After building more than a dozen Mariano’s Fresh Markets in the Chicago area since 2010 and then converting 11 former Dominick’s locations, Bob Mariano now boasts 30 wildly popular stores here—and has his eye on other states. The rub? The Milwaukee-based parent company, Roundy’s, is struggling—losing stock value and racking up debt to pay for … Read more
Consider 2014 Wilson’s year of redemption. He scored a stock rise of 29 percent—market-crushing results—in part by retrenching and revitalizing Allstate’s core home and auto insurance businesses. That helped silence the mutterings of long-suffering investors.
Take that, Louvre. Last year, TripAdvisor’s reviewers named the Art Institute of Chicago the best museum—not just the best art museum—in the world. That announcement came as a Magritte exhibit drew more than 250,000 visitors.
Since taking over the Bolingbrook-based beauty chain in 2013, the former U.S. Cellular CEO has dazzled the retail industry: Last year, the company saw a rise in earnings of more than 20 percent, with its stock price surging 32 percent. Dillon’s five-year plan? Add 100 new stores a year (there are currently 765 locations) and … Read more
Without this high-energy Boston native, the modern food industry could well grind to a halt. Gordon has been successfully running this Westchester maker of, well, ingredients (processed from corn, wheat, etc.) for nearly six years now.
Eric Lefkofsky’s longtime sidekick in tech investing, Keywell may be better known these days for Chicago Ideas Week, the annual smart-person confab he helped start in 2010 (and that he uses to burnish his personal brand).
Under Zimmer, now in his eighth year at the U. of C., the school’s endowment reached a high of $7.5 billion in 2014. The university also opened the Chicago Innovation Exchange, a startup incubator with $20 million in venture funding, a boost to the South Side. But after being the presumed favorite to win the … Read more
Facing slumping sales and a stagnant stock price, McDonald’s new honcho finds himself, like his ousted predecessor, Don Thompson (see “The Company Man”), in a pickle. Can this Brit help revive the quintessential American brand? Stay tuned.
Yes, Time Inc. fired Griffin as its CEO in 2011, but he landed on his feet. This magazine vet now runs the print half of the recent Tribune Co. split. Will his suburban newspaper purchases pay off? Investors have their fingers crossed.
He made headlines recently for paying a record-setting $19.5 million for a Glencoe mansion. But he slides 33 spots on this list because of Groupon’s equally precipitous 30 percent stock plunge in 2014—even after a switch in focus away from daily deals.
