From Kristen Mack, the Chicago Tribune:  Mayor Rahm Emanuel has tapped a group of experienced fundraisers to help cash-strapped Chicago come up with money to host the NATO and G-8 summits next spring.

Former Sara Lee Corp. CEO John Bryan will chair a host committee that will lean on private and corporate donors to supplement government resources.

Leslie Fox, who spearheaded Chicago’s fundraising for the 1996 Democratic National Convention, will be the group’s executive director. And Anne Olaimey, Emanuel’s longtime campaign fundraiser, will head the finance committee. . . .

Chicago will be the first American city other than Washington to host a NATO gathering. The May 15-22 summit will coincide with a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

It will be the first time since 1977 in London that the two organizations held meetings in the same city at the same time.

Last week, Chicago was awarded a $54.6 million federal grant for security and emergency planning.

From Lynn Sweet, the Chicago Sun-Times:  [Leslie] Fox is a veteran events executive who managed the Chicago host committees for the 1996 Democratic National Convention and the 1994 World Cup. . . .

Fox will be Chicago’s key liasion to the White House, State Department, Secret Service and other U.S. entities involved in the meeting of global leaders. In later phases, she will also be the city’s link to representatives of NATO and the G-8 involved in planning the May sessions. Fox is close to Emanuel and to White House chief of staff Bill Daley.

Fox worked with Emanuel in former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 1989 campaign. Bill Daley was a co-chair of the 1996 Chicago convention when Fox ran the host committee.  (photo: Chicago Art Collector)

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