Business Profiles

Chicago has been very good to an entrepreneur from New York. Or maybe you could say a guy from New York has been very good to Chicago. Vince Aversano was born and raised in New York but credits Chicago with giving him the good life he has now both as an entrepreneur and as a philanthropist. Aversano started to enjoy the Midwest by attending Marquette University. After obtaining a journalism degree, he started his professional publishing career in Chicago. “I worked with Inside Sports magazine,” recalls Aversano. “I just applied as an entry level position in the editorial department, switched …

There are very few shops in the Chicago area where you can buy a live, three-foot shark. Then again, there are very few shops where the owner can definitively say, “This stuff is like a drug. Once customers are hooked, they are in my store every day.” The drug Mario Rubino is talking about is saltwater fish, and the store he’s referring to is Aquatica in Tinley Park. Ten years ago, Rubino took a leap of faith and pursued his passion. “My family has a grocery store, Rubino’s Italian Imports in Tinley Park, and I used to work there with …

We’ve all heard it said that, to succeed in business, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” For marketing maverick and public relations pro Bernie DiMeo, it’s a combination of the two. DiMeo has the pleasure of running not one, but three, businesses right now. Bernie DiMeo Communications is a public relations firm, Rocco Shirts sells novelty custom-made apparel on-line while Hot Sports Grills sells football and baseball shaped charcoal grills. Why three different businesses? It stems from an entrepreneurial gene shared by his forebears. DiMeo grew up in a Rogers Park two-flat in an Italian household that …

“I was putting siding on a house and I took a piece of plywood and put my phone number on it, and that was that!” So says Bill Conforti of 773-929-9275, the telephone number that has connected homeowners with Siding-1 Windows-1 Exteriors for more than a quarter of a century. Conforti launched the company and still maintains a small roll in it. But he’s now concentrating most of his energies on Cobblestone Development Inc., a commercial and residential remodeling company he formed 20 years ago. Conforti has covered a lot of ground in the intervening years, but it was those …

It’s 8:30 on a Thursday morning, and the ageless tables are already filled with regulars. Walking into this Oak Park diner, you see a distinguished man with papers spread out around him. He’s talking to a man standing over the table as if the guest were paying homage. A handshake accompanies a warm smile while the next person waits to say hello. That person would be this journalist. “Hi, Gabe,” I say with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Hey, Lis,” Gabe Caporale says. “How’s ma?” Gabriel James Caporale’s grandparents emigrated from Italy in the 1900s. His parents, …