Ed Wehmer, along with a few friends, started Wintrust over a card table with some beers and cigars. The idea was to open a bank that would be the alternative to the big banks, and it became a reality in 1991 with the first Wintrust Community Bank location, Lake Forest Bank & Trust. Ed has served as Wintrust’s president and chief operating officer since the company’s official formation in 1996 and as president of Lake Forest Bank & Trust before that. Today, although he’s passed those titles on, he remains involved with the company’s day-to-day operations and strategic initiatives.

Ed is personally involved with many aspects of the company’s operation, serving as advisory director of Wintrust’s main operating subsidiaries. As a board member and leader, he provides valuable insight into management, operations, and historical context, adding a few “Wehmerisms” along the way.

Outside of Wintrust, Ed serves on the board of directors of Stepan Company (NYSE), a chemical manufacturing and distribution company; director of the Catholic Extension Society; chair of Northwestern Memorial Hospital Foundation; on the audit committee of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Foundation; as a trustee for Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and Foundation; and vice chairman of the finance board of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

At his core, Ed is a family man. Along with providing customers with an alternative to the big banks, the impetus for starting a hometown bank was to spend time with his six children. Now grown adults who all live in the Chicagoland area, Ed relishes spending time with his many grandchildren. You can find him hosting family vacations with his wife of over 40 years, Dorothy, musky fishing in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, attending Cubs and Brewers games, cheering on the Chicago Bears, golfing with friends and family, and supporting the many different causes close to his heart.