Celebrate your Illini pride at the
2009 Chicago Illini of the Year Awards

You’re invited to join fellow Illinois alumni at the 12th Annual Chicago Illini of the Year reception and dinner – one of Chicago’s premier Illini events.

Tuesday, April 14
The University Club of Chicago
76 E. Monroe St. (corner of Monroe & Michigan)

Co-sponsored by the UI Alumni Association and the Chicago Illini Club, the Chicago Illini of the Year award is given to three distinguished University of Illinois alumni who have made exceptional contributions to both their profession and community, specifically in the city of Chicago.

The event is open to all alumni, and it’s a great opportunity to enhance Illini ties and celebrate orange-and-blue pride! For inquiries and reservations contact the Alumni Association at 800/355-2586 or alumni@uillinois.edu

5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. dinner
R.S.V.P. by April 7, 2009
Cost: $110 per person; $825 for table of eight

This year’s award recipients are:

		Cirilo McSween ’54 LAS, who broke racial barriers in the insurance field and played an active role in the U.S. civil rights movement. The native of Panama competed in track and field in the 1952 Olympics and came to the United States on a track scholarship from the University of Illinois. After graduation, Mr. McSween pursued a career in Chicago in insurance and by the late 1950s was one of the first blacks to become a member of the industry’s elite Million Dollar Round Table. A business entrepreneur, he owned 11 McDonald’s restaurants in the Chicago area, which were the first to present a themed décor. In the area of civil rights, Mr. McSween served as a board member and treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as well as a board member of Operation Breadbasket and vice chairman of Operation PUSH, two social justice organizations. He was a confidant of the Rev. Jesse Jackson ’60 and served as a pallbearer at the 1968 funeral of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. McSween died Nov. 4.

		Gail Veasman Kellogg '65 LAS, whose 30-year career at Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and services company, has helped make the world a better place to work. Her most significant achievement at Hewitt, where she became a principal partner in 1980, was to assist the company in becoming the largest independent service business in North America and a global leader in human resources consulting and outsourcing services (Hewitt employs more than 20,000 people in 35 countries). After formally retiring, Kellogg was drawn back to Hewitt in the early 2000s as it expanded into China, where she developed model social security and benefit plans as a senior consultant in Shanghai and Liaoning Province. Kellogg has served on the boards of the Alumni Association, the UI Foundation and the Chicago Illini Club and was a member of the Alice Campbell Alumni Center Building Committee. Known for her efforts to support girls, women and music in places she has lived, she is also noted for her philanthropy to the University of Illinois, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and OMNI Youth Services.

		Avy H. Stein ’77 BUS, co-founder and managing partner of Willis Stein & Partners, which manages $3 billion of private equity capital in the firm’s target industries of business services, consumer products and services, education, health care, manufacturing, media and telecommunications. A certified public accountant and a 1980 graduate of Harvard Law School, Stein worked in law and business before establishing Willis Stein in 1995, which since its founding has acquired 50 platform companies and made more than 100 follow-on acquisitions. He is noted for his civic involvement, particularly for his interest in bettering inner-city youth, having taken leadership roles with the Development Council for B.U.I.L.D. (Broader Urban Involvement in Leadership Development) and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. Stein also has served on such boards as the Ravinia Festival, the Steppenwolf Theatre, the Civic Consulting Alliance, the Economic Club and Commercial Club of Chicago and the UI Foundation. He has kept in touch with the University of Illinois College of Business and has also taught at The University of Chicago and Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and New York universities.