Executive Director to Take New Position in the Private Sector

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 18, 2003

Illinois Medical District, Chicago, IL - The Illinois Medical District Commission announces the departure of its executive director, Thomas E. Livingston, effective August 2003. Livingston accepted the position of Resident Vice President for CSX Transportation Corporation in Illinois.

Livingston served as executive director at the Illinois Medical District Commission since November 1998. During that time, Livingston and the Commission oversaw significant growth in all sectors of the District: the Chicago Technology Park, the District Development Area, and the medical district's major institution campuses.

Livingston also oversaw the modernization of Commission operations, an increased self-sufficiency in relation to state appropriated funds and a rebranding of marketing materials and Master Plan. Livingston was a founding member of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO) and was a leader in the effort to successfully attract the world's top biotech conference to Chicago in 2006.

"The Commission is grateful for the strong leadership provided by Tom Livingston in a position that uniquely combines urban redevelopment, technology commercialization, and clinical medicine provided in an academic environment. The District has been filled with strong expansion and programming thanks to his efforts," said Kenneth D. Schmidt, M.D., chairman of the Commission.

Major projects during Livingston's tenure include: a new headquarters for the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago, a new planned regional headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigations, a new office building and retail center, a first-of-its-kind low income senior assisted living center, several expansion buildings in the Chicago Technology Park, the City of Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, and a complete overhaul of the Chicago Technology Park Research Center "incubator" facility.

Major district institutions also saw expansion in the District, including the Veterans Administration Hospital Expansion, Rush Medical Center Cohn Biomedical Research Building, University of Illinois at Chicago MRI Center and College of Medicine Expansion, and the opening of the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.

Livingston established a private sector board of advisors for the Chicago Technology Park and saw twenty companies successfully move outside the "incubator" facility into Chicagoland. There are another twenty-five firms growing in the 100 percent occupied technology park incubator facility.

"It has been rewarding to work with the Illinois Medical District Commission, staff, and community as well as elected leadership to effect meaningful change in the District. I am also looking forward to keeping active in Chicago's technology and development community in the coming years," said Thomas E. Livingston, Executive Director of the Commission.

Livingston had previously served as a senior policy advisor to the State of Illinois on transportation matters from 1995-1998.

The Commission will name an Acting Executive Director until a search concludes in Fall 2003.