Penny Pritzker

Penny Sue Pritzker (born May 2, 1959) is an American billionaire heiress, businesswoman and civic leader who served as the 38th United States secretary of commerce in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017.

She was confirmed by a Senate vote of 97–1.

Since September 2023, she has been working in the position of U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery.

Pritzker is a member of the prominent Pritzker family and was involved with the family business empire from a young age.

She was eventually appointed as one of three successors to her uncle, Jay Pritzker.

She is the founder of PSP Partners, PSP Capital Partners, and Pritzker Realty Group, and co-founder of Artemis Real Estate Partners and Inspired Capital.

She is on the board of Microsoft, and chair of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

As of October 2021, Forbes estimated her net worth at US$3.2 billion.

Pritzker was born in Chicago in 1959, the daughter of Sue (née Sandel) and Donald Pritzker.

She is a member of the Pritzker family of Chicago, a wealthy and influential Jewish business family.

Donald Pritzker was one of the co-founders of Hyatt Hotels.

He moved the family to Atherton, California, where business for the Hyatt Hotels began to grow.

Penny has two younger brothers, Tony (b. 1961) and J. B. Pritzker (b. 1965), the incumbent Governor of Illinois.

Young Penny would accompany her father to the hotels and check the cleanness of the ladies restrooms.

In 1972, Don died suddenly of a heart attack when Penny was 13years old.

Following Don's death, Sue began battling depression, requiring Penny to at times care for her mother and her younger brothers.

At age 16, Penny wrote a letter to her grandfather, and head of the family business empire, A.N. Pritzker, in which she asked why he talked business with the men in the family and not with her.

Finally realizing Penny's interest in business, A.N. provided her with a summer course in accounting.

Penny attended Castilleja School until 1977.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Harvard College in 1981.

The following year, Penny's mother died after falling out of the passenger side of a tow truck.

Penny returned to school, earning both a Juris Doctor and an MBA from Stanford University in 1985.

After she earned her degrees, Pritzker joined the Pritzker organization encouraged by her cousin Nick Pritzker.

In 1987, she founded Classic Residence by Hyatt, later renamed Vi, upscale housing for seniors as an alternative to nursing homes.

The project struggled at first, losing $40million in the first 18months, but turned around after changes in marketing and management.

In 1991, Jay Pritzker, Penny's uncle and head of the Pritzker family businesses, named Penny as the director of the Pritzkers' non-hotel landholdings.

With that appointment, Penny created the Pritzker Realty Group, which developed apartment buildings, shopping centers, and the Baldwin Park neighborhood in Orlando, Florida.

From 1991 to 1994, Penny Pritzker was chairperson of the Hinsdale, Illinois-based Superior Bank of Chicago, in which Jay Pritzker had purchased a 50% stake from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who had taken over the bank when it failed.

In 1993, the bank "embarked on a business strategy of significant growth into subprime home mortgages", according to a report by the United States Treasury Department.

In 2000, it became clear the bank was faltering.

In the months leading up to 2001, the Pritzkers tried to work out a recapitalization plan.

In July 2001, the FDIC seized the bank after the recapitalization could not be resolved.

Subsequently, the Pritzker family reached an agreement with regulators to pay $460million.

In 2009, Forbes named Pritzker one of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

Before entering government service, Pritzker had been involved in many Chicago organizations, including the Chicago Board of Education, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and her own foundation, the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation.

Pritzker was an early supporter of Obama's presidential candidacy, having been a friend of the Obama family since their time in Chicago.

From 2021 to 2022, she was a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

She is the sister of J. B. Pritzker, the current governor of Illinois.

According to the FDIC, by 2011, the uninsured depositors of Superior had each received 81% of their uninsured monies, in addition to the $100,000 each previously received of their insured amount.

Industry experts have criticized the Pritzkers in regard to Superior.