Penny Pritzker

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Penny Sue Pritzker
Born	1959 Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Bryan Traubert
Children	2
Residence	Chicago, Illinois
Alma mater	Harvard University,Stanford University
Occupation	Businesswoman

Penny Sue Pritzker (born 1959) is an American business executive, and a member of the Pritzker family of Chicago, one of America's wealthiest business families. She is the founder and current Chair of Classic Residence by Hyatt, a chain of luxury senior living communities spread throughout the United States, and the national finance chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. In 2007 the Forbes 400 list of "America's wealthiest" showed her as the 135th richest person in the U.S., estimated net worth of $2.8 billion US,^[1] in 2008 tied for 227th with $2.0 billions.^[2] In 2009 Forbes listed her as the world's 647th richest person, with net worth of $1.1 billions.^[3]

On November 20, 2008, CNN reported that Pritzker was Barack Obama's top choice for Commerce Secretary, quoting "multiple" unnamed sources.^[4] However, it was later reported that Pritzker took herself out of the running due to concerns about her confirmation.^[5][6]

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career highlights 3 Philanthropic activities 4 Political involvements 5 Superior Bank involvement 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in 1959, Pritzker is a member of the Pritzker family, a notable and influential Jewish American business family. Pritzker is a granddaughter of Abram Nicholas Pritzker (1896–1986), founder of the Hyatt hotel chain, which grew dramatically under his son, Jay Pritzker (1922-1999), who is her uncle. She attended Castilleja School^[7] until 1977.^[8] She earned a BA in Economics from Harvard College (1981), and a JD/MBA from Stanford University (1984).^[9] Penny lives in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago with her two teenage children and her husband, Dr. Bryan Traubert.

[edit] Career highlights

• 1987 – founded Classic Residence by Hyatt
• 1991 – named as Chair of Superior Bank of Chicago. Pritzker stepped down in 1994, but remained on the board until the thrift's collapse in July 2001.
• 1991 – CEO of Pritzker Realty Group, overseeing all of the family’s non-hotel real estate investments. In this capacity she developed the Hyatt Center in downtown Chicago, the headquarters for Global Hyatt Corporation.
• 1998 – founded The Parking Spot, the fastest growing company in off-site airport parking management,^[10] with CEO Martin Nesbitt. She continues as chair.
• 2005 – became chair of TransUnion, a credit reporting agency.

Pritzker serves on the board of Global Hyatt Corporation. She was a board member and chair of the Governance Committee of the William Wrigley Jr. Co. from 1994 to 2005, a director of the Marmon Group from 2002 to 2008, and a director of LaSalle Bank Corporation, now a part of Bank of America, from 2004 to 2007.

[edit] Philanthropic activities

Pritzker is involved in the reform of Chicago’s public education system. Currently she is vice chair^[11][12] of the Chicago Public Education Fund, the successor organization to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.^[13] She also chairs a Blue Ribbon Task Force for Chicago Public Schools entitled “Leading to Great Principals”, and is a founding member of the board of Young Women’s Leadership Charter School. Much of Pritzker’s philanthropy is directed to education as well. Through the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation, Pritzker and her husband, Dr. Bryan Traubert, are funding three programs designed to create long term systemic changes that will benefit Chicago students but also can be extended nationally.

She has sat on Harvard's Board of Overseers since 2002, and currently co-chairs the President’s Advisory Committee on the Allston Initiative, the expansion of the Harvard campus. She also is a member of the Chicago 2016 Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games and is chair of the Olympic Village subcommittee.

She is an honorary co-chair of the Children’s Memorial Hospital campaign to build a new $750 million facility. She is a member of the Real Estate Roundtable, and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. She is a life trustee and former Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and is involved in other civic endeavors, including Chicago's Millennium Park.

[edit] Political involvements

Pritzker contributed some $493,174^[14] to numerous campaigns and political action committees since the 2000 election cycle. Among the recipients have been the presidential campaigns and exploratory committees, including those of George W. Bush, Joe Lieberman, Bill Bradley, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain (2000), Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.^[15]

Since the spring of 2008, Pritzker has served as Barack Obama's National Finance Chair.^[16] On Wednesday July 2, 2008, Ms. Pritzker and her husband hosted a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Mr. Obama's campaign in Chicago with Warren Buffett and his wife, and Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. ^[17]

She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations^[18] and President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

[edit] Superior Bank involvement

Ms. Pritzker has been associated with the Subprime mortgage crisis. Ms. Pritzker's late uncle, Jay Pritzker, purchased a 50% stake in Hinsdale, Illinois-based Superior Bank of Chicago in 1989 from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which had taken over the bank when it failed in the late 1980s.^[19] Penny Pritzker became chairman of the bank in 1991. Under Ms. Pritzker's chairmanship, the bank "embarked on a business strategy of significant growth into subprime home mortgages," according to a 2002 report by the United States Treasury Department.^[19] She stepped down from the chairmanship (a largely titular role) in 1994 but continued to serve on the board of the holding company, Coast to Coast. In the months leading up to the 2001 seizure, the Pritzker family tried to work out a major recapitalization plan to "once again restore Superior's leadership position in subprime lending."^[19] In July 2001, FDIC seized the bank after the recapitalization could not be resolved. .^[20][21] Subsequently, the Pritzker family reached an agreement with regulators to pay $460 million over 15 years toward the costs of the closure; these funds will go towards reducing the costs of the FDIC's losses and partially reimburse depositors with accounts in excess of FDIC insurance limits.^{[19][22][23][24]}

Consumer advocates as well as government investigators have asserted Superior "engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices."^[19] Responding to questions from the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Pritzker noted she had no ownership in the bank, either direct or indirect, and that the bank's reasons for failure "were complex. They include changes in accounting practices, auditing failures, reversals in regulatory positions and general economic conditions."^[19] She said the bank complied with "fair lending laws" and ethical business practices.^[19] Writing about the largest thrift failure in almost a decade, the FDIC in 2002 noted that the bank had paid out $200 million in dividends during a time of seemingly rising profits; in reality, these profits were a product of "flawed" accounting and masked operating losses.^[19] Pritzker noted in turn that Superior's financial statements were found to be acceptable by regulators for many years before the failure.^[19] A 2001 Business Week article described the bank's other half-owner, Alvin Dworman, as the more dominant partner in its operation as a result of agreements Jay Pritzker made early on.^[20] Quoted in the New York Times about the failure of the bank, a Pritzker family friend observed Pritzker was trapped in a deal of her uncle's making: "Penny got sucked into this … This was really the legacy of Jay." ^[25]

[edit] See also

• Office of Thrift Supervision
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Money Maven
• Penny Pritzker at NNDB
• 2002 article on Superior Bank failure, In These Times
• The Forbes 400 - #135 Penny Pritzker 2007 profile
• The Harvard Crimson - Penny Pritzker Madeline W. Lissner, June 5, 2006
• SEC filings
• Personal website