Chicago Legacy

Three Generations of Distinguished Chicago Banking and Business Executives Dedicated to Keeping Companies Independent and Competitive

Three generations of Barrs have been fighting for the independence and prosperity of Chicago banks and businesses – and winning. Our family has a proud history of successfully challenging over-reaching government actions and other outside threats dating back almost 70 years. This tradition was begun by the family patriarch, John Andrew Barr, Esq., who as the Secretary of Montgomery Ward, then one of the nation’s largest retailers, took on the War Labor Board in 1944 after its forcible takeover of the company, returning Ward’s to independence. In 1955, as Ward’s Chairman, John Barr masterminded the successful proxy battle against corporate raider Louis Wolfson in one of the first attempted hostile takeovers in U.S. corporate history.

John Barr also began the Barr family tradition in Chicago banking through his 20 years of service as a Director of the Northern Trust & Co. His son, George, followed suit with a storied banking and community bank turnaround career. After nearly 20 years as a commercial lender and executive with Continental Bank, George Barr devoted his extraordinary talents to turning around community banks in distress. Over the next nearly 30 years, George managed 14 community bank ‘Cease and Desist Order’ turnaround projects with an unmatched track record for saving banks.

This tradition of effective advocacy is carried on today by Justin Barr and Loan Workout Advisers.  While some fathers and sons were talking about baseball, Justin grew up learning the intricacies of the loan workout and bank turnaround businesses from his father. George was once described in Crain’s Chicago Business as the ‘Red Adair of crisis bankers’, referring to the legendary oil well fire fighter. This sums up what the Barrs are all about:

We run towards the fire for our clients, and we know what to do when we get there.

John A. Barr [1908-1979]

Justin Barr’s grandfather, John Andrew Barr, grew up on a four-acre farm in Akron, Indiana and went to school in a one-room schoolhouse through high school. He attended college and law school on scholarship, graduating during the Great Depression. From these humble beginnings he went on to serve as Dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management for 11 years, as Chairman of Montgomery Ward for nine years and as a Director of the Northern Trust Corporation for 20 years.

During his tenure at Kellogg, John Barr eliminated the undergraduate business curriculum at Northwestern University so that the school could focus its resources on building an exceptional graduate business school. He also organized a Business Advisory Council composed of thirty top business executives and led by James L. Allen, co-founder of Booz Allen & Hamilton, whom the Allen Center on Kellogg’s Evanston Campus is named after.  The Allen Center is symbolic of the enduring change that Dean Barr’s ideas brought to graduate business education and continues to serve as a hub for the fusion of academic and real world business ideas to this day.

Dean Barr was also a pioneering advocate for women and minority students. In 1966, he opened the Kellogg program to women students for the first time, ahead of Harvard and other leading schools. In 1968, he created one of the most extensive scholarship programs for minority students of any graduate business school at the time.

During his tenure at Ward’s, John Barr successfully fought the Federal government and corporate raiders alike. In 1944, as the company’s Secretary, he successfully defended Ward’s in its highly publicized seizure by the U.S. government’s War Labor Board over a labor dispute. The intensity of the dispute was illustrated in a famous photo of Sewell Avery, then Chairman of Montgomery Ward, being carried out of the Chicago headquarters by U.S. Army soldiers. The courts later declared the seizure to be illegal. In 1955, as Ward’s Chairman, John Barr masterminded the successful proxy battle against corporate raider Louis Wolfson in one of the first attempted hostile takeovers in U.S. corporate history.

Time Magazine, reporting on the critical board meeting in which John Barr shot Wolfson’s takeover bid down, wrote: “When the meeting ended, Wolfson, shut out completely, was near inarticulate and trembling with rage. If he continues his battle for control of Ward's, he will have to fight a tough man.”

Click here to read more...

• John Andrew Barr [Time]
• Palace Revolution at Ward's[Time]
• The Ninth Dean [Kellog School of Management]
• John Andrew Barr [Horatio Alger Association]

George L. Barr [1938-2008]

Justin Barr’s father, George L. Barr, was a renowned community bank turnaround expert and bank executive. George Barr began his banking career at Continental Bank in the 1960s, rising through the commercial lending ranks and later serving as CEO of one of Continental’s community banks.  Following his tenure in corporate banking, he launched a 30-year career as a bank turnaround consultant, managing 14 bank turnaround projects, all for community bank clients under regulatory enforcement action.

George Barr was also instrumental in the formation of Loan Workout Advisers, and served as its Chairman until his death in late 2008.  The intensity and determination with which he fought for the independent future of his community bank clients remains a hallmark of the firm to this day; as does the tireless advocacy that resulted in his unparalleled track record for saving community banks in distress. George Barr has also left his mark on Loan Workout Advisers through many of the key strategic relationships that make the firm such an effective resource for community bank clients and that have been passed down from father to son.

Justin A. Barr

Justin Andrew Barr has followed in the Barr family traditions in banking and client advocacy. A tireless fighter for his community bank clients, Justin Barr brings integrity and unrivaled experience and capability to loan workout and bank turnaround projects. As one bank client CEO remarked:  “Best damn wartime consigliere in the business”.  (Click here for Justin’s full bio).

The Barr family was referenced in a Father’s Day business feature in the Chicago Tribune on June 15, 2010. Read more...