The Chicago Journal

The Chicago Journal
The Chicago Journal

Chicago Real Estate Leadership Shifts as Lee & Associates and Baird & Warner Announce Major Promotions

The Chicago Journal Staff 2 on May 22, 2026

Two of Chicago’s longest-standing commercial and residential real estate firms moved leadership benches this week, with announcements that arrived on Thursday, May 21, signaling generational transition and operational realignment at companies that have shaped the region’s property markets for decades.

Lee & Associates of Illinois promoted Matthew Androwich to vice president from senior associate and elevated Tony Russo to executive vice president from senior vice president. Baird & Warner — one of the oldest continuously operating residential real estate firms in the United States — named Lucy Baird as chief stewardship officer and vice chair of the board, while promoting Laura Ellis to chief revenue officer. Both sets of moves were reported by Connect CRE in its Chicago and Midwest weekly briefing.

The announcements land at a notable juncture for Chicago real estate. The local commercial market is balancing post-pandemic office demand recalibration against sustained industrial sector growth, while the residential side continues to navigate elevated mortgage rates, persistent affordability pressure, and a generational shift in buyer demographics. Leadership decisions at firms with the market presence of Lee & Associates and Baird & Warner tend to read as forward-looking signals — they reflect where these companies see the next cycle, not the last one.

Lee & Associates Strengthens Industrial and Suburban Brokerage Leadership

The Androwich promotion sits inside what has been the strongest-performing segment of Chicago commercial real estate for three years running. Industrial demand across the Chicago region — driven by logistics, distribution, and e-commerce fulfillment requirements — has continued to outpace office and retail by significant margins. Androwich joined Lee & Associates of Illinois’ industrial brokerage group in 2023 and represents both tenants and owners, including private and institutional clients, in industrial real estate leasing, acquisition, and development across the region.

Elevating Androwich into the vice president tier reflects the firm’s positioning around a sector where Chicago has emerged as one of the country’s most active markets. The metro consistently ranks among the top US industrial real estate markets by total square footage transacted, and inland positioning, rail infrastructure, and proximity to major distribution corridors have kept demand steady even as other commercial categories have softened.

Russo’s promotion to executive vice president brings 26 years of suburban Chicago commercial real estate experience to a senior-most leadership role. His specialty across office, medical, and flex properties is meaningful in the current market context. Suburban office has performed differently than downtown office through the post-pandemic recalibration — vacancy patterns, lease term structures, and tenant profiles in the suburbs have proven more resilient than the central business district narrative would suggest. Medical office buildings, in particular, have emerged as one of the most stable commercial subsectors nationally, and the Chicago suburban medical market has tracked that trend closely.

The combined elevations at Lee & Associates point to a firm that is doubling down on industrial and suburban specialization at a moment when those categories are diverging from the broader commercial market.

Baird & Warner Signals Generational Transition

The Baird & Warner appointments carry different weight. The firm has been in continuous operation under Baird family leadership since 1855 — a 170-year run that makes it one of the oldest private residential brokerages in the United States. Lucy Baird’s elevation to chief stewardship officer and vice chair of the board is a formal step in the generational succession of a family-led business.

Baird has been active in the company for 10 years through her work as Baird & Warner historian and her leadership of Good Will Works, the firm’s philanthropic arm. The new role formalizes her position in the company’s governance structure while preserving the institutional memory and community-investment functions she has been building. For Chicago, where Baird & Warner operates more than 25 offices and represents a significant share of city and suburban residential transactions, the appointment signals continuity at a moment when many comparable family firms have sold to national chains.

Laura Ellis’s promotion to chief revenue officer is the operational counterpart. Ellis is expanding her leadership across all sales-related business lines — brokerage, mortgage, and title — bringing the firm’s three primary revenue engines under unified strategic oversight. For a residential firm navigating elevated mortgage rates, that consolidation matters: tighter coordination between brokerage activity and the firm’s mortgage and title affiliates becomes increasingly important when transaction volumes are pressured.

What the Moves Signal for the Local Economic Outlook

Read together, the announcements offer a useful read on how Chicago real estate leadership is positioning for the next 12 to 18 months. Lee & Associates is concentrating senior talent around the commercial subsectors with the strongest forward demand — industrial and suburban specialty office. Baird & Warner is formalizing generational governance while consolidating operational leadership across its residential value chain.

