Ron Grzywinski Biography

Ronald Grzywinski is the chairman and co-founder of ShoreBank Corporation of Chicago. It was established in 1973 as America’s first community development banking organisation for disinvested urban and rural communities. In 1997, ShoreBank created the nation’s first environmental development bank. Ron was selected as the 2005 recipient of the Independent Sector’s John W. Gardner Leadership Award. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Business degree by Northern Michigan University School of Management and in 1988 he received the Medal for Entrepreneurial Excellence from the Yale University School of Management. Ron is a member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion.

Ron Grzywinski was born in 1936 in Chicago's South Chicago community area on the city's south side. His banking career began at the First National Bank of Lockport, and he moved to the Hyde Park Bank in 1967.

In 1973, Ron and three colleagues (Milton Davis, James Fletcher, and Mary Houghton) purchased the South Shore Bank (eventually renaming it ShoreBank) in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood to fight redlining. It was America's first community development bank, and it has grown into what is, by most accounts, the most successful community development and microfinance institution in the country. The bank's successful combination of a social mission with profitability finds it frequently cited as "doing well while doing good."

Ron has been the recipient of the Independent Sector's John W. Gardner Leadership Award, the Medal for Entrepreneurial Excellence from the Yale University School of Management, the President's Founders Award from Loyola University (Chicago) and the Theodore Hesburgh Award for Ethical Business Practices from the University of Notre Dame, He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Business Degree from Northern Michigan University and was a founding member of the Ashoka Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship. He has been the CEO of several banks and serves on the boards of numerous social purpose organizations. He is a Visiting Scholar at Loyola University.

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