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Christopher G. Kennedy

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For the artist, see Christopher Kennedy
Christopher G. Kennedy
Born
Christopher George Kennedy

(1963-07-04) July 4, 1963 (age 61)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBoston College
Northwestern University
OccupationBusinessman
Employer(s)Joseph P Kennedy Enterprises, Inc.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseSheila Sinclair (née Berner) Kennedy (since 1987)[1]
ChildrenKatherine Berner Kennedy (1990)
Christopher George Kennedy, Jr. (1992)
Sarah Louise Kennedy (1994)
Clare Rose Kennedy (1998)
Parent(s)Robert Francis Kennedy and Ethel (née Skakel) Kennedy
RelativesSiblings:
Kathleen Hartington Kennedy (born 1951)
Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (born 1952)
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. (born 1954)
David Anthony Kennedy (1955–1984)
Mary Courtney Kennedy (born 1956)
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (1958–1997)
Mary Kerry Kennedy (born 1959)
Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy (born 1965)
Douglas Harriman Kennedy (born 1967)
Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy (born 1968)

also see Kennedy family

Christopher George Kennedy (born July 4, 1963) is American businessman. He is chairman of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc.,[2] and former chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (2009-2015).[3]

Until April 2012, Chris Kennedy was president of Merchandise Mart Properties, a commercial-property management firm based in Chicago, Illinois, which manages various properties including The Merchandise Mart in Chicago and the L.A. Mart in Los Angeles, California, and the Boston Design Center in Boston, Massachusetts.[4]

He is the son of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a member of the Kennedy family.

Early life and education

Kennedy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Robert Francis Kennedy and Ethel (née Skakel) Kennedy, the eighth of their eleven children. He is one of four of the grandchildren of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy born during the administration of his uncle U.S. President John F. Kennedy. His siblings are:

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He grew up at his family home, Hickory Hill, in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and attended The Potomac School in McLean through ninth grade. He transferred to Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, also a suburb of Washington; he graduated in 1982. While in high school, he volunteered at a home for runaway youth.

Kennedy graduated from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1986.[5] In 1994, he graduated with a master of business administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Career

Kennedy is chairman of the Kennedy family investment firm Joseph P Kennedy Enterprises, Inc.[6] He is treasurer of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, is on the Executive Committee for the Chicago Community Trust, and is a board member of the Catholic Theological Union, Interface, Inc. and Knoll Inc.[2][7] He is a member of the mutual fund board of trustees for Ariel Investments.[8] Kennedy was the president of Merchandise Mart Properties in Chicago, Illinois, from 2000 until 2012. The property was originally owned by the Kennedy family until it was sold to Vornado Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust. The Merchandise Mart, one of the properties of Merchandise Mart Properties, is the largest commercial building in the world, serving as both a luxury wholesale design center and one of the leading international business locations in Chicago. The Mart spans two city blocks and rises twenty-five stories for a total of 4.2 million square feet (390,000 square metres) Three million people come through The Mart each year to visit its retail shops, permanent showrooms, and office space as well as attend the numerous trade, consumer and community events hosted there.

Top Box Foods

In May 2012, Kennedy started the Chicago based non-profit Top Box Foods. The organization was created as a way to get discounted groceries to families who live in areas that either lack grocery stores or have an abundance of fast food. Kennedy initially invested $150,000 to get Top Box started, and subsequently designed the organization to be self-sustaining.

Top Box as an organization purchases food, boxes it in various combinations and then, once a month, delivers it to churches and organizations in mostly low-income neighborhoods. The food items in the box change from month to month with a wide variety of fruits vegetables, meats, and frozen meals with box prices ranging form $19–$39. The boxes can be ordered online or through the organizations that the boxes are picked up at once a month. These organizations, otherwise known as top box "host sites," range from small neighborhood churches with a few dozen families to some of the Chicago’s largest, including Trinity United Church of Christ and Salem Baptist Church.

Personal life

Family

Kennedy met Sheila Sinclair Berner (born December 4, 1962), an Illinois native, while attending Boston College. After graduating from college in 1986, Kennedy moved to Illinois, and they were married in 1987[1] in Illinois. They are raising their four children in the Chicago suburb of Kenilworth. His wife earned a law degree and practiced at Sidley & Austin[citation needed] in Chicago before taking time off to take care of their children.

Politics

Kennedy's political activism began at an early age, and in 1979 and 1980 he worked on his uncle U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy's bid for the 1980 Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. President. He was also treasurer of the campaign committee for his brother Joseph's reelection to the U.S. House in 1988. Over the years he has organized numerous fundraising events in Chicago for his uncle Ted, his sister Kathleen, his brother Joseph and his cousin Mark Shriver.

