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William Brandt Jr. was an expert in corporate restructuring and bankruptcy who served as chair of the Illinois Finance Authority, which provides low-cost financing to public and private institutions in an effort to drive economic development and create jobs.
A Democratic activist and fundraiser, Brandt grew up in La Grange and attended Fenwick High School in Oak Park with future Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who as lieutenant governor recommended Brandt for the post at the Illinois Finance Authority.
With interest-free loans from the authority, Brandt helped Loyola University’s medical school become the first one in the U.S. to admit students from numerous countries who were living here without legal permission.
“Bill’s zeal for social justice never flickered,” Quinn said. “He was very generous, and helped a lot of people.”
Brandt, 73, died of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, on May 28 at Evanston Hospital in Evanston, said his wife of 43 years, Patrice. He had been a resident of Fernandina Beach, Florida, and previously had lived in Winnetka.
After graduating from Fenwick, Brandt received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from St. Louis University in 1971 and a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1972.
Brandt initially considered a career as a professor, and he completed all coursework other than his dissertation for a Ph.D. in sociology at the U. of C.
But he became involved in a dispute involving a business his family had owned, and “realized that he could earn more sorting through financial insolvencies and disputes than he could by earning his Ph.D.,” his wife said.
In 1976, Brandt formed Development Specialists Inc., a corporate restructuring consultancy that eventually had offices around the country. Brandt pushed for improvements to federal bankruptcy laws while also endeavoring to save as many jobs as possible at the bankrupt companies for which his firm consulted.
“Bill will be remembered as a stalwart in the insolvency industry, a brilliant and successful advocate for his clients,” said Amy Alcoke Quackenboss, the executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, which Brandt helped found.
Locally, Brandt’s firm caught a wave with the bankruptcy boom of the mid-1980s. He consulted to or was a bankruptcy court-appointed trustee for a wide variety of organizations, including Wieboldt Stores Inc., Paschen Contractors, Giordano’s pizza and the 111-year-old department store chain Madigan’s, which closed its doors at area malls in 1992.
Brandt focused on pre-bankruptcy turnaround work rather than bankruptcy liquidations. In the case of Maine-based audio and videocassette-maker Shape Inc., one of the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in New England, the Tribune reported in 1997 that Brandt had returned 100% of creditors’ money to them plus interest
“What we’re about is getting people’s money back, the bank’s money, creditors’ money, everybody’s money,” he told the Tribune in 1997.
Last year, Brandt received the American Bankruptcy Institute’s lifetime achievement award.
In 2008, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Brandt as the unpaid chairman of the Illinois Finance Authority, on the recommendation of Quinn, who was Blagojevich’s lieutenant governor. One of the nation’s largest government financing bodies, the Illinois Finance Authority was created by Blagojevich in 2004 by combining seven state bonding authorities.
“The governor came and said, ‘I need your help on this one,’” Brandt told the Tribune in 2008. “This is potentially one of the most important agencies in the state for job creation.”
When Quinn became governor in 2009, he reappointed Brandt as chair of the Illinois Finance Authority, and Brandt remained in that role until 2015.
Among his most important achievements was helping to rescue Roseland Community Hospital, the beleaguered Far South Side safety-net hospital, in 2013, Quinn said.
“I did not want that hospital to go away, as they had hired 500 people, and there were lots of jobs there and it helped the community a great deal,” Quinn said. “I called Bill and I said, ‘Work this out,’ and he came up with a plan that rescued Roseland Hospital. Then, when COVID-19 hit, all these people were treated and helped by Roseland. I was so glad that he was able to keep Roseland afloat.”
Chris Meister, the Illinois Finance Authority’s executive director, praised Brandt’s ability to see opportunities “where others saw closed doors.”
“Bill’s focus was always paying it forward and extending a generous helping hand to those in need,” Meister said.
Brandt served on the board of trustees of Loyola University Chicago from 2007 until 2016, and also was a life trustee of Fenwick High School. From 2017 until 2022, he was part of a group that owned the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.
In 2013, Brandt helped Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine become the first medical school in the U.S. to openly accept students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status.
Afternoon Briefing
He worked with U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin to have the Illinois Finance Authority create a loan program for any Illinois medical or dental school to help DACA students finance their education through zero-interest loans, in exchange for spending three years after receiving their education working in an underserved area of Illinois.
As of this May, 38 DACA recipients had earned a Stritch medical degree, according to information from Loyola. The group includes students from Mexico, Poland and other countries.
Brandt also was a key fundraiser during both of President Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, and he was on the host committee for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1996. Brandt, who had a home in Santa Monica, California, also was part of the host committee for the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
Brandt also is survived by two daughters, Katherine and Joan; two sons, William and John; a grandson; and three brothers, Jim, Mike and John.
Services were held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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