“The mayor has called for a Marshall Plan for the south and west side neighborhoods. They’ve had decades of disinvestment, they are losing population, and there was a message historically from the government that they didn’t matter. We want to show them that they matter and bring jobs and growth to those neighborhoods,” Samir explained.
To do this, Samir’s team is partnering with the philanthropic, university, and private sectors to help the city implement strategies from urban revitalization case studies in cities like St. Paul, Philadelphia, and Detroit. Having traveled around the world as CEO of NanoGraf, Samir is also looking to international cities to understand how neighborhoods are changing across the globe.
Samir is uniquely positioned to liaison with the business community because of his own experience founding and successfully scaling a business in Chicago. After receiving his MBA, Samir productized technology developed in the university setting, built his company NanoGraf around it, created jobs, and cultivated manufacturing in Chicago and Tokyo, Japan. “I understand the public sector, but I also understand what it means to run payroll,” he noted of his role.
Samir’s days are long. 16 or 17 hours to be exact. But his passion for the city is clear. Every week, he holds office hours in different parts of the city so that he can talk directly with residents and business owners.
“You meet remarkable people,” Samir said. “I was in Englewood where they’ve directly experienced disinvestment and I was visiting a few entrepreneurs, and we were talking about how city hall could help them and support them more. I met David McDonald, who sets up a chair at 63rd and Halsted St. and gives free haircuts to young people. You see these stories of resilience and of people who do beautiful things and believe in their communities—we need to invest in them by providing them with more resources to make the mayor’s vision for Chicago a reality.” ∎