An interview with Mike Bontrager (Philadelphia Inquirer)

After John Michael Bontrager came home to Pennsylvania from Wall Street to start an advice firm for big investors, he located his company in Kennett Square, “America’s Mushroom Capital” and the most populous of the old factory and farming towns along Old Baltimore Pike in southern Chester County.

Bontrager and those who joined him prospered. In 2018, he stepped down as founding head of investment-risk adviser Chatham Financial, which now employs 850 at its campus just east of the square-mile borough of 7,500.

Now, he’s devoting himself to the redevelopment of Kennett Square and nearby towns.

Using his own fortune, donations, and state and local government funds, Bontrager and his allies have developed a string of projects — restaurants, hotels, and nonprofits — under the loose umbrella of his Square Roots Collective.

Continue reading at the Philadelphia Inquirer (photo credit: Steven M. Falk for The Inquirer).