Ken Griffin: is there a family office?

This article directly stems from the research process for our European single family office database. Our list of U.S. single family offices includes the most important family investment vehicles that invest in various areas, such as financial markets, real estate, venture capital, private equity and renewables.

Ken is an American investor and hedge fund manager. In 1990, Ken founded Citadel LLC which is now among the largest market makers in the United States. As of October 2022, Ken has an estimated net worth of $29.7bn, putting him as the 37^th richest person in the world. In this article, we will investigate if Ken Griffin manages his wealth through a family office.

No family office but manages wealth through Citadel and philanthropic interests

Griffin founded Citadel in 1999 to manage investments, one year after graduating from Harvard and in the early 2000s, Griffin established market maker Citadel Securities. Citadel is one of the biggest US market makers, responsible for one of every five stock transactions in the US. Ken has donated over $1.5bn of his wealth to philanthropic causes in recent years including investments in education, medical research, and Covid-19 relief. Through Citadel, Ken oversaw a $2m donation to Weill Cornell Medicine for Covid-19 prevention research as well as a $2.5m contribution for food for the children in Chicago Public Schools. Griffin holds a strong interest in culture and art, he has been on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago since 2000 and is also on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. One of his main philanthropic interests is education and that can be seen through his $150m donation to the University of Chicago which results in the economics department being named in his honor.

Picture source: Nick Chong