CHICAGO – Former Illinois capital markets director John Sinsheimer has launched a financial consulting business geared toward helping organizations align their financial resources with their strategic plans.
"It's a very focused" service the firm will provide to not-for-profits, higher education institutions, privately held corporations, and select governments, Sinsheimer said. The Northbrook, Ill.-based Financial Performance Consultants Inc. won't be doing bond or equities work, nor providing financial advisory services or direct strategic planning.
"Our goal is to ensure that the organization's financial resources support and enhance its strategic objectives," said Sinsheimer. Services include helping an organization through a re-alignment of expenses and revenues, financial restructuring, identifying sources for new capital, and re-negotiating bank agreements.
Sinsheimer said the idea for such a firm with a narrow focus came from discussions with various not-for-profits and others in the financial field as he pondered his next move after leaving the state post early last year.
The firm's first client is Chicago-based Roosevelt University. Sinsheimer said he will assist the school's president on several key issues and in the development of a 2017 budget. Roosevelt has suffered ratings downgrades as it struggles with operating deficits driven by enrollment losses and a hefty debt load. The school was founded in 1945 and operates out of the historic auditorium building in downtown Chicago and the 32 story "vertical campus." It also operates a campus in suburban Chicago.
Sinsheimer, a veteran of both private and public sector financial management positions, took the state debt management post in October 2009. Sinsheimer left his state position in early 2015 after Gov. Bruce Rauner's election, so he's past any state ethics restrictions on employment.
During his tenure, he managed investor and rating agencies relationships and steered the state through heavy borrowing to support a $31 billion capital program while its bond ratings sank over its budget and pension woes. The state issued $3.4 billion in 2014 but did not sell in 2015 as its Illinois Jobs Now program wound down.
Sinsheimer had previously served for three years as chief financial officer at Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Before working at ISAC, Sinsheimer was associate vice president for finance at the Illinois Institute of Technology and previously was an assistant treasurer at the former Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
He also held banking positions at Dresdner Bank AG and worked for 12 years in global banking at the former First Chicago Bank. He holds a master's in management from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
