Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/198792
VIEW FROM THE TOP Andolino has received awards from the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (TOP LEFT) and the AAAE Board of Directors (RIGHT), as well as the Lithuanian Medal of Honor (BOTTOM). continued from page 57 though United and American Airlines threatened to block the project, Andolino says, "we are on schedule and under budget." This fall, the last runway of the first expansion phase at O'Hare will open. By 2015, another runway and a new air traffic control tower open, and a year later an $800 million intermodal facility for a consolidated rental car and parking facility is scheduled to open. As the commissioner, Andolino is also overseeing the possible privatization of Midway International Airport, the distribution of $300 million in concessions contracts, and the $2 million conversion of an existing building at O'Hare's International Terminal into a refrigerated perishable cargo center for food, flowers, and pharmaceuticals—not to mention the safety of 86 million passengers that travel through both Chicago airports annually. Under Andolino, O'Hare is also the first airport in the US to test a new Automated Passport Control program where holders of US passports can use self-serve kiosks to reduce their check-in time. Has it been easy? Andolino laughs at the question. "No, but I've learned along the way," she says. "For me, it's really about surrounding yourself with people who are smarter than you, working hard, and learning from them." A Chicago native with Sicilian roots, Andolino began her childhood in the Hermosa neighborhood near Fullerton and Cicero Avenues before moving to Elk Grove. At age 12, she began working at the Golden Tiara, her grandfather's banquet-hall-turned-bingo-parlor, on Chicago's Northwest side. "I would spend the weekends at the bingo hall with my dad, bussing trays, ringing up sales, and working concessions," says Andolino, whose father was a house painter and whose mother worked as a bank teller and part-time retail clerk. "It taught me that in order to have things, you had to work for them." While going to school for marketing at DePaul University, Andolino worked as a makeup counter artist for Revlon. After graduating, she began working for the city of Chicago and climbed the political ranks to become the First Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development during the Daley administration. These days, Andolino is one of the few holdovers from the Daley administration working for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's team. "There was a quick learning curve, but it's been fun and exciting," says Andolino, who lives with her husband in the Chicago neighborhood of McKinley Park. "Both mayors have been very interested in the airports; it's the economic engine for the city. Both are very impatient and want things done yesterday. This is about meeting and embracing what the city is doing. We aren't an island. We are looking for new sources of energy, ensuring more recycling and waste water use to be more sustainable." MA READY FOR TAKEOFF Rosemarie Andolino gets personal. *love takes time: Andolino married former alderman Mark Fary in 2000. "We knew each other a long, long time before we started dating. I turned him down the first time he asked me out." *culinary cravings: "My mother Helen's homemade pizza, or pasta with cauliflower in red sauce." *on her playlist: *beverage of choice: "Dunkin' Donuts coffee with a shot of cream." *speaking in tongues: FROM LEFT: The herb garden in Terminal 3; goats graze in the airport field. 58 Andolino speaks Italian, Spanish, and a little Japanese, Arabic, and Mandarin. "I constantly need to communicate with people from other countries to make them feel comfortable." PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DEPARTMENT OF AVIATION (FIELD) "Frank Sinatra because it brings me back to my childhood, especially to my parents. I also like Chicago, Don Henley, Adam Levine, and Fun." MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 056-058_MA_SP_VFT_Nov13.indd 58 10/21/13 5:21 PM