Gov. Pritzker Announces Three Appointments

Building on a strong team of diverse experts in their fields, Governor JB Pritzker announced the following appointments in his administration:

 
DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES

Lester Bovia will serve as Interim Inspector General of the Department of Children and Family Services. Bovia currently serves as Deputy General Counsel and Ethics Officer at the Illinois Human Rights Commission, where he was instrumental in the General Counsel's office's initiative to eliminate the Commission's 2,500-case backlog. He has served the Commission for over 10 years, also serving as Acting General Counsel from October 2018 to January 2019 and as an administrative law judge since his start in September 2009. During his 22 years of legal experience, Bovia has practiced as a litigation associate at Winston and Strawn, as a conflicts attorney at Perkins Coie and as in-house counsel for a small restaurant chain. He also currently teaches as an adjunct law professor at DePaul University College of Law. Bovia earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law.

 
PROPERTY TAX APPEAL BOARD

Sarah Buckley will serve on the Property Tax Appeal Board.* Buckley is the current president of commercial real estate firm Four Star Consulting. She previously served as Senior Project Manager of Velocity Consulting. In her decades of experience, Buckley has assessed landmark properties such as Chicago's Willis Tower. She's worked as an attorney at Steven J. Morton and Associates, the Law Office of Debra DiMaggio and Steele Law Firm. Buckley additionally worked as a law clerk for Regina P. Etherton and Associates, the Prusak Law Group and the Chicago Housing Authority. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Michigan and Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law.
 
Kevin Freeman will serve as Chair on the Property Tax Appeal Board.* Freeman was first appointed board in December of 2003. Since March of 2018, he has served as Chief Counsel, Securities & Transactions, at Tenneco Inc., a Fortune 500, publicly-traded, $17 billion dollar revenue company headquartered in Illinois with over 100 facilities in more than 25 countries, where he is in charge of the legal aspects of all transactional matters as well as all securities filings and related compliance. Prior to joining Tenneco, he served for over five years as Senior M&A Counsel at Accenture LLP, a Fortune 500, publicly-traded, $40B dollar revenue company, with over 120 offices in 80 countries, where he led global acquisitions, equity investments and joint venture formation on behalf of Accenture. And prior to joining Tenneco, Freeman was in private practice for over 18 years, focusing on mergers & acquisitions and general corporate and commercial matters. In addition to his service to PTAB, he also served on the Cook County Zoning Board of Appeals from 1998 until 2018 and was appointed Chairman in 2014. A graduate of Northwestern University (BA, 1991) and The University of Chicago Law School (JD, 1994), Mr. Freeman resides in Chicago with his wife, daughter and son.
 
* Appointments pending confirmation by the Illinois Senate.