| Samuel Zell | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 28, 1941 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Chairman of Equity Group Investments, Equity International, Equity Residential, Equity Lifestyle Properties, Anixter, Covanta and Tribune. |
| Net worth | US$5 billion (2011)[1] |
| Website | |
| egizell.com | |
Samuel "Sam" Zell (born September 28, 1941) is a U.S. business magnate. He is Chairman of Equity Group Investments, L.L.C. (EGI), a private, entrepreneurial investment firm he founded more than 40 years ago. EGI's investments span industries and continents, and include interests in real estate, energy, logistics, transportation, media, and health care.
Zell is also co-founder and Chairman of Equity International, a private investment firm that focuses on real estate-related companies outside of the U.S. In addition, Zell maintains substantial interests in, and is the Chairman of, a number of public companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, including: Equity Residential (EQR), the largest apartment REIT; Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), a real estate investment trust that owns and operates manufactured home communities; Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA), an international leader in converting waste to energy; and Anixter (AXE), a value-add provider of integrated networking and cabling solutions that support business information and network infrastructure requirements. Zell is also the chairman of Tribune Company, a private media conglomerate.
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Zell was born in Chicago in 1941 to Rochelle and Berek Zielonka, Jewish immigrant parents from Poland who fled the country just before the German invasion in 1939. Shortly after moving from Seattle to Chicago, Berek Zielonka (later known as Bernard) changed the family name to Zell.[2] He received his BA (1963) from the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He also received his JD (1966) from the University of Michigan Law School.[3]
Zell, with Robert H. Lurie went on to found the Equity Group Investments, LLC, which spawned three real estate public companies, including: Equity Residential, the largest apartment owner in the United States; Equity Office Properties, the largest office owner in the country; and Equity Lifestyle, a mobile home company. In addition, Zell has created a number of public and private companies. He also controls SZ Investments LLC as his investment arm.
Zell is also Chairman of Capital Trust Inc., a finance and investment management company focused on the commercial real estate industry, and Anixter International, the world's largest distributor of communication products and electrical and electronic wire and cable.
In 2007 the Blackstone Group completed its purchase of Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust for $39 billion,[4] and sold off many of the portfolio's properties for record amounts.[5] By early 2009 most of the properties sold were "under water" (worth less than the mortgage).[6]
Either by himself or with partners, Zell owned the Schwinn Bicycle Company, the drugstore Revco, department store chain Broadway Stores, energy company Santa Fe Energy Resources and mattress company Sealy.
Between 1992 and 1999, Zell's Chillmark fund owned Jacor Communications, Inc., a successful radio broadcast group that included a television station. The company was sold to Clear Channel Communications in 1999.
On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced its acceptance of Zell's offer to buy the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and other media assets. On December 20, 2007, Zell took the company private, and the following day he became the Chairman and CEO. He plans to sell the Chicago Cubs, and sell the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Under the burden of the debt incurred as part of Zell's leveraged buyout, the Tribune Co. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in December 2008.
In a sharply critical June 2008 opinion piece for The Washington Post entitled, "The L.A. Times' Human Wrecking Ball", veteran Los Angeles-based editor and columnist Harold Meyerson took Zell to task for "taking bean counting to a whole new level", asserting that "he's well on his way to... destroying the L.A. Times." Comparing Zell to James McNamara, who was sentenced to life in prison for the notorious 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing (which killed 21 employees), Meyerson concluded his article by opining that "Life in San Quentin sounds about right" for Zell.[7]
Zell is known for using "salty" language in the newsroom.[8] In February 2008, the website LA Observed reprinted an internal memo that said:
"Last week you may have encountered some colorful uses of the lexicon from Sam Zell that we are not used to hearing at the Times... But of course we still have the same expectations at the Times of what is correct in the workplace. It's not good judgment to use profane or hostile language and we can't tolerate that... In short, nothing changes; the fundamental rules of decorum and decency apply... Sam is a force of a nature; the rest of us are bound by the normal conventions of society."[9]
A long-time supporter of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he helped fund the Real Estate Department at Wharton, as well as the Zell-Lurie Institute at the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan. Zell also endowed the Zell Center for Risk Research at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School. Zell has also donated significantly to his alma mater, the University of Michigan.
Zell, according to The Forward,[10] is also "a major donor to causes in the Middle East. His donations include a $3.1 million donation to the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel and separate donations to the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, a free market oriented Israeli think tank founded by Daniel Doron. In the United States, he has given major gifts to such Jewish causes as the American Jewish Committee and the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, a Chicago Jewish primary school named after his father."
Zell was implicated in the corruption charges against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The charges claimed that Blagojevich had pressured Zell to fire particular Tribune editorial staffers, known to be harshly critical of the governor, in exchange for tax breaks on the sale of Wrigley Field. An aide to Blagojevich reported back to the governor that Zell "got the message and is very sensitive to the issue." The District Attorney's office later concluded that the aide had not in fact approached Zell and was lying to the governor.[11]
In 2008, Zell announced a plan to place the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field up for sale separately in order to maximize profits. He also announced he would consider selling naming rights to Wrigley Field. These announcements were widely unpopular in Chicago[12][13] and a poll taken by the Chicago Sun-Times showed that 53% of 2,000 people who voted said they would no longer attend Cubs games if the field was renamed.[14]
In April 2008, Zell made a controversial comment about the subprime mortgage crisis at a conference in Los Angeles, where he stated, "This country needs a cleansing. We need to clean out all those people who never should have bought in the first place, and not give them sympathy."[15]
With an estimated net worth of US $5 billion, he is ranked as the 63rd richest American by Forbes.[1]
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