5

Michael Sacks

Age: 51

Occupation: Chairman and CEO, Grosvenor Capital Management

Sacks lands high on this list not just because he runs a thriving $44 billion hedge fund but because he’s Rahm’s fixer on a range of economic issues, from underfunded city pensions to the nascent Chicago Infrastructure Trust. The unpaid adviser is said to talk with the mayor almost daily, and he helped negotiate a do-over for that much-maligned parking meter deal—though the presence of a pseudo-bureaucrat did not win universal praise. Afterward, 2nd Ward alderman Robert Fioretti grumbled to Crain’s: “We want government-business partnerships, but not these types.”