Avy Stein is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Cresset, an award-winning multi-family office with over $45+ billion assets under management¹. Avy leads Cresset’s vision to reinvent the wealth experience and promotes expanded access to an ecosystem of ideas, solutions, and talent. A longtime investor and entrepreneur, Avy champions the well-being of founders, entrepreneurs, and business innovators and helps elevate the lives of the families Cresset serves.
Together with Co-Founder, Eric Becker, Avy has been involved with starting, investing in, and growing over 150 businesses and raising funds totaling over $8 billion. Before launching Cresset in 2017, Avy served as Chief Executive Officer of Willis Stein & Partners, a private equity firm he co-founded in 1994, where he managed the firm’s investments in the education, recycling, telecommunications, energy, and consumer sectors. During that time, Avy also co-founded Lincoln Clean Energy, a developer, owner, and operator of utility-scale clean energy projects later acquired by I Squared Capital in 2016.
Earlier in his career, Avy served as Managing Director for Continental Illinois Venture Corp (CIVC). Previously, he was President of Cook Energy Corporation, an oil and gas exploration and production company, and served as the parent company’s Vice President of Corporate Planning and Legal Affairs. Avy began his career in 1980 as an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis.
Deeply committed to giving back, Avy is an active philanthropist and civic leader. He serves on the board of directors for HilCo Global, a Chicago-based financial services company that specializes in asset valuation, monetization, and advisory solutions. He is a member of the Board of Trustees, former Treasurer, and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Ravinia Festival and is a member of the Harvard Law School Leadership Council. Avy provides fundraising support and strategic counsel for B.U.I.L.D. (Broader Urban Involvement in Leadership Development), a nonprofit organization that provides career and educational development for at-risk youth on Chicago’s south and west sides. He is also a director for the Western Golf Association and supports the Evans Scholars Foundation.
Avy received his law degree from Harvard Law School and holds a B.S. in accounting from the University of Illinois.