Biography
Melissa Harris is a business columnist at The Chicago Tribune. Her twice-weekly column chronicles the city's business elite. Prior to the ...
Citadel's Kenneth Griffin exposes 'cronyism,' causes a stir at Economic Club
May 22, 2013
Citadel LLC founder Kenneth Griffin named and shamed local corporations that have taken tax incentives from the financially strapped state in a speech to a prominent Chicago business group.
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Inside Penny Pritzker's portfolio: How a billionaire invests
May 19, 2013
How do the wealthy stay wealthy? The mandatory financial disclosure released last week by commerce secretary nominee Penny Pritzker provides a rare look at an American billionaire's entire investment portfolio. Pritzker inherited much of her wealth, long stashed in hundreds of domestic trusts and at least one offshore family trust. But she also has built a reputation as a savvy executive who has managed and built companies within her family's operations.
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Harris: Google's Eric Schmidt on North Korea and technology's future
May 18, 2013
Google's glasses may one day whisper in your ear an old acquaintance's name when you unexpectedly bump into them at a party.
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JPMorgan board members targeted by shareholder advisers
May 12, 2013
JPMorgan Chase, one of the nation's largest banks, survived the financial crisis better than most — only to have the $6 billion "London Whale" trading loss last year expose embarrassing flaws in its accounting and risk controls.
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Harris: Patrick Fitzgerald offers lesson on complexities of terrorism law
May 9, 2013
Complex. Even messy.
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Harris: Digital startup makes move to challenge Facebook
May 2, 2013
The idea behind Cayova, a startup moving its headquarters to Chicago via Dublin, is that the time we spend in the digital world and the information we share about ourselves is a valuable commodity to marketers.
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Barrington car show moving to Chicago in 2014
April 28, 2013
The Barrington Concours d'Elegance, an annual showcase of collectible cars and motorcycles, will move to downtown Chicago in 2014 and be renamed the Chicago Concours, its new management told the Tribune.
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3 Chicago companies in TechStars Chicago's inaugural class
April 25, 2013
TechStars Chicago, formerly Excelerate Labs, will announce Thursday its first class of 10 startups under its new brand, which will include the Chicago-based companies: Project Fixup, SimpleRelevance and SocialCrunch.
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Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker advocates paying parents for student performance
April 21, 2013
Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker could never win an election in this town.
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Harris: Project gets off to 'beautiful' start
April 18, 2013
The stickers are simple and, well, beautiful.
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Tom Pritzker woos big names for U. of C.'s big data
April 14, 2013
University of Chicago computer scientist Ian Foster pressed the clicker and up popped a map of the most sophisticated fiber-optic networks in the world.
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Gambling bill would allow PokerStars, Full Tilt to apply for an online gaming license
April 11, 2013
A gambling expansion bill is back, but it now includes a provision that would allow PokerStars, once accused by federal prosecutors of money laundering and fraud, to compete for an online gaming license in Illinois.
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Groupon co-founder Keywell taping radio pilots
April 7, 2013
Serial entrepreneur and Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell has begun taping pilots for a new 30-minute radio program he would host on WBEZ-FM 91.5, a public radio station.
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What junk sales and Chicago Fed tell us about the economy
March 27, 2013
My husband and I are buying a house today.
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Good Pitch Chicago forum will connect documentary filmmakers with supporters
March 21, 2013
Chicago's documentary film industry is getting its own high-profile Demo Day.
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Penny Pritzker resigns from the Chicago school board
March 15, 2013
Billionaire Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker resigned from the Chicago Board of Education on Thursday.
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Boosters want to turn Pullman into national park
March 10, 2013
A group of Chicago residents and preservationists are working to win federal approval to turn the entire Pullman neighborhood on Chicago's Far South Side into a national park.
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Will Penny Pritzker become the next U.S. commerce secretary?
March 3, 2013
In late 2009, President Barack Obama appeared on "60 Minutes" and said "fat-cat bankers" were smothering his efforts to craft new rules for Wall Street.
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Harris: U.S. ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder to head Chicago Council on Global Affairs
February 14, 2013
Ivo Daalder, U.S. ambassador to NATO and a national security expert, will become president of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs effective July 1.
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J.B. Pritzker calls for large businesses to work closer with startups
February 12, 2013
J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire venture capitalist whose family founded the Hyatt hotel chain, called on corporations to work more closely with startups and become more familiar with the city's growing technology sector.
