Michael Krasny (born 1953) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busi ...

businessman from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. He is the founder and former chief executive officer of

CDW Corporation CDW Corporation, headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois, is a provider of technology products and services for business, government and education. The company has a secondary division known as ''CDW-G'', devoted solely to United States governm ...

, a direct seller of technical gadgets including computers and networking equipment.

Early life

Krasny grew up in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

familyJewish Telegraph Agency: "At least 139 of the Forbes 400 are Jewish" By Jacob Berkman
October 5, 2009 in

. He graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...

Gies College of Business Gies College of Business is the business school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public research university in Champaign, Illinois. The college offers undergraduate program, masters programs, and a PhD program. The college a ...

in 1975. He worked as a Toyota car salesman at his father's auto dealership in Arlington Heights, Illinois. In 1981, he quit his job as a car salesman and took some classes in computer programming but being unsuccessful in finding steady work, Krasny was forced to sell his own computer for cash. He placed a $3 ad in the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

and ended up selling his computer for a $200 profit.CRN: "Michael Krasny – IT Sales Innovator" by Jeff O'Heir
November 13, 2002

Career and retirement

Seeing the great demand for computers, Krasny began buying computers to resell them eventually forming MPK Computers. A year later he changed the name to Computer Discount Warehouse (CDW) and steadily grew the business. In 1993, he took CDW public. Krasny retired in 2007 after selling the company to

Madison Dearborn Partners Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; ba ...

for $7.3 billion. According to ''Forbes'', his first caller from 1982 was still a customer as of 200

Since 2009, as a hobby, Krasny has operated a woodworking shop in Northbrook, Illinois called Custom Woodworking Design, making plaques and awards.

Personal life

Krasny is married, with one child, and they live in

Highland Park, Illinois Highland Park is a suburban city located in the southeastern part of Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,176. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krasny, Michael Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American automobile salespeople American retail chief executives Gies College of Business alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni 20th-century American Jews American billionaires People from Highland Park, Illinois 1950s births 21st-century American Jews