The nominee to head the U.S. Small Business Administration, Karen Gordon Mills, has a Chicago connection via the venerable candymaker Tootsie Roll Industries Inc.
Mills, who runs her own Maine-based private-equity firm, was selected Friday for the small-business post by President-elect Barack Obama. She's the daughter of Melvin and Ellen Gordon, the husband-and-wife team that controls and runs Chicago-based Tootsie Roll.
Melvin Gordon is 89 and Ellen Gordon is 77. Although neither has disclosed a formal succession plan to Tootsie Roll shareholders, Ellen Gordon told Crain's Chicago Business in 2005 that they planned to pass the business down to their four daughters.
It's not clear whether any of the daughters have any business dealings with the company, but Mills made her name in finance. She's perhaps best known as a co-founder and managing director of Solera Capital, a New York-based private-equity firm.
Although Tootsie Roll moved from the East Coast to Chicago in 1968, Mills grew up in the Boston area, where her parents also have a home. She declined an interview request Monday.
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