The Forbes 400: Illinois’ 14 Wealthiest Billionaires, Ranked (2024)

Among the 400 wealthiest people in America are 14 Illinois natives, among them self-starters, immigrants and women.

Posted Tue, Oct 4, 2016 at 5:21 pm CT|Updated Tue, Oct 4, 2016 at 8:09 pm CT

1. Topping the Illinois list is Ken Griffin, whose net worth is $7.5 billion and who ranks 57th nationally on the Forbes 400 list. Like the majority of Chicago’s wealthiest, 47-year-old Griffin lives in Chicago. A self-made hedge fund manager, he first started trading in his Harvard dorm room in the 1980s, using $265,000 in seed money from family and friends. He was also reportedly involved in one of the biggest private art sales ever, buying one Willem de Kooning piece and one Jackson Pollock from David Geffen in 2015 for a grand total of $500 million.

2. Another self-made billionaire makes the second slot of Illinois’ most wealthy list. Sam Zell, a real estate investor worth $4.7 billion, is the son of a Polish grain merchant and is now 75 years old and living in Chicago. Zell completed all of his schooling at the University of Michigan and invests in diverse sectors including energy, transportation, hospitality, finance, healthcare and communications. Zell ranks 117th on the national Forbes 400 list.

3. Coming in at 190th nationally but third in Illinois, Chicago-dweller Jay Robert Pritzker’s net worth comes in at $3.4 billion. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, keeps it in the family by running his private equity and venture capital firm the Pritzker Group with his brother, Anthony. Pritzker is just one of 11 Pritzker family members who are billionaires.

4 . Neil Bluhm, the next billionaire on the Illinois list, is a self-made real estate tycoon worth $3.2 billion. Bluhm grew up in a cramped Chicago apartment, but it’s safe to say he’s not facing the same living conditions today, though he still lives in the city. Bluhm owns some of Chicago’s most famous buildings, as well as the majority of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox.

5. Another Pritzker comes in at number five on the Illinois list — 214th nationally. Thomas Pritzker is the executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels and is currently worth $3.1 billion. He inherited his 17 percent stake in Hyatt, as well as several other assets built up by family members. Sixty-six years old now, Pritzker lives in Chicago.

6. Ty Warner is the sixth top-ranked billionaire on the Illinois list at a net worth of $2.5 billion and the first who doesn’t live in Chicago; he resides in Oak Brook. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Warner, a self-made man who dropped out of Kalamazoo College, created Beanie Babies and owns high-end hotels across the country. Although Beanie Babies jump-started his fortune and he still sells them, their revenue represents only a small fraction of Warner’s income now.

7. Seventh place — 290th nationally — is a three-way tie. The only woman on the Illinois list comes in here — Jean, or Gigi, Pritzker is the third family member to make the list and comes in at a net worth of $2.4 billion. Another heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, Jean Pritzker is also a Hollywood film producer (in her repertoire are films ‘Drive’ and ‘Ender’s Game’), and alongside her brother she owns TMS International, a steel-mill-servicing company. Pritzker is now 54 years old and was ranked 36th on Forbes’ 400 wealthiest women in 2016. Patrick Ryan, also worth $2.4 billion, is the chairman and CEO of Ryan Speciality Group and lives in Winnetka. Throughout his career, he’s predominantly been a self-made insurance man who made it big. Mark Walter is the last in the three-way tie, worth $2.4 billion as the CEO of Guggenheim Partners LLC. His investment group purchased the LA Dodgers for $2.2 billion in 2012 and Walter helped found the Guggenheim Partners firm in the late 1990s.

8. Joe Mansueto comes in at number eight on the Illinois list — 321st nationally — and is worth $2.2 billion. After more than 30 years in the business, self-starter Mansueto announced in September his intent to step down as the CEO of Morningstar.

9. Ninth on the Illinois list is Joseph Grendys, the self-made head of Koch Foods who’s worth $2.2 billion. The 54-year-old lives in Chicago, and his company works for Walmart and Burger King, though their products can be found all over the place. Fun fact: Grendys still lives in the modest, split-level home that he grew up in.

10. Eric Lefkosky is ranked tenth in Illinois and 374th on the national Forbes 400 list, and is the chairman of Groupon, though he focuses more today on his successful startup Uptake. Lefkosky started his first business selling carpets after a girlfriend dumped him his freshman year of college. He’s now worth $1.81 billion.

11. Another Pritzker finishes this list at eleventh-ranked in Illinois and is worth $1.76 billion. Jennifer Pritzker is the CEO of Tawani Enterprises and is the only known transgender billionaire. Jennifer was formerly known as James and worked as an Army lieutenant colonel before dedicating her work to the Tawani Foundation, where she works to preserve military history.

Forbes also highlighted Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in its list coverage, noting an $800 million fall in his fortune after his campaigning efforts — a decrease that makes his total net worth $3.7 billion. He fell 35 spots on the Forbes 400 list.

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