J. B. Pritzker

Early life and education

Pritzker was born to a Jewish family, one of three children of Sue (née Sandel) and Donald Pritzker. He attended Massachusetts boarding school Milton Academy and then graduated from Duke University with an A.B. in political science. Pritzker went on to earn his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. Pritzker is an attorney and a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and Chicago Bar Association.

Career

In 1996, J.B. Pritzker founded Pritzker Group Venture Capital (formerly New World Ventures), the largest venture investor based in the Midwest. The firm invests nationally in rapidly growing technology companies at all stages of their growth, with a principal focus on enterprise software, e-commerce and managed services. The firm has invested in more than 100 companies, including Fleetmatics (NYSE:FLTX), SinglePlatform (acquired by Constant Contact), Chegg (NYSE:CHGG), Awesomeness TV (acquired by DreamWorks), Playdom (acquired by Disney), Lefthand Networks (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), and TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster).

Pritzker is a leading proponent of entrepreneurship and a stronger technology sector in the Midwest. He chairs ChicagoNEXT, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's council on innovation and technology, and founded 1871, Chicago's digital startup center. He played an important role in the creation of the Illinois Venture Capital Association and the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. He also co-founded Chicago Ventures and funded the startup of Techstars Chicago and Built in Chicago. Pritzker has received numerous awards and community recognition for his efforts to build a stronger technology sector in the Midwest.

Together with his brother Tony, J.B. Pritzker co-founded Pritzker Group Private Capital, which owns and operates middle-market companies. The group includes a growing family of companies including investment castings manufacturer Signicast, pallet rental leader Pallet and medical device maker Clinical Innovations.

Philanthropy

Pritzker is one of the nation’s chief philanthropists in early childhood development. As president of the Pritzker Family Foundation, he funds innovative research and programs serving children in poverty. Under the leadership of Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, he supported the creation of the Pritzker Consortium on Early Childhood Development at the University of Chicago. Along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the Irving Harris Foundation and the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Pritzker Family Foundation is a founding supporter of the First Five Years Fund, an organization focusing nationwide attention and resources on comprehensive, quality early care and learning programs for children from birth to age five. In 2013, Pritzker teamed with Goldman Sachs to fund the first ever social impact bond for early childhood education.

As chairman of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, which opened in 2009, Pritzker successfully led the capital campaign and planning to build an international institution in the Midwest dedicated to teaching the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides. Pritzker is the principal funder of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, the most significant online source for news and commentaries regarding the international criminal tribunal created to bring to justice the perpetrators of Pol Pot era acts of genocide. He served as chairman of the Illinois Human Rights Commission, and was succeeded by former White House counsel and Federal Judge Abner J. Mikva.

In 2007, Pritzker and his wife donated $5 million to the University of South Dakota to build the Theodore R. and Karen K. Muenster University Center in honor of his wife's parents. In 2011, Milton Academy dedicated the Pritzker Science Center for which Pritzker provided the lead gift. Pritzker is a trustee and serves on the investment committee of Northwestern University and is a member of the Board of Governors of Northwestern University School of Law. He is a trustee of the Field Museum of Natural History and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Commercial Club of Chicago.

On Oct. 22, 2015 Northwestern University School of Law announced that J. B. Pritzker and his wife, M. K. Pritzker, had made a $100 million gift to the law school. The 156-year-old school will be named the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

Political activities

In the 2008 Presidential election, Pritzker served as national co-chairman of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign and as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He supported President Barack Obama in the 2008 general election and helped bring the Clinton and Obama campaigns in Illinois together.

Pritzker founded Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, a national organization dedicated to attracting voters under the age of 40 to the Democratic Party. He also served on the legislative staff of U.S. Senator Terry Sanford (D-NC), U.S. Senator Alan J. Dixon (D-IL) and U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), for whom he handled issues such as international trade, election reform and handgun control.

In 1998, he ran for U.S. Congress, principally focusing on the issues of education and gun control, and lost in a heavily contested five-way primary in Illinois's 9th US Congressional district.

Awards and recognition

Personal life

In 1993, he married Mary Kathryn "M. K." Muenster of South Dakota whom he had met in Washington, D.C when she worked as an aide to Senator Thomas Daschle of South Dakota. She is one of three children of Theodore and Karen Muenster. Her father unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1990. They live in Chicago with their two children.

Pritzker has two elder siblings: Penny Pritzker (born 1959), who served as 38th United States Secretary of Commerce, and Anthony Pritzker (born 1961).