CHICAGO, IL, August 03, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present William Arthur Brandt Jr. with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Brandt celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Garnering a laudable reputation as the founder and executive chairperson of Development Specialists Inc. (DSI) since 1976, Mr. Brandt is a talented professional whose firm specializes in corporate restructuring. Recognized worldwide for its success, the business management consulting company has offices in major cities throughout the U.S. including Chicago, New York City and San Francisco, as well as abroad in London. Focusing on providing management consulting and financial advisory services to clients, Mr. Brandt and his team collaborate with private business owners, as well as corporate management, financial services institutions, creditors, creditor committees and more. Prior to founding DSI, he worked in Chicago for Melaniphy and Associates Inc., a real estate research and business consulting firm, CBS-owned station WBBM-AM as a commentator and Pyro Mining Company as assistant to the president.
Renowned for his expertise, Mr. Brandt has been involved in some of the largest restructurings of all time. He has notably saved one of the worldwide industrial concerns in Maine, Shape Inc., during the 1980s and 1990s. He also worked with Southeast Banking Corporation in Miami, Florida, the parent corporation of the fifth largest bank failure to that date. Basing his business on a solid foundation of ethics, Mr. Brandt has, in many cases, made the impossible possible.
In addition to his full-time commitments at his firm, Mr. Brandt has provided assistance to various other organizations, including as a member of the Illinois Broadband Deployment Council between 2010 and 2015. He also served as the chairperson of the Illinois Financial Authority from 2008 to 2015 and, during the early stages of his career, sat on the advisory board of Sociological Abstracts Inc. from 1979 to 1983. A frequent speaker and panel member at numerous conferences over the years, Mr. Brandt has also contributed numerous articles to professional journals and was a faculty member at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and Thornton Community College in South Holland, Illinois, as well as a visiting research associate at Harvard University.
A leader in various political and civic opportunities, Mr. Brandt was a member of the U.S. Electoral College for the presidential election in 2016. He was also an Illinois delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2008, and a member of the Democratic Party platform committee in 2002. In 1996, he served as a vice chairperson of the Democratic National Convention, as well as a delegate to that convention from Florida, as well as serving on the Clinton/Gore 1996 national finance board. An avid civic advocate, Mr. Brandt recently served as the chairperson of the national advisory council for the Institute of Government Studies at the University of California Berkeley from 2006 until 2018, was a board trustee at Loyola University in Chicago and a board member for Future Music Inc. in San Francisco.
Mr. Brandt received a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and urban affairs, with honors, at Saint Louis University. He subsequently attended the University of Chicago, where he acquired a Master of Arts in sociology, and all but his dissertation in sociology. In support of his illustrious career, he has been a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Insolvency Institute, the International Exchange of Experience on Insolvency Law, the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees and the Commercial Law League of America. He is also a member and former three-time board director of the San Francisco Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum. Recognized in 2020, Mr. Brandt received the 46th Leadership in Credit Education Award from the New York Institute of Credit, as well as the Magis Medal award from the national Jesuit honor society, Alpha Sigma Nu.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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