John Kelly – Real Estate Forum – Panelist -

John Kelly
Candidate for Mayor of Chicago

A lifelong Chicagoan with family roots on the city’s Southeast Side, mayoral candidate John Kelly has spent his career learning how Chicago gets things done. He started in the Illinois Attorney General’s office and ran James Houlihan’s winning 1998 campaign for Cook County assessor. He went on to help build All-Circo, one of the most respected and effective public affairs consulting firms in the Midwest. As a lobbyist, he spent years representing the interests of major Chicago institutions and businesses, including negotiating the deal that brought Bally’s Casino to Chicago. John also co-founded Sentinel Security, which protects businesses and neighborhoods.

John’s mayoral campaign centers on three promises: safe neighborhoods, reliable transit and no new taxes. He looks to fill police vacancies and put officers back on CTA trains and buses, and bring employers and workers back to the city.

His ties to the city span multiple generations, including great-grandparents who owned the Hayes Hotel in the Woodlawn neighborhood, multiple family members who have served with the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, parents who ran a currency exchange in the 10th Ward, and a sister who taught in Chicago Public Schools for 28 years. A graduate of Mount Carmel High School, where he played on four state championship football teams in the 1990s, John led a capital effort to raise $17 million to modernize and expand the historic school building in Woodlawn.

John attended Illinois Wesleyan University, earning a degree in political science. He and his wife, Julie, have two daughters and live in Chicago.