What is Jennifer Pritzker's Net Worth?
Jennifer Pritzker is an American entrepreneur, billionaire investor and philanthropist who has a net worth of $2 billion. Jennifer Pritzker is a member of the wealthy Pritzker family. The Pritzker family at large is worth a combined $30+ billion thanks to its founding of the Hyatt hotel corporation. Jennifer is one of the 11 family members who voted to sell 60% of their holding company, Harmon Holdings, to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway for $4.5 billion in 2007. Jennifer Pritzker's grandfather, A.N. Pritzker (d. 1986), founded Marmon and the hotel chain Hyatt together with his three sons Jay (d. 1999), Robert (d. 2011) and Donald (D. 1972). Among her endeavors, she founded the Tawani Foundation, Tawani Enterprises, and the Pritzker Military Library, and served in the Illinois Army National Guard, retiring in 2001 as a lieutenant colonel. She was born James N. Pritzker in 1950. In August 2013 James Pritzker openly began living as a woman. Thus, Jennifer Pritzker became the world's first transgender billionaire. Jennifer is likely the world's richest transgender person and one of the richest members of the LGBT community.
Early Life
Jennifer Pritzker was born James N. Pritzker on August 13, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois into the entrepreneurial Pritzker family, one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Her parents were Robert and Audrey, and her paternal grandfather was Abram. She has two siblings named Linda and Karen, plus two half-siblings named Matthew and Liesel from her father's remarriage to Irene Dryburgh in 1980.
Military Career and Education
In early 1974, Pritzker enlisted in the US Army. She went on to serve with the HQ Troop and then with the B Troop while based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. There, Pritzker rose to the rank of Sergeant. Upon the completion of her military service in early 1977, she enrolled at Loyola University Chicago, from which she graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. Pritzker received commission as an Army officer the same month as her graduation. Sent to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, she helped lead rifle and TOW platoons, among other duties. Pritzker earned a surfeit of awards for her service over the years, including the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Army Achievement Medal. Concluding her active duty in 1985, she subsequently joined the Army Reserves and Illinois Army National Guard, from which she retired in 2001 as a lieutenant colonel.
(Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Business Career
From her family's many businesses, which have included the industrial holding company Marmon Group and the Hyatt Hotel chain, Pritzker has inherited and accumulated over $1 billion in wealth. Beyond the family business, she has been involved in many endeavors of her own. In 1995, she founded the Tawani Foundation, and the year after that incorporated the private wealth management company Tawani Enterprises, of which she served as president and CEO. Later, in 2003, Pritzker founded the Pritzker Military Library, a non-profit organization in Chicago intended to be a non-partisan institution for the study of the "citizen soldier." Its collection comprises more than 115,000 items, including books, periodicals, posters, journals, photographs, and more. Among her other business activities, Pritzker serves as the chair of the board of the Connecticut-based private equity firm Squadron Capital.
Philanthropy and Politics
Pritzker carries out the bulk of her philanthropic endeavors through her Tawani Foundation, which works primarily to illuminate and honor the service of military personnel throughout American history. Some of its most notable donations have included $1.35 million to the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara; $25 million to Norwich University in Vermont; and $2 million to the University of Victoria in British Columbia for the creation of the world's first endowed academic chair of transgender studies, which went to Aaron Devor.
For a long time, Pritzker was a Republican. She made major donations to the NRA and to presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney. However, in 2019, she began coming around to the idea that the GOP was actively harming people through its policies, including herself as a transgender woman. She subsequently donated to Joe Biden's presidential campaign in 2020. Later that year, Pritzker donated to the Libertarian Party.
Transgender Transition
In the summer of 2013, Pritzker issued a statement to employees of Tawani Enterprises and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library that showed she had officially changed her name to Jennifer, signaling her status as a transgender woman. This made her the first and only openly transgender billionaire in the world.
Personal Life
Pritzker has been married a few times. Her first marriage, to Ayelet, produced a daughter named Tal. From her second marriage, to Lisa Goren, she has two sons named Andrew and William. On Halloween in 2020, Pritzker married her third spouse, Erin Solaro.
