 Ayers grew up in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.His parents are Mary (née Andrew) and Thomas G. Ayers, who was later chairman and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison (1973 to 1980), and for whom Northwestern's Thomas G. Ayers College of Commerce and Industry was named.He attended public schools until his second year in high school, when he transferred to Lake Forest Academy, a small prep school.