Barbara Byrd-Bennett

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Barbara Byrd-Bennett

Age: 62

Occupation: CEO, Chicago Public Schools

This 2012 hire didn’t make any critical mistakes during last fall’s teachers’ strike. Now she is trying to use the management skills she honed in Cleveland and Detroit to jump-start CPS. Whether she will exercise real authority or simply execute Rahm’s will is an open question.

Photograph: ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE