CPS board chair Vitale out as head of AUSL

Vitale

Banker, real-estate mogul and former Board of Trade president, David Vitale chairs Rahm Emanuel's hand-picked Chicago school board. At the same time, he chairs the board of the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), the "turnaround" company that contracts with the board to operate 19 schools around the city. Emanuel recently announced plans to double the number of teacher residency training academies run by AUSL.

This obvious conflict of interest (or is it?) has forced Vitale to leave AUSL. It's a pain in the ass for AUSL patron, venture capitalist Mike Koldyke, but that's life in the big city.

So he's appointed John Cook to take Vitale's place. Cook is a board member of AUSL and director emeritus of McKinsey & Co. Cook also serves on the boards of Brown-Forman, Winona Capital Management and the dean's advisory board of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Perfect!