The broader Chicago commercial real estate cycle is showing modest recovery signals after extended contraction. The Chicago Business Barometer registered 52.8 in March 2026 — the third consecutive month of expansion after 25 months of decline, though down from a near four-year high of 57.7 in February. Office vacancy in the central business district remains elevated, but transaction activity has begun to pick up as buyers price in current rate conditions rather than waiting for a return to the previous cycle’s environment.

Both Lee & Associates and Baird & Warner have been navigating that environment with leadership benches built over decades. The promotions announced this week suggest both firms see the next phase of the Chicago market as one that will reward operational depth, sector specialization, and institutional continuity — three attributes that have historically defined how the region’s strongest real estate firms move through transitional cycles.

Whether the broader Chicago commercial and residential markets follow that thesis through 2026 and 2027 will be one of the more consequential questions for the local economic outlook.

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Growth Opportunities in 2026 and the Funding That Makes Them Possible

The Chicago Journal Staff on May 22, 2026

Every meaningful business opportunity has a price of admission. Sometimes that price is time. Sometimes it is relationships. Sometimes it is expertise or market position built over years of consistent execution. But almost always, in one form or another, it is capital. The ability to recognize a growth opportunity and to have the capital available to pursue it at the moment it presents itself is one of the most reliable predictors of sustained business growth, and in 2026 that ability is more accessible to more business owners than at any point in the history of small business lending.

Recognizing Growth Opportunities in 2026

Growth opportunities take many forms, and not all of them are immediately recognizable as such. The most obvious ones, like a competitor closing, a new market opening, or a technology shift creating unmet demand, are typically visible to most business owners in a given market. The less obvious ones, like the moment when a key supplier relationship creates leverage for better pricing, or when a temporary demand surge could be captured with additional inventory, or when a single strategic hire would unlock a new service category, require a more disciplined form of market attention to identify and act upon.

What connects both categories of growth opportunity in 2026 is the speed at which they must be pursued. The market conditions that create growth windows in today’s competitive environment do not hold open indefinitely. The business that can act within days of identifying an opportunity consistently outperforms the one that requires weeks to arrange the financing to act. This is the fundamental reason why the structure of 2026 small business funding matters as much as its availability.

The Funding Structures That Enable Fast Action

The financing products that are most valuable to business owners pursuing growth opportunities in 2026 share a set of common characteristics. They can be accessed quickly, with decisions arriving in hours rather than weeks. They do not require collateral that would constrain the business’s operational flexibility. They have repayment structures that align with how the business generates revenue rather than imposing obligations that are disconnected from business performance. And they are available from lenders who understand the pace at which modern business moves and have built their operations to match it.

Revenue based financing meets all of these criteria, which explains its growing adoption among growth-oriented business owners in every industry category. The ability to deploy capital immediately when an opportunity appears, backed by a repayment structure that scales with the revenue the opportunity generates, creates a virtuous cycle where good capital deployments produce the performance that supports subsequent rounds of financing.

Fundivi: The Partner Behind the Decision

The financing infrastructure that allows a business owner to say yes to a growth opportunity on Monday and have capital available by Wednesday exists because companies like Fundivi have built it. A BBB accredited direct lender recognized by USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Business Insider, Morningstar, and Benzinga, Fundivi has made same-day underwriting and fast capital deployment the foundation of its operating model rather than a marketing aspiration.

The AI-powered evaluation system processes applications against real-time business performance data, the two-minute application removes friction from the initial engagement, and the no collateral, no personal guarantee structure means business owners are not trading operational flexibility for capital access. The rate match assurance ensures that the terms reflect genuine market competitiveness without requiring the business owner to spend valuable time shopping offers from multiple sources.

The broader Fundivi partner network ensures that businesses whose specific needs align better with a specialized product or industry focus can be matched with the right solution within a vetted ecosystem of quality lenders, each of whom maintains the same commitment to speed and transparency that defines the Fundivi standard.

Creating a Growth-Ready Business

A growth-ready business in 2026 is one that has positioned itself to capture opportunities quickly by maintaining the operational health that qualifies it for fast capital access and by building relationships with financing partners before those relationships are urgently needed. The business with a strong revenue track record, consistent account activity, and an existing relationship with a quality lender like Fundivi can move from identifying an opportunity to funding it within a single business day.

