Ed is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Wintrust Financial Corporation (NASD WTFC). Founded in 1991, Wintrust is a financial services holding company, based in Rosemont, Illinois, and is currently the second largest bank group headquartered in Illinois. The Company engages in providing traditional community banking services, full service commercial banking, wealth management services, commercial insurance premium financing, mortgage origination, short-term accounts receivable financing and certain administrative services. Wintrust provides community-oriented, personal and commercial banking services to customers located in the greater Chicago, Illinois and southern Wisconsin metropolitan areas through its 15 wholly owned banking subsidiaries.
Ed graduated from Georgetown University in 1976 and is a certified public accountant.
Banking has been the primary focus of Ed’s career, beginning at the accounting firm Ernst & Young, LLP, where he specialized in the banking field focusing mainly in the area of bank mergers and acquisitions for seven years. After leaving Ernst & Young, Ed was senior vice president and chief financial officer of River Forest Bancorp, a $4 billion banking holding company in Chicago, Illinois from 1985 to 1991. While there, he was also president of the firm’s largest subsidiary, Lincoln National Bank, in Chicago.
Ed is a member and lead independent director of the board of directors of Stepan Company (NYSE) in Northfield, IL. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Northwestern Memorial Foundation at Northwestern Medicine, on the audit committee of Northwestern Memorial Health Care, is a trustee for Lurie Children’s Hospital and Foundation, and Vice Chair on the Board of the Finance Committee of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Ed is also a director of The Catholic Extension Society of America. He is a member of The Economic Club of Chicago, The Commercial Club of Chicago and the Bankers Club, where he was a former president.
Ed and his wife, Dorothy, live in Lake Bluff, Illinois.