City won't be on the hook?

$500 MILLION | It's a matter of accounting, says new Olympic money chief

Chicago's new Olympic money manager maintained Thursday that taxpayer-backed financial guarantees won't be needed if the city wins the 2016 Summer Games.

Rick Ludwig, who served in similar financial capacities with the Olympic Games in Atlanta and Sydney, Australia, was named chief financial officer of the Chicago 2016 bid group Thursday. Aon Corp. exec David P. Bolger was announced as chief operating officer.

Bolger, 49, had been the chief financial officer for Aon, an accident and health insurance broker founded by Chicago 2016 chairman Patrick Ryan.

The city and state have offered $500 million in guarantees should Olympic revenues fall short in Chicago. "We feel confident they won't be tapped into," Ludwig, 52, said in a phone interview from his Georgia home.

Ludwig, echoing the International Olympic Committee view of the Olympic bottom line, said reports of cities losing money hosting the Games is a matter of accounting. The costs of permanent building projects should not be included in determining whether the Games are profitable, he said.

"In Atlanta, we spent a lot of money building a lot of roads because we knew we would need to move people around. In Chicago, you've got to improve the public transport structure there. Is that an Olympic cost? No, because you've got to do that anyway,'' Ludwig said.

By the Olympics standard of reckoning, the Atlanta Games claimed a profit. In Sydney, "we came a little bit short where [government] had to kick in maybe $40 [million] or $50 million on a $2.5 billion project,'' Ludwig said.

Olympic officials did not make Bolger available for comment, and Bolger did not return calls. Ryan called Bolger "the guy who runs the inside,'' who would have limited public exposure.

Bolger announced in May that he was stepping down from the Aon post he had held since April 2003. Before joining Aon, Bolger, a Wauconda native, worked for 21 years for Bank One Corp. and its predecessor companies, serving in several senior management positions including head of corporate banking. Ryan would not say how much Bolger would be paid in the COO Olympics job, but Bolger earned $3.7 million in 2006 from Aon.

A former Bank One colleague remembers Bolger as "very bright and hardworking.''

Added Gary T. Johnson, president of the Chicago History Museum where Bolger serves on the board: "He's not a chair warmer. He asks very tough questions," mostly "focused on the guts of the operation.''

Also announced Thursday was the USOC's assignment of two senior staff members to work full time in the Chicago 2016 office.

Chris Sullivan, who held top jobs at the Salt Lake City Olympics and in New York City's losing 2012 Olympic bid, has been named USOC chief bid officer. Kimberly Meyer will served as senior bid director and coordinate day-to-day interaction between Chicago 2016 and the USOC.