William Elias "Bill" Conway III[1] (born May 8, 1978)[2] is an American politician, attorney, businessman, and military veteran.[3] He is the alderman for the 34th ward in the Chicago City Council, having won the 2023 election for the office.[4][5][6]
From 2006 to 2012, Conway served as Assistant State's Attorney for Cook County State's Attorney's Officer under Richard A. Devine and Anita Alvarez,[11] working on embezzlement cases in the public corruption office.[10][12]The DePaulia notes that during his tenure "Conway prosecuted high level corruption and financial crime cases, including the police officers who embezzled one million dollars from the Chicago Sergeants Union in 2012."[13][14]
In July 2013, he joined the Investment Banking/ Diversified Industries Division of J.P. Morgan in Chicago as an investment banker managing portfolios of large manufacturers such as Ford Motor Company and General Motors.[11] Conway left the company in 2016.[10]
Since 2016, Conway has been serving as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Finance & Real Estate of DePaul University, teaching various courses on Finance and Real Estate.[8] He also works as a venture partner and manager on several investments funds including Hyde Park Angels, Boos Brothers Investments, Luxe Bloom, LLC., Raputs, LLC. and Green Street Renewables, LLC.[8][16]
In 2020, Conway ran for the Cook County State's Attorney office in Illinois, where he took 2nd place with 31% of the vote in the Democratic primary but lost to the incumbent Kim Foxx (50.19% of the vote) on March 17, 2020.[4] Kim Foxx ultimately won the general election by defeating Republican Pat O'Brien.[4] Various sources note that Conway's campaign was mostly sponsored by his father William E. Conway Jr with over $10 million,[17][7][11] while Kim Foxx's campaign was supported large donations from Michael Sacks, Fred Eychaner, SEIU, Chicago Federation of Labor, EMILY's List, and George Soros.[1][18][19][20] According to The Chicago Reporter, "the Cook County state’s attorney’s race has already become the most expensive in Cook County history, with candidates raising almost $16 million combined, which is more than double that of the 2016 primary."[18]
In 2023, Conway was elected as an alderman on the Chicago City Council.[4][5] During his election campaign, Conway addressed the crime situation in Chicago and pledged to allocate additional funds for security, suggesting an increase in the number of police officers and equipment to address crime in the city.[3] Conway won the election with approximately 2/3 of the vote.[21] Candidate Jim Ascot, who conceded the race, received about 33% of the votes[3][22] Some sources have reported that Conway may be considering a run in the upcoming Chicago mayoral election.[23][24]
Personal life
He is married to Brittany Conway. They have a daughter, Bella.[25]