A clout-heavy lobbyist who has represented the Pritzker, Wirtz and Reinsdorf families and the producers of Lollapalooza is Mayor Brandon Johnson’s choice to chair the board of the convention and tourism agency known as Choose Chicago.
Guy Chipparoni, CEO of Res Publica, replaces corporate affairs strategist Glenn Eden as chair, whose term is limited to six years.
Keiana Barrett, who helped organize the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, will serve as vice chair.
Chipparoni got his start as a public relations and governmental affairs coordinator for the Hyatt Hotel Corp. owned by the billionaire family of Gov. JB Pritzker.
He went on to serve as a chief political strategist for former Illinois Secretary of State and Gov. Jim Edgar before carving out his own path as a lobbyist and communications executive, first at KemperLesnik, then at Res Publica Group.
Chipparoni’s reputation as a political player should come in handy at a critical time.
The new president and CEO of Choose Chicago is Kristen Reynolds, who spent the last decade as CEO of New York’s Discover Long Island.
Chipparoni has the insider knowledge to show her the ropes. His clients include the Wirtz family, who owns the Blackhawks, the Reinsdorf family, who runs the Bulls and White Sox and the United Center Joint Venture that includes both families.
Chipparoni has also represented C3 Presents LLC, which runs the wildly successful Lollapalooza music festival that fills Grant Park and Chicago hotel rooms every summer.
Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said Chipparoni’s sports clients make him the perfect choice as board chair at a time when “sports tourism” — going to another city to watch your hometown team play — has exploded, and Lollapalooza has made Chicago the No. 1 summer destination for college students.
“So many hotel rooms now are filled with fans of visiting teams. That’s one of the reasons why the United Center development plan [known as the 1901 Project] includes 1,500 hotel rooms, which is a staggeringly large number of hotel rooms,” Hopkins said.
“That would have been unthinkable even 10 years ago. There’d be no way you would have any need for such a huge volume of hotel rooms. But in today’s world, with sports tourism being such a huge thing, it should be an emphasis for Choose Chicago.”
Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter said there will be “a lot people supporting Kristen” Reynolds, and Chipparoni is “a good person to have in your corner.”
As for the conflicts posed by Chipparoni’s clout-heavy clients, Reiter said Choose Chicago is a “stakeholder organization” with a huge board of people with vested interest in the tourism industry.
Bulls President and CEO “Michael Reinsdorf is on the board. … I’m going off the board because my term is up. But there have always been people who represent sports teams and properties. That’s not very unusual,” Reiter said. “He wouldn’t be the first lobbyist who has served on the board. He knows the city very well. He works in communications, which is important.”
Chipparoni could not be reached for comment on his appointment.
Reynolds has said one of her top priorities will be implementing a tourism improvement district that allows for a higher tax on hotel stays to double Choose Chicago’s annual marketing budget at a time when Las Vegas, Orlando, New York, Los Angeles and San Diego are outspending Chicago.