Lori Healey

Lori Healey, former McPier CEO and Daley chief of staff, died at 65 in May 2025. Healey was chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley; served as chief executive of McPier, the agency that operates McCormick Place; and most recently oversaw development of the Obama Presidential Center project. In addition to serving as Daley’s chief of staff, Healey ran the 2016 Chicago Olympic bid committee and organized the NATO and G-8 summits in Chicago in 2012. She also served as a commissioner of the city’s Department of Planning and Development. In 2020 she joined the Obama Foundation to lead construction and operations of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park as senior vice president and executive project officer. Healey’s career began in 1983 when she served as a policy aide to former Gov. John Carlin of Kansas. She was a graduate of Kansas State University, where she earned an undergraduate degree in economics and a master’s in public administration.