Thomas Hrinowich

Thomas Hrinowich was a Chicago-area finance executive best known as a founding member and Chief Operating Officer of Dream Exchange, an initiative to launch what would be the first minority-owned and operated stock exchange in U.S. history. He was born September 25, 1965, grew up in Medinah, Illinois, attended Driscoll Catholic High School (where he was a basketball MVP, National Honor Society member, and Illinois State Scholar), and earned an MBA in Finance & Strategic Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1990–1992).

His career centered on Expansion Funding Partners, LLC, a Park Ridge, Illinois firm founded by securities attorney Joseph J. Cecala that focuses on helping small and mid-sized businesses access expansion capital and on M&A/financing advisory work. Hrinowich's listed roles include Vice President of Client Services at Expansion Funding Partners. Earlier in his career, aggregator profiles cite experience at BroadPeak Collaborative and Resources Connection (RGP), a global professional-services/consulting firm.

In 2015–2016, Cecala launched the Dream Exchange concept and incorporated the original entity (Dream Exchange LLC) under Expansion Funding Partners; Hrinowich was part of the founding team and served as COO. The venture set out to build a "venture exchange" tailored to small-to-medium companies that struggle to access traditional public markets. In late 2019, Cecala partnered with attorney Dwain Kyles to reposition the effort as a minority-owned exchange, and around mid-2020 the mission broadened toward serving underrepresented founders. Per his obituary, Hrinowich devoted roughly the last decade of his life to this work before he died on December 22, 2021, survived by his wife, Christine Mauro Hrinowich, and their five children.

• The thesis tied to Hrinowich's work was structural rather than a personal angel check-writing program: build a new exchange and funding pathway so that small-to-medium-sized businesses — companies typically too small for NYSE/Nasdaq listing — can raise growth capital in the ~$5M–$100M range.
• Expansion Funding Partners' stated purpose is "to improve the conditions of our world through a new approach to helping small businesses break through the glass ceiling of funding for expansion." (firm description)
• Early focus on Rust Belt / Midwest manufacturing and Main Street businesses, later expanding toward minority- and underserved-founder-owned businesses following the 2020 social-justice shift in Dream Exchange's mission.
• Note: third-party investor databases classify him as an "Angel Investor — Seed Round," but no documented personal angel portfolio or stated personal check size could be verified from primary sources.