Melissa Harris

"If you look at U.S. corporate boards, they are getting older, they are long-tenured and they are retired," said Julie Daum, head of the North American board practice for Chicago-based executive search firm Spencer Stuart, during remarks Monday, July 27, 2015, at the Women's Foodservice Forum executive summit. "We don't do term limits."

We won’t have more women in boardrooms until …

June 15, 2018 at 5:07 p.m.

America won't have more women in its boardrooms until companies lower the mandatory retirement age of their directors. "If you look at U.S. corporate boards, they are getting older, they...

The "cloud tax" is actually an extension of two existing taxes, the city amusement tax and the city personal property lease transaction tax, to cover streaming entertainment as well as cloud-based services.

The mess Chicago’s ‘cloud tax’ only makes messier

May 23, 2019 at 8:29 p.m.

Chicago's finance department recently reinterpreted two city taxes in ways that are going to cost tech companies money, potentially a lot of money. An ensuing uproar has prompted city officials...

Justin Smith, 25, solders wiring for LED lights that will be placed in a 3-D-printed brick at the Center for Lost Arts on July 21, 2015, in Chicago.

Kickstarter co-founder Charles Adler’s pop-up, the Center for Lost Arts

May 23, 2019 at 8:29 p.m.

The miniature replica of architect Louis Sullivan's intricate long-ago demolished Barbe House relief is 70 percent done, according to the whirring 3-D printer inside Kickstarter co-founder Charles Adler's new Center...

Tidiness guru Marie Kondo, left, speaking through an interpreter, talks to Claduia Logan and her daughter Otti, 16, about the dining room and office in their home in Cambridge, Mass., in February 2015.

Bobinos and the joy of having just the stuff you need

June 16, 2018 at 9:24 p.m.

I've found so much joy lately in a tiny piece of plastic called a Bobino. It's a cute, flexible spool around which one wraps any one of those cords piled...

The snow statue competition is the pinnacle of the carnival at Michigan Tech University. This statue, built by Delta Sigma Phi in 2011, is titled "Harry Potter."

Chicago can harness the economic power of free hot chocolate

May 23, 2019 at 8:29 p.m.

Contemplate the idea of a winter carnival. Yes, thinking about snow and frigidity in July can be as dreadful as thinking about death. But go to your area park on...

During the tech bubble, about 40 million people were online. That number has grown to 4 billion.

Hate to burst your bubble, but tech investment is healthy

May 23, 2019 at 8:29 p.m.

The tech bubble doesn't exist. That's the point of a 53-slide presentation last month in which three partners from the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz supplied evidence that...

Beanie Babies founder Ty Warner, who was given probation and community service after his conviction for evading taxes, is worth $2.4 billion, tying J.B. Pritzker on the Forbes list.

Ty Warner got off easy

May 23, 2019 at 8:29 p.m.

A Federal Appeals Court last week upheld a sentence sparing billionaire Beanie Babies creator Ty Warner jail time for stashing millions in Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying taxes. Sentencing...

Outgoing Chicago Planning Commissioner Andrew Mooney, seen July 9, 2015, has served four mayors — Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel. He plans to step down in September.

An exit interview with Andrew Mooney

May 23, 2019 at 8:29 p.m.

The idea to marry DePaul University's basketball program with an expansion of the McCormick Place Convention Center came to outgoing Chicago Planning and Development Commissioner Andrew Mooney in the shower....

How Restoration Hardware landed in the Gold Coast

June 15, 2018 at 6:51 p.m.

After years of negotiation and, yes, restoration, a Restoration Hardware is scheduled to open in the middle of Chicago's ritziest neighborhood this fall. The 62,000-square-foot former Three Arts Club building...

The lease is up for Whispers Cafe in Mariano Park. Should money be the deciding factor on what happens next?

Readers have their say on what to do with Mariano Park

June 15, 2018 at 7:02 p.m.

I knew I would get blitzed with emails from angry readers after I called for revenue to be the deciding factor in awarding the rights to operate a cafe in...

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