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Alum Manny Sanchez regains seat on Illinois stadium board

January 27, 2015
Manny Sanchez

Manny Sanchez

Alumnus Manny Sanchez has been reinstalled by Gov. Bruce Rauner to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the city-state panel that owns U.S. Cellular Field.

The Chicago attorney has been named chairman of the ISFA’s seven-member board and replaces former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.

“I look forward to growing the revenue sources at U.S. Cellular Field and protecting the interests of the state and the city in terms of (the ballpark’s) fiscal viability,” Sanchez told Crain’s Chicago Business on Monday.

The board, composed of four governor appointees and three mayoral appointees, manages bond debt payments from construction of U.S. Cellular Field and the renovation of Soldier Field.

According to Crain’s, former Gov. Pat Quinn removed Sanchez from the ISFA board in 2012 to help ensure that Kelly Kraft, Quinn’s former communications director, received a majority vote as ISFA’s executive director.

Sanchez is the founder and managing partner of the Chicago-based law firm Sanchez Daniels & Hoffman and has been a vocal supporter of Rauner.

He was appointed to the NIU Board of Trustees in 1995 and 2001 and is a current member of the NIU Foundation Board of Directors.

Sanchez is one of five Latinos in The Commercial Club of Chicago, one of the city’s oldest business clubs.

He also serves on the boards of the Economic Club of Chicago, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Steppenwolf Theatre Co., Ounce of Prevention Fund, Gems World Academy and other organizations involving work with children, the arts and NIU. In 2011, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.