

Mortgage banking

249

PEER FOODS GROUP INC. Chicago

773-475-2375 PeerFoods.com

Larry O’Connell President

$180.0* 9.1%

9 490

Processor of meats for food-service and retail

130

PROSPECT AIRPORT SERVICES INC. Des Plaines

847-299-3636 ProspectAir.com

Vicki Strobel President, CEO

$180.0e -64.0%

NA 4,000e

232

WEBER PACKAGING SOLUTIONS INC. Arlington Heights

800-843-4242 WeberPackaging.com

Doug Weber President, CEO

$177.0e -2.5%

350e 700e

Labeling and coding solutions

238

WILLIAM RYAN HOMES INC. Glenview

847-995-8700 WilliamRyanHomes.com

William J. Ryan Chairman, CEO

$175.8 2.4%

37 111

Homebuilding, construction

212

CAPITAL FITNESS INC. (XSPORT 630-556-3731 FITNESS) St. Charles XSportFitness.com

Dan Morrissey CEO

$175.0e -16.7%

2,730e 3,320e

256

PHUSION PROJECTS LLC Chicago

312-667-1071 PhusionProjects.com

Jaisen Freeman, Jeff Wright, Managing partners

$175.0 12.2%5

100 230

Alcoholic beverage manufacturer

263

ALFRED BENESCH & CO. Chicago

312-565-0450 Benesch.com

Kevin J. Fitzpatrick President, CEO

$174.0 16.4%

126 641

Engineering consultant

230

SCHIFF HARDIN LLP Chicago

312-258-5545 SchiffHardin.com

Joseph Krasovec III Managing partner

$174.0 -6.7%

277 369

Law firm

233

GARY LANG AUTO GROUP McHenry

815-385-2100 GaryLangAuto.com

Gary L. Lang President

$170.0 -5.6%

158 158

Automotive sales and service

239

THE ROOMPLACE Lombard

630-261-1600 TheRoomPlace.com

Bruce Berman Chairman

$170.0 -0.9%

404 517

Furniture retailer

236

INTERNATIONAL SERVICES INC. 224-676-7272 Buffalo Grove ISI-Services.com

Tyler P. Burgess Managing director

$169.0 -1.7%

398 910

Management consulting

245

SIPI METALS CORP. Chicago

773-276-0070 SipiCorp.com

Marion Cameron CEO

$169.0e 1.2%

168e 197e

Refiner of precious metal scrap, producer of copper alloys

241

WISS JANNEY ELSTNER ASSOCIATES INC. Northbrook

847-272-7400 WJE.com

William J. Nugent President, CEO

$167.0 -2.3%

234 649

Engineering, architecture and materials science consulting

312-913-4900 LoopCapital.com

James Reynolds Jr. Chairman, CEO

$165.0* 88.4%

99 192

Investment banking, brokerage and advisory firm

New LOOP CAPITAL MARKETS LLC Chicago

Thomas S. Ricketts Chairman

$163.019 -65.4%

NA NA

Major League Baseball team

258

BLISTEX INC. Oak Brook

630-571-2870 Blistex.com

Justin Arch CEO

$162.4* 6.6%

241 257

Manufacturer and marketer of consumer health care products

272

CENTRO INC. Chicago

312-423-1565 Centro.net

Shawn Riegsecker CEO

$160.0* 14.3%

218 642

Technology and media services

288

MEDSPEED LLC Elmhurst

866-901-4201 MedSpeed.com

Jake Crampton CEO

$159.9 24.9%

414 1,864

Health care logistics, same-day transportation

257

TURTLE WAX INC. Addison

630-455-3700 TurtleWax.com

Denis J. Healy Jr. Executive chairman

$155.4e 0.0%

404e 911e

Manufacturer of automotive products

259

BENESTAR BRANDS25 Chicago

773-254-7400 BenestarBrands.com

Carl Lee CEO

$155.3e 2.2%

87e 345e

Food and beverage

285

RAISE Chicago

888-578-8422 Raise.com

Jay Klauminzer CEO

$155.0e 19.2%

NA 115

Gift card marketplace

282

ADVANCED CLINICAL LLC Deerfield

847-267-1176 AdvancedClinical.com

Julie Ross President

$153.5* 14.5%

58 300

Clinical development

216

AMSIVE26 Bolingbrook

331-318-7800 Amsive.com

Brad Moore CEO

$152.0 -25.9%

325 652

Strategic marketing services provider

261

BUTERA FINER FOODS INC. Elgin

847-741-1010 ButeraMarket.com

Paul Butera CEO

$151.0e 0.7%

633e 633e

Retail grocery chain

277

AMERICAN TRANSPORT GROUP 888-284-5623 LLC Chicago ATGFreight.com

Harold Gross President

$149.9e 8.8%

112e 128e

Third-party logistics

275

H.W. LOCHNER INC. Chicago

312-372-7346 HWLochner.com

Jeanne T. Cormier President, CEO

$149.1 6.8%

65 591

Engineering consultant

290

OTHER WORLD COMPUTING INC. Woodstock

815-338-8685 MacSales.com

Lawrence R. O’Connor CEO

$147.5* 17.3%

159 286

Online seller of computer software and equipment

266

NATIONAL VAN LINES INC. Broadview

708-450-2900 NationalVanLines.com

Timothy Helenthal Chairman, CEO

$146.0 0.7%

130 141

Interstate moving and storage of household goods

251

STOUT Chicago

312-857-9000 Stout.com

Craige L. Stout Chairman, CEO

$146.0 -10.4%

134 468

Global investment bank and advisory firm

267

SUNSET FOODS MART INC. Highland Park

847-432-0035 SunsetFoods.com

John E. Cortesi President, CEO

$145.1e 0.5%

883e 883e

Retail grocery

268

NOVAK CONSTRUCTION CO. Chicago

773-278-1100 NovakConstruction.com

John Novak President

$143.0 0.0%

e

97 97e

General contractor

271

IMPACT NETWORKING LLC Lake Forest

847-785-2250 ImpactMyBiz.com

Frank Cucco CEO

$140.9 0.3%

476 677

Managed services provider focusing on IT, cybersecurity, marketing and innovation

269

INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTORS INC. Elmhurst

630-834-8043 ICIBuilds.com

Bruce R. Bronge President

$139.8 -2.1%

59 59e

Construction manager, general contractor, design builder

NITEL Chicago

888-450-2100 NitelUSA.com

Ron Grason, President Rick Stern, CEO

$139.0 21.1%

209 209

Network and security solutions provider

305

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 27

1.8% ThoughtWorks

2.3% Crowe

2.4%1

2.4% Halo Branded Solutions

800-843-2827 Cubs.com

e

Peer Foods Group

MAT Holdings Owner and operator of XSport gyms

CHICAGO CUBS BASEBALL CLUB LLC Chicago

e

0.3%

Airport services

137

e

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

2.6% Boler (Hendrickson)

2.7%e TPS Parking Management

2.7%e QST Industries

3.1% Culligan International

3.5%e Amsted Industries

3.8% Energy Distribution Partners (EDPO)

3.9% SRAM

4.2% Baker McKenzie

4.3% Convergint Technologies

4.7%e Hub International

5.4% Brake Parts

5.5% CC Industries

5.9%e Baldwin Richardson Foods

5.9% SEKO Worldwide

6.0% 1. Total headcount includes international membership firms. e = Crain’s estimate.

Source: Crain’s list

4/15/21 2:16 PM

28 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

CRAIN’S LIST CHICAGO’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES

◗ LOCAL EMPLOYERS TOP 20 COMPANIES WITH MORE THAN 1,000 LOCAL FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES, 2020 Headcount

Ranked by 2020 revenue. e = Crain’s estimate (in gray). * = Company estimate.

Prior rank

rose, fell from 2019

Health Care Service Corp.

7,889 Portillo’s Hot Dogs

5,550 Alden Management Services

4,850e Medline Industries

4,800 DuPage Medical Group

4,486 Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises

3,830

e

Ferrara

3,000 Athletico Physical Therapy

Capital Fitness (XSport Fitness)

2,730e Reyes Holdings

2,700 Hearthside Food Solutions

2,517 Aldi U.S.

2,200e OSI Group

2,146 Alight Solutions

2,084 S&C Electric

2,050 Guaranteed Rate

2,000* Follett

1,915 Carl Buddig

1,900 WeatherTech Direct

1,741 NA: Not available. e = Crain’s estimate. * = Company estimate.

