Michael W. Ferro, Jr.

Michael W. Ferro, Jr. (born July 24, 1966) is an American inventor, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder and CEO of Merrick Ventures LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm that includes some of the nation’s most influential business and civic leaders, according to Crain's Chicago Business.^[1] The firm is invested in a number of private and public companies including Wrapports LLC, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and more than forty media publications, MERGE healthcare (NASDAQ: MRGE), highschoolcube.com and higi, LLC.

An inventor of a number of proprietary products and processes, Ferro holds multiple patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.^[2][3] Most recently, Ferro was issued a patent for his innovations in medical imaging for MERGE healthcare,^[4] and several of Ferro’s developments are currently patent pending.

Best known for founding Internet software company, Click Commerce at the age of 28,^[5] Ferro’s success in his early career made him one of the youngest people named to the Forbes “Tech’s 100 Highest Rollers” list^[6] and earned Ferro numerous business honors. During this time, Ferro was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization,^[7] and won the KPMG Illinois High Tech award^[8] as well as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Technology award.

Ferro’s entrepreneurial achievements later earned him induction into the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Hall of Fame ^[9] and the CEO Hall of Fame.^[10]

An established business leader, Ferro is active in the Midwest’s budding tech scene, where he focuses on mentoring young entrepreneurs,^[11][12] and architecting regional programs that help fund and develop Illinois’ up-and-coming business leaders.^[13] For his professional and civic impact on the city of Chicago, Ferro was named to the “100 Most Powerful Chicagoans” list^[14] and is a perennial honoree on the “Who’s Who” list by Crain’s Chicago Business.^[15]

Ferro currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Early career

Michael W. Ferro, Jr. was born in 1966 in Merrick, New York and went on to grow up in Illinois. At the age of 15, while attending high school, Ferro started his first company, Earth Wood Care (EWC). Ferro continued to develop and operate the company full-time while attending the University of Illinois Chicago.

Earth Wood Care was acquired by Lisle-based Pettibone in 1992.^[16] Ferro joined Pettibone at the time of the transaction, and at the age of 25, became the company’s youngest division president,^[17] and devised a plan for the company to place its inventory and price sheets on the Internet so customers could process their own orders, a revolutionary concept for the manufacturing industry at the time.^[16] Ferro’s approach was described by industry experts as "creative and innovative. Frankly, there was no one around at the time doing this." (Crain's Chicago Business, 1998, para #7).^[16]

Founder of Click Commerce

In 1994, at the age of 28, Ferro left Pettibone to found Click Commerce,^[18] a company that “provides extranet solutions for channel management, collaborative commerce, and compliance automation for enterprises and institutions in the manufacturing, high tech, financial services, retail, healthcare and higher education industries” (“PR Newswire,” 2004, para #7).^[19]

As the Founder of Click Commerce, Ferro was an early pioneer of enabling business-to-business commerce through the Internet and is often credited as the "Father of the Extranet".^[17] Ferro’s design continues to serve as the underlying technology for Internet portals today.

At the age of 33, Ferro took Click Commerce public.^[20] With an Initial Public Offering date of June 30, 2000, Click Commerce was one of the first tech companies to reopen the market after the tech crash in March of that year.^[21] Gaining 76% on its first day,^[22] Click Commerce outperformed the 35% first trading day increase seen by the average IPO that quarter.^[23]

In 2006, Click Commerce was the fastest growing company in the supply chain/manufacturing category for companies between $10 million and $100 million, with revenues up 128%.^[24] Click Commerce had over 1,400 corporate customers and users in 70 countries, supporting 15 languages.^[25] During this time, Click Commerce was named to the “Software 500”,^[24] Software Magazine's list of the world's foremost software and services providers, for three consecutive years.^[26]

Ferro sold Click Commerce in 2006 for a reported $292 million in cash.^[27]

Chairman and CEO of Merrick Ventures

After the success of Click Commerce, Ferro founded Merrick Ventures LLC, a private equity firm that connects some of the nation’s most powerful investors with Chicago’s budding tech companies.^[1] With its debut board of investors from the Crown, Pritzker and Reyes families, among others,^[1] Merrick Ventures sought to bring major support to local start-ups during a time when Chicago’s tech entrepreneurs suffered from a lack of venture funding in the Midwest.^[1] As Chairman and CEO of Merrick Ventures, Ferro holds board positions at Wrapports LLC (owner of the Chicago Sun-Times), higi, LLC, Chicago.com LLC and highschoolcube.com.

Technology Community

Named co-chairman of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center alongside Jim O’Connor, Jr in 2005,^[28] Ferro led the reinvigoration of Chicago’s tech scene through numerous programs geared toward developing Chicago’s young entrepreneurs. During this time, Ferro served on the Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors under Mayor Richard M. Daley^[29] and founded the Merrick Momentum Awards, an annual event to honor the top three-year-old Chicago corporations.^[30] Past winners have included GrubHub, EvEd, Sittercity, Salvo software and Cleversafe.

Ferro is Co-Founder of the Illinois Accelerator (I2a) Fund launched in 2007,^[31] a Seed/Early Stage Venture Capital Fund designed to partner with the next wave of successful entrepreneurs in the Chicago region. In 2014, Ferro donated $2 million to build an incubator space for student entrepreneurs in a new project called “The Garage” located within Northwestern University,^[5] which has been called “the perfect bridge between academic learning and entrepreneurship” (Crain’s Chicago Business, 2014, para #18).^[5]

Philanthropy and Affiliations

Affiliations include: Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and he holds board positions for the Chicago Community Trust, RAND Health Board of Advisors, Northwestern University, The Economics Club of Chicago, Lurie Children’s Hospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, The Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Big Shoulders Fund, After School Matters. Ferro is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, is the Chairman Emeritus of the Young Presidents’ Organization – Chicago and is Chairman Emeritus of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.

2016 Olympic Bid for Chicago

In 2006, Ferro was the Chairman of the Sports Advisory Council, a board of corporate citizens named by Mayor Richard M. Daley, to lead the Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[32] Ferro and his wife, Jacky, co-chaired an event that raised 12 million dollars in one night for the Chicago 2016 bid .^[33]

Film Production

Ferro made his filmmaking debut in 2014 as Executive Producer of Kartemquin Films’ “Life Itself”, a documentary about the life of famed Sun-Times film critic, Roger Ebert.^[34] Ferro produced the film alongside Martin Scorsese and Steven Zaillian.^[35] As the chairman of Wrapports, LLC, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, Ferro told ‘’Crain’s Chicago Business’’ that he felt it was “a great thing for Roger,”^[36] and Ferro’s contribution to the film, directed by legendary documentarian Steve James of Hoop Dreams, amounted to nearly half of the total funds raised from individual donors.^[36] Ferro’s support for “Life Itself” came as a charitable gift through his personal non-profit foundation.^[36] Ferro also arranged for a private screening of the film for Chicago Sun-Times employees before the film hit theaters on July 4, 2014.^[36]

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