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Chicago Community Trust encourages nonprofits to merge, form partnerships
February 10, 2013
Chicago's largest donor to local charities also is helping some go out of business.
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Henry Paulson turns career adviser at U. of C.
February 3, 2013
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson worked as a career coach Friday for University of Chicago MBA students.
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City's top tech-startup incubator to merge with national competitor
February 1, 2013
Excelerate Labs, Chicago's first and most prominent tech startup incubator, is joining TechStars, a Boulder, Colo.-based competitor that has expanded to five cities and boasts an international reputation for growing technology companies.
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Harris: William Daley deals with 'crazy hours, long days' on trip to China
January 31, 2013
William Daley called Wednesday from China about 11 p.m. Beijing time, saying "the crazy hours, long days and time lag" were "kind of getting to" him.
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Pitching Chicago to China
January 27, 2013
World Business Chicago Vice Chairman Michael Sacks and former Commerce Secretary William Daley leave Sunday on a six-day business mission to China, Sacks' first official foreign trip as a top adviser to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
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Chicago Confidential: City makes headway in Bloomingdale Trail project
January 24, 2013
The city of Chicago last week bought the 2.7-mile-long elevated Canadian Pacific Railway spur known as the Bloomingdale Trail.
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Basecamp Breeze is techie product for normal people
January 20, 2013
You try to send a mass email. Then the messages bounce back. And maybe a few minutes later you realize you forgot someone.
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Organizers set to release letter from corporate backers of gay marriage
December 31, 2012
A coalition of gay marriage advocates plans to release a letter this week signed by top Illinois executives and companies endorsing same-sex marriage as an economic imperative, giving a powerful push to a bill that state lawmakers could take up as early as Thursday.
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Harris: Design for developing nations developing at IIT
December 23, 2012
Chicago architect Ann Clark is designing a boarding school that will sit in a saddle-shaped field of mostly beans in Grand-Bois, Haiti.
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Harris: 3 innovations from Chicago science scene that offer ideas, shape of things to come
December 16, 2012
Internet-centered technology has advanced to the point that smartphone apps and e-commerce sites seemingly sprout overnight. Indeed, many can be built inexpensively from off-the-shelf software in weeks. Scientific breakthroughs, however, often require decades of research and millions of dollars. At the end of every year, I feature three teams of Chicago innovators whose ideas won't hit the big-time soon but have the potential to improve, even save, our lives a decade from now.
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Harris: Power shift at Chicago Board Options Exchange as William Brodsky announces exit as CEO
December 13, 2012
Few leaders of publicly traded companies in Chicago have been more ensconced in the role of chief executive than William Brodsky.
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Chicago taxi owners honking mad about Uber's cab-hailing app, service
December 9, 2012
Chicago's taxicab owners, led by business partners Pat Corrigan and Michael Levine, are throwing everything they can at a technology startup called Uber.
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Chicago Confidential: Impact Engine debuts Azadi and 6 other do-good startups
December 6, 2012
Ameet Mehta hooked his audience at the Chase Auditorium on Wednesday with this opening line: "We're two males in our early 20s starting a feminine hygiene business."
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Harris: Groupon's Andrew Mason faces questions about his future as CEO
November 30, 2012
The problems at Groupon go beyond the question of whether its business model of offering daily deals can sustain its growth trajectory. And beyond the price of the company's stock, which began trading at $20 a share in November 2011 and now sit below $5.
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Walk.by steps into online clothes shopping
November 25, 2012
Chicago entrepreneur Joshua Hernandez's newest startup is testing a service that allows people to snap a photo of a clothing item they covet and, via their mobile phone, request a version of it from area boutiques.
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Chocolatier finds sweet spot in Belize
November 18, 2012
Katrina Markoff, the founder of high-end Chicago chocolatier Vosges Haut-Chocolat, is nearing completion on two high-profile projects: a winery-style chocolate facility in Logan Square and an education center at a cacao plantation and eco-lodge in Belize.
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Susanin Auctions expecting Rockwell painting to hit millions
November 11, 2012
Sean Susanin believes he is about to set a record price for a painting at a Chicago auction.
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Major Chicago fundraisers, friends turn out for their candidates
November 8, 2012
For most of Election Day, Dr. Cheryl Whitaker nervously devoured an entire bag of Lay's potato chips while watching cable news.
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Chicago-area native Dan Suh finds his groove with Korean pop star Psy
November 4, 2012
Dan Suh returned my call Tuesday from his room at the Ritz-Carlton Toronto, and we started with some housekeeping. Could he please email me a photo of himself for the paper?
