William Brandt Jr., influential Democrat, corporate restructuring pioneer, dies at 73

William Brandt Jr., a pioneer in the corporate restructuring business, a Democratic activist and fundraiser close to Bill Clinton, and a former chair of the Illinois Finance Authority, developed a passion for politics and public policy while a student at Fenwick High School.

When future Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn was a freshman at the Oak Park school, he didn’t know anyone. Young Bill “invited me to be at his lunch table,” Quinn said, the beginning of an enduring friendship. “He was always very involved in social justice and helping people. He loved politics.’’

Mr. Brandt, 73, died Sunday at Evanston Hospital, after spending his last months in his Winnetka home. Doctors told him in March 2022 he had the neurodegenerative disease ALS.

As a high school senior at a time when President Lyndon Johnson was waging his “War on Poverty,” Mr. Brandt started to do community outreach at the Benton House, the social services organization in Bridgeport.

“I was passionate about it,” Mr. Brandt said in an interview for this obituary. “It led to my awareness on policy, and I guess you could say it’s where I got my start in politics.”

As a young man, Mr. Brandt began working with distressed companies, helping to create the corporate restructuring and turnaround industry. He founded the Chicago-based Development Specialists Inc., in 1976, traveling the globe on behalf of his clients. In December, the American Bankruptcy Institute honored Mr. Brandt by renaming its lifetime achievement award for him.

“I saw myself as a public servant,” he said. “When I did restructuring, I saved jobs, lots of jobs. And I saved businesses. And in my political activism, I was trying to make the world a better place.”

In 2008, then-Gov. Quinn appointed Mr. Brandt chairman of the Illinois Finance Authority — he served three terms — which provides low-cost financing for public and private economic development projects. Mr. Brandt also became a trustee of Loyola University.

Those interests converged in 2013, for what Mr. Brandt considered one of his proudest achievements. The Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine became the first medical school in the U.S. to admit undocumented students — known as “Dreamers” — who were covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, nicknamed DACA.

However, they could not take out federal student loans. Under Mr. Brandt, the finance authority created a loan program for these students, who in return agreed to work in medically under-served areas of Illinois.

Mr. Brandt became an influential Democratic player in Illinois, California, Florida and Massachusetts.

Former President Bill Clinton told the Sun-Times in a statement: “Hillary and I are saddened by the passing of Bill Brandt. Bill was a world-renowned bankruptcy and restructuring authority and a valued member of the President’s National Finance Board during my administration. He began supporting me in 1991 and played a key role in my 1996 re-election campaign, including helping to ensure the success of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“When he developed ALS and it moved rapidly, he faced it with courage, grace, and gratitude for the love of his family and friends, and for the fortunate life he’d lived. Hillary and I will always be grateful for Bill’s support and our hearts and prayers go out to [his wife] Patrice and his entire family.”

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Mr. Brandt was a vice chairman of the host committee for the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. That year, Mr. Brandt was also a delegate to the convention from Florida. Mr. Brandt remained close to Bill Clinton in his post-presidency.

In 2000, Mr. Brandt served on the platform committee at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles. He was a Hillary Clinton delegate from Illinois at the Democratic convention in Denver in 2008. That same year, he was national campaign finance co-chairman for U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., when Quigley made his first House run.

Mr. Brandt also was a longtime backer of U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. starting as her national finance chairman on an unsuccessful 2006 House bid.

“For as long as I’ve known him, Bill was always a no-bulls---, honest and direct sounding board — whether we agreed or not,” Duckworth said. “He was never looking to curry favor and never sought anything in return, he was already successful and wealthy.”

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Between 2006 and 2018, Mr. Brandt was a member and later chairman of the national advisory board of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Brandt was part of an investment group that bought the Sun-Times in 2017, helping to save the paper when it was in danger of folding. Former Sun-Times Media CEO Edwin Eisendrath recalled: “When I asked him to help rescue the Sun-Times, he did not hesitate.”

William Arthur Brandt Jr. was born in Chicago on Sept. 5, 1949, the oldest of four sons of Joan and his namesake father, whose business was supplying power plants with coal. His family moved to LaGrange, where he attended St. Francis Xavier elementary school.

After graduating from Fenwick in 1967, he earned a sociology degree from Saint Louis University and a master’s degree in sociology at the University of Chicago.

While pursuing a doctorate at the U of C, Mr. Brandt said, “I fell into the business I’ve been in and never looked back.”

Survivors include his wife, Patrice; daughters Katherine and Joan; sons John and William; and brothers John, Michael and James. A memorial service for Mr. Brandt will be held this summer, officiated by the Rev. Michael Garanzini, former President of Loyola — and Mr. Brandt’s Saint Louis University roommate.

Mr. Brandt “thought of politics as a noble profession for public service,” Garanzini said. “And higher education’s responsibility was to produce citizens ready for that responsibility.”

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