Charles Ashby (Chuck) Lewis is Chairman of the Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation and Managing General Partner of Coach House Capital, his family office. He is a retired Vice Chairman, Investment Banking, of Merrill Lynch & Co., having worked for it and a predecessor from 1970 to 2004. Chuck was Assistant to the President and CEO of Computer Technology, Inc., 1969-70, and served in the US Army from 1966-69, attaining the rank of Captain.
Chuck was educated at Amherst College, graduating in 1964, and he received his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Amherst in 2003.
He is a Life Trustee of Amherst College (and co-chaired its last capital campaign); a Life Trustee and a former Vice Chairman of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and a Trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.
Chuck is a Trustee of the University of Chicago. He is active with the University’s Urban Education Institute, including leading its fundraising efforts, is a member of the Board of Directors of its UChicago Impact LLC unit, and is a member of the Governing Board of the University of Chicago Charter School. He is also a member of the Visiting Committees to the Division of the Social Sciences and to The College at the University.
He is also a member of the Panel of Judges for the Purpose Prize; a Leadership Council member of the Chicago Public Education Fund; and a Life Director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Illinois Chapter.
He is a former director of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International and a former trustee of the Ravinia Festival.
Chuck is a member of the National Finance Committee for the Obama Presidential Campaign and has authored numerous commentaries he calls “Obamagrams.”
Chuck is married to Penny Bender Sebring, a research professor at the University of Chicago and Founding Co-Director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, a principal component of the University’s Urban Education Institute. They have three grown children and five grandchildren.
Chuck and Penny have jointly received the John J. Dugan Award from Urban Students Empowered (now OneGoal) and the Stanley C. Golder Community Service Award from the Golden Apple Foundation. Chuck has received the Partner Award from The People’s Music School. Chuck is a member of the Shaker High School Sports Hall of Fame.