Source: Crain’s lists

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 28

NA

Type of business

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

273 273 275 275 275 278 279

CREATIVE WERKS LLC Elk Grove Village

630-860-2222 Creative-Werks.com

Steve Schroeder President

$139.0 26.4%

148 148

Food co-packer; packaging designer and manufacturer

287

PEERLESS NETWORK INC. Chicago

312-506-0920 PeerlessNetwork.com

John Barnicle President, CEO

$139.0e 7.8%

100e 140e

Telecom services

253

HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER & CO. Niles

847-581-8600 Hammacher.com

Richard W. Tinberg CEO

$130.0e -20.0%

NA NA

Specialty retail catalog

295

JOHN BURNS CONSTRUCTION CO. Orland Park

708-326-3500 JBConstructionCo.com

William J. O’Malley CEO

$130.0e 5.4%

209e 384e

General contractor, electrical subcontractor

280

NETRIX LLC Bannockburn

847-283-7300 NetrixLLC.com

Rob Dang CEO

$130.0* 3.2%

328 505

Information technology services firm

293

PANGEA PROPERTIES Chicago

312-924-5745 PangeaProperties.com

Peter Martay CEO

$129.7 4.2%

382 500

Owner and operator of apartment units

294

TRADING TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL INC. Chicago

312-476-1000 TradingTechnologies.com

Tim Geannopulos, Chairman, CEO, Farley Owens, President

$129.3e -4.0%

188 302

Professional trading software, infrastructure and data services

280 281 282 283

274

SCHUMACHER ELECTRIC CORP. Mount Prospect

800-621-5485 BatteryChargers.com

Donald A. Schumacher Founder

$129.2e -7.6%

70e NA

Manufacturer of battery chargers, transformers and welders

278

NELSON WESTERBERG INC. Elk Grove Village

847-437-2080 NelsonWesterberg.com

John R. Westerberg Chairman

$128.7 -6.3%

158 265

Corporate, office and industrial moving services

283

SAYERS TECHNOLOGY Vernon Hills

800-323-5357 Sayers.com

Chris Callahan President, CEO

$128.6e -4.0%

88e 157e

Information technology products and services provider

280

WINDY CITY-FOX MOTORSPORTS LLC Rosemont

630-621-8528 WindyCityMC.com

Ozzie G. Giglio CEO

$128.0* -5.2%

310 310

Motorcycle sales and service

284 285 286

276

BUSINESS IT SOURCE INC. Buffalo Grove

847-793-0600 BitsInc.com

Bob Frauenheim CEO

$127.7 -4.8%

62 62

IT products and services provider

888-456-9564 OverturePromotions.com

JoAnn Gilley CEO

$126.9 NA

144 150

Promotional products

287 288

2,800e

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

309

Voyant Beauty

3,518

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

New OVERTURE PROMOTIONS INC. Waukegan

30

31

31 31 31

MARINO CHRYSLER JEEP DODGE RAM (UPTOWN MOTORS INC.) Chicago

888-649-3332 MarinoChryslerJeepDodge.net

Anthony Marino President

$126.4e -3.5%

105e 105e

Auto dealership

31

264

KELSO-BURNETT CO. Rolling Meadows

847-259-0720 Kelso-Burnett.com

Stefan R. Lopata CEO

$125.2 -14.5%

500 500

Electrical and telecommunications contractor

844-474-4726 ShipBob.com

Dhruv Saxena, CEO, Divey Gulati, Chief operating officer

$124.8* 115.6%

360 670

Cloud-based logistics platform specializing in fulfillment services

31 32 32 32 32

New SHIPBOB Chicago FOUR SEASONS HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING INC. Bedford Park

855-837-8361 FourSeasonsHeatingCooling.com

David Musial CEO

$124.4e -12.8%

NA NA

HVAC, plumbing, home remodeling contractor

290 291 292 292 294

179

CHICAGO WHITE SOX Chicago

312-674-1000 WhiteSox.com

Jerry M. Reinsdorf Chairman

$124.019 -56.5%

NA NA

Major League Baseball team

224

GIBSONS RESTAURANT GROUP Chicago

312-587-0575 GRGMC.com

Steve J. Lombardo III Chairman, general counsel

$120.0e -39.2%

1,000e 1,364e

Owner and operator of restaurants

877-267-0267 BOS.com

George Pfeiffer CEO

$120.0 12.1%

117 150

Contract office furniture company

304 305 306

31 31

284

270

299 300 301 302 303

30 31

31

289

295 296 297 297

30

New BOS Roselle 300

KENNICOTT BROTHERS CO. Chicago

312-492-8200 Kennicott.com

Gustavo Gilchrist President

$120.0* 0.0%

152 342

Wholesale flowers and supplies

296

PRODUCERS NATIONAL CORP. Niles

773-299-7500 ProducersNational.com

Matthew J. Dutkanych CEO

$119.0 -3.3%

215 235

Insurance conglomerate specializing in personal and commercial insurance

299

GALLANT BUILDING SOLUTIONS Crystal Lake

815-568-1880 EGallant.com

James J. Stahl President

$118.5e -2.1%

76e 76e

General contractor

340

HOME RUN INN INC. Woodridge

630-783-9696 HomeRunInnPizza.com

Dan Costello CEO

$117.3e 38.0%

293e 293e

Frozen pizza; restaurants

630-949-3456 ALitho.com

Michael Fontana President

$116.0e -10.1%

NA NA

Printing and direct marketing services company

New AMERICAN LITHO Carol Stream 304

FORWARD SPACE LLC Chicago

312-942-1100 ForwardSpace.com

Jenny Niemann President, CEO

$116.0 0.9%

114 135

Contract furniture, flooring, asset management, architectural wall systems and technology solutions

297

CURRAN CONTRACTING CO. Crystal Lake

815-455-5100 CurranContracting.com

James “Rick” Noe President

$113.8e -7.1%

152e 206e

Asphalt paver, road builder, excavating contractor

246

INTERIOR INVESTMENTS Lincolnshire

847-325-1000 InteriorInvestments.com

Michael Greenberg Principal

$112.5* -32.5%

100 175

Contract office furniture dealer

306

MADISON CONSTRUCTION CO. Orland Park

708-535-7716 MadisonConstruction.net

Rob Ferrino President, CEO

$111.0e -2.1%

96e 96e

General contractor

285

DAUBERT INDUSTRIES INC. Chicago

708-496-7350 Daubert.com

Matthew Puz President

$111.0e -14.6%

NA NA

Chemical manufacturer and car care product provider

312-201-8400 HBRConsulting.com

Christopher Petrini-Poli Executive chairman

$110.5 NA

117 328

Strategic guidance and operational solutions for the legal industry

New HBR CONSULTING LLC Chicago 332

HONEY-CAN-DO Berkeley

708-240-8100 HoneyCanDo.com

Steve Greenspon CEO

$108.0* 19.7%

102 119

Manufacturer of home organization and storage items

302

SMITHBUCKLIN Chicago

800-539-9740 SmithBucklin.com

Matthew Sanderson President, CEO

$106.2 -10.6%

375 625

Association management and services

289

FLORSTAR SALES INC. Romeoville

815-836-2800 Florstar.com

F. Wade Cassidy Chairman

$104.4e -17.8%

NA NA

Distributor of floor coverings; logistics

4/15/21 2:16 PM

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32 32 32

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 29

w WOMAN UP

Prior rank

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

FEMALE LEADERSHIP ON THE LIST Type of business

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

307

313

CORPORATE CONCEPTS INC. Lombard

630-691-8800 CorpConc.com

Victoria M. Hansel, CEO Lawrence C. Zerante, President

$104.1 -3.8%

66 66

Office furniture dealer

308

292

THE MUMFORD COS. Chicago

312-733-2600 MumfordCompanies.com

Phil Mumford Sr. Phil Mumford Jr. Co-owners

$103.6 -17.3%

52 492

Manufacturing, construction and real estate

309 310

308

PLOTE CONSTRUCTION INC. Hoffman Estates

847-695-9300 Plote.com

Daniel Plote President, CEO

$103.4e -6.3%

NA NA

Paving and roadbuilding; general contractor

New NEPHROLOGY ASSOCIATES OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS/INDIANA Oak Brook

630-573-5000 NephDocs.com

Brian J. O’Dea CEO

$102.8 35.6%

318 417

Private specialty physician practice specializing in nephrology

311 312

New NEIGHBORHOOD LOANS INC. Downers Grove

630-246-4777 NeighborhoodLoans.com

Reno Manuele President

$102.4 138.3%

242 392

Residential mortgage lender

888-722-4633 Rabine.com

Austin Rabine CEO

$102.3* -7.8%

130 210

Provider of commercial paving, roofing, snow removal, assessments and pipeline televising

313

New MERGE27 Chicago

312-803-1900 MergeWorld.com

Patrick Venetucci, CEO Mark Goble, Chief operating officer

$102.3* -12.0%

230 515

Marketing services

314 315 316

326

847-205-1922 BCDVideo.com

Jeff Burgess President, CEO

$101.1 7.6%

67 74

Video data infrastructure manufacturer for the security industry

New BOUNTEOUS Chicago

877-220-5862 Bounteous.com

Keith Schwartz CEO

$100.9* 61.4%

156 616

Digital experience consultancy

New LAUNCH TECHNICAL WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS Oak Brook

888-888-7195 LaunchTWS.com

Mike Guagenti CEO

$100.5 -34.9%

104 1,112

317

319

HIGHLAND PARK FORD Highland Park

847-433-7200 HighlandParkFord.com

Marty Price Alan Frisch Dealer principals

$100.1e -3.5%

50e 50e

Auto sales and service

318

298

OTTO ENGINEERING INC. Carpentersville

847-428-7171 OttoExcellence.com

Thomas J. Roeser President

$100.0 -18.0%

501 501

Manufacturer of audio accessories, industrial controls and dies for metal stampings

318 320 321 322 323

229

WORLD’S FINEST CHOCOLATE INC. Chicago

773-847-4600 WorldsFinestChocolate.com

Edmond F. Opler Chairman, CEO

$100.028 -46.5%

NA NA

Candy manufacturer

630-513-9600 CompactInd.com

Dale V. Brown CEO

$99.2 -4.2%

105 105

Contract manufacturer and co-packer of dry foods

307

RABINE Schaumburg

BCD INTERNATIONAL Buffalo Grove

New COMPACT INDUSTRIES INC. St. Charles

No. 31 Heico Emily Heisley Stoeckel, chairman No. 39 Grant Thornton Nichole Jordan, central region managing partner No. 42 The McShane Cos. Molly McShane, CEO No. 70 Winston & Strawn Linda Coberly, Chicago managing partner No. 81 Shure Christine Schyvinck, president, CEO No. 98 Seyfarth Shaw Tracy Billows, Chicago co-managing partner No. 120 American Hotel Register Angela Korompilas, president, CEO No. 122 BrightStar Group Holdings Shelly Sun, CEO

Technical workforce solutions provider focused on aviation, industrial and transportation

No. 127 McHugh Enterprises Patricia McHugh, chairman No. 146 CareerBuilder Irina Novoselsky, CEO No. 153 United Scrap Metal Marsha Serlin, CEO No. 163 Alden Management Services Randi Schlossberg-Schullo, president No. 169 Skidmore Owings & Merrill Xuan Fu, managing partner No. 178 Sutton Auto Team Karen Ford, dealer manager