The National Journal once quoted Kennedy as saying, "I have a lot to keep up with: a brother who might run for Congress, a sister and a brother considering races for governor, a cousin who might run for Congress, another in Congress, an uncle in the Senate and a cousin-in-law, Arnold [Schwarzennegger], who is thinking of running for governor." [citation needed]

Beyond his family, Kennedy has served in a variety of capacities for numerous political campaigns, including hosting a fundraiser for Barack Obama in his bid for U.S. Senate.[citation needed]

In August 2009, after considering a run for the U.S. Senate,[9] as did many others, Kennedy decided not to run.[10] Also in August 2009, on the day after his uncle Ted's death on August 25, 2009, Kennedy was appointed to the University of Illinois board of trustees by Democratic Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.[11] On September 10, 2009, Kennedy was elected by the trustees as their chairman.[12]

Kennedy has never run for any elective office.[11]

Business and economic involvement

He is on the board of trustees of the mutual funds managed by Ariel Investments,[13] a Chicago-based investment-management firm.

Since 1996, he has been a member of the Economic Club of Chicago,[14] a group established in the 1920s with the goal of aiding "the creation and expression of an enlightened public opinion on the important economic and social questions of the day".

Since 1997, Kennedy has also been a member of the Executives Club of Chicago,[15] which brings world leaders and practices to the local business community to establish productive relationships and explore the issues facing the business world in today’s business environment.

From 1997-1999, Kennedy served as chairman of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, a sales-and-marketing organization promoting Chicago to the tourism and convention industries. Under Kennedy's chairmanship, the bureau retained and expanded Chicago's event-and-convention industry.[citation needed]

Since 2000, Kennedy has been a member of the City Club of Chicago, a group that brings together civic and cultural leaders to discuss and debate issues affecting the Chicago area.

Since 2005, he has been a member of The Commercial Club of Chicago, a group that brings together the city’s business, educational, and cultural leaders on projects to improve central industries and create new economic opportunities.

Illinois Council on Economic Education,[16] an organization dedicated to ensuring all Illinois students are afforded an education in economics in order to be productive members of the workforce, informed consumers, and active community members.

Environmental leadership

Green Building Practices

Under Kennedy’s leadership of The Mart, it was the largest building in the world to be awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification in 2007[17] from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). The Mart has long been implementing sustainable practices. The Mart Center began operating a thermal storage facility in 1986, capable of building 2,000,000 pounds (910,000 kg) of ice per night, cooling 71 buildings in the surrounding neighborhood, and saving $200,000 in electricity costs in the first year.[citation needed]

In 1990, The Mart Center began using Green Seal-approved green cleaning products and the next year implemented a recycling program, which today includes all forms of paper products, glass, light bulbs, batteries, aluminum and construction materials. In 1996, The Mart Center became one of the first major property owners in downtown Chicago to enter into an agreement with the district cooling system now known as Thermal Chicago, thus contributing to the national effort to reduce the discharge of ozone-damaging CFCs.

In 2006, MMPI joined Clean Air Counts, a voluntary initiative to reduce smog forming pollutants and energy consumption in the greater Chicago area. Part of the campaign strategies included utilizing only low VOC cleaning products, paints and building materials, as well as energy efficient lighting and alternative workplace transportation options. To date, The Mart Center has reduced pollution by 264,018 pounds (119,757 kg) for the largest reduction by a commercial building.[citation needed]

That same year, The Mart Center recycling program saved over 13,000 trees and recycled nearly 11 million pounds of waste, while water conservation efforts saved 5.5 million US gallons (21,000 m3) of water. More than eight percent of the estimated 10,000 people working at The Mart walk, bike or take public transportation; to encourage greener methods of transportation, the Mart expanded bicycle storage capacity to more than 200 bikes. In 2009, MMPI converted all stationery to a one hundred percent post-consumer recycled product. [citation needed]

The Mart has nine LEED-certified showrooms, with five others on their way to LEED certification.

Kennedy serves on Mayor Emanuel's Green Ribbon Committee and is Co-Chair for the Cook County Sustainability Advisory Council.

