What is J.B. Pritzker's net worth?
J. B. Pritzker, also known as Jay Robert Pritzker, is an American entrepreneur and politician who has a net worth of $3.8 billion. A member of the billionaire Hyatt Hotel family, J.B. was elected governor of Illinois in November 2018. He spent $172 million of his own money funding his gubernatorial campaign. He has launched a number of venture capital and investment startups, including the Pritzker Group. On the philanthropic side of things, he runs the Pritzker Family Foundation, which funds research and programs to help children in need.
J.B. Pritzker is one of roughly a dozen billionaires in the Pritzker family. They are one of the wealthiest families in the world with a combined net worth of $33.5 billion.
J.B.'s grandfather, Abram Pritzker, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, began investing in Chicago real estate in the 1930s depression. Abram's three sons expanded the family business through acquisitions and expansion. In 1957 the sons bought the Hyatt House hotel in Los Angeles. This would eventually be the cornerstone of a hotel empire that spans the globe today.
Abram's son Robert used his inheritance to launch the Marmon Group, a conglomerate of industrial service and manufacturing companies. In 2007, Warren Buffett acquired 60% of Marmon for $4.5 billion. The Pritzker's own the cruise line Royal Caribbean and formerly owned Braniff airlines, McCall's magazine, and the Trans Union credit bureau.
Early Life and Education
Jay Robert Pritzker was born on January 19, 1965 in Palo Alto, California into the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain. His parents were Sue and Donald, and he has two older siblings named Anthony and Penny. Pritzker was raised in Atherton, California and attended boarding school in Milton, Massachusetts. For his higher education, he went to Duke University, from which he earned his bachelor's degree in political science. Pritzker went on to obtain his JD from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1993.
Political Career Before Governorship
Pritzker began his career in politics in the 1980s serving on the legislative staffs of US Representative Tom Lantos and US Senators Terry Sanford and Alan J. Dixon. In the late 1990s, he launched his own campaign for the US House of Representatives, running for Illinois's 9th congressional district. Pritzker ultimately came in third place in the primary. From 2003 to 2006, he chaired the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and in 2008 he served as national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Governor of Illinois
In the spring of 2017, Pritzker announced his campaign to run for governor of Illinois as a Democratic candidate. By the end of the year, he had spent $42 million of his own money on his campaign, with no funding coming from any other source. Pritzker went on to win the 2018 Democratic primary by a huge margin. In the 2018 general election, he won in a similar landslide over incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner. Pritzker won reelection in 2022 in another massive victory, this time over Republican Darren Bailey.
Early in his governorship, Pritzker signed into law the Reproductive Health Act to support women in their right to choose. He also signed into law the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act to legalize and regulate the production, sale, and consumption of cannabis. In terms of child welfare and education, Pritzker increased spending on grade schools, colleges, and universities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was commended for his comprehensive measures to mitigate the spread of the virus in Illinois. Among his other initiatives as governor, Pritzker has focused on criminal justice reform, gun control, immigrant and refugee rights, LGBTQ rights, infrastructure, and transportation.
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Business Career
As a businessman, Pritzker has launched a number of venture capital and investment startups. In 2012, he founded 1871, a non-profit digital startup incubator that serves as the flagship project of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. With his brother Anthony, Pritzker co-founded Pritzker Group Private Capital, which owns and operates middle-market companies. Elsewhere, he served as the chairman of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's ChicagoNEXT council.
Philanthropy
On the philanthropic side of things, Pritzker runs the Pritzker Family Foundation, which funds research and programs that support children in need. He also contributed to the creation of the Pritzker Consortium on Early Childhood Development at the University of Chicago. Elsewhere, Pritzker chaired the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, which opened in 2009. In his role, he led the capital campaign and the planning to build the institution. Pritzker is also the principal funder of the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, which documents efforts to bring justice to the perpetrators of the Cambodian genocide.
In the world of academia, Pritzker and his wife donated $5 million for the construction of the Theodore R. and Karen K. Muenster University Center at the University of South Dakota. At Milton Academy, Pritzker provided funding for the Pritzker Science Center, and at his alma mater Northwestern University, the law school was renamed in his family's name in 2015. Pritzker sits on the board of governors of the law school and serves on the university's investment committee. At his other alma mater, Duke University, he served on the board of trustees from 2017 to 2023.
Personal Life
In 1993, Pritzker married Mary Kathryn Muenster. They have two children and reside in Chicago's Gold Coast district.
