Kenneth C. Griffin
| Kenneth C. Griffin | |
| |
| Occupation | Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer |
|---|---|
| Employer | Citadel Investment Group LLC |
| Location | Chicago |
| Website | www.citadelgroup.com |
Kenneth C. Griffin founded Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C. in 1990 and is the company's president and chief executive officer. Citadel manages nearly $11 billion of investment capital in two domestic and a hedge fund unit that manages more than $30 billion.[1] [2] Griffin serves as a member of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation,[3] as well as a member of the board of directors of E*TRADE FINANCIAL.[4] He also founded Citadel Securities.
Griffin, a multi-billionaire as of 2007 and the wealthiest person in Illinois in 2021, is also an active philanthropist.[5]
In 2019, Griffin's wealth totaled $9.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[6] He is vice chairman of the Chicago Public Education Fund, and he and his then wife founded The Kenneth and Anne Griffin Foundation in 2009, which invests in high impact education, health, and civic initiatives. Griffin is a member of the World Economic Forum and the Economic Club of Chicago.[7]
He is also a member of the board of trustees of The Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and is a member of The Chicago Public Library Foundation Investment Committee and the Harvard Financial Aid Task Force.
Griffin is also a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Griffin and his wife, Anne, announced a gift of $19 million to the museum's "Building of the Century" campaign in October 2006. In recognition of their generosity, the museum named the Anne D. and Kenneth C. Griffin Great Court in the the museum's Modern Wing in their honor.[8]
In 2022, Griffin said he would move his company’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami. Citadel will maintain an office with about 1,000 employees in Chicago.[9]
Background[edit]
Griffin was born in 1968 and grew up in Florida.[10] He started a small investment portfolio from a Harvard dorm room as a freshman in 1986 after reading article on Home Shopping Network in Forbes. He managed $1 million by his senior year; in less than a decade he built Citadel into a $6 billion behemoth.[11]
Investor Frank Meyer convinced Griffin to move to Chicago. Griffin founded Citadel Investment Group in 1990 with money from Meyer.
Griffin's ex-wife, Anne Dias Griffin, a French native, is the founder and managing partner of Aragon Global Management.[12]
Griffin also runs the Ken Griffin Charitable Fund. [13]
In October of 2008, Citadel took the unusual step of issuing a statement to deflect rumors that it might be in trouble. Citadel said in the statement that the talk was "categorically false." Hours later, Griffin held an emergency conference call that transfixed Wall Street. On the call, Griffin said Citadel was sound. The firm had ample cash and financing facilities on hand, and its investors had withdrawn only a small amount of their money, he said.[14]
In August 2011, Griffin attempted to sell Citadel's investment bank that once had hopes to rival Goldman Sachs. The investment bank took three years to build and involved an equity research component that the firm also shut down.[15][16] Citadel Securities had advised on just four deals since 2009, and performed underwriting work on just 12 occasions, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
Real Estate Acquisitions[edit]
In the most expensive residential real estate purchase in U.S. history, Griffin closed on an apartment in the as yet unfinished apartment building at 220 Central Park South in New York City on January 23, 2019. The price was $238 million.[17] On January 21, 2019, just a few days earlier, the Financial Times reported that Griffin had bought a 200-hundred-year old house at 3 Carlton Gardens in London for about $122 million. The house sits on the edge of St. James's Park.[18]The house had once served as General Charles de Gaulle's office in London during his exile from France during World War II.[19]
Previous purchases by Griffin include two floors of the Chicago, Illinois, Waldorf Astoria hotel, a Miami Beach, Florida, penthouse, a Fifth Avenue New York apartment and a four-floor penthouse in Chicago's Gold Coast as well as about $230 million of property in Palm Beach, Florida. In September 2019, it was reported that Griffin purchased a beachfront home adjacent to his Palm Beach house for $99.1 million. [20][21]
Education[edit]
Griffin graduated with honors in three years from Harvard College with a B.A. in economics.
Registration Information[edit]
- Kenneth C. Griffin - NFA ID 0246066
References[edit]
- ↑ Ken Griffin says he's less likely to move Citadel to NYC after Amazon's heartbreaking exit. CNBC.
- ↑ Ken Griffin. GFLC.
- ↑ Committee Members. Committee on Capital Markets Regulation.
- ↑ Press Release. PRSafe Newswire.
- ↑ Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin tells Economic Club of Chicago that Citadel may move its corporate headquarters unless the city changes course. The Chicago Tribune.
- ↑ A Hedge Fund Superstar. Fortune Magazine.
- ↑ Speaker Profiles. Myron Scholes Global Markets Forum.
- ↑ Two Extraordinary People: Anne D. and Kenneth C. Griffin. Art Institute of Chicago.
- ↑ Ken Griffin moving hedge fund headquarters from Chicago to Miami. The Chicago Tribune.
- ↑ Hedge Fund - Rising Star in Creating Billionaires. Investment Banking Resume.
- ↑ Citadel Chief Gives Up Dream For Investment Bank. New York Times Dealbook.
- ↑ Anne Dias Griffin. Crain's Chicago Business.
- ↑ Move over, Sue: World's largest dinosaur taking center stage at Field Museum. Chicago Tribune.
- ↑ Citadel Chief Denies Rumors of Trouble. NYTimes.com.
- ↑ Citadel Chief Gives Up Dream for Investment Bank. NYTimes.com.
- ↑ Citadel Said in Talks to Sell Investment Bank, Shut Research. Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
- ↑ Billionaire Ken Griffin Buys America’s Most Expensive Home for $238 Million. Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ Billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel buys £95m London home. Financial Times.
- ↑ Hedge Fund Billionaire Griffin Buys $122 Million London Home. Bloomberg.
- ↑ America’s Most Expensive Home Sold to Billionaire Ken Griffin. Bloomberg.
- ↑ America’s Most Expensive Home Sold to Billionaire Ken Griffin. Bloomberg.