Patrick G. Ryan

Patrick G. Ryan is founder and executive chairman of Aon Corporation – the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance intermediary, and a global leader in risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and consulting.  As an entrepreneur, he founded the company, which has its origin in a small insurance agency, in 1964. Under Ryan’s leadership, the company continued to expand through organic growth and acquisition, and in 1987 changed its name to Aon Corporation.

Mr. Ryan developed one of the most sophisticated management structures in brokerage networks of local resources delivering services around the world, with expertise to do business in specific locations, not just from headquarters.  He was also an early proponent of the power of intellectual capital as a strategic business tool and advantage.  Today Aon operates with more than 500 offices in over 120 countries, generating revenues in excess of $7 billion.
 
Ryan has been chairman of Aon’s Board of Directors since 1990. He served as chief executive of Aon and its predecessor company from 1964 to April 2005.
 
He is chairman of the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University. He also is a director of the Chicago Bears Football Club, Inc. One of Chicago’s most visible business and civic leaders, Ryan serves as chairman and CEO of the Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee.
 
In 2008, Ryan was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent research centers. Also in 2008, he was elected to the International Insurance Society Hall of Fame, and received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ryan was named by Brigham Young University as an International Executive of the Year for corporate integrity. He has received the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Award. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs honored him with its Chicago Leadership Award for his contribution to building Chicago’s international stature through corporate philanthropy, civic leadership and business.
 
Numerous other tributes include: Insurance Leader of the Year by the College of Insurance; the Order of Lincoln Medallion, Illinois’ highest award recognizing a lifetime of accomplishment; the Business Statesman Award, Harvard Business School Club of Chicago; the Distinguished Leadership Award of Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce; the Chicago History Museum’s History Maker Award for Distinction in Corporate Leadership and Innovation; the Distinguished Citizen Award of Chicago Council of the Boy Scouts of America; the President’s Medal from Loyola Academy and the Insurance Federation of New York’s Free Enterprise Award; the Distinguished American Award from the Chicago Chapter of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame; and a recipient of the Gage Award for Outstanding Civic Contribution which is presented by the Civic Federation. He is also a member of the Chicago Business Hall of Fame, a member and past president of the Economic Club of Chicago, and a director of the Inner-City Teaching Corps.
 
He and his wife, Shirley, were awarded the Distinguished Philanthropist Award. The Ryans founded and are active in the Pathways Center and the Pathways Awareness Foundation, which are dedicated to serving the early detection and early intervention for babies to assure their best physical and sensory development.

Pat and Shirley Ryan have three sons and three grandchildren.