191

FIRST HOSPITALITY Rosemont

224-257-4000 FirstHospitality.com

David Duncan President, CEO

$99.1 -64.1%

280 1,070

Hotel management, acquisitions, development

324

FGMK LLC Bannockburn

847-374-0400 FGMK.com

Mario J. Donato Managing partner

$99.029 0.0%

33129 33129

Assurance, tax and advisory services firm

New ZIEGLER Chicago

312-263-0110 Ziegler.com

Daniel J. Hermann President, CEO, head of investment banking

$98.4 12.1%

100 195

Boutique investment bank, capital markets and proprietary investments firm

324 325

New GP TRANSPORTATION Joliet

800-460-5071 GPTransCo.com

Dominic Zastarskis CEO

$96.8 14.1%

260 326

Truckload services

323

A. EPSTEIN AND SONS INTERNATIONAL INC. Chicago

312-454-9100 EpsteinGlobal.com

Jim A. Jirsa, Executive managing director, CFO

$95.4* -4.0%

130 225

Architecture, interior design, engineering, construction

326 327 328

317

CHICAGO MEAT AUTHORITY INC. Chicago

800-383-3811 ChicagoMeat.com

Jordan M. Dorfman President

$95.0 -9.5%

300 300

Meat processor

No. 249 Sipi Metals Marion Cameron, CEO

314

TRIO MANAGEMENT INC. Chicago

708-375-1407 TrioManagement.us

Doug Cook CEO

$93.7e -13.2%

197e 275e

Home services, management consulting

No. 260 Advanced Clinical Julie Ross, president

345

FARMINGTON FOODS INC. Forest Park

708-771-3600 FarmingtonFoods.com

Anthony M. DiJohn, President, Albert A. La Valle, COO, CFO

$92.0 12.9%

165 170

Meat processor

No. 264 H.W. Lochner Jeanne Cormier, president, CEO

329 329

322

MOREY Woodridge

630-754-2300 MoreyCorp.com

Dana Morey CEO

$90.0e -10.0%

400e 400e

Designer and manufacturer of electronics

No. 284 Overture Promotions JoAnn Gilley, CEO

219-949-3100 PowersAndSons.com

Kelly P. Baria Vice president

$90.0e 0.0%

40e 70e

General contracting, construction management, design-build and owner’s rep firm

No. 297 Forward Space Jenny Niemann, president, CEO

New POWERS & SONS CONSTRUCTION CO. INC. Gary

331 332 333 334

310

NEW WORLD VAN LINES INC. Chicago

800-422-9300 NWVL.com

Patricia Marx Chairman, treasurer

$89.6* -18.2%

148 534

Moving and storage company

327

WALTER E. SMITHE FURNITURE INC. Itasca

630-285-8000 Smithe.com

Walter E. Smithe III President

$89.5e -3.9%

395e 395e

Furniture retailer

321

WESTSIDE MECHANICAL GROUP Naperville

630-369-6690 WSMech.com

James F. Reiss CEO

$89.2 -0.3%

350 350

HVAC, construction, engineering, mechanical services

331

FREEBORN & PETERS LLP Chicago

312-360-6000 Freeborn.com

Joseph L. Fogel William E. Russell Co-managing partners

$89.0e -2.1%

220e 280e

Law firm

335 336 337 338

355

AMERICANEAGLE.COM (SVANACO INC.) Des Plaines

847-699-0300 Americaneagle.com

Tony Svanascini CEO

$87.5* 18.8%

405 570

Website design, development, hosting and digital marketing

312-878-8586 RedShelf.com

Greg Fenton CEO

$87.2 33.6%

91 109

Provider of digital textbooks and related distribution software

ESD Chicago

312-372-1200 ESDGlobal.com

Raj P. Gupta Executive chairman

$86.9* 5.9%

286 303

Consulting engineering firm

New VISTA TRANS Lake in the Hills

773-904-0023 VistaTrans.com

Oleksandr Popovych CEO

$86.5 59.9%

42 85

Transportation logistics

New REDSHELF Chicago 344

P020-P031_CCB_20210419.indd 29

No. 209 Continental Motors Group Cheryl Nelson, owner No. 214 Hickory Farms Diane Pearse, CEO No. 237 MNJ Technologies Direct Susan Kozak, CEO No. 238 Prospect Airport Services Vicki Strobel, president, CEO

No. 307 Corporate Concepts Victoria Hansel, CEO No. 329 Powers & Sons Construction Kelly Baria, vice president No. 331 New World Van Lines Patricia Marx, chairman, treasurer No. 348 Bigane Paving Anne Bigane Wilson, president, CEO No. 356 La Galera Produce Erica Vega, chief operating officer No. 363 Marilyn Miglin Marilyn Miglin, president, CEO Source: Crain’s list

4/15/21 2:16 PM

30 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

CRAIN’S LIST CHICAGO’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES Ranked by 2020 revenue. e = Crain’s estimate (in gray). * = Company estimate.

Prior rank

339 340 341 342 343 344 345 345 347 348 348 350 351 352 353 353 353 356 357 358 359 359 361 362 363 364 365 366

CR

2020 revenue (millions); % change from 2019

Full-time local employees as of 12/31/2020; worldwide

226 Co @prop Type of business

Company

Phone/website

Top executive(s)

