Not one of those tech investors who are content to pull strings away from the limelight, this longtime business partner of Eric Lefkofsky (No. 19) was all over the stage at the second annual Chicago Ideas Week last October (he was the prime mover behind the intellectually provocative confab). Keywell is also an adjunct professor at the Booth School of Business and chairman of the Future Founders Foundation, whose mission is to spread the entrepreneurial spirit to local high-school students.

Photograph: NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE