When First Chicago NBD Corp. merged with Banc One Corp. in 1998, the executive selected to oversee the integration was David Bolger, a disciplined and analytic thinker who had built a name for himself in commercial banking within First Chicago, most notably at its American National Bank unit.
In 2003 Patrick Ryan recruited Bolger to help repair flagging profit margins at Aon Corp., the Chicago-based insurance brokerage he founded and had built into a behemoth.
And now Ryan, the leonine leader of Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Games, is turning to Bolger for yet another unwieldy job: running day-to-day operations of Chicago’s Olympic campaign as its chief operating officer.
An academic whiz kid who grew up in a McHenry banking family with deep civic ties, the quietly serious Bolger seems to be a magnet for big, hairy challenges. And his ability to chop up those challenges into bite-size pieces, and to delegate the work effectively, should serve the Olympic bid committee well, say some people who know him.
The bank merger role “is the kind of job you give to someone you have a great deal of confidence in,” said Richard Thomas, who chaired First Chicago from 1991 to 1995 and was still on the board during the later merger. “It requires a lot of diplomacy and hard decisions.”
The 49-year-old Bolger “has a tremendous ability to understand the way an organization actually runs, translating the hype and good wishes into execution,” said Gary Johnson, president of the Chicago History Museum, where Bolger is a member of the board’s executive committee. “Whereas Pat Ryan is probably one of the world’s leading salesmen, with Dave it’s all about execution.”
At Aon, Bolger’s tenure as chief financial officer has contributed to improved results, said David Anthony, senior insurance industry analyst at Argus Research Corp.
“Operating earnings have been very good, the company has been able to perform well in the brokerage market and it’s seemingly gotten market share from competitors,” Anthony said.
And the not-for-profit world reports good performance as well.
“His personal involvement has been in growing our endowment, building our investments and making sure our accounting practices are above and beyond what’s required,” said Kevin Bell, president and chief executive of Lincoln Park Zoo, where Bolger has been a longtime board member and moved into the chairman’s role last month.
The Olympics appointment comes at a transition in Bolger’s career. In May he resigned as CFO at Aon, agreeing to stay on until a replacement is hired.
Until then he is working in a volunteer capacity with the Chicago 2016 team as it competes internationally to host the games. A decision is expected in 2009.
There was no discussion of an Olympic bid committee role prior to his Aon resignation, said Bolger.
“I just felt it was time for a change,” said Bolger, who lives in Lincoln Park. “I came to Aon to do some very specific things for Pat and the board, to improve the financial position of the company, to restore its credibility with Wall Street … and to position the company for long-term growth and success, and I feel that largely those three objectives were met.”
Ryan, who continues as Aon’s executive chairman after turning over the chief executive’s spot to McKinsey& Co. veteran Gregory Case in April 2005, said that after Bolger “decided to leave Aon, we just got talking, and he had been kind of following what we are doing over here at 2016, and one thing led to another.
“He has very good financial and operating skills,” said Ryan, who first met Bolger about 15 years ago while serving on the board of First Chicago.
In overseeing the integration of the two merging banks in 1998 Bolger said he saw his role as “an air traffic controller. My job was not to fly the planes but to make sure they took off and landed when they were supposed to, and that they didn’t run into each other, either in the air or on the ground.”
And he expects to perform a similar coordinating role for the Olympic bid committee.
“This is a massive undertaking, with multiple work streams from venues to the village to security to medical to transportation … and no one person or team is going to solve all those problems,” he said.
“So you have to parse it into manageable pieces.”
Chicago 2016 isn’t disclosing Bolger’s salary, but it’s certain to be a mere fraction of the $3.5 million compensation package he received last year at Aon.
“I’m not here because of the money, but because it’s a historic opportunity for the city,” he said.
His father, Thomas F. Bolger, was president of McHenry State Bank for 20 years, and also served as treasurer of the city of McHenry for 25 years, and helped establish McHenry County College and Marian Central Catholic High School, where David graduated as valedictorian of his class.
“Through him I learned you can have a successful career, you can have a personal life and family life, and still have time to give something back,” Bolger said.
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kbergen@tribune.com