342

CHS ACQUISITION CORP. Chicago Heights

708-756-5619 CHS.com

Bradley R. Corral President

$85.7 1.9%

160 160

Re-rolling steel mill

341

ATTORNEYS’ TITLE GUARANTY FUND INC. Chicago

312-372-8361 ATGF.com

Peter J. Birnbaum President, CEO

$85.6 0.9%

145 199

Provider of title insurance and real estate services

335

GREELEY AND HANSEN Chicago

800-837-9779 Greeley-Hansen.com

John C. Robak CEO

$85.1 -2.2%

105 256

Global civil and environmental engineering, architecture and consulting firm

314

WOZNIAK INDUSTRIES INC. Schaumburg

630-954-3400 WozniakIndustries.com

Michael R. Wozniak President, CEO

$85.0* -21.3%

65 179

Manufacturer of metal components

353

BECKER LOGISTICS LLC Glendale Heights

630-529-0700 BeckerLogistics.com

Jim Becker CEO

$83.2e 8.8%

82e 103e

Third-party logistics

328

SEVAN MULTI-SITE SOLUTIONS INC. Downers Grove

312-756-7778 SevanSolutions.com

Jim Evans President, CEO

$83.2 -10.2%

122 382

Design, construction, program management and data analytics services

329

HOFFER PLASTICS CORP. South Elgin

847-741-5740 HofferPlastics.com

William A. Hoffer Chairman

$83.0 -9.8%

348 350

Custom plastic injection molding

708-449-1990 KIIndustries.com

Michael MacLean President, CEO

$83.0 -3.5%

53 700

Manufacturer of decorative plastic and die-cast components

New KI INDUSTRIES Berkeley 333

BLUE CHIP MARKETING Chicago

847-418-8001 BlueChipWW.com

Stanton Kawer Chairman, CEO

$82.8e -8.0%

225e 225e

Creative marketing agency with expertise in brand and shopper marketing

316

226 COMPANIES Bannockburn

312-222-1110 226Companies.com

David Feder, Managing partner; Mark Knepper, Bernie Donaldson, Principals

$82.0 -23.6%

177 189

Office, health care, senior living furniture and custom solutions

336

BIGANE PAVING CO. Chicago

312-738-0600 BiganePaving.com

Anne Bigane Wilson President, CEO

$82.0e -5.5%

90e 90e

Highway paving contractor

337

IMPACT ADVISORS LLC Naperville

800-680-7570 Impact-Advisors.com

Peter C. Smith, CEO Andrew M. Smith, President

$80.8 NA

22 199

Health care IT consulting

350

HORTON GROUP Orland Park

800-383-8283 TheHortonGroup.com

Glenn M. Horton, Chairman, Dan Horton, President, CEO

$80.5* 3.9%

271 359

Insurance and consulting

339

CRAMER-KRASSELT CO. Chicago

312-616-9600 C-K.com

Peter G. Krivkovich Chairman, CEO

$80.4 -6.7%

239 297

Provider of advertising, media, interactive and public relations

300

QST INDUSTRIES INC. Chicago

312-930-9400 QST.com

Michael Danch, Alexander Danch, Co-CEOs

$80.0 -33.3%

17 542

Manufacturer and distributor of apparel components

333

SUPERIOR GRAPHITE CO. Chicago

312-559-2999 SuperiorGraphite.com

Edward O. Carney Chairman, CEO

$80.0 -11.1%

69 191

Graphite and carbon manufacturer

219

TPS PARKING MANAGEMENT LLC Chicago

312-453-1700 TheParkingSpot.com

Jeff Foland President, CEO

$80.0e -59.9%

30e 1,100e

773-446-6161 LaGaleraProduce.com

Francisco Vega, Jose D. Vega, Partners; Erica Vega, Chief operating officer

$79.7 14.0%

62 62

Wholesale produce distributor

630-834-1669 JCAndersonInc.com

Michael L. Yazbec President

$79.5 -24.2%

120 120

General contractor

312-580-7500 SDIPresence.com

David A. Gupta CEO

$79.5* 59.9%

193 240

IT services firm

New LA GALERA PRODUCE Chicago 311

J.C. ANDERSON INC. Elmhurst

New SDI PRESENCE Chicago

Off-airport parking

325

INTEC GROUP INC. Palatine

847-358-0088 IntecGrp.com

Steve M. Perlman Chairman, CEO

$78.0 -18.8%

85 780

Manufacturer of precision injection and insert molded components and assemblies

338

MAGNECO/METREL INC. Addison

630-543-6660 Magneco-Metrel.com

Charles W. Connors Jr. President, CEO

$78.0e -9.7%

NA NA

Manufacturer of colloidal silica bonded refractories

362

BANNER WHOLESALE GROCERIES Chicago

312-421-2650 BannerWholesale.com

Richard Saltzman President

$77.6* 19.4%

103 103

Grocer

847-588-2580 SpecialtyPrintComm.com

Adam LeFebvre President

$75.8 -12.1%

330 330

Direct mail printing and fulfillment company

312-266-4600 MarilynMiglin.com

Marilyn J. Miglin President, CEO

$75.3e -17.6%

32e 74e

Fragrance, cosmetics, skin-care products

New ELEMENTS GLOBAL SERVICES Chicago

312-423-3642 ElementsGS.com

Rick Hammell CEO

$75.1 NA

26 186

HR services company specializing in supporting global expansion

New TRANSPORTATION ONE Chicago

312-429-6670 TransportationOne.com

Jamie Teets CEO

$75.0 NA

45 45

Logistics services

630-469-3838 AakashChemicals.com

Aakash Shah CEO

$75.0 -7.4%

27 80

Ingredients distribution for the food, cosmetic, inks and coatings industries

New SPECIALTY PRINT COMMUNICATIONS Niles 330

346

MARILYN MIGLIN LP Chicago

AAKASH CHEMICALS Glendale Heights

Most information for this list is provided by the companies. Figures estimated by Crain’s are produced using various sources of information about the companies and their industries. The list includes companies based in the Chicago area: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake (Ill.), Lake (Ind.), McHenry and Will counties. State Farm and certain other large companies based outside of Crain’s seven-county area are also included. Companies are listed as “New” in the prior year rank if they did not appear on last year’s list. NA: Not available. NC: No change. e = Crain’s estimate. * = Company estimate. 1. From Moody’s. 2. Total employment, from April 2020 impact report. 3. From American Lawyer. 4. From Moody’s, for 12 months ending June 30. 5. 2019 figure is a Crain’s estimate. 6. From March 2021 news release. 7. From April 2021 news release. 8. From Automotive News. 9. Formerly Corelle Brands Holdings, which acquired Instant Brands in March 2019. 10. Includes international membership firms. 11. CCC Information Services is scheduled to go public before the end of the second quarter through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company called Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp., at which point it will be renamed CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings Inc. 12. From the company’s website. 2019 revenue figure is from Moody’s and as of September 2019. 13. From February 2021 Crain’s story. 14. ATI is scheduled to go public before the end of the second quarter through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company called Fortress Value Acquisition Corp. II. 15. From proxy statement filed by Fortress Value Acquisition Corp. II. 16. Decrease reflects the sale of four dealerships. 17. Estimate from Moody’s for 12 month period ending Sept. 30, 2020. 18. Formerly OppLoans.

The company is scheduled to go public before the end of the second quarter through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company called FG New America Acquisition Corp. 19. Estimate from Forbes. 20 Kronos Foods Corp. and Grecian Delight were acquired by Entrepreneurial Equity Partners and merged in spring 2020. 21. 2019 figure represents Grecian Delight only. 22. Formerly Response Team 1 Holdings LLC. 23. SBA PPP loan data, jobs retained. 24. Formerly Midwest Equity Mortgage LLC. 25. Formerly Evans Food Group Ltd. 26. Formerly Vision. 27. Includes Sandbox Agency, which combined with Merge in March 2020. 28. From Candy Industry. 29. From Accounting Today.

Researched by Chuck Soder and Crain’s staff (researcher@chicagobusiness.com)

WANT 390 COMPANIES WITH MORE THAN $30 MILLION IN REVENUE? BECOME A CRAIN’S DATA MEMBER: CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM/DATA-LISTS

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 31

CRAIN’S LIST INDEX 226 Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 @properties (At World Properties LLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 A A. Epstein and Sons International Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Aakash Chemicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Abt Electronics Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Ace Hardware Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Addison Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Advanced Clinical LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Advantage Chevrolet of Hodgkins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 AHEAD Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 AIT Worldwide Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Alden Management Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Aldi U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Aldridge Electric Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Alera Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Alfred Benesch & Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Alight Solutions LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 American Hotel Register Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 American Litho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 American Transport Group LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Americaneagle.com (Svanaco Inc.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Americorp Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Amsive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Amsted Industries Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ARCO/Murray National Construction Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Athletico Physical Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ATI Holdings Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Atlas Toyota Material Handling LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Avant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 B Baird & Warner Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Baker McKenzie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Baker Tilly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Baldwin Richardson Foods Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Banner Wholesale Groceries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 BCD International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 BDO USA LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 BEAR Construction Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Becker Logistics LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Becknell Industrial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Benestar Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Berglund Construction Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Berlin Packaging LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Bigane Paving Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Biggers Chevrolet/Isuzu Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Binny’s Beverage Depot (Gold Standard Enterprises Inc.) . . . . . 24 Black Horse Carriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Blistex Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Blue Chip Marketing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Bob Loquercio Auto Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Boler Co. (Hendrickson) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 BOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Bounteous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Brake Parts Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 BrightStar Group Holdings Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Bulley & Andrews LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Burwood Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Business IT Source Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Butera Finer Foods Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 C Campagna-Turano Bakery Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Capital Fitness Inc. (XSport Fitness) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 CareerBuilder LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Carl Buddig & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 CC Industries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 CCC Information Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Celebrity Home Loans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Centro Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Chapman and Cutler LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Chicago Bears Football Club Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Chicago Bulls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Chicago Cubs Baseball Club LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Chicago Meat Authority Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Chicago White Sox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Chicagoland Automotive Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 CHS Acquisition Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Citadel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Citadel Securities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Clayco Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Climate Pros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Clover Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Clune Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Compact Industries Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 ComPsych Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Continental Motors Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Convergint Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Corporate Concepts Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Cramer-Krasselt Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 creative werks LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Crowe LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Culligan International Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Curran Contracting Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Daniel J. Edelman Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Daubert Industries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 DoALL Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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Duchossois Group Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 DuPage Medical Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 E Ed Miniat LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Edward Don & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Elements Global Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Elkay Manufacturing Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 EMKAY Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Empire Today LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Employco USA Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 EN Engineering LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Endurance Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Energy Distribution Partners (EDPO LLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Enesco LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Ensono . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 ESD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Executive Construction Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 EXP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 F F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen & Associates LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Farmington Foods Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 FCL Builders LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Federal Savings Bank, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Fellowes Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Ferrara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 FGMK LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Fidelitone Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 First Hospitality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Flexera Software LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Florstar Sales Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Flying Food Group LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Follett Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Fort Dearborn Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Forward Space LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Frank Consolidated Enterprises Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Freeborn & Peters LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 G Gallant Building Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Gary Lang Auto Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 George Sollitt Construction Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Gibsons Restaurant Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Gonnella Baking Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 GP Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Grant Thornton LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Graycor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Grecian Delight Foods|Kronos (World Foods Holdings) . . . . . . . 25 Greeley and Hansen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Griffith Foods Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Guaranteed Rate Cos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 H H.W. Lochner Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Hallstar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Halo Branded Solutions Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Havi Group LP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 HBR Consulting LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Health Care Service Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Hearthside Food Solutions LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Heico Cos. LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Heniff Transportation Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Henricksen & Co. Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Hickory Farms Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Highland Park Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Hightower Advisors LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Hill Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Hoffer Plastics Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Hollister Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Home Run Inn Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Honey-Can-Do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Horton Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Hub International Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 IHC Construction Cos. LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 I Illinois Bone & Joint Institute LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Impact Advisors LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Impact Networking LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Information Resources Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Instant Brands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Intec Group Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Interior Investments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 International Contractors Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 International Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 ITsavvy LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 J J.C. Anderson Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Jel Sert Co., The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Jenner & Block LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 John Burns Construction Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 K Katten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Kearney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 KeHE Distributors LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Kelso-Burnett Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Kennicott Brothers Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

KI Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Kirkland & Ellis LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Klein Tools Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Koch Foods Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 L La Galera Produce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Launch Technical Workforce Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Leopardo Cos. Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Lincoln Provision Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Loeber Motors Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Loop Capital Markets LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 M MacLean-Fogg Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Madison Construction Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Madison Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing Co. LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Magneco/Metrel Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Marilyn Miglin LP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Marino Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram (Uptown Motors Inc.) . . . . . 28 MAT Holdings Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Mayer Brown LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Mazzetta Co. LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 McDermott Will & Emery LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 McGrath Imports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 McHugh Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 McShane Cos., The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Medix Staffing Solutions Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Medline Industries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Medspeed LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Merge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Meridian Group International Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Midland Paper Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Millennium Trust Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Miner Enterprises Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Miracapo Pizza Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 MNJ Technologies Direct Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 MoLo Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Morey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Motor Werks Auto Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Mr. Bult’s Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Mumford Cos., The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 N Napleton Auto Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Napleton Automotive Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 National Van Lines Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Neighborhood Loans Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Nelson Westerberg Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Nephrology Associates of Northern Illinois/Indiana . . . . . . . . . 29 Netrix LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Network Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 New World Van Lines Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Newly Weds Foods Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Nitel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Novak Construction Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 NOW Health Group Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 O O’Neil Industries Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Old World Industries LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 OppFi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 OSI Group LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 OSM Worldwide (One Stop Mailing LLC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Other World Computing Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Otto Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Overture Promotions Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 P Panduit Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Pangea Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Paragon Micro Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Parent Petroleum Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Paris Presents Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Parksite Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Parts Town (PT Holdings LLC). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Patrick Dealer Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Peer Foods Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Peerless Network Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Pepper Construction Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Phusion Projects LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Plote Construction Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 PLS Financial Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Portillo’s Hot Dogs LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Power Construction Co. LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Powers & Sons Construction Co. Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Pregis LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Premier Design & Build Group LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Producers National Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Prospect Airport Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Q QST Industries Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 R Rabine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Raise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Raja Foods LLC (Patel Brothers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Readerlink LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 RedShelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Redwood Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Reyes Holdings LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 RIM Logistics Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Rohrman Automotive Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 RoomPlace, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Royal Buying Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 RSM US LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 RTC Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Ryan Specialty Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 S S&C Electric Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Safeway Insurance Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Sayers Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Schiff Hardin LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Schulze & Burch Biscuit Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Schumacher Electric Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 SDI Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Segerdahl (SG360) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SEKO Worldwide LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Senior Lifestyle Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Sentinel Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Sevan Multi-Site Solutions Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Seyfarth Shaw LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 ShipBob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Shure Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Sidley Austin LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Sikich LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Sipi Metals Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Sirva Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Skender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Skidmore Owings & Merrill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SmithBucklin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 SMS Assist LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Specialty Print Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Spencer Stuart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SRAM LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Stampede Meat Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Steiner Electric Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Sunset Foods Mart Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Superior Graphite Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Sutton Auto Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 T Tandem HR Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Tempel Steel Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Temperature Equipment Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Terlato Wine Group Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ThoughtWorks Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Tony’s Finer Foods Enterprises Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Topco Associates LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 TPS Parking Management LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Trading Technologies International Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Transportation One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Trio Management Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 True Value Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Trustmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 TTX Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Turtle Wax Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Tuthill Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Ty Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Tyson Motor LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 U United Scrap Metal Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Universal Scrap Metals Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 V Vedder Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Venturi Restoration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 VillageMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Vista Trans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Vistex Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Voyant Beauty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 W W.S. Darley & Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Walsh Group Ltd., The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Walter E. Smithe Furniture Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Waterton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 WeatherTech Direct LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Weber Packaging Solutions Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Weber-Stephen Products LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 West Monroe Partners LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Westside Mechanical Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 White Lodging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 William A. Randolph Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 William Blair & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 William Ryan Homes Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Windy City-Fox Motorsports LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Winston & Strawn LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Wirtz Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Wiss Janney Elstner Associates Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 World’s Finest Chocolate Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Wozniak Industries Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Z Ziegler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 ZS Associates Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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SUCCESSION PLANNING FOR PRIVATE COMPANIES

PREPARING FOR LEADERSHIP TRANSITION

Succession of leadership and ownership is critical to the long-term success of a business. For privately-held companies, the current economic climate makes this one of the most opportune times in recent memory to transfer interests. Three Chicago-area executives involved with succession planning shared their thoughts on this vital process with Crain’s Content Studio.

