Chicago Pension Panel

Greg Hinz writes a weekly column, anchoring Crain's Chicago Business' page 2, on local government and politics, from City Hall and the Illinois General Assembly to the Chicago Board of Education. He also writes regularly for Crain's online report, ChicagoBusiness.com. He joined Crain's in August 1996, after four years as political editor of Chicago magazine and nearly two decades as political editor and columnist with the Lerner Newspapers chain.

Laurence Msall is the President of the Civic Federation. Msall joined the 118-year-old tax policy and government research organization in January of 2002. The Civic Federation is an independent, non-partisan government research organization founded in 1894 whose membership includes business and professional leaders from a wide range of Chicago area corporations, professional service firms and institutions. The Civic Federation seeks to assist public policy opinion leaders in the Chicago area and to advance issues such as property tax reform, tax simplification, privatization, and joint purchasing with the objective of improving governmental efficiency and financial accountability.

Thomas Ryan is President of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2. He has served in this role since July of 2007. Prior to serving as President, Ryan served as Vice-President of Local 2, Chairman of Local 2 Health and Safety, Military, and Retiree Committees, and 4 terms as Local 2 Steward. The Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 represents over 7000 active and retired Firefighters and Paramedics.