Governor Quinn Makes Appointments to Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority Board

CHICAGO – June 28, 2010. Governor Pat Quinn today announced three appointments to the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) Board, which operates McCormick Place and Navy Pier in Chicago.

Those MPEA board members are:

Ronald E. Powell, Member – Powell serves as the International Vice President of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union. He has served as president of the UFCW Local 881 since 1983. Powell lives in Mundelein with his wife Lois. They have four children and twelve grandchildren.

Carmen H. Lonstein, Member – Lonstein is a partner in the Chicago office of Baker and McKenzie and chair of the Financial Restructuring, Creditors’ Rights and Bankruptcy Practice Group in North America. She is a member of the board of the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. Lonstein lives in Chicago and has been named an Illinois Leading Lawyer and ranked in Top 50 Leading Women Business Lawyers in Illinois.

Larry R. Rogers, Member – Rogers is a founding partner of the Chicago law firm Power, Rogers and Smith. He is a past president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and of the Cook County Bar Association. Rogers has served on the United States Senate Judicial Nomination Commission for the Northern District of Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on the Administration of Justice and an Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions.

Appointees will serve on the temporary board for 18 months. Governor Quinn and Mayor Daley each appoint three interim board members.

The Chicago convention industry supports 65,000 jobs and generates $8 billion in annual economic impact. The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau recently announced that a number of organizations have recommitted to Chicago, including the International Housewares Association, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American College of Cardiology.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority is a municipal corporation created by the Illinois General Assembly. For more information on Illinois Boards and Commissions, please visit Appointments.Illinois.gov.