Rufus Williams is a product of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the parent of a CPS graduate, and now the President of the Chicago Board of Education. He is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of Olympus, LLC, a business management and contract negotiation firm.
Appointed to the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2005, Williams became the President in 2006. He has launched a variety of programs aimed at providing CPS students with opportunities for achievement, such as a shoe donation fund for scholar athletes, the “Real Men Read” literacy and mentorship program, and expansion of the “Having a Ball” ballroom dancing initiative.
Mr. Williams was born the fifth of six children on the west side of Chicago. He attended Crown and Dvorak Elementary Schools, Morton Upper Grade Center, and Lane Technical High School and ultimately graduating from Orr High School, home of the Spartans.
It was at Orr that a history teacher and mentor told Williams that just being better than everyone else in school would not be enough for him to succeed. He was expected to achieve at the level of his very best. These words have both inspired and guided him throughout life.
Without the money to immediately enroll in college after graduating from high school, Mr. Williams worked at a fast-food restaurant and eventually earned enough money, along with his parents help and an academic scholarship, to pursue his college education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. With his mentor’s words as his mantra, he graduated from Southern magna cum laude, with a degree in accounting.
Mr. Williams began his professional career at Arthur Andersen & Co. where he worked for a decade, and then moved onto Baxter Healthcare Corp. In 1990, he joined the Harpo Entertainment Group, best known for producing “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Over the next 10 years, Mr. Williams would hold several positions at Harpo including Controller, Vice President of Financial Planning and Strategic Development, and Chief Financial Officer. Among his duties, he was responsible for helping Winfrey give to communities and her key causes by managing her numerous philanthropies.
Mr. Williams has a history of involvement in civic causes and philanthropic projects, especially those with a focus on education. He previously served as Vice Chairman and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of Providence-St. Mel School. He is past President of the Better Boys Foundation, a social service agency that provides assistance to children and their families, and past Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of Francis W. Parker School, where he is now an Honorary Trustee. At Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, where his son graduated, Mr. Williams served as President of the Local School Council. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Public School Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago.
Over the years, Winfrey, as friend and mentor, inspired Mr. Williams to pursue his long-held dream of entrepreneurship. In 2000, he founded Olympus, LLC to provide business and financial management to individuals, particularly athletes and entertainers.
As a Member of the Board of Education, Mr. Williams helped to form the Charitable Fund for Inner-City Athletic Equipment, through which he helped to secure a 10-year commitment to provide athletic shoes to CPS student athletes. Thanks to a generous and anonymous donor, the fund outfits the feet of CPS high school athletes, boys and girls, involved primarily in basketball, in a district in which more than 85 percent of all students come from low-income families.
Mr. Williams believes strongly in positive parental involvement. One of his first projects was to expand the “Power of Parents” conference by inviting celebrity and activist Dr. Bill Cosby to address more than 10,000 CPS parents and 10,000 adults and young men, with the theme of “Taking Responsibility.”
In 2007, Mr. Williams launched “Real Men Read,” which in its first year attracted more than 300 volunteers to read to boys and girls in second, fifth and seventh grades in their schools. The program was designed to demonstrate a love of literacy and show students that men value education, while also encouraging longer lasting school-community partnerships. Concluding its second year, “Real Men Read” has touched the lives of more than 16,000 CPS students.
Additionally, the reading program launched a speakers series, which brought several celebrity authors into schools to talk with students including: actor and Harvard Law School graduate Hill Harper, author of “Letters to a Young Brother – Manifest Your Destiny”; author Chris Gardner, whose life and book inspired a movie of the same name, “The Pursuit of Happyness”; Detroit Tigers designated hitter Gary Sheffield, author of his autobiography, “Inside Power”; Captain Bill Pinckney, the first African-American to solo circumnavigate the world and author of “As Long As It Takes”; Lonnie Ali, wife of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, promoting the “Go the Distance” collection; and Maria Celeste Arraras, Emmy award-winning journalist and author of “The Magic Cane”.
Mr. Williams also was instrumental in establishing a matching book drive for CPS students and students in Liberia. That relationship was established during a historic visit of the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, to Chicago Public Schools in 2006.
In addition to serving as President of the Chicago Board of Education, Mr. Williams serves on the boards of the Chicago Public Education Fund, the Renaissance Schools Fund, the Children First Fund, After School Matters, the Public Building Commission of Chicago, and Chicago 2016.
Mr. Williams is married with two children.