Green Alliances

MMPI has worked closely with:

Health-care involvement

Other civic involvement

  • Since 1996, he has been a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a nonpartisan group that seeks to impact discourse on global issues through leadership, education, and policy.
  • Since 1996, Kennedy has been on the board of directors at The Irish Fellowship Club,[22] a Chicago-based group dedicated to preserving and promoting Irish heritage.
  • From 2006 until the Spring of 2013, he served on the board of directors of Catholic Theological Union, the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry in the U.S.[23]
  • Greater Chicago Food Depository, is a nonprofit food distribution and training center providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger throughout Cook County, Illinois. It also offers education programs providing the knowledge and tools needed to break the poverty cycle.
  • El Valor,[24] a nonprofit group seeking to enrich the local community by empowering the underserved, disenfranchised, and disabled while creating a sense of unity among all community members.
  • Heartland Alliance,[25] a human-rights-advocacy group providing housing, healthcare, economic security, and legal protection for low-income citizens.
  • Governor Quinn appointed him to the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois in September 2009. Kennedy served in that role until his gubernatorial appointment expired in January 2015.
  • He served as a Member of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community Trust until January 2015.
  • He served as the Lund-Gill Chair in the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences at Dominican University (Illinois).[26]
  • He is the chairman of the board of Innovation Illinois, a progressive 501(c)(4) non-profit advocacy group formed in April 2015.

Bill Ayers controversy

On September 23, 2010 Bill Ayers was unanimously denied emeritus status at the University of Illinois at Chicago after board chairman Kennedy gave a speech[27][28] protesting it, with the quote "I intend to vote against conferring the honorific title of our university to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father, Robert F. Kennedy."

Residential Development

As Chairman of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc., Kennedy is responsible for the development of the Kennedy Family real estate holdings in Chicago known as Wolf Point, Chicago. The Wolf Point development site represents a billion-dollar commitment to the downtown core, and the site is zoned for construction of a residential apartment building, a self park garage, and two additional high-rise buildings.

Kennedy also is a partner in Sudbury Station LLC, a development entity proposing a 250-unit housing development in Sudbury, Ma, designed to meet local affordable housing needs for seniors and the working class community. Proposed on a 39-acre parcel zoned residential near the Historic District of Sudbury, Massachusetts, The Village At Sudbury Station, would satisfy the Massachusetts affordable housing mandate for Sudbury, would be located close to schools, parks, churches and public safety facilities, and would contribute significant additional tax revenue to the town.[29][30] The project has received widespread criticism from town officials and residents. [31][32]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Staff writer (August 16, 1987). "Sheila Sinclair Berner Wed To Christopher G. Kennedy". The New York Times. Accessed August 26, 2009.
  2. ^ a b http://www.arielinvestments.com/content/view/137/1065/
  3. ^ http://www.bot.uillinois.edu/kennedy
  4. ^ Staff writer (undated). "Company Overview". Merchandise Mart Properties. Accessed August 26, 2009.
  5. ^ American Experience | The Kennedys | Kennedy Family Tree | PBS
  6. ^ http://www.forbes.com/sites/carlodonnell/2014/07/08/how-the-1-billion-kennedy-family-fortune-defies-death-and-taxes-3/
  7. ^ https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophergkennedy
  8. ^ http://www.arielinvestments.com/board-of-trustees/
  9. ^ Stantis, Scott (August 18, 2009). "Chris Kennedy Won’t Run". Chicago Tribune. Accessed September 20, 2009.
  10. ^ Pearson, Rick (August 18, 2009). "Chris Kennedy Won’t Run in 2010 for Senate or Governor". Chicago Tribune. Accessed August 26, 2009.
  11. ^ a b Staff writer (August 26, 2009). [clarification needed] "Chris Kennedy to be named UI Trustee". The Associated Press via The Daily Illini. Accessed August 26, 2009.
  12. ^ "New U. of I. trustees pick Kennedy to lead them" Chicago Tribune. Accessed September 10, 2009.
  13. ^ Ariel Investments
  14. ^ Economic Club of Chicago
  15. ^ Executives Club of Chicago
  16. ^ Illinois Council on Economic Education
  17. ^ World's Largest LEED-EB Certified Building
  18. ^ Clean Air Counts
  19. ^ Friends of the Chicago River
  20. ^ jpkf.org, The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation official website
  21. ^ Center for Disability and Elder Law
  22. ^ The Irish Fellowship Club
  23. ^ Catholic Theological Union
  24. ^ El Valor
  25. ^ Heartland Alliance
  26. ^ Dominican University
  27. ^ [1]
  28. ^ Brown, R. (2011) Emeritus Status: It's a Matter of Honor, Especially When It's Denied, The Chronicle of Higher Education 57(43), A8-A9.
  29. ^ 40B permit application
  30. ^ Fiscal impact analysis
  31. ^ Office of Selectmen letter, November 5, 2015
  32. ^ Wicked Local Sudbury paper
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