How are you and your organization involved with succession planning?

Rick Fradin: At Chicago Capital we help our clients plan their financial lives. Basic financial plans involve wills, powers of attorney and investing for retirement. As clients’ financial lives become more complicated, trusts and other entities often enter the picture. The single most important item in many financial plans is often the process to select who will be the decision-makers down the road. Our team has decades of experience with these issues, and we help clients design and navigate those road maps.

Susan L. Goldenberg: Attorneys at NGE represent business owners and entrepreneurs, providing advice on corporate structuring and transactional matters as well as estate planning.

Succession planning—a hybrid of corporate and estate planning—is the bread and butter of our practice.

We routinely counsel clients about succession from a business continuity perspective as well as from a tax perspective. Working with families is a key component of this process, whether the business is owned by one family or by unrelated owners who are concerned about integrating what’s best for their business and what’s best for their family. We work with clients on every aspect of succession planning, including leadership succession within the business and ownership succession within their families. This often involves tax considerations as well as family dynamics.

Why is succession planning important?

Goldenberg: Succession planning ensures the continuity of the business into the future. It’s vital to plan for anticipated events, such as the gradual transition of leadership when business leaders approach retirement, and unanticipated events, such as the untimely death of a business leader.

I tell my clients to “hope for the best but plan for the worst.” There must be a plan in place for all contingencies.

Succession planning is also vital for estate planning purposes—passing business interests to heirs who are ill-equipped to manage them can have disastrous effects on the business and an owner’s family. Tax issues must also be accounted for in succession planning; if a business owner dies without having the necessary liquidity to pay estate taxes, it may be necessary to sell the business to generate funds, often resulting in a fire sale and thwarting the desires of future generations to carry on the business.

Fradin: Thoughtful succession planning can provide significant value to all parties. This seems obvious when you have a multigeneration family business. However, succession planning is also important for many smaller entities, and can be the primary determinant of future success—or failure—of trusts, estates and family harmony. Good planning can provide the necessary continuity to help families avoid friction and remain focused on achieving common goals.

LARRY BRAND Chief Human Resources Officer Elkay Manufacturing Co. larry.brand@elkay.com 630-574-4501

company. Data shows that internal promotions increase a company’s efficiency and productivity, while reducing cost. This makes our focus on succession planning a key differentiator for our company.

Personally, I think it would be very difficult for an organization to achieve long-term success without an effective succession plan.

SUSAN L. GOLDENBERG

RICK FRADIN Partner Chicago Capital rfradin@chi-cap.com 312-429-2332

What’s the most common question or concern you’re currently hearing regarding the process?

Fradin: Clients often ask, “Do I really need to worry about succession planning? Everything seems to be working just fine.” We believe effective succession planning is an

Partner, Executive Committee Member Neal Gerber Eisenberg sgoldenberg@nge.com 312-269-8046

ongoing process that benefits from collaboration and inclusion. The sooner you involve your successors in the process, the more likely things will stay on your desired path.

Brand: The most common challenge we face is getting our managers to slow down and fully engage in a robust talent review process. During

Water, cooler.

That’s

“COMPANIES THAT AREN’T READY TO IDENTIFY AND PLAN FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THEIR TOP TALENT . . . ARE AT RISK OF LOSING THEIR BEST PLAYERS.” —LARRY BRAND, ELKAY MANUFACTURING CO. Larry Brand: Succession planning has been a top priority for Elkay over the past five years, as we prepare for retirements within our senior leadership team. Five out of our eight most senior-level executives are retiring within a three-year period. We’re currently halfway through this process.

Because of our proactive focus on succession planning, we’ve been able to fill four out of the five transitions through highly qualified and wellprepared internal promotions.

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Brand: Our employees and alumni will tell you that it’s our culture that sets us apart as an employer. Attracting, developing, and promoting internal talent plays an essential role in maintaining this wonderful work culture, while also ensuring business continuity around the globe. Perhaps more importantly, our employment brand grows stronger when employees realize that we prefer to develop them and promote from within rather than sourcing talent from outside the

©2021 ELKAY MANUFACTURING COMPANY

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4/13/21 9:35 AM

SUCCESSION PLANNING FOR PRIVATE COMPANIES PREPARING FOR LEADERSHIP TRANSITION the pandemic we’ve also noticed that it’s more difficult to have constructive “healthy conflict” conversations when we’re speaking via Zoom rather than in person. We sometimes hear about confusion from employees below the manager level who don’t fully understand the inputs and outputs of succession planning and the supporting talent development program. These employees require further education about the purpose of the program. While the company supports every employee in the pursuit of their individual development plan, not every employee belongs on a path to succession.

Why is now a good time for individuals and businesses to review their succession plans?

Goldenberg: The federal gift tax exemption—the amount any person can give away during his or her lifetime and not pay gift tax—is higher than ever before at $11.7 million. This makes it prudent for business owners to use the exemption to transfer business interests to the

younger generation to facilitate ownership succession and reduce the estate taxes that the senior generation may have to pay. However, because the controlling party in Congress and the President may move to reduce the federal gift tax exemption, it may be wise to consider transferring interests in a business to the younger generation now before Congress reduces the exemption.

Brand: You should always be cultivating and continuously improving your succession planning process so that it can be leveraged at a moment’s notice whenever changes take place in key roles. If senior leadership reduces its emphasis on and investment in succession planning and talent development for economic or other reasons, it creates an unfillable gap. It’s hard to predict the timing, but it will always be there. Another consideration is that the economic uncertainty of the past 12 months brought on by the pandemic will create pent-up demand in the marketplace for key talent. High-value employees who’ve not been identified and

“THE PANDEMIC HAS BROUGHT A RENEWED FOCUS TO SUCCESSION PLANNING, ESPECIALLY FOR FAMILY BUSINESSES.” —RICK FRADIN, CHICAGO CAPITAL

nurtured through effective succession planning may be contemplating their advancement options. These individuals are ripe for poaching by other organizations. Companies that aren’t ready to identify and plan for the advancement of their top talent through succession planning are at risk of losing their best players.

What are some key factors to consider?

Fradin: We encourage clients to focus on the process of succession planning, not just the outcome. Key items include the processes by which people are selected, how performance is evaluated and how adjustments are made over time.

Brand: A consistent employee assessment and talent development process should span across new hires and existing employees to help identify the top talent for consideration during talent review. It helps to have a talent development technology in place to reduce administration and improve information insight about the development needs and progress of key talent. A cohesive, well-designed program has common themes and learnings that dovetail nicely from one level to the next, so they work together as a successful employee moves up through the full series.

Unfortunately, you can’t develop every employee simultaneously, so the selection process of who gets into these programs can at times be quite competitive. While perfect timing is more art than science, your succession plan should predict the anticipated timing of when you’ll need each of your top performers to be ready to advance to the next level. Your talent development programs can then focus on having your top performers at each management level ready to advance when the right time comes.

What are some common challenges to the process, and how can they be addressed?

Brand: Some of the most common challenges to having a great succession plan are making the necessary time commitment and financial investment, protecting the program through economic downturns, and having a strong internal talent development team and external training partner. To ensure you’re getting the time commitment you need from key leaders, make sure the processes are endorsed by your board of directors and enforced by example through the senior leadership team. Start modestly, then build the program year over year while helping leadership understand the true value of the programs so they’re not the first items cut when an economic downtown arrives. A strategic talent development leader and strong internal talent development team will help the program gain the necessary influence across the organization and build credibility with the senior executive team, which is critical to the program’s success. Couple this with a strong external training partner who appreciates your commitment, understands your success criteria, and is loaded with talented people to help you create and deliver great leadership development programs.

Fradin: Many people see succession planning as a one-time event, but good financial planning is flexible and ongoing. Circumstances change over time and a good succession plan should include flexibility to evolve with the changing environment.

Refining the plan over time can help adapt to changes and tailor the plan to fit the evolving goals of the group.

In what ways has the pandemic affected the process?

Goldenberg: Although the pandemic has taken a terrible toll on so many of us, it may present an interesting opportunity for business owners who wish to transfer their assets to younger generations for estate reduction purposes. If a business has been negatively impacted by the pandemic—such as a business in the hospitality sector,

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for example—an appraisal of the business, which is typically used to substantiate the business’ value for estate planning purposes, will reflect the lower value. The client can leverage the lower appraised value by using it as the basis to transfer business interests, versus at a prepandemic value or waiting until the economy and the hospitality sector have recovered. Another benefit is that the appreciation on the transferred interests is removed from the client’s estate, thus reducing the future estate tax burden on the family when the client passes away.

Brand: We’ve had to pivot everything—including talent review and flagship training programs— to a virtual platform, which was challenging at first, but ultimately played out in a very effective manner due to the flexibility and enthusiasm of our employees, the strong leadership of our talent development team and the partnership with our external training partner, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. We have key leaders who’ve announced retirement plans and all processes have continued to move forward through the pandemic.

Fradin: The COVID-19 crisis has led many of us to re-focus on the importance of family, community and health. Many businesses have been stress-tested and loved ones have been lost. The pandemic has brought a renewed focus to succession planning, especially for family businesses.

Over the last few years, what new planning strategies and tactics have become available for privately held businesses?

