HYDE PARK — The Obama Foundation on Thursday announced three new appointments to its board, including economic advisers to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The foundation charged with planning and building Barack Obama’s presidential library on Thursday announced Ariel Investments founder John Rogers Jr., Grosvenor Capital Management CEO Michael Sacks and 32 Advisors founder Robert Wolf would join the foundation’s board of directors.
All three have made major donations to the Obama Foundation, according to records released last summer and Rogers and Sacks both have close ties to the city and county’s leadership.
They also are known for playing hoops with the president.
Rogers has been close to the Obama’s since college, when he was a teammate on Princeton University’s basketball team with Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson. He was a major fundraiser for Obama during his presidential campaigns, helped plan the president’s inauguration and played basketball with the president on Election Day in 2008.
On the South Side he is best known for starting Ariel Community Academy with another basketball teammate of Obama’s, former U.S. Secretary of Education and CPS CEO Arne Duncan.
Rogers served on Preckwinkle’s Council of Economic Advisors and was a member of Emanuel’s “kitchen cabinet,” a group of wealthy African-American businessmen that advise Emanuel.
Sacks was one of the largest single donors to both of Emanuel’s campaigns for mayor, but has few of Rogers’ personal ties to the president.
He was a campaign contributions bundler for Obama’s presidential runs and his daughter was an intern at the White House.
Sacks is much closer to Emanuel and has both publicly and privately been the only private citizen in the room during major negotiations and policy announcements. He is vice chairman of World Business Chicago, the city's privately financed economic development organization and worked closely with Emanuel’s administration on drafting pension and parking meter deals.
Wolf, a New Yorker, is the only one of the three with few ties to Chicago.
Wolf was a major fundraiser for Obama’s presidential campaigns and became close to the president when Obama arrived in Washington, D.C. Wolf, who now runs an economic advising firm and a commercial drone company, frequently plays golf and basketball with the president and vacations with the president and several of Obama’s Chicago friends.
He also served on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
All three men have donated substantial amounts of money to the Obama Foundation.
According to the foundation, Sacks has donated between $500,000 and $1 million, Rogers has donated between $250,000 and $500,000 and Wolf has donated between $100,000 and $250,000.
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