Nicholas J. Pritzker is an American real estate and venture entrepreneur in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He served as the Chairman of the board and CEO of the Hyatt Development Corporation. He is a member of the wealthy

Pritzker family The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and List of wealthiest families, one of the wealthiest families in the United States of America (staying in the top 10 of ''Forbes'' magazine's "America's Riche ...

, who owned chewing-tobacco giant Conwood before selling it to

Reynolds American Reynolds American, Inc. is an American tobacco company which is a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States. Its holdings include R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Snuff Company ( ...

Early life and education

Pritzker was born in Chicago on 16 October 1945, son of

Jack Nicholas Pritzker Jack Nicholas Pritzker (January 6, 1904 - October 30, 1979) was an American businessman and member of the Pritzker family. Early life and education Jack Pritzker was the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants Annie P. (née Cohn) and Nicholas J. Pr ...

(1903-1979) and Rhoda Goldberg Pritzker (1914-2007). He attended

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

Lake Forest College Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts inst ...

and the London School of Film. He went on to receive a J.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Career

Pritzker assumed responsibility of Hyatt Hotels Corporation in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

after working with his father, Jack Pritzker, in real estate. He served as the president of the company and oversaw international hotel projects. Pritzker also served on Hyatt Hotel Corporation's board of directors from 1980 to 2007. He is an independent entrepreneur and co-founder of Tao Capital. The investment firm primarily invests in sustainable energy and disruptive technology businesses. Tao Capital's early investments include

Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and electric truck, trucks), battery energy storage from ...

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

, Twist Bioscience,

Aquion Energy Aquion Energy was a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.-based company that manufactured sodium ion batteries ( salt water batteries) and electricity storage systems. The company claimed to provide a low-cost way to store large amounts o ...

, Atlantica Hotels, United Record Pressing and Foundations Recovery Network. Pritzker is on the board of JUUL Labs since 2017, an

electronic cigarette An electronic cigarette is an electronic device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank. Instead of smoke, the user inhales vapor. As such ...

company.

Philanthropy

He has served on various non-profit boards including as Vice Chairman of

Conservation International Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and communities. The organ ...

, Chairman of the Grand Victoria Foundation, Vice Chairman of Clean Energy Trust, and Chairman of the Libra Foundation.

Personal life

Pritzker is married to Susan Stowell Pritzker and they have four children.Forbes: The World's Billionaires - Nicholas Pritzker, II
November 2019 They live in

Nicasio Nicasio ( ; Spanish for " Nicasius") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. It is located west-southwest of Novato, at an elevation of . As of the 2020 census the CDP population w ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.Los Angeles Times: "Tiny Hamlet Wary of Hotelier's Plan for Big Family Compound" by Carol Pogash
March 16, 2003 Nick is a loyal follower of the band

Widespread Panic Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Duane Trucks, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guit ...

& has not missed a show since 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritzker, Nicholas 1945 births Living people American billionaires American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Businesspeople from Chicago People from Marin County, California Hyatt people Lake Forest College alumni

Nicholas J. Pritzker Nicholas J. Pritzker is an American real estate and venture entrepreneur in San Francisco, California. He served as the Chairman of the board and CEO of the Hyatt Development Corporation. He is a member of the wealthy Pritzker family, who owned ...

University of Chicago Law School alumni University of Chicago alumni Philanthropists from Illinois 21st-century American Jews