Edwin Eisendrath
Member of the Chicago City Council from the 43rd ward
In office
1987 (1987)–1993 (1993)
Preceded byMartin J. Oberman
Succeeded byCharles Bernardini
Personal details
Born (1958-02-03) February 3, 1958 (age 66)[1]
Chicago, Illinois
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Jennifer Schulze
​
(m. 1994)​
ChildrenThree
ResidenceChicago, Illinois
Alma materHarvard University (B.A.)
National Louis University (M.A.)

Edwin Eisendrath (born February 3, 1958)[1] is former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times and former alderman of the 43rd ward of Chicago (Lincoln Park area).

Biography

Edwin Eisendrath III was born into a Jewish family,[2] the son of Edwin W. Eisendrath Jr.[3] and Susan Rosenberg. His father was an attorney and his mother came from a powerful West Side political family.[4] His parents divorced when he was a child, in 1970, and his mother married Lewis Manilow. He was raised in the East Lake View neighborhood of Chicago. After graduating from Harvard University, he taught in public schools in both Appalacia and later Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.[4] In 1983, he earned a master of arts in teaching at National Louis University.[5]

At age 29, he ran for alderman in Chicago's 43rd ward to succeed the retiring Martin J. Oberman. The race, between him and attorney Robert Perkins was dubbed by observers as the Battle of the Blue Bloods as both young candidates came from wealthy, well connected families.[4][6] As an alderman, he backed the ward map proposed by Richard M. Daley in a referendum. The referendum, an oddity, was a choice between two maps, but in lieu of the actual maps, voters were asked to choose a map based on a list of alderman that supported each respective map.[7] He also backed reforming Chicago Public Schools.[8]

He ran for Congress in Illinois's 9th congressional district in the 1990 Democratic primary election against longtime incumbent Sid Yates. Eisendrath ran an anti-incumbent campaign focused on Yates' long tenure in the United States House of Representatives. Eisendrath lost in a landslide.[9]

In October 1993, he resigned as alderman to become the administrator for the Region V office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Chicago, one of HUD's largest and busiest. He formerly served as Vice President of Academic Affairs for Kendall College but resigned the position in 2007. He sought the Democratic nomination for Governor of Illinois in 2006 but was defeated in the primary by incumbent governor Rod Blagojevich. From 2007 to 2017, he was an international business consultant with a focus on global higher education.

In 2017, he led a group, including retired WLS-TV anchor Linda Yu and the Chicago Federation of Labor, to place a bid for the Chicago Sun-Times. It was announced July 13 that the group, ST Acquisition Holdings LLC, purchased the Sun-Times.[10][11] Shortly thereafter, Eisendrath was named the Chicago Sun Times new chief executive officer.[12]

In January 2018, he hired Mark Konkol as executive editor of then-Sun-Times-owned Chicago Reader[13] Konkol soon published an issue with racist cover and Eisendrath fired Konkol.[14] Later in 2018, Eisendrath resigned as CEO after meeting his original goals stating "Not only did we stop the (Tribune) merger, we successfully relocated, rebranded, restructured”.[15][16]

In 2019, Eisendrath helped launch Verifiable, a company that uses advanced technologies to provide real-time license verification and continuous monitoring of healthcare providers to increase efficiency and reduce compliance costs to hospitals and other health care organization.

Most recently, Eisendrath is guest hosting at the progressive Chicago radio station WCPT820am.[17]

Patents

Edwin is an inventor on several issued and pending US and international patents related to virtual on-line universities.[18]

Family

Eisendrath's younger brother is television producer and writer John Eisendrath.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b Ben Joravsky, Why Is This Man Running?, The Chicago Reader, February 15, 1990.
  2. ^ Behind the Headlines Jewish Voters Played a Key Role in the Chicago Election, JTA, April 20, 1987.
  3. ^ Gerry Doyle, Edwin W. Eisendrath Jr., The Chicago Tribune, June 30, 2006.
  4. ^ a b c Felsenthal, Carol (June 22, 2017). "Who Is Edwin Eisendrath?". Chicago. Springfield, Illinois: tronc. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  5. ^ "Facebook Status Update July 13th". National Louis University. July 13, 2017. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  6. ^ Green, Paul M. (July 1987). "A walk on the wild side". Illinois Issues. Vol. 16, no. 7. Springfield, Illinois: Sangamon State University. pp. 46–47. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  7. ^ Galvan, Manuel (March 1992). "Redistricting city wards by referenda March 17". Illinois Issues. Vol. 18, no. 3. Springfield, Illinois: Sangamon State University. pp. 32–33. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  8. ^ Joravsky, Ben (April 1988). "The Chicago school mess". Illinois Issues. Vol. 14, no. 4. Springfield, Illinois: Sangamon State University. pp. 12–15. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  9. ^ Camper, John (March 1990). "Reynolds and Eisendrath: What chance against incumbents?". Illinois Issues. Vol. 16, no. 3. Springfield, Illinois: Sangamon State University. pp. 34–35. ISSN 0738-9663. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  10. ^ Miller, Rich (June 5, 2017). "Potential Sun-Times buyers line up ahead of deadline". Capitol Fax. Springfield, Illinois. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  11. ^ Esposito, Stefano (July 13, 2017). "New investors in Chicago Sun-Times revealed". Chicago Sun Times. Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  12. ^ Blumberg, Nick (July 18, 2017). "Meet Edwin Eisendrath, the New Chicago Sun-Times CEO". Chicago Tonight. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  13. ^ "Pulitzer winner Mark Konkol to lead Chicago Reader". Chicago Reader. January 31, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  14. ^ "Edwin Eisendrath discusses the offensive Reader cover, staff diversity, and the paper's future". Chicago Reader. February 21, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  15. ^ https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-sun-times-ceo-resigns-20181031-story.htm[dead link]
  16. ^ Main, Frank (October 31, 2018). "Edwin Eisendrath resigns as Sun-Times Media CEO". Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  17. ^ "Just another WordPress site | Management Site".
  18. ^ Google patent search on "Edwin Eisengrath"
  19. ^ The new owner’s kid brother used to work here, The Chicago Reader, July 20, 2017.
Political offices Preceded byMartin J. Oberman Member of the Chicago City Council43rd Ward 1987 – 1993 Succeeded byCharles Bernardini
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