About me: Andy McKenna is president of Schwarz Paper Co. in Morton Grove and has been a business, civic and political leader in Illinois for more than 20 years.
McKenna earned a bachelor degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame in 1979. During his senior year, two events occurred that stimulated his interest in politics and the economy.
In the winter of 1979, McKenna was invited to attend a conference at the White House. Jimmy Carter was President. By this administrations own words, the country's economy and spirits were in a "malaise". The Carter administration began a series of meeting with various constituencies on the changing nature of the economy. Their outreach included a meeting with the Student Government Presidents of leading Universities. McKenna was Student Government President at Notre Dame. The experience made it clear that America was in need of a new economic vision. As the Presidential campaign of 1980 showed, Ronald Reagan brought that vision to America and his ideas made life better for our country. His leadership demonstrated economic freedoms provide the flexibility that is needed for us to thrive in a rapidly changing world economy.
In 1981 McKenna left Kraft to work at Schwarz Paper Company, a company owned by his family. Schwarz was a national distributor of paper and packaging products. Under Andy McKenna, Jr.'s leadership Schwarz developed a set of services for retail chain stores that enabled it to manage their procurement and distribution of MRO supplies. Today, these services provide the company growth not only in the U.S., but in Canada, Europe and Asia.
Who I'd like to meet:
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