Creating that readiness is an ongoing operational discipline. It means maintaining revenue consistency not just for its own sake but with the awareness that consistent performance is the foundation of capital access. It means engaging with financing partners proactively rather than reactively, building relationships and understanding terms before a capital need creates urgency. And it means developing a clear framework for evaluating growth opportunities so that when one presents itself, the decision to pursue it can be made quickly and confidently. The growth opportunities of 2026 are real, varied, and available to businesses across every industry category.

The Compounding Benefit of Multiple Funding Cycles

One of the most underappreciated aspects of building a quality lending relationship in 2026 is the compounding benefit that accrues across multiple funding cycles. A business that uses a first round of financing well, deploying it into investments that generate measurable revenue growth, builds a performance record that makes the second round larger, faster, and more favorably priced. The third cycle builds on the second in the same way, and so on. This compounding dynamic is one of the most powerful growth accelerators available to small businesses that understand how to use it.

Lenders who evaluate businesses based on real-time performance data are the ones who benefit most from this dynamic as well, because a growing business with improving metrics represents a progressively stronger credit profile with every cycle. The alignment between lender interest and business interest that this creates is one of the defining characteristics of the best lending relationships in the 2026 market, and it is the foundation of the long-term partnerships that produce the most remarkable business growth stories.

The Opportunity Is Now

Business growth opportunities do not wait for the perfect moment to pursue them. They open and close on their own timeline, driven by market forces that no individual business owner controls. What a business owner can control is whether they are positioned to act when those windows open, with capital available and a financing partner who can move at the speed the opportunity requires.

The 2026 small business funding environment has created that positioning for more business owners than ever before. The technology is there. The lenders are there. The financing structures designed for growing businesses are there. What turns all of that infrastructure into results is the business owner who engages with it proactively, who builds the relationships before they are urgently needed, and who deploys capital with the discipline and the strategic clarity that transforms good opportunities into lasting competitive advantages. The businesses being built and scaled in 2026 are doing so in an environment where the traditional barriers between ambition and capital have been more thoroughly dismantled than at any previous point in American business history. What business owners bring to this environment matters enormously: the clarity of their growth plan, the consistency of their operational performance, and the intentionality with which they build and maintain their financing relationships. Visit www.fundivi.com to explore funding options for your business.

AffirmedRx Is At The Head Of Transparent PBM Reform in the U.S. Healthcare System

The Chicago Journal Staff on May 22, 2026

By: Umair Malik

The United States healthcare system is famously complex, and one element of that complexity lies in how patients across the country get their medications. There are a number of different institutions that play key roles in the pharmaceutical supply chain, but one in particular is of note: the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). These companies handle the details and management of prescription drugs, from pricing and claim adjudication to pharmacy network management and formulary design. However, with costs rising and patient needs evolving, PBMs are in need of reform if they’re to continue operating.

AffirmedRx is a next-generation Pharmacy Benefit Manager driving transparent PBM reform in the United States, and is the only one in the country structured as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). The company was founded with the mission to deliver simplified pharmacy benefits powered by proactive advocacy, empathy and trust.

AffirmedRx partners with employers, health plans, hospital systems, and other payers to provide a fully transparent, clinically driven, and member-first approach to pharmacy benefits. That transparency, full data access, and financial clarity demonstrates AffirmedRx’s commitment to prioritizing patients over profits.

As a Public Benefit Corporation, AffirmedRx was created on a foundation of long-term mission alignment and value creation, and is obligated to have an expanded purpose beyond maximizing shareholder value. Structured as a PBC, the company can prioritize member and client needs and health outcomes before pursuing traditional profit generation goals, an example that might just set the standard for pharmacy benefit managers moving forward.

“AffirmedRx’s patient-centric model reflects a re-focusing of what truly matters, the health of the plan members and their experience in achieving and sustaining healthy lives,” says Sarah. “For AffirmedRx, ‘patient-centric’ means putting the experience and needs of the plan member at the heart of every business decision.”

What Is A PBM?

So what is a pharmacy benefit manager? Pharmacy Benefit Managers are companies that manage prescription drug programs set by commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, government employee plans, and more, and operate closely with healthcare systems, insurance companies, and retail pharmacies. Their role involves managing formularies, maintaining a pharmacy network, setting up rebate payments, processing prescription drug claims, providing mail order services, and more. Put simply, PBMs coordinate between the various entities in the prescription ecosystem. Today, PBMs manage pharmacy benefits for hundreds of millions of Americans, with some notable examples being CVS Caremark and Express Scripts.