Fradin: In recent years, dynasty trusts and limited liability companies have become popular strategies for privately held businesses. A dynasty trust is a long-term trust created to pass wealth from generation to generation without incurring transfer taxes such as the gift tax, estate tax, or generation-skipping transfer tax for as long as assets remain in the trust. Limited liability companies, as the name implies, provide protection to owners by limiting their personal liability. We advise clients to keep their plans flexible because the business environment is increasingly competitive and rapidly changing.

Tax laws also change over time. That’s why we believe good succession plans are ongoing and should be updated periodically.

Brand: Privately held companies like Elkay are fortunate because we can access public records and data from publicly traded companies to better understand the external talent pool. This allows us to target talent acquisition, internal processes, and

4/13/21 9:35 AM

SPONSORED CONTENT development strategies to compete for the best talent. Meanwhile, private companies such as Elkay can keep our financials, succession planning, key processes, and strategies close to the vest as there are few public reporting requirements, which can be a competitive advantage in the war for talent.

Goldenberg: Interest rates for loans are at historic lows, making it easier to facilitate a sale of interests in closely held businesses from the senior generation to the junior generation. The appreciation on the value of the transferred business interests will also escape estate tax and result in more assets passing to the junior generation. As mentioned previously, the current federal gift tax exemption is $11.7 million, which is at an historic high, permitting business owners to make more tax-free gifts than ever before. These two factors combine to make now a particularly advantageous time for business owners to reduce their estates. There’s some urgency since the new Congress may reduce the federal gift tax exemption, so time is of the essence.

How important is succession planning to the long-term viability of a company?

Goldenberg: Long-term continuity planning is essential in terms of future leadership. Future leaders need to be mentored to develop skills and leadership qualities. But succession planning also involves other strategic issues such as the long-term need for equity, defining goals for expansion, taking on strategic partners or potentially a liquidity event. Succession planning may involve future owners, particularly for family businesses. If a father wants his daughter to inherit his business, how does he equalize other children who will not inherit it? If he designates one child to control the company in the future, but other children will still be partial owners, it’s critical to plan to protect the interests of the non-controlling children while providing the controlling child with the freedom she needs to lead the business. It’s essential to consult with an experienced adviser who has guided other business owners through this process.

Brand: A good succession plan is one of the most valuable assets a longstanding company can implement and maintain. Without it, much time, energy, and money will be spent on urgent, unplanned external talent acquisitions to address unexpected turnovers. Elkay has been in business for 101 years and we intend to be successful for 100 more. Investing in talent development through an effective and robust talent review and

succession planning process is the best way to achieve this.

Fradin: The importance of succession planning cannot be overstated. Disagreements among owners or managers can have a devastating impact on companies and their owners. It’s important to establish a process for succession that addresses both governance and dispute resolution. It’s also helpful to involve other key stakeholders in the process, so they understand and accept their roles and responsibilities.

LARRY BRAND is chief human resources officer for Elkay Manufacturing Co., a Downers Grove-based, 101-yearold manufacturing firm with more than 3,000 employees and 17 locations worldwide. He has over 25 years of business experience with increasing levels of responsibility compelling leadership and boards to adopt business-driving people strategies. He serves on the board of the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago and teaches at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Evansville.

What priorities does your organization have for succession planning in the next five years?

RICK FRADIN is a partner at Chicago Capital, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) founded on the principle of putting clients first. He joined the firm in 2020 with more than 25 years of investment experience, including research and portfolio management roles with CastleArk Management, William Blair & Co., and Rail-Splitter Capital Management, which he co-founded. A chartered financial analyst (CFA), he holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Brand: We’ll continue with our three-year journey to be prepared for the planned retirements to ensure we have an internal bench to step into these key roles. We’ll also continue to upgrade and improve our flagship development programs.

Business trends and requirements move very quickly, particularly those which touch technology, and we must constantly evaluate our content to ensure we’re developing our next generation of strong leaders.

We’ll continue to curate, adapt, and implement contemporary training and emerging educational topics for our developing employee base.

Fradin: Our main priority is to help our clients win, by helping them with their long-term financial planning.

The focus remains on planning as a process. The priority of continuous improvement inherently helps to develop new leaders.

What advice might you give your associates who aspire to get on or stay on the succession track for key leadership roles in your organization?

Brand: Never assume everyone knows what you want—tell them!

Talk to your manager so they know your career aspirations. Ask for constructive feedback, then act on it and proactively engage in the talent review process. Every employee should create an individual development plan addressing their short- and long-term career goals. I recommend doing this in conjunction with your manager and HR so everyone is aware of your desired career outcomes. If you’re lucky enough to get into a flagship development program, be appreciative and accountable to the commitment. The company is making your professional development a priority, so you should too! Avoid taking it for granted.

Beyond that, approach your career as

“INTEREST RATES FOR LOANS ARE AT HISTORIC LOWS, MAKING IT EASIER TO FACILITATE A SALE OF INTERESTS . . . FROM THE SENIOR GENERATION TO THE JUNIOR GENERATION.” —SUSAN L. GOLDENBERG, NEAL GERBER EISENBERG

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ABOUT THE PANELISTS

SUSAN L. GOLDENBERG is a partner in the private wealth services practice group at Neal Gerber Eisenberg, one of the largest single-office law firms in the nation, where she focuses on estate planning for business owners, wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs. She helps clients transfer wealth to younger generations to achieve tax efficiencies and protection for beneficiaries and also advises closely held businesses and stewards of family wealth regarding succession planning. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

a lifelong learner. Organizations can only stay on top of so many emerging business trends. To stay ahead of your industry peers, never stop acquiring fresh knowledge. Read, attend webinars, network, identify learning opportunities for yourself and ask

your organization to sponsor you at educational events.

Fradin: We advise our associates to always focus on clients’ longterm financial goals, while learning the functions in the process to help

them succeed. It’s important that they understand how we’re helping our clients achieve their objectives.

We then encourage them to consider whether the process can be improved so that clients’ benefits can be sustained or enhanced.

Succession planning starts with a partner you can trust.

We help our clients preserve wealth, structure multigenerational businesses and implement comprehensive strategies that address succession and estate planning, wealth transfer and tax implications.

Our nationally recognized team of attorneys has extensive experience structuring and advising many of the wealthiest family offices across the U.S. and abroad. We serve as trusted legal and business advisors, helping families manage their investments, lifestyle and business needs, and the seamless transition of their assets to future generations.

Learn more about our practical approach to helping you and your family at nge.com/private-wealth.

4/13/21 9:35 AM

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Is sugar substitute allulose too good to be true?

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our jobs a lot easier.”

The Westchester-based company started producing allulose at a facility in Mexico in late 2019.

Sweetener products, including allulose, comprised about 35 percent of Ingredion’s almost $6 billion in net sales in 2020. The company doesn’t disclose how much it has invested in allulose alone.

The sweetener falls into its plantbased investments, into which the company has put $200 million.

Allulose occurs naturally in raisins, figs and other foods but not in quantities large enough to be commercially viable. Splenda-maker Tate & Lyle pioneered a way to produce allulose at scale at its U.S. headquarters in Hoffman Estates. The ingredient’s potential has intrigued companies before, but an FDA ruling two years ago changed the game.

Allulose, it said, can be excluded from added sugar counts on nutrition labels. Since that ruling, about 120 new products using allulose have hit the U.S. market, including a Kashi cereal and Fairlife ice cream, according to Mintel data provided by Tate & Lyle. Before that, only about three products with allulose were launched per year. Chicago-based Oreo-maker Mondelez is evaluating how allulose might fit into its sugar-reduction categories, too. Allulose is also sold directly to consumers, in products like Wholesome’s Allulose Zero Calorie Sweetener and Splenda Allulose.

Tate & Lyle and Ingredion would not say which brands use their allulose. Tate & Lyle also declined to disclose how much it has spent developing allulose but said that overall, it spends 3 to 4 percent of its global food and beverage sales on research and development.

Allulose faces challenges on its way to mass-market adoption. It is about double the price of sugar, and global companies might hesitate to use an ingredient that isn’t yet approved by regulators in other countries such as Canada.

There’s also the matter of image; consumers are wary of artificial

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Tate & Lyle culinary chef Christine Kerekes works in the kitchen at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Hoffman Estates.

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Abigail Storms, head of the global sweetener platform at Tate & Lyle, says people want healthy indulgences during the pandemic, creating demand for sugar alternatives. sweeteners and unknown ingredients on food labels. If shoppers don’t understand what allulose is, they might steer clear of products that contain it.

Allulose manufacturers say those hurdles are surmountable and expected. It takes time for any new ingredient to catch on with consumers, and once it does, more packaged food companies come calling.

SWEET TOOTHS

Pandemic-spurred changes in consumer behavior could also create demand, says Abigail Storms, head of the global sweetener platform at Tate & Lyle, which manufactures its allulose at a Tennessee facility. People are more concerned with their health but still want to indulge.

“You may not be able to go out to dinner, but you’d really like to be able to enjoy an indulgent cookie or ice cream without feeling bad about it,” she says. “You have an ingredient that can deliver on that.”

The sweetener has another perk: It browns like sugar, making it an ideal replacement in baked goods.

Desserts and bakery are the top two categories of allulose products, making up 22 percent and 21 percent of launches, respectively, according to Mintel. The beverage

world isn’t quite so infatuated; only 5 percent of products have fallen in that category.

Niles-based beverage-maker Imbibe experimented with allulose, but decided it wasn’t sweet enough and cost too much, says Elizabeth Sisel, manager of taste modulations. It also produced an off taste that a beverage couldn’t hide as easily as say, a protein bar.

“We just have a lot of other options, like stevia,” she says.

Therein lies a problem for manufacturers betting on allulose: Competition in the sweetener world is hot.

“Proliferation of other sweetener alternatives has just been so profound that it’s tough for any of them to really make headway,” says Billy Roberts, senior analyst of food and drink at market research firm Mintel.

For their bets to pay off, companies that use allulose will need to educate consumers on what it is and why they chose it, Roberts says. Shoppers are more informed than ever, and they scrutinize food labels. If there’s no sugar in a sweet, they want to know why.

