What is John Pritzker's Net Worth?
John Pritzker is an American heir and hotelier who has a net worth of $2.2 billion. Born John A. Pritzker in 1953, he made his fortune as one of the heirs of Chicago's eminent Pritzker clan. His grandfather Abram Nickolas Pritzker, a.k.a. A.N. Pritzker, launched Marmon Industrial Group and Hyatt Hotels together with his sons Donald, Robert, and John's father Jay. In 2007, Pritzker family sold Marmon's controlling stake for $4.5 billion to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. A graduate of Menlo College, John began working in the family business, Hyatt Hotels, in 1972. A decade later, he became Managing Director and Divisional Vice President, but only after few years, John left the Hyatt business, and became one of the founders of Ticketmaster.
Then, in 1996, John established Mandara Spa, a chain of over 70 resort spas, which he wanted to merge with Hyatt Hotels, but it winded up in the full ownership of Hyatt. In 2005, together with his partner Tom Gottlieb, he launched the private equity firm Geolo Capital that was focused on investments in entertainment, hospitals, and health and wellness companies. After five years, Pritzker decided to sell his shares to his family, and bought the controlling stake in the Joie de Vivre, a chain of boutique hotels. The next year, he merged the 30 hotels of Joie de Virve with the 12 hotels of Thompson Group owned by Pomeranc family, to develop Commune Hotels & Resorts. By 2012, Commune Hotels had acquired over 45 hotels and reached revenue of $450 million, and currently, it is establishing a low-cost hotel brand named Tommie in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, which will start in 2014. In addition to his hotels, Pritzker had an investment in Local TV Holding, which announced that it would sell 29 stations to Tribune Co. for $ 2.7 billion. Moreover, he and his wife Lisa own The Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund which is focused on Jewish causes, civic activities, and children's health and education. They have also donated $15 million to the University of California at San Francisco for new pediatric emergency facility at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.
