3 J.B. Pritzker Age: 49 Occupation: Cofounder and managing partner, Pritzker Group More than just a guy who cuts big checks, this immensely likable godfather of Chicago’s tech scene gets his phone calls returned. Read more in a March feature profile, J.B. Pritzker: The Other Mayor of Chicago. Photo: Bob Stefko
23 Jay Cutler Age: 30 Occupation: Quarterback, Chicago Bears OK, OK, but listen: With Bulls star Derrick Rose sidelined for a second year, this surly, smirking, “You really think I give a damn?” quarterback is suddenly Chicago’s biggest sports celebrity. He’s the most important player on the city’s most watched team, playing the most popular sport … Read more
24 David Spielfogel Age: 36 Occupation: Senior adviser to the mayor Already a member of Rahm’s inner circle, this Clinton White House staffer (and former MacArthur Foundation insider) helped coordinate city and county efforts last year to reduce illegal gun sales by toughening requirements for reporting lost or stolen firearms. He’s the point man, too, on … Read more
25 Jim Delany Age: 65 Occupation: Commissioner, Big Ten Conference Delany is poised to take the wealthiest sports conference in the nation, according to Forbes, and make it even bigger. He brings Maryland and Rutgers into the conference this summer, adding as much as $100 million a year to his $315 million enterprise. The move expands … Read more
26 John Canning Jr. Age: 69 Occupation: Chairman, Madison Dearborn Partners Canning works hardest these days at the Big Shoulders Fund, where he has helped raise more than $250 million for inner-city Catholic schools. But he is better known to many for his Big Pockets. The private equity firm he cofounded in 1992—Chicago’s largest—now has $13 … Read more
21 Irene Rosenfeld Age: 60 Occupation: Chairman and CEO, Mondelēz International Poor Irene. In January, she gritted her teeth and made activist investor Nelson Peltz a member of her board; in return, he agreed to lay off his calls for a merger with PepsiCo. But Peltz, who successfully lobbied for the Kraft split that created Mondelēz … Read more
29 Mellody Hobson Age: 44 Occupation: President, Ariel Investments President of America’s biggest minority-owned investment firm. Member of three blockbuster corporate boards (Starbucks, Estée Lauder, and DreamWorks). On-air contributor for CBS News. And, as of last year, wife of a superrich Hollywood legend (Star Wars director George Lucas, 69) and mother of their baby, Everest. In … Read more
30 J. Christopher Reyes Age: 60 Occupation: Cochairman, Reyes Holdings When this publicity-shy Lake Forest billionaire isn’t overseeing the second-largest private company in Chicago—a $22 billion, 15,000-employee food and beverage distributorship he owns with younger brother Jude (No. 31)—he sets the course for Lurie Children’s Hospital, where he’s cochairman. Reyes has quietly forged valuable connections to … Read more
31 M. Jude Reyes Age: 58 Occupation: Cochairman, Reyes Holdings So private that he makes big brother Christopher (No. 30) look like an oversharer, Jude is, according to Crain’s, “Mr. Inside, concentrating on financial issues” for their distributorship. Raised in a large Hispanic-Irish family in Maryland, he lives in Kenilworth. Forbes estimates Jude’s net worth at … Read more
77 Robert Gallucci Age: 68 Occupation: President, MacArthur Foundation After being hired away from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown five years ago, this former dean and veteran diplomat has skillfully managed the foundation’s nearly $6 billion endowment. What’s in it for Chicago, the philanthropic juggernaut’s headquarter city? Gallucci has steered millions to big data … Read more
