CHICAGO (AP) – A University of Illinois graduate who leads a Chicago-based private equity firm has been elected chairman of the university system’s Board of Trustees.
Donald Edwards was unanimously elected to a one-year term during the board’s meeting Thursday.
Edwards earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He was a four-year letter winner on the Illini golf team. He is CEO of Flexpoint Ford, a firm he founded in 2004.
Edwards was first appointed to the Board of Trustees by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017.
He was reappointed earlier Thursday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also appointed four other board members: Patricia Brown Holmes, Ricardo Estrada, Kareem Dale, and former state Rep. Naomi Jakobsson.
The Illinois Senate must confirm the appointments.
