Hughston McBain of McBain was the Chairman of the Board of the Marshall Fields Company, and by dint of hard labor, a very wealthy man. By all accounts, he was a larger than life character and used his not inconsiderable wealth for the benefit of the Chicago Scottish community. As clan chief he also used it to the benefit of McBains everywhere by buying property in Kinchyle (the ancient McBain homeland) and erecting a cairn to the clan.

As far as I am aware Hughston McBain of McBain came into the chiefship of Clan McBain by right of inheritance, not by election of an ad hoc derbhfine.