J. B. Pritzker

Pritzker served as chairman of ChicagoNEXT, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's council on innovation and technology, and he founded 1871, a nonprofit digital start-up incubator (named for the year of the Great Chicago Fire).

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 start-up of Techstars Chicago and Built in Chicago.

With his brother Tony, Pritzker co-founded Pritzker Group Private Capital, which owns and operates middle-market companies.

The group includes a growing family of companies including pallet rental leader PECO Pallet and medical device maker Clinical Innovations.

After his career in Washington D.C., Pritzker founded Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, a national organization dedicated to attracting voters under 40 to the Democratic Party.

Jay Robert Pritzker (born January 19, 1965) is an American businessman, philanthropist, attorney, venture capitalist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor of Illinois since 2019.

A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the worldwide hotel chain Hyatt, Pritzker is based in Chicago.

He has started several venture capital and investment startups such as the Pritzker Group, where he is a managing partner.

Pritzker has been a longtime financial supporter and active member of the Democratic Party.

Pritzker was born in Palo Alto, California on January 19, 1965.

He is the son of Donald Pritzker and Sue (Sandel) Pritzker.

A member of the Pritzker family, a Jewish family prominent in business and philanthropy during the late 20th century, Pritzker is named after both of his father's brothers, Jay Pritzker and Robert Pritzker.

Pritzker's grandfather, Abe Pritzker, was a business lawyer.

Donald Pritzker was the president of Hyatt Hotels; he died in 1972 of a heart attack at age 39.

In the 1980s, Pritzker served on the legislative staffs of U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, U.S. Senator Terry Sanford, and U.S. Senator Alan J. Dixon, making trade and transportation issues a top priority.

The Pritzkers have consistently been near the top of the Forbes "America's Richest Families" list since its 1982 inception.

Sue Pritzker died in an accident at age 49 in 1982.

Pritzker's older siblings are Anthony Pritzker and former United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.

Pritzker has said that certain overseas trusts for which he was the designated beneficiary were set up by his grandfather and used only for charitable contributions, yielding no personal benefit to him.

Pritzker was raised in Atherton, California.

He attended Milton Academy, a boarding school in Milton, Massachusetts, and graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

In 1993, he earned his Juris Doctor from Northwestern University School of Law.

He is an attorney and a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association.

Appointed by then-Governor Rod Blagojevich, Pritzker chaired the Illinois Human Rights Commission from 2003 to 2006.

He was succeeded by former White House counsel and federal judge Abner J. Mikva.

In 2008, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce gave Pritzker its Entrepreneurial Champion Award for his efforts to promote economic development and job creation.

In the 2008 presidential election, Pritzker served as national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

He was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 general election and helped bring the Clinton and Obama campaigns in Illinois together.

In May 2017, the Chicago Tribune published an 11-minute FBI wiretap of Pritzker and then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2008 discussing campaign contributions and options for Pritzker to be appointed to statewide office.

At the time, Pritzker was described as a "businessman with political ambitions".

On the tapes, Blagojevich asked Pritzker if he would like to be appointed state treasurer, to which Pritzker, who has a background in finance, responded, "Yeah, that's the one I would want."

Pritzker's general election opponent GOP Governor Bruce Rauner and Pritzker's Democratic primary opponents took issue with his conduct.

Pritzker responded to the allegations: "I've not been accused of any wrongdoing. I have not done anything wrong."

Law enforcement made no allegations of wrongdoing against Pritzker, and he has said: "over decades of my life, I have been doing public service, and the opportunity to continue to do public service as treasurer of the state was something that had been brought up, and so there was a conversation about that."

Pritzker later apologized for a number of controversial and incendiary comments he made in that conversation.

He became the Democratic nominee for governor of Illinois in the 2018 gubernatorial election after winning a crowded primary election.

He defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner in the general election on November 6, 2018, and took office on January 14, 2019.

Pritzker was reelected on November 8, 2022.