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Richard Daley      

Mayor of Chicago, 1989-2011; “Widely Viewed as the Nation’s Top Urban Executive”

Mr. Daley transformed the Chicago economy by bringing cutting-edge businesses to the city. During his 22-year tenure as mayor, Chicago became a prominent player in the 21st century global economy, now ranking among the top economic centers and most influential cities worldwide. Mr. Daley pioneered a model of successful public-private partnerships that established Chicago as the benchmark for long-term sustainable urban growth and development. These partnerships, such as the city’s privatization of its Chicago Skyway, allowed Chicago to improve the state of its infrastructure and preserve much-needed social programs while other cities were forced to make concessions.

Throughout his career, Mr. Daley has maintained a commitment to unifying mayors across the United States and the world to tackle the challenges confronting cities. He served as the 54th president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, organized the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative in 2003 for the restoration of the Great Lakes and founded and chaired the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus for the Chicagoland region. Mr. Daley also made Chicago a hub for mayors globally by hosting the Sino-U.S. Mayors Summit in 2007 for municipal leaders of the United States and China, the Mayor’s Hemispheric Forum in 2007 for municipal leaders across the Americas, and the U.S.-Arab Cities Forum in 2008 for municipal leaders throughout the United States, Canada and the Arab world. Mr. Daley continues to speak internationally on the issue of sustainable urban development and work with global leaders on building the cities of tomorrow.

A former state senator and county prosecutor, Mr. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and re-elected five times before deciding to retire from government in May of 2011. He now serves as Of Counsel to Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, an international law firm based in Chicago; the Executive Chairman of Tur Partners LLC, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy; a Director of the Board of The Coca-Cola Company; a member of the International Advisory Board for the Russian Direct Investment Fund; and a senior advisor to JP Morgan Chase, where he chairs the new "Global Cities Initiative," a joint project of JP Morgan Chase and the Brookings Institution to help cities identify and leverage their greatest economic development resources.

Speech Topics

From China to Chi-town: Building American Business in China

Richard Daley’s efforts to promote Chicago as both an international city of commerce and a "China friendly" city began while he was still Mayor of the Windy City. He discusses his initiatives, experiences, and the lessons learned in growing a mutually beneficial international partnership with China’s thriving business community.

Reinventing and Restructuring Urban Accountability

During his 22-year tenure as the Mayor of the third-largest U.S. city, Daley helped transform Chicago into the business, financial, transportation, and cultural center of the Midwest. A strong believer that government must reinvent and restructure itself to do more with less to protect taxpayers, Daley initiated and achieved a variety of quality of life improvements for Chicago residents. He speaks authoritatively on virtually any urban policy issue, including business and job creation, public education, crime prevention, neighborhood and environmental revitalization, and more.

Three E’s to Economic Prosperity: Employment, Environmental Sustainability and Energy

In 22 years as Chicago’s Mayor, Richard Daley was praised for restoring the urban core and reviving and rebuilding Chicago. Harvard’s Urban Economist, Ed Glaeser defines Daley’s economic success in real numbers – when Daley took over, the per capita income in Chicago was 11% below the national average. Today it’s well on the upside. Daley not only transformed Chicago’s landscape with initiatives like Millennium Park, he transformed the business environment. Chicago in the late 80’s was a place no one wanted to be. Today it’s a “global” city everyone wants to come to. Daley talks about what it took to transform Chicago, and the lessons that can be learned as we rebuild our economy today: Globalization is real and we need to compete; Environmental Sustainability is paramount to making us competitive; and Energy policies, not just the price of energy, but “green” initiatives are vital to controlling our costs and keeping us competitive.

City CEO: Rising to Challenges and Change

Through the challenges of a rapidly changing global community and economy, Mayor Daley focused his innovative efforts to generate substantial growth in job creation, business development, and diversifying Chicago’s industry. With a proactive style that has been emulated around the world, Daley is able to relate his experiences on leadership, crisis management, turnaround stories, and change to businesses at the local, national, and global level.

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