Penny Pritzker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Penny Pritzker
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Official portrait, 2013
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| 38th United States Secretary of Commerce | |
| In office June 26, 2013 – January 20, 2017 |
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| President | Barack Obama |
| Deputy | Patrick D. Gallagher (acting) Bruce H. Andrews |
| Preceded by | John Bryson |
| Succeeded by | Wilbur Ross |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Penny Sue Pritzker
May 2, 1959 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Bryan Traubert |
| Relations | Pritzker family |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent | Donald Pritzker (father) |
| Relatives | JB Pritzker (brother) Anthony Pritzker (brother) |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) Stanford University (JD, MBA) |
Penny Sue Pritzker (born May 2, 1959) is an American businesswoman and lawyer. She served as the 38th United States Secretary of Commerce from 2013 to 2017. This important role meant she helped guide business and trade for the United States. The Senate, which is part of the U.S. government, approved her for the job with a vote of 97 to 1.
Penny Pritzker is part of the well-known Pritzker family, who are famous for their businesses. She started her own companies, including PSP Partners and Pritzker Realty Group. She also helped start Artemis Real Estate Partners. Penny Pritzker is on the board of Microsoft and used to lead the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In May 2025, Forbes magazine said her wealth was about $3.9 billion. In 2009, Forbes also named her one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. She is the sister of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
Penny Pritzker has been involved with many groups in Chicago. These include the Chicago Board of Education and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. She also has her own foundation, the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation. She was a friend of the Obama family when they lived in Chicago. She was one of the first people to support Barack Obama when he decided to run for president.
From 2021 to 2022, Penny Pritzker was on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. From September 2023 to August 2024, she was the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery. She has also been a leader at Harvard University since 2018. In 2022, she became the first woman to hold the top position there, called Senior Fellow.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Penny Pritzker was born in Chicago in 1959. Her parents were Sue and Donald Pritzker. She is a member of the Pritzker family, a very successful business family from Chicago. Her father, Donald, helped start Hyatt Hotels. He moved the family to Atherton, California, as Hyatt began to grow. Penny has two younger brothers, Tony and JB, who is now the governor of Illinois.
When she was a child, Penny would go with her father to the Hyatt hotels. She even helped check the women's restrooms to make sure they were clean. In 1972, her father passed away suddenly. Her mother then faced a difficult time. Penny sometimes helped take care of her mother and brothers. When she was 16, she wrote a letter to her grandfather, A. N. Pritzker. He was the head of the family's businesses. She asked him why he talked about business with the men in the family but not with her. Because she showed interest in business, her grandfather arranged for her to take an accounting course in the summer.
Penny Pritzker went to Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, until 1977. She then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard College in 1981. She continued her studies at Stanford University, where she earned both a law degree (Juris Doctor) and a business degree (MBA) in 1985.
Pritzker Family Businesses
Starting New Companies
After finishing her degrees, Penny Pritzker joined the Pritzker family's business group. Her cousin, Nick Pritzker, encouraged her. In 1987, she started a company called Classic Residence by Hyatt. This company, later renamed Vi, built nice housing for older people. It was meant to be a different option from nursing homes. At first, the project had problems and lost money. But after some changes, it became successful.
In 1991, Penny's uncle, Jay Pritzker, who led the family businesses, gave her a new role. She became the director of the family's landholdings that were not hotels. With this job, Penny created the Pritzker Realty Group. This group built apartment buildings, shopping centers, and even a neighborhood in Orlando, Florida, called Baldwin Park.
Superior Bank
From 1991 to 1994, Penny Pritzker was the chairperson of Superior Bank of Chicago. This bank was located in Hinsdale, Illinois. The Pritzker family had bought a share of the bank. In 1993, the bank started to grow quickly by offering home loans to people who might have trouble paying them back. By 2000, it became clear the bank was having serious financial problems. In July 2001, the government took over the bank because its problems could not be fixed. Later, the Pritzker family agreed to pay $460 million to help resolve the situation.
Some experts have criticized the Pritzker family regarding Superior Bank. However, Penny Pritzker stated that she did not own the bank directly. She also said that the reasons for the bank's failure were complicated. These reasons included changes in accounting rules and general economic conditions. She also said the bank followed fair lending laws.
Family Business Changes
In 1995, Penny Pritzker was chosen as one of three people to take over from her uncle Jay Pritzker when he retired. The other two were his son Tom and her cousin Nick. Tom became the main head of the businesses. Penny and Nick were both named vice-chairmen. Together, they were in charge of the family's many assets. Jay Pritzker wanted the family businesses to stay together. He set up a system so family members could get money from the businesses, but the main goal was for the businesses to grow and support charity work. The Pritzker business empire had over 200 companies and was worth about $15 billion.
After Jay Pritzker passed away in 1999, other family members disagreed with how the businesses were being managed. Penny's brothers even joined one of the lawsuits. In 2001, the family decided to sell many of their assets. This allowed eleven cousins to receive their share of the family wealth. It took almost ten years to sort out all the family's business interests. For example, the family sold their share in the Marmon Group to Berkshire Hathaway for $4.5 billion in 2008. The Pritzker Realty Group also sold Parking Spot, a company Penny helped start in 1998, for $360 million in 2011.
Starting in 2005, Penny Pritzker was the non-executive chairman of TransUnion. In 2009, she helped start Artemis Real Estate Partners LLC, a company that manages real estate investments. In 2011, she started an investment company called PSP Capital Partners. In total, Penny Pritzker started five companies before she joined the U.S. government.