A recent Mintel survey found that 63 percent of consumers are concerned with how manufacturers reduce sugar, and 69 percent think artificial sweeteners are bad for health.

At the same time, consumers are leaning into natural sweeteners like honey and molasses.

Companies need to capitalize on the natural aspect of allulose for the sweetener to succeed, Roberts says.

Promoting allulose could prove a tough marketing task for companies that make and use other sweeteners, too, says Jim Lecinski, a clinical associate professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, who previously worked on marketing campaigns for NutraSweet.

“Normally you would want to pick a villain in this drama,” he says. “You would need a, ‘We’re better than X,’ or ‘You hate X, so use me instead.’ Well, when you make X, that makes it a little tough.”

4/16/21 4:30 PM

CON SW ING

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 37

Chicago’s ailing tourism sector tries to recover from COVID-induced hangover tens of thousands of local jobs on the line.

“We need (Choose Chicago) more than ever to make sure people are thinking about Chicago,” says Michael Jacobson, CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association. “Unfortunately at a time when we need them the most, their hands are tied behind their back.”

Chicago tourism was rolling before the pandemic, with nearly 61 million visitors to the city in 2019—the eighth consecutive record-breaking year, according to Choose Chicago data. Those annual increases came despite years of national headlines spotlighting the city’s issues with violent crime that threatened to keep tourists away.

But the pandemic has exacerbated some of those issues. Periodic carjackings and robberies have recently plagued the heart of the city. Much of the central business district remains sparsely populated during the day, while many hotels and restaurants remain shuttered.

Choose Chicago, which declined to make any of its executives available for comment on its strategy

WENDELLA TOURS & CRUISES

CHOOSE from Page 3

Wendella Tours & Cruises suffered a 75 percent hit to its annual revenue last year.

ist destinations like Navy Pier or Millennium Park, says Michael Fassnacht, who has worked with Choose Chicago over the past year as the city’s chief marketing officer.

“WE HAVE TO GIVE (TOURISTS) “We can’t just tell people we’re open now CONCRETE REASONS TO EXPERIENCE again. We have to give CHICAGO AGAIN.” them concrete reasons to experience Chicago Michael Fassnacht, city’s chief marketing officer again,” Fassnacht says, citing ongoing discusfor luring visitors, is now trying to sions with the city’s Department thread the needle of broadcasting of Cultural Affairs & Special Events that the city is open for fun but and downtown neighborhood asalso safe and still under significant sociations about staging outdoor events to help draw visitors. The COVID-19-related restrictions.

That will require more than just Chicago Loop Alliance, for example, promoting the city’s normal tour- recently asked the city to shut down

part of State Street for up to 12 Sundays this summer to highlight local art, culture and retailers.

“I’m very optimistic starting in May that we’ll have a cadence of weekly events and reasons why you should come, all flanked by this overall message that we’re open again,” Fassnacht says, though he warns the comeback won’t be at the same speed as other cities “that are going from zero to 100. That is not us. That is not smart, that’s not thoughtful. It’s a dimmer switch.”

Funding promotion for such events will also require some creativity, though Choose could still get some emergency help from public coffers—especially with

$7.5 billion in federal COVID-19 stimulus money rolls in. Sylvia Garcia, acting director of the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, says that her agency is planning a tourism marketing and promotion campaign this spring or summer. Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year also includes pre-COVID levels of spending for tourism promotion regardless of hotel tax collections that normally back such marketing efforts.

EARLY OUTLOOK

Choose is running some regional ad campaigns this spring and summer—pooling resources with other Chicago-area towns in some

cases—to promote attractions that are open or that will be soon.

Early returns have been positive: Average occupancy at downtown hotels that were open during each of the last two weeks of March and first two weeks of April was higher than 30 percent, according to data from research firm STR. That’s still a fraction of the 70 percent occupancy rate that would be typical for early spring during a normal pre-pandemic year, but an improvement from the first year of the pandemic, when occupancy never rose higher than 27 percent for a single week, STR data shows.

More advertising will help continue that momentum, but the trajectory of the pandemic and safety of city streets will ultimately determine the fate of businesses that rely on tourists, says Andrew Sargis, chief of operations for Wendella Tours & Cruises.

“Our employees and patrons need to feel safe coming and working downtown,” says Sargis, whose fleet of vessels for boat tours and water taxi rides drew 700,000 passengers in 2019. The company suffered a 75 percent hit to its annual revenue last year. “We need to make sure there aren’t continually high levels of crime, and people need to feel like they’re not going to get sick.”

Another prong to Choose’s strategy while it waits for international and business travel to come back will be pushing more Chicago-area residents to explore city neighborhoods. The tourism group last month hired Rob Fojtik, a former adviser to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, as its senior director of neighborhood strategy and announced liquor giant Diageo will donate $2.5 million to help build and promote more outdoor dining spaces, with a focus on disinvested South and West Side communities.

Archegos, Greensill, Credit Suisse meltdowns affect Chicago’s Oakmark Funds favored “growth” stocks like Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Holders of Oakmark funds Suisse’s risk controls had been substandard “for the better part voted with their feet. In the year of a decade.” But, he said, “This that ended in April of last year, can be repaired. We expect it to be net outflows for the funds were 21 percent, according to a report repaired.”

For now, Harris is sticking by published by Chicago-based muCredit Suisse, a longtime hold- tual fund rater Morningstar. Every month since June 2018 had ing.

For Harris, the undesired no- seen assets exit, the report said. toriety from its outsize expo- From the end of 2017 to the end of last year, assets under management ARCHEGOS’ MARCH MELTDOWN, dropped 26 percent CREDIT SUISSE’S LATEST BLACK MARK, to $104 billion from around $140 billion.

EXPOSED THE BANK’S FAILURE “It’s certainly been a rough couple of TO CONTROL RISK. years for Oakmark,” says Katie Reichsure to this latest evidence of art, director of equity strategies underappreciated, potentially for Morningstar. “They’ve been systemic financial risks comes through these periods before.”

Herro is a past recipient of at an inopportune time. “Value” international investors like Harris, which in- Morningstar’s vest in stocks they consider to be stock-fund manager of the year undervalued and then wait over and also was Morningstar’s inlong periods for the rest of the ternational manager of the deinvestment universe to catch on, cade in the 2000s.

Harris’ fortunes began to have been out of vogue for several years. Investors instead have change for the better beginning HARRIS from Page 3

P037_CCB_20210419.indd 37

early this year as investors started fretting the market had overheated. Value was back in style.

Total assets under management at the firm rebounded to $116 billion in the first quarter. The $27.5 billion Oakmark International Fund, which Herro manages, returned 9 percent that quarter despite Credit Suisse’s 13 percent decline in the period. Credit Suisse is the fund’s ninth-largest holding, accounting for 3.2 percent.

For the year, Credit Suisse is down 13 percent, and it’s off more than 25 percent from its March 1 peak—before the Greensill and Archegos news.

RISKY BUSINESS

In the $1.6 billion Oakmark Global Select Fund, a concentrated portfolio representing the firm’s best ideas around the world, Credit Suisse was the fund’s second-largest holding at the end of last year, accounting for 7.5 percent. The fund returned nearly 11 percent in the first quarter despite the drag from Credit Suisse, which now makes up

about 5 percent after its decline.

Credit Suisse has shown up repeatedly in questionable and risky dealings over the years. In 2019, the “Spygate” affair resulted in the departure of Credit Suisse’s CEO after it came to light the bank had hired private investigators to tail a former executive who’d left to join a rival. Herro was an ardent defender of the bank in the months following, calling it a matter of poor public relations rather than a real scandal.

Now Archegos’ March meltdown, Credit Suisse’s latest black mark, exposed the bank’s multibillion-dollar failure to control risk. Archegos’ Hwang convinced Credit Suisse and other investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, to provide debt he used to substantially hike his bets on various stocks. Margin calls unveiled how far on a limb Hwang was, and his portfolio was liquidated. Credit Suisse, Hwang’s biggest lender, took more time to unwind its position than the other two, and the result was billions in loss-

es—enough to wipe out an entire year’s earnings.

Greensill Capital, which surfaced immediately before Archegos, was a British supply-chain finance firm with billions invested in it by Credit Suisse. It went belly up after asset valuations were found to be inflated.

Herro says there’s still reason to like Credit Suisse. Its private banking arm continues to serve lots of uber-wealthy clients. Investment banking can be a solid profit engine once it’s better controlled, he believes.

“Hopefully, this is a wake-up call to expedite cultural change that’s needed in this company,” Herro told Bloomberg.

One of the questions, though, for Herro and Harris Associates is whether this is one of those times where a stock is “undervalued” for good reason. Contrarianism is a virtue in an investor searching for hidden gold. Herro is as against the grain as he can be right now as he continues to place faith in global banking’s black sheep.

4/16/21 4:48 PM

38 APRIL 19, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS

Midsize law firm Schiff Hardin has remained independent. That could change.

SCHIFF from Page 1 “I think that everybody would want Schiff, or a piece of it,” says Ross Fishman, a legal industry marketer. “You end up cherry-picking anyway,” Fishman says, pointing to frequent post-merger attrition.

Schiff traces its roots to before the Great Fire, but its independence has come at a cost. With 222 lawyers, it’s barely half the size the firm was in 2015 at 398. When the industry had a surprisingly buoyant 2020, Schiff ’s revenue fell 7 percent to $174 million and is off by a third since 2015.

Kirkland, in contrast, reported a 16 percent revenue gain and profits per partner of more than $6 million last year.

A 14-member construction law group exited Schiff in December, in a move that exposes the vulnerability of smaller law firms like Schiff with less scope.

Part of the contingent opened a Chicago office for Venable, drawn to its government-funded projects and connected partners like a former U.S. transportation secretary as the Biden administration pushes a $2.3 trillion infrastructure program.

“Venable has killer relationships in D.C.,” says Ken Roberts, who heads the new Venable office.

He represents government spon-

sors of light rail projects at O’Hare International Airport and Minneapolis, as well as private companies, such as utilities undertaking expansive construction. “It just puts us in a perfect position,” he says.

