Bob Weissbourd

Robert Weissbourd founded RW Ventures, LLC in 2000, after serving for ten years in executive positions at Shorebank Corporation, including as co-manager of Shorebank Chicago Companies and of Shorebank Advisory Services.  He was a lead developer of MetroEdge, the Center for Financial Services Innovation, and the Urban Markets Initiative.  Bob is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Center.

Bob is a frequent public speaker and author on a broad range of urban and regional economic growth issues, including business, finance, housing, clean tech, human capital, and innovation dynamics. He has also testified on these issues before federal, state, and local legislatures. Bob served on the Obama Transition HUD Agency Review Team and as chair of the Obama for America Campaign Urban and Metropolitan Policy Committee.  

Bob has been active for over twenty-five years in the community and civic organizations. He has served as president or vice president of the Boards of the City Colleges of Chicago, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Crossroads Fund, Businesspeople in the Public Interest, and PROCAN, as well as on the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Law School and the Advisory Committees for the Institute for Comprehensive Community Development, (Chicago) Mayor’s Technology Advisory Committee, CWICSTATS (research advisory board to the Chicago Workforce Investment Council), Brookings Metropolitan Economy Project and Brookings Urban Markets Initiative. 

Before joining Shorebank, Bob was a partner at Hartunian, Futterman & Howard, specializing in federal constitutional litigation, school desegregation, and representation of government and non-profit agencies. Bob clerked for federal Judge George Leighton, after receiving a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and a B.A. from Yale University.