Pharmacy benefit managers have become somewhat controversial elements of the American healthcare system, with some serving as examples of how broken that system really is. The PBM industry has become known for hidden revenue streams, poor transparency in both costs and communication, and misaligned incentives that sacrifice patient well-being for increased profits. PBMs generate revenue through administrative and service fees, manufacturer rebates, and most controversially, spread pricing (the practice of charging clients more for a claim than what is reimbursed to the pharmacy that dispenses the medication). The lack of transparency in spread pricing is a major concern, and nobody knows how much money these plans lose due to spread pricing practices.

Between spread pricing, rebate retention, hidden revenue and fees like clawbacks, it’s no surprise traditional PBMs are increasingly, and rightly, the target of legal and public scrutiny. Multiple outlets and institutions have argued that these companies raise drug prices for consumers, and obscure the true cost of a prescription through “gag clauses” that prevent pharmacies from disclosing actual drug pricing structures. The perverse incentives of traditional PBM models result in patients’ access to drugs being impacted in the name of increased profits, and it’s clear something needs to change.

A New Frontier Of Transparent Reform

It’s this troubled and complicated environment that AffirmedRx seeks to change. The system is broken, but through transparency, integrity, and a clean business model, AffirmedRx seeks to earn back the trust traditional PBMs squandered. The mission of AffirmedRx is to bring clarity, integrity, and trust to pharmacy benefits by aligning company incentives with clients and their members, instead of profiting off of them. The combination of the company’s Public Benefit Corporation structure and its Patient Care Advocate (PCA) model serves as a strong indicator of what good can come from this new frontier of reform.

Given that most of the problems inherent to traditional PBMs stem from their incentive structures, there’s no better place for AffirmedRx to start differentiating itself than incentives. AffirmedRx rejects spread pricing, rebate retention, and other such practices, choosing instead to operate entirely on a simple, flat, administrative fee model. The company offers pricing simplicity, radical data transparency, and unbiased clinical decisions not influenced by rebate profits.

“As the only PBM that is also a public benefits corporation (PBC), AffirmedRx has elevated our offerings to create a member-first approach to pharmacy benefits,” Sarah explains. “By operating on a simple, flat administrative fee model, AffirmedRx ensures every dollar is accounted for and employer groups have complete visibility and access to their data. We simplify the complexities of filling prescriptions so patients can confidently access the best care to get and stay healthy.”

Like traditional PBMs, AffirmedRx provides the services that allow employer groups to offer prescription coverage to their employees. Its commitment to transparency and patient-centered care makes a difference at every step. The company negotiates drug prices with manufacturers, maintains a network of over 67,000 retail pharmacies, runs a network of specialty and mail-order pharmacies for specific needs, and offers a formulary list of covered prescriptions complete with outlines of patient copays per tier. As part of its patient-centric philosophy, the company also monitors prescription fills, proactively identifies medication interactions, dosage errors, and abuses, and educates patients about their coverage, copay tiers, and savings opportunities.

AffirmedRx’s Patient Care Advocate team represents the company’s commitment to guiding members through the complex pharmaceutical ecosystem. The PCA team ensures AffirmedRx can engage in high-touch customer service to identify savings opportunities, streamline prior authorizations, and problem-solve on behalf of its members. The company’s PCAs have real-time access to claims and denials, which allows them to resolve issues through coordination with providers and pharmacies before patients arrive at the pharmacy counter.

“As the healthcare industry shifts and our business grows, the expansion of the Patient Care Advocacy team is paramount,” Sarah says. “The goal is to shield patients from complexity by proactively identifying and resolving issues before members are even aware.”

How to Heal Whiplash After a Broward County Auto Accident

The Chicago Journal Staff on May 22, 2026

By Dr. Bruce Mark, DC | Hollywood Laser Pain Center | Hollywood, Florida

Broward County’s busy highways, including I-95, I-595, US-1, and the Turnpike, see thousands of motor vehicle collisions every year. In the immediate aftermath of an auto accident, many patients feel well enough to decline emergency care, only to develop neck pain, headaches, upper back stiffness, and neurological symptoms in the days that follow. This is whiplash, the acceleration-deceleration injury to the cervical spine, and its delayed symptom onset is one of the primary reasons patients in Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and across Broward County underestimate its severity and delay treatment. The Regenerative Medical Laser™ protocol, combined with Graston Technique and chiropractic care, is one approach used for soft tissue whiplash injuries, focused on addressing the inflammatory and structural concerns that, if left untreated, can contribute to chronic pain lasting months or years.