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No reservations about backing Shiftgig
November 1, 2012
A sweet spot for Chicago tech is helping old-line companies become more efficient.
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Chicago Confidential: Lehman Brothers bankruptcy examiner believes lessons not heeded
October 28, 2012
The lessons of Lehman Brothers, Chicagoan Anton Valukas says, haven't been learned.
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Toni Preckwinkle's chief of staff to depart
October 25, 2012
Kurt Summers Jr., chief of staff to Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, will leave his post in early November to join Chicago-based investment firm Grosvenor Capital Management as senior vice president, Summers said in an interview this week.
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WMS Industries places a bet on online gambling
October 21, 2012
While Illinois officials remain mired in debate over all forms of gambling, WMS Industries is predicting that casinos will soon become ubiquitous — via your computer and cellphone, at least.
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Engineers at Google Chicago police free speech on the Internet
October 19, 2012
Brian Fitzpatrick is a veteran Google Chicago engineer who majored in Latin but has become an expert in government censorship of the Internet.
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Google engineers policing governments trying to police Internet
October 19, 2012
Brian Fitzpatrick is a veteran Google Chicago engineer who majored in Latin but has become an expert in government censorship of the Internet.
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Inventor, 10-year-old daughter team up on no-spill cup
October 14, 2012
Joe Born's father has Parkinson's Disease, which causes him to frequently spill his drinks.
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Many Chicago Democrats untapped by pro-Obama super PAC
September 23, 2012
So far, almost all of Chicago's top Democratic donors have abstained from giving to Priorities USA Action, the leading super PAC supporting President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
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Who's who — and who's paying — in the Prentice preservation war
September 16, 2012
The clash between Northwestern University and preservationists over the fate of Bertrand Goldberg's old Prentice Women's Hospital is expected to climax as early as Oct. 4 when the Commission on Chicago Landmarks could begin weighing the merits of preserving the Streeterville structure.
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Graphic artist Jenny Beorkrem finds she's a poster child for knockoffs of neighborhood maps
September 13, 2012
Graphic artist Jenny Beorkrem sat down behind her iMac this week and with a few clicks located the folder titled "KNOCKOFFS."
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Chicago Confidential: Eleanor Foundation to merge into Chicago Foundation for Women
September 7, 2012
The Eleanor Foundation, a nonprofit primarily assisting single mothers that is more than 110 years old, will soon wind down its operations and transfer its approximately $7 million in assets to the Chicago Foundation for Women.
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Safety concerns at old post office addressed, but development remains stalled
September 2, 2012
Bill Davies, the eccentric Monaco-based owner of Chicago's old post office, wants to turn the hulking mass that straddles Congress Parkway into a mecca of shopping, office space, residences, etc.
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All business on Demo Day
August 30, 2012
Alicia DiRago paced backstage at the House of Blues on Wednesday morning as if she were about to perform on the balance beam.
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Interview with Douglas Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar
March 16, 2012
Douglas Oberhelman is the most outspoken business leader in Illinois.
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Romney fundraisers have ball rolling in Chicago
January 22, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has built a who's who roster of Chicago business leaders to help him raise millions in President Barack Obama's backyard.
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NATO/G-8 fundraising must move at feverish pace
January 19, 2012
The task of raising tens of millions of dollars in donations for the NATO and G-8 summits means fundraisers will need to move as aggressively as the Art Institute did in its campaign to build the Modern Wing.
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CEOs need to brace for G-8, NATO
December 8, 2011
The G-8 and NATO summits being held in May in Chicago are expected to draw thousands of protesters, and Christie Hefner had heard that some local CEOs were being told by their senior staff to "get out of town" that week to avoid them.
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Group targets growth in city
October 27, 2011
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has touted and touted his work on economic development, often choosing little-watched advisory committees to help him shape his policies.
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Chicago technologist Harper Reed joins President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign
June 2, 2011
Well-known Chicago technologist Harper Reed has joined the Obama 2012 campaign as chief technology officer, the campaign confirmed Wednesday.
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New website helps neighbors share stuff, be green
May 26, 2011
Chuck Templeton believes that the greenest thing anyone can do is not buy something.
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Business charm school in session
September 4, 2010
— When it comes to the economy, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett wants to remind everyone: Her boss inherited this mess. She said so numerous times during a less than 20-minute interview in the West Wing Thursday on the Obama administration's on-again, off-again relationship with big business.
