Cross & Crescent

John A. Canning Jr. (Denison 1965) serves as the chairman of Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC , one of the most experienced and successful private equity investment firms in the United States.

Prior to co-founding MDP, he spent 24 years with First Chicago Corp., most recently as executive vice president of The First National Bank of Chicago and president of First Chicago Venture Capital.

Canning has more than 25 years of experience in private equity investing and currently serves on the boards of directors of The Economic Club of Chicago, Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, TransUnion Corp., and Children’s Inner City Educational Fund; on the boards of trustees of the Big Shoulders Fund, The Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, and Northwestern University.

He is also a commissioner of the Irish Pension Reserve Fund, a trustee and chairman of The Chicago Community Trust, and a director and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

MDP Chairman

In 1992, First Chicago Venture Capital split out and formed Madison Dearborn Partners. They raised private investment funds and are now on their sixth fund. With about $14 billion under management, MDP is the largest private equity firm between the East Coast and West Coast.

MDP’s objective is to invest in companies in partnership with outstanding management teams to achieve significant long-term appreciation in equity value. MDP generally seeks to invest $100 million to $600 million of equity capital in a single transaction.

Serving as MDP chairman today, Canning previously served as president and CEO. Four years ago he promoted two other partners to be co-presidents and then in October 2007, he promoted them again to be co-CEOs.

In order to stay on top of his investments and the regulatory and political arenas, Canning spends at least two hours in the morning reading, including four newspapers: Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Chicago Tribune.

At MDP, Canning has built a culture in high ideals, which includes loyalty and treating employees at all levels with respect.

“Mutual respect and mutual trust.”

“Mutual respect and mutual trust,” he says about his company motto. “Partnerships are very fragile organizational structures. If you don’t have people you can trust and that trust you, and that you can respect and they respect you, it will crack.”

Importance of Mentors

After majoring in economics and graduating from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, Canning earned his law degree from Duke University.

While finishing his degree at Duke, he was recruited to work for First National Bank of Chicago as a lawyer. After several successful years, he was offered the job of president of First Chicago Venture Capital.

Thanks to his close mentor, Dick Thomas — who was head of the bank’s holding company — Canning was chosen to run private equity after another mentor, Stan Golder, left to found his own private-equity firm.

Canning almost declined Thomas’ offer. “I came within a gnats’ eyelash of saying no to the job. It would have changed my whole life. I’d still be a lawyer.”

“It’s more important to do what’s right, than what’s legal.”

“Dick taught me that it was more important to do what was right rather than what was legal,” Canning says. “And the two aren’t necessarily the same. He is a person of unbelievably good judgment and integrity even in the toughest times, which First Chicago did go through. He always put treating other people with respect and acting honorably above personal gain.”

Pro Baseball Owner

Canning is currently part owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and four minor league professional baseball teams.

“My involvement with four minor league teams — that’s good business,” he says. “They make a lot of money. They’re well run. The same guy runs all four of them, so that’s good business. It’s like owning a theater and not paying for the movies because major league teams pay for the players.”

His investment in the Milwaukee Brewers also has taken a turn for the better.

“The Brewers are actually making money and have probably increased in value. So my investment at one point — it was probably worth nothing in my view, but now it’s probably worth twice what I put into it.”

According to Canning, all ships are rising in baseball. “The commissioner has done a great job. Baseball’s on a roll. We have a new stadium in Milwaukee. We have very good officers and management.

“The commissioner has set the foundation for a real period of growth. He’s the best commissioner we’ve ever had.”

His experience with baseball ownership has been different than he thought it would be, as he thought he would mainly enjoy getting to know the players.

“Then I really started to enjoy the business side of it,” Canning says. “It’s an entertainment business and it’s built around something you can enjoy.

“It’s a great business to be in because you can go have your meetings and you’re in a golf shirt and you go to the game. And you can enjoy yourself. I’m very bullish on baseball.”

Canning is so bullish on baseball that he is leading an investment group to be a potential buyer of the Chicago Cubs. He says to stay tuned as more of the proposal details are worked out between the current owners and Major League Baseball.

Philanthropy

While his wife’s biggest philanthropic interest and efforts are put towards abused women and children, Canning’s focus is on inner city education.

As a part of those efforts, he serves on the board of the Big Shoulders Fund, which was founded in 1986 by a group of civic leaders to assist schools that support disadvantaged students in Chicago. Funds are used for scholarships, special education programs, instructional equipment and operating grants to 93 Catholic schools serving more than 25,000 students.

On April 10, the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Humanitarian Award was presented to Canning and his wife Rita for providing scholarships to more than 100 students in 15 Big Shoulders Fund elementary and secondary schools.

“I think philanthropy has to be somewhat selfish or you won’t do it,” Canning says. “You’ve got to get something out of it. In my case, it has been meeting the families and then the kids who have succeeded. Most of them do succeed.”

These successes reinforce the time and effort Canning dedicates to this cause.

“The gratitude that the families express to you outweighs what you have really done as far as the sacrifice on your own part,” he says.

Denison & Lambda Chi

Canning thoroughly enjoyed his time as an undergraduate brother in Lambda Chi Alpha at Denison.

“We had a great house, a real good house when I was there,” he says. “It was a great experience for me. We always had a top, if not the top, intramural fraternity.”

While at Denison, Canning served as both the chapter vice president and rush chairman. He also was a member of student government, and served as a head resident in the dorm his senior year.

“The fraternity life was a very holistic life” Canning says. “When you think about it, everything revolved around it. You had your social, athletic, and academic. All of them were what comprised your school experience. And then you had your own self-governance and you had responsibilities.”

He remembers the many lessons learned from running the house, managing a budget, discipline issues, and just learning to live independently without any adult supervision.

“I think what I referred to before — mutual respect and mutual trust — probably has a lot of applications throughout your life, and certainly in a fraternity. It’s absolutely essential.”

He remembers many good mentors in the Fraternity house, especially when he was a freshman and a long way from home on Long Island, New York.

As a result of the positive experience the brothers showed him as a freshman, he in turn did what he could as a dorm resident or rush chairman to help the new freshmen get adjusted.

“I was lucky enough to be in that position a lot during my time,” he says. “I always enjoyed it. I think you always remember how tough it was being a freshman.”