While revenue has slumped, Schiff has boosted its profits per equity partner, a closely watched performance figure, to $1 million in both 2018 and 2019, up from $886,000 in 2017. But those gains have come from fewer partners splitting the pie, a clearly unsustainable trend.

CUTBACKS

Among other law firms with fewer than 500 employees, Schiff last April accepted Paycheck Protection Program funding—between $5 million and $10 million.

It then laid off staffers and cut salaries by 15 percent for those making at least six figures and by 50 percent for an undisclosed number of attorneys, according to the American Lawyer.

In its heyday, which included lofty digs in the new Sears Tower, Schiff grew by doing transactional work for corporate clients, a practice that facilitated real estate and bankruptcy assignments.

More recently, it has been run by litigators.

When Marci Eisenstein was named managing partner in

2015, Schiff garnered kudos for gender diversity. Joseph Krasovec, co-leader of Schiff ’s product liability and mass torts practice, succeeded her in February, in what was billed as a routine transition. Neither returned calls seeking comment.

During Eisenstein’s tenure, 300000000 Schiff suffered a blow when 22 attorneys, including a former chairman and a former managing 250000000 partner, bolted and formed Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila, which now has 200000000 80-some lawyers—40 percent of Schiff ’s headcount. A firm started earlier by Schiff al150000000 ums, Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, has 45 lawyers.

In a statement, Krasovec said 100000000 Schiff is focusing on private equity and estate planning clients and white-collar50000000 and internal investigations as “areas of prominence.”

Energy, consumer products and manufacturing are0 other sectors of interest. Schiff also represents the National Association of Realtors and other clients in class-action or putative class-action lawsuits.

The Chicago Police Department has been another source of work—and publicity—for Schiff.

In 2019 partner Maggie Hickey became the independent monitor overseeing the contentious implementation of a CPD consent decree supervised by a fed-

DOWNSCHIFF Schiff Hardin’s revenue slides, imperiling the shrinking law firm’s independence, while having fewer partners boosts a performance ratio.

GROSS REVENUE

PROFITS PER PARTNER

$300

$1.2 million

250

1.0

200

0.8

150

0.6

$174 million

100

$1.01 million

xx

0.4

x 50 0

0.2 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’20

Sources: American Lawyer and Schiff Hardin

eral judge.

As practice group leader for white-collar defense and government investigations, Hickey has the task of rebuilding a vital piece of300000000 the firm decimated by the 2016 split.

“I’m always looking to add the 250000000 right people,” she says, pointing to this month’s hire of a partner in200000000 New York. Also this month, Hickey was named to oversee the litigation and dispute-resolution 150000000 practice.

Ron Safer, the former Schiff managing partner who defected, 100000000 says he aimed to sculpt a law firm

0

x x ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 x

free of hourly billing traditions, potentially vulnerable computer servers and other constraints.

Nearly half of its lawyers are women, and more than 30 percent are minority, he says.

“We wanted to start a firm that had 300000000 a different approach, which resulted in a different structure, and 250000000 that was impossible at any established law firm,” Safer says.

“I love Schiff ; I love the people.

200000000to do something difWe wanted ferent.”

Roberts also speaks highly of 150000000 Schiff —but now, like Safer, as an outsider.

100000000

50000000 50000000

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CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS • APRIL 19, 2021 39

Executives at HCSC collect more amid surging profits at health insurer member since 2019, was on CenterPoint’s board until 2015. In August, Walker joined Enable Midstream Partners’ board as a CenterPoint representative.

Thompson declines to comment on how board members are selected but says HCSC looks for leaders who can help the insurer better understand the needs of its diverse customer base. He adds that Texas is an important market for HCSC, which has many customers in the oil and gas industry.

HCSC from Page 1

LEADERSHIP ‘CRITICAL’

Thompson declines to say how much time Carroll spends on company matters, but he notes that it’s “significantly more time” than a typical board chair. He says Carroll’s pay reflects “substantial institutional knowledge based on a long tenure with our company, including managing CEO transitions,” and that “the continuity of his leadership was critical to the company’s strength and stability.”

Carroll has collected $930,000 in recent years when there wasn’t a leadership change, but he took home $4.9 million in both 2016 and 2017 pursuant to a two-year agreement under which he helped oversee a transition to new executive leadership, an HCSC spokesman told Crain’s in 2019.

Reilly says overseeing CEO transitions and helping new leaders understand a company’s culture and how its board functions are common duties for most board chairmen.

“To think somebody should get $8.9 million—it’s excessive,” Reilly says. “The board is deciding pay, and the board is increasing his pay as chairman of the board. There’s a conflict of interest there, possibly.”

The remaining eight HCSC di-

PANDEMIC DIP

ISTOCK

Cordani got $19.9 million, according to proxy statements.

Pay rose alongside profits at the nation’s seventh-largest health insurer, which owns Blue Cross & Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Texas, Montana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Net income at HCSC soared 75 percent to nearly $4 billion on a 14 percent rise in revenue to $44 billion. Revenues increased as more people enrolled in HCSC plans, according to HCSC spokesman Greg Thompson.

Compensation decisions at HCSC “are based on competition in the industry for talent, as well as near- and long-term performance standards, including benefits to members such as expanded access to coverage and efforts to help control the rise in medical costs,” Thompson says in an email.

But Carroll, an energy industry executive who has served as HCSC’s board chairman since 2002, collected far more than his counterparts at comparable publicly traded health insurers last year. Humana and Cigna, for example, paid their nonexecutive chairmen $545,157 and $550,964, respectively.

“I don’t see chairmen of the board for very large public companies making anywhere near that amount of money,” says Mark Reilly, managing director of the Overture Alliance, a Chicago-based executive compensation consultancy. Reilly notes that board chairmen typically work about five days a month and make roughly $500,000 a year.

HEALTHY PAYCHECKS Health Care Service Corp., which operates Blue Cross insurance plans in Illinois and four other states, handed out lavish compensation to current and former executives last year.

HCSC DIRECTOR COMPENSATION

HCSC EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

Milton Carroll Texas (chairman) $8.9 million

David Lesar Former interim CEO (July 2019-May 2020)

Dr. Dianne Gasbarra Oklahoma $346,261

Paula Steiner Former CEO (left July 2019)

Gregory Wasson Illinois $345,767

Blair Todt Former executive

Thaddeus Malik Illinois $335,067

Maurice Smith CEO (started June 2020) $5.9 million

Michelle Collins Illinois $332,645

Danny McCoy Former executive $5.1 million

Dennis Gannon Illinois $325,891

Jeffrey Tikkanen Senior vice president of HCSC markets $4.3 million

Monte Ford Texas $325,707

Nanzeen Razi Former executive $4.2 million Robert Hitchcock Former executive $4.0 million Andre Napoli Chief customer service officer $3.9 million

P039_CCB_20210419.indd 39

$12.7 million

$6.4 million

R.A. Walker Texas $245,595 Clyde Drexler Texas $176,407

James Walsh Principal financial officer $1.3 million

Source: Illinois Department of Insurance filing

“TO THINK SOMEBODY SHOULD GET $8.9 MILLION—IT’S EXCESSIVE.” Mark Reilly, managing director, Overture Alliance

rectors collected $2.4 million last year, down 12 percent from 2019 when there were three additional members. Pay for individual directors (not including Carroll) ranged from $176,407 for former Houston Rockets basketball player Clyde Drexler to $346,261 for Dr. Dianne Gasbarra.

Sources familiar with HCSC’s

HOW TO CONTACT CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS EDITORIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-649-5200 CUSTOMER SERVICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877-812-1590 ADVERTISING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-649-5492

$17.0 million

CLASSIFIED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-659-0076 REPRINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212-210-0707 editor@chicagobusiness.com

board say Carroll has a history of filling open spots with directors who are loyal to him, noting that several members have ties to the energy industry.

Lesar, who served on HCSC’s board for two years, is now CEO of Houston-based CenterPoint Energy, where Carroll has been a director since 1992 and executive

chairman since 2013. The pair are also linked through oil services company Halliburton, where Carroll is a director and Lesar previously was executive chair. Patricia Hemingway Hall, who retired as CEO of HCSC in 2015, joined Halliburton’s board in 2019.

Former Anadarko Petroleum CEO R.A. Walker, an HCSC board

Meanwhile, HCSC is among health insurance companies that benefited from a decline in nonemergency medical care during the early months of the pandemic, but claims returned to nearly normal levels later in 2020, Thompson says. At the same time, other industry players, such as independent hospitals, struggled to stay afloat. Any COVID-fueled hospital consolidation could improve providers’ bargaining power with insurers, putting more pressure on HCSC and others in the future.

In October, HCSC said its five Blue Cross plans—which serve more than 17 million members— spent $930 million in response to the public health crisis, including waiving cost-sharing for telehealth services, as well as COVID testing and treatment. And with insurers required under the Affordable Care Act to spend at least 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care, HCSC said it issued rebates totaling $455 million to individuals and small groups last fall.

Medical loss ratio rebates are expected to be even higher this year, when they’re based on performance in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

According to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, private insurers are expecting to pay out $2.1 billion in rebates to consumers this fall, the second-highest amount ever issued.

As more people get vaccinated against COVID-19 and routine medical care resumes, insurers are bracing for higher claims in the coming months. Still, now could be the right time for HCSC to abandon its relatively cautious expansion strategy.

While big insurers like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health have executed multibillion-dollar transactions that blur the lines between insurers, pharmacies and doctors, HCSC has mostly opted to invest in its existing markets and offerings. That could change following a $2.7 billion antitrust settlement that will free Blue Cross plans to invade each other’s markets.

HCSC’s naming of Arun Prasad, previously a managing director at investment bank Moelis & Co., as chief strategy officer, could signal that the insurance company is ready to make a deal.

Vol. 44, No. 16 – Crain’s Chicago Business (ISSN 0149-6956) is published weekly, except for the last week in December, at 150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601-3806. $3.50 a copy, $169 a year. Outside the United States, add $50 a year for surface mail. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, Ill. Postmaster: Send address changes to Crain’s Chicago Business, PO Box 433282, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9688. Four weeks’ notice required for change of address. © Entire contents copyright 2021 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

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