Which 12 billionaires from Illinois make Forbes 400 list?
A dozen people from Illinois made the annual Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. The list includes the creator of Beanie Babies, which originated in Warrenville, several members of the Pritzker family, including Democratic candidate for governor J.B. Pritzker, and the CEO of a chicken processing company in Park Ridge. Just one woman is among Illinois' top 12.
The list includes:
• #45, Ken Griffin, $10 billion net worth. He founded and runs Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund that manages $30 billion in assets. He founded Citadel in 1990 but first began trading from his Harvard dorm in 1987. He put a satellite dish on the roof to get real-time stock quotes.
• #114 Sam Zell, $5.6 billion. In 1969 Zell started Equity Group Investments, which today invests in energy, logistics, transportation, manufacturing, communications and health care.
• #172 Thomas Pritzker, $4.2 billion. Pritzker, one of 11 billionaire heirs in the Pritzker clan, serves as the executive chairman of hotel giant Hyatt.
• #179 Neil Bluhm, $4 billion. Real estate tycoon Bluhm is the owner of marquee Chicago properties like 900 N. Michigan and Rivers Casinos.
• #215 Joe Mansueto, $3.6 billion. He started financial information company Morningstar in 1984 with $80,000 in savings.
• #223 Mark Walter, $3.5 billion. He is the CEO of investment firm Guggenheim Partners, which has some $265 billion in assets under management.
• #251 J.B. Pritzker, $3.2 billion. Jay Robert "J.B." Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, ran private equity firm Pritzker Group with his brother Anthony until March 2017. It also has a stake in Elon Musk's rocket firm SpaceX. He is the Democratic nominee for Illinois governor.
• #280 Patrick Ryan, $2.9 billion. He is CEO and founder of Chicago-based Ryan Specialty Group, a wholesale brokerage and specialty insurance firm.
• #302 Penny Pritzker, $2.7 billion. Pritzker is one of 11 billionaire heirs in the Pritzker clan, and the only one who has served in the White House. A key fundraiser for President Barack Obama ahead of his election, Pritzker was the U.S. secretary of commerce from 2013 to 2017.
• #316 Ty Warner, $2.6 billion. The creator of Beanie Babies, the plush toy fad of the 1990s, he now gets a chunk of his fortune from his high-end-hotel portfolio, which includes the Four Seasons in New York.
• #328 Joseph Grendys, $2.5 billion. He runs Koch Foods, a poultry processor that slaughters, ships and sells chicken under its own brands and through private label products.
• #328 Eric Lefkofsky, $2.5 billion. He made his fortune from the daily deals site Groupon, which he founded in 2008 with longtime business partner Brad Keywell.
The wealthiest Americans, according to the Forbes 400 list, are: Jeff Bezos of Amazon, $168 billion; Bill Gates of Microsoft, $97 billion; Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, $88.3 billion; and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, $61 billion.