Government and Political Work
Penny Pritzker's friendship with Barack Obama and his family began in the 1990s. At that time, Obama was a teacher at The University of Chicago law school. Penny met Obama at a Chicago YMCA. Her son was in a basketball program coached by Obama's brother-in-law Craig Robinson. Obama and his family often visited Penny Pritzker's vacation home by Lake Michigan. She was an early supporter of Obama's political career. She helped pay for his 2004 campaign for the Senate. When Obama was running for president, Penny Pritzker's financial help was very important. It helped his campaign when he was behind Hillary Clinton in the polls.
Penny Pritzker continued to raise a lot of money for Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign. She was the national finance chair for his campaign. This meant she was in charge of raising money across the country. Under her leadership, the campaign reached out to many small donors. Penny Pritzker also hosted bigger fundraising events.
After Obama won the 2008 presidential election, some news reports said Penny Pritzker was his top choice for Commerce Secretary. However, she decided not to take the job. News reports said she did this because of her family responsibilities. She was still overseeing billions of dollars in family assets. Also, the financial crisis at the time put some of those assets at risk. Because she publicly supported Obama, some labor groups protested against her. They were concerned about the practices of Hyatt Hotels.
Penny Pritzker was a member of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. She also served on the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. While she was less active in Obama's 2012 campaign, she was a national co-chair. She was also on the board of directors for the Council on Foreign Relations. This group studies world affairs and U.S. foreign policy. In 2023, President Joe Biden appointed her as the U.S. special representative for Ukraine's economic recovery.
Secretary of Commerce (2013–2017)
Becoming Secretary
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On May 2, 2013, President Obama chose Penny Pritzker to be the United States Secretary of Commerce. To avoid any conflicts of interest, Penny Pritzker agreed to sell her shares in many companies. She also resigned from many groups, including the Hyatt board of directors. On May 23, the Senate held a hearing to decide if she should be confirmed. During the hearing, only a few questions were about her family's business dealings. On June 25, the Senate confirmed her by a vote of 97 to 1. She officially started her job on June 26.
Her Time as Secretary
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One of Penny Pritzker's main goals was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This was a big proposed trade agreement. Penny Pritzker supported the TPP. She believed it would help U.S. businesses sell their products in other countries. It would also help the U.S. set the rules for trade. Before the 2016 United States presidential election, both main candidates were against the TPP. However, Penny Pritzker and other Obama officials continued to push for it to pass. But Congress did not approve the agreement.
Penny Pritzker created a Digital Economy Board of Advisors. This group included leaders from tech companies and universities. They advised her on policies related to technology. She also expanded a program that helps tech companies protect their ideas and inventions in other countries. Penny Pritzker also started the Commerce Data Advisory Council. This group helped decide what information the Department of Commerce should focus on. The Department publishes a lot of data to help businesses plan and create new things. She was also the lead negotiator for the U.S. in an agreement with Europe. This agreement, called the E.U.–U.S. Privacy Shield, set rules for how companies transfer digital data between Europe and the U.S.
After President Obama announced that the United States would work to improve relations with Cuba, Penny Pritzker traveled to Cuba. Even though the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba was still in place, Penny Pritzker met with Cuban trade officials. They discussed the changing relationship between the two countries. They also laid the groundwork for more economic involvement in the future.
After her time as Secretary, Penny Pritzker returned to her private business, PSP.
U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery
On September 14, 2023, President Joe Biden appointed Penny Pritzker to a new role. She became the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery. In this job, she worked with the Ukrainian government. She also worked with the G7 countries, the EU, and other international groups. Her goal was to help Ukraine rebuild its economy.
During her first visit to Kyiv in this new role, Penny Pritzker met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. She also met with the prime minister and other government officials. She spoke with the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, which is Ukraine's parliament.
Community and Charity Work
Penny Pritzker was a member of the Chicago Board of Education. She also led the Chicago Public Education Fund. She was the advisory board chair for Skills for America's Future (SAF). This is a program by the Aspen Institute that helps with policy. She also chaired the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. In 2002, Penny Pritzker was chosen to serve on the Harvard Board of Overseers for six years. In 2018, she was elected to the Harvard Corporation. This is a small group of 12 people who govern Harvard University. In 2021, Penny Pritzker gave $100 million to Harvard. This money was used to build a new economics department building. In 2022, she became the first woman to hold the top role in the Corporation, called senior fellow.
Penny Pritzker and her husband, Bryan Traubert, have their own foundation. It is called the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation. This foundation focuses on helping young people be physically active. It also works to create more economic opportunities in Chicago. For example, the foundation donated $5 million to change grass soccer fields to easier-to-maintain turf. They also gave $1 million to fix tennis courts around Chicago. The Pritzkers also started ChicagoRun. This program helps children in the Chicago area train to run their first 5k race.
In 2012, Chicago magazine named Penny Pritzker one of the 100 most powerful people in Chicago. In March 2014, Elle magazine honored Penny Pritzker and others at the U.S. Italian Embassy. This was part of their annual "Women in Washington Power List." In 2018, Penny Pritzker was chosen to lead the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In March 2020, Penny Pritzker helped set up the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund. This fund was created to help nonprofit groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. She did this after her brother, Governor JB Pritzker, called her. The siblings announced the fund with $23 million in starting money on March 24, 2020. Penny Pritzker and her husband gave $1.5 million of that amount.
Personal Life
Penny Pritzker is married to Bryan Traubert, who is an eye doctor. They have two children. Although her relationship with her brothers became difficult after the family business was reorganized, they later became close again. Penny supported her brother JB when he decided to run for office in 2017.
In the 1980s, Penny Pritzker trained for six months. After that, she completed her first Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. She finished the race in 12 hours. Since then, she has completed many triathlons and marathons.
See also
In Spanish: Penny Pritzker para niños
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- List of female United States Cabinet members
- List of Jewish United States Cabinet members
- List of people and organisations named in the Paradise Papers
- Office of Thrift Supervision