Research on auto accident injuries highlights the importance of the early recovery window, often described in the literature as the first 72 to 90 days. Soft tissue and disc injuries that receive early clinical attention tend to have better recovery trajectories than those left untreated until symptoms become chronic. Anyone who has been in an accident and is experiencing pain, including mild pain, may benefit from a timely clinical evaluation.

At Hollywood Laser Pain Center, I have treated auto accident injuries throughout my 27-plus years of clinical practice in Hollywood, Florida. My experience with the full range of whiplash presentations, from mild cervical strain to complex multilevel injury, informs a treatment approach focused on careful evaluation and individualized care.

What Happens to the Cervical Spine in a Motor Vehicle Collision?

The mechanism of cervical injury in a rear-end collision is well documented. The torso is accelerated forward by the seat while the head lags behind, creating a rapid hyperextension-flexion sequence that loads the cervical spine beyond its normal range of motion. Research published in Spine has documented that this mechanism can produce cervical disc herniation, anterior and posterior longitudinal ligament sprains, facet joint capsule tears, and cervical muscle strain, often in the same collision.

The delayed onset of symptoms is a physiological reality. The inflammatory cascade evolves over 24 to 72 hours. Patients who feel fine at the scene are still within the pre-inflammatory window, and the symptoms that develop afterward represent the body’s actual response to tissue damage.

Why Does Undertreated Whiplash Become Chronic?

Research published in Spine indicates that a significant proportion of whiplash patients who receive inadequate or delayed treatment go on to experience chronic cervical pain, chronic headache, and neurological symptoms that persist for years. Scar tissue that forms in improperly healed ligaments can contribute to ongoing mechanical dysfunction. Sensitized pain pathways established during the acute injury phase can also persist and amplify over time.

The Quebec Task Force on Whiplash-Associated Disorders, the landmark research classification for cervical trauma, examined the relationship between clinical outcomes and the timing and quality of early intervention. Acute-phase tissue repair is widely recognized in the literature as a critical window in soft tissue injury recovery.

What Does the Regenerative Medical Laser™ Protocol Involve for Whiplash?

The Regenerative Medical Laser™ protocol delivers medical-grade near-infrared laser energy to the cervical region in the acute and subacute phases. In the broader photobiomodulation research literature, near-infrared laser energy has been studied for its effects on inflammatory markers, microvascular perfusion, and collagen activity in soft tissues.

A 2017 systematic review in Lasers in Medical Science examined photobiomodulation in the context of soft tissue healing and inflammatory markers in acute musculoskeletal injury. The body of research on early laser intervention in soft tissue care continues to expand.

What Does Graston Technique Add and What About Clinical Documentation?

Graston Technique is an instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization method used to address fascial restrictions in the cervical paraspinals and upper thoracic region that can develop in the subacute phase. The approach is used to support normal tissue mobility and address the compensatory movement patterns that can accompany whiplash injuries.

For patients managing insurance claims or personal injury cases in Broward County, clinical evaluation in my practice includes thorough documentation of injury findings, treatment protocols, and outcomes. Patients receive that documentation alongside ongoing clinical care.

Learn more about the Hollywood location on the Hollywood provider page at ReliefNow Laser Centers (do-follow), or watch patient education from the ReliefNow Nation channel on YouTube (no-follow). Hollywood Laser Pain Center is located at 2607 Polk Street, Hollywood FL 33020. Phone: 954-925-7333.

About the Author

Dr. Bruce Mark, DC | Hollywood Laser Pain Center | 2607 Polk Street, Hollywood FL 33020 | 954-925-7333

Dr. Mark earned his Doctor of Chiropractic from Logan College of Chiropractic with honors and has practiced for more than 27 years in Hollywood, Florida. He holds certifications in Graston Technique and acupuncture, is a former collegiate football player at Wake Forest University, and practices at Broward Medical and Rehab. He is a provider in the national ReliefNow® network.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. The effectiveness of treatments may vary depending on individual circumstances. Consult a qualified healthcare professional to discuss your specific medical needs and treatment options.