Jay Stieber, executive vice president and general counsel of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE), was inducted as the Illinois Restaurant Association's (IRA) 2009 chairman of the of the board during the IRA's Annual Meeting & Installation of Officers Dinner, held Feb. 2 at Petterino's in Chicago.

Stieber has a BS in accounting from DePaul University, a JD from Northwestern University School of Law; he is a CPA and an attorney. He has been a board member of the IRA since 2000, serving on several committees and most recently as an officer on the IRA board. As one of the partners of LEYE, Stieber spends the majority of his time dealing with major issues involving strategic planning, tax planning, real estate, finance, bank relations, investor relations, leases, contracts and other legal matters.

The foodservice industry in Illinois produces $18.3 billion in annual sales and is the largest private sector employer in the state. Foodservice industry-related employment in Illinois is projected to grow by 10.9 percent over the next 10 years, to almost 600,000 people by 2018.