Bruce Rauner

Bruce Rauner is an American businessman who is the chairman of R8 Capital Partners, and former chairman of the private equity firm GTCR, based in Chicago. He is currently a Republican candidate for the governor of Illinois.

Education

Rauner graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in economics from Dartmouth College. He later received an MBA from Harvard University.^[1]

Business career

Rauner was the Chairman of private equity firm GTCR, where he had worked for more than 30 years, until he retired in October 2012.^[2] A number of state pension funds, including those of Illinois, have invested in GTCR, whose funds have regularly outperformed other private equity investment funds as well as the stock market.^[3]

After leaving GTCR, Rauner opened an office for a self-financed venture firm, R8 Capital Partners. The firm will invest up to $15 million in smaller Illinois companies.^[4] Rauner is the current Chairman of the Education Committee of the Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago, Co-Chairman of the Chicago-China Initiative, and Chairman of ACT Charter School. He also served as Chairman of Choose Chicago, the not-for-profit that serves as the city's convention and tourism bureau,^[5] resigning in May 2013,^[6] and as Chairman of the Chicago Public Education Fund.^[7]

Politics

In March 2013, Rauner formed an exploratory committee to look at a run for Governor of Illinois as a Republican.^[8] Rauner said his top priorities included streamlining government, improving education, and improving the state's business climate.^[9] He also supports term limits and says he would serve no more than 8 years as governor.^[9]

In March 2013, the Daily Herald reported that Rauner had, for a number of years, improperly claimed three homestead exemptions on his Cook County property taxes.^[10]

In early June 2013, Rauner officially announced his candidacy for governor,^[11] telling Chicago magazine's Carol Felsenthal his platform would include overhauling tax policy and freezing property taxes.^[12] Rauner has served as an advisor to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.^[1]

Philanthropy

Rauner was named the 2008 Philanthropist of the Year by the Chicago Association of Fundraising Professionals.^[13] In 2003 Rauner received the Daley Medal from the Illinois Venture Capital Association for extraordinary support to the Illinois economy^[14] and was given the Association for Corporate Growth’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Rauner and his wife received the Golden Apple Foundation’s 2011 Community Service Award.^[15]

Rauner has been a financial supporter of projects including Chicago’s Red Cross regional headquarters, the YMCA in the Little Village neighborhood,^[16] six new charter high schools,^[17] an AUSL turnaround campus, scholarship programs for disadvantaged Illinois public school students, and achievement-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in Chicago Public Schools. He provided major funding for the construction of the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College,^[18] endowed full professor chairs at Dartmouth College, Morehouse College, University of Chicago and Harvard Business School, and was the lead donor for the Stanley C. Golder Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance at the University of Illinois.^[19]

Rauner serves on the board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.^[20]

Personal

Rauner lives in Winnetka, Illinois with his wife, Dr. Diana Mendley Rauner, and family.^[21]

References