Michael Alter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Alter is an American businessman who is the president of his own company, the Alter Group, which is as of 2005, one of the nation's ten largest commercial real estate developers.

Alter was named to the Crain’s Chicago Business 40 under 40 list in 2000. Throughout the Alter Group’s 50-year history, they have developed nearly 100 million square feet of commercial real estate; they also offer development, design and construction, and asset management services. The group has won numerous awards for its development of properties including their 835,000 square foot Thomson Learning Distribution Center, which won the Beyond the Box: Exceptional Industrial Projects award from The National Association of Industrial & Office Properties. They recently ranked sixth in the National Real Estate Investor survey of America's top office developers.

Alter is also founder and president of City Year Chicago, which is best known for its signature program, The City Year Youth Service Corps. The goal in the program is to bring together approximately 1,000 people ranging in age from 17-24 from diverse backgrounds and put them through a full-time commitment of a year of community service, leadership development, and civic engagement where they mentor children. During City Year’s existence, more than 1 million hours of service in local communities has been logged.

Alter has a bachelor of arts degree in government from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Chicago. He and his wife Ellen are parents of three children, all of whom are interested in sports and keep their parents very busy. They live in Winnetka, IL.

In 2005, he became the principal owner and chairman of the WNBA team: the Chicago Sky.