Sam Zell

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Samuel Zell
Born (1941-09-27) September 27, 1941
Chicago, Illinois
Ethnicity Jewish
Alma mater B.A. University of Michigan
J.D. University of Michigan Law School
Occupation Chairman of Equity Group Investments
Net worth Steady US$4.0 billion (Sept 2013)[1]
Spouse(s) Spouse1 (divorced)
Spouse2 (divorced)
Helen Zell
Children three
Parents Rochelle Zielonka
Berek Zielonka
Website
egizell.com

Samuel "Sam" Zell (born September 27, 1941)[2] is an American businessman. He is chairman of Equity Group Investments (EGI), a private investment firm he founded in the 1960s. The firm’s equity interests are often in asset-intensive industries such as real estate, energy, logistics, transportation, media, and health care. EGI’s holdings also include fixed-income investments in public and private companies. The firm's specialty has always been opportunistic, often contrarian, long-term investing and active ownership.

Zell is also the founder of Equity International, a private investment firm focused on building real estate-related businesses in international emerging markets. 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 in the U.S.; Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), a real estate investment trust that owns and operates manufactured home and resort communities; Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA), an international owner/operator of energy-from-waste and power generation facilities; and Anixter (AXE), a leading global provider of communications, security, and wire and cable products.

Early life and education

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.[3] Shortly after moving from Seattle to Chicago, Berek Zielonka (later known as Bernard) changed the family name to Zell.[4] Zell graduated from Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois. In 1963, he graduated with a BA from the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. In 1966, he graduated with a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.[5]

Career

Zell founded Equity Group Investments in 1968 and with Robert H. Lurie went on to grow the small firm into a vast enterprise. EGI Equity Group Investments was the genesis for three of the largest public real estate companies in history, including: Equity Residential, the largest apartment owner in the United States; Equity Office Properties Trust, the largest office owner in the country; and Equity Lifestyle, an owner/operator of manufactured home and resort communities. With their entry onto the public markets in the 1990s, Zell became recognized as a founding father of the modern real estate industry. In addition, Zell has created a number of public and private companies in various other industries.

In 2007 the Blackstone Group completed its purchase of Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust for $39 billion,[6] which was the largest LBO in history at the time. Blackstone sold off many of the portfolio's properties for record amounts.[7] By early 2009 most of the properties sold were "under water" (worth less than the mortgage).[8]

Investments

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. [citation needed]

In 1985, Zell took over Itel Corporation.[9]

Media investments

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.[10]

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 sold the Chicago Cubs and the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. Under the burden of the debt incurred as part of Zell's leveraged buyout and in context of the unexpected severity of the Great Recession, the Tribune Co. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in December 2008.[11]

Los Angeles Times

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.[12]

Zell is known for using "salty" language in the newsroom.[13] 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."[14]

Philanthropy

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,[15] is also "a major donor to causes in Israel. 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."

Controversies

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[16][17] 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.[18]

Zell's company Equity LifeStyle Properties, a leading owner/operator of manufactured home and resort communities, has been criticized by tenants and their representatives for working to eliminate rent-control laws in local municipalities so that they can bring rents on their properties up to market-level rates. The company characterizes rent controls as "private subsidies for mobile-home dwellers", saying in 2007 that its annual subsidy to California tenants was $15 million.[19]

Personal life

Zell has been married three times and divorced twice; he has three children.[20]

References

  1. ↑ Forbes: "The World's Billionaires - Sam Zell September 2013
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Raphael, Marc (2008). The Columbia history of Jews and Judaism in America. Columbia. p. 237. 
  4. ↑ Katharine Q. Seelye, Terry Pristin (March 25, 2007). "Sam Zell, the 'grave dancer', sees profit in newspapers". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved April 3, 2007. 
  5. ↑ "Billionaire Investor Sam Zell at Glance". Associated Press. September 21, 2006. Retrieved April 4, 2007. 
  6. ↑ Wilson, David (February 8, 2007). "Blackstone's Costly Buyout, Navistar's Listing". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 5, 2007. 
  7. ↑ "The Equity Office Triple Flips". Wall Street Journal. 
  8. ↑ Bagli, Charles V. (February 7, 2009). "Sam Zell's Empire, Underwater in a Big Way". The New York Times. 
  9. ↑ "Sam Zell — “Going for Greatness”". Graham & Doddsville (XIV): 27. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  10. ↑ Alejandro Bodipo-Memba (October 9, 1998). "Clear Channel Wins Bidding Contest, Agrees to Buy Jacor Communications". Wall Street Journal. 
  11. ↑ Shira Ovide (December 9, 2008). "Tribune Co. Files for Chapter 11 Protection". Wall Street Journal. 
  12. ↑ Harold Meyerson, "The L.A. Times's Human Wrecking Ball", Washington Post, June 11, 2008
  13. ↑ Los Angeles Times staffers warned about behaving like Zell
  14. ↑ Let Sam be Sam, but you be nice
  15. ↑ Nathaniel Popper, "Billionaire Boychiks Battle for Media Empire: ‘Committed Zionist’ To Buy Papers With Troubled Ties to Community", The Forward, April 13, 2007
  16. ↑ Bialik, Carl (February 29, 2008). "Cubs Fans Consider a Wrigley by Any Other Name". The Wall Street Journal (in English). 
  17. ↑ Wojciechowski, Gene (March 2, 2008). "Cubs' new owner should think again about renaming Wrigley". ESPN. 
  18. ↑ Dodd, Mike (March 1, 2008). "For Cubs fans, renaming Wrigley is dealbreaker". USA Today (in English). 
  19. ↑ Mulligan, Thomas S. (April 2, 2007). "A Zell-led firm's fight with small tenants". Loa Angeles Times. Retrieved March 27, 2012. 
  20. ↑ Forbes: "The 400 Richest Americans: Sam Zell" September 21, 2006


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