Ken Griffin
Kenneth Cordele Griffin (born 1968) is an American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder, chief executive officer, co-chief investment officer, and 80% owner of Citadel LLC, a multinational hedge fund. He also owns Citadel Securities, one of the largest market makers in the United States.
Overview
Kenneth Cordele Griffin (born 1968) is an American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder, chief executive officer, co-chief investment officer, and 80% owner of Citadel LLC, a multinational hedge fund. He also owns Citadel Securities, one of the largest market makers in the United States. As of January 2026, Griffin had an estimated net worth of $51.2 billion, making him the world's 34th-richest person. In 2015, he made the largest private art deal in history when he bought two paintings, Willem de Kooning's Interchange and Jackson Pollock's Number 17A, for $500 million. Griffin was included in Forbes's 2023 list of the U.S.'s Most Generous Givers, according to which he had donated $1.56 billion to various charitable causes, primarily in education, economic mobility, and medical research. He has also contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to political candidates and causes, usually Republican or conservative in ideology. Griffin is a member of The Business Council.
Early life and education
Griffin was born in 1968 in Daytona Beach, Florida, the son of a building supplies executive. His father had various jobs, and was a project manager for General Electric. Griffin's grandmother, Genevieve Huebsch Gratz, inherited an oil business, three farms, and a seed business after her husband and multiple relatives died. Griffin grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as Texas and Wisconsin. He went to middle school in Boca Raton and Boca Raton Community High School, where he was the president of the math club. In high school, Griffin ran a discount mail-order education software firm, EDCOM, out of his bedroom. In a 1986 Sun-Sentinel article, he said he thought he would become a businessman or lawyer and that he believed the job market for computer programmers would significantly decline over the coming decade. Griffin started at Harvard College in 1986. That year, one of his first investments was to buy put options on Home Shopping Network. He made $5,000. He also invested in convertible arbitrage opportunities in convertible bonds. Despite a ban on running businesses from campus, Griffin convinced school administrators to allow him to install a satellite dish on the roof of his dormitory, Cabot House, to receive stock quotes. He also asked Terrence J. O'Connor, the manager of convertible bonds at Merrill Lynch in Boston, to open a brokerage account for him with $100,000 that Griffin had gotten from his grandmother, his dentist, and others. His first fund launched in 1987, with $265,000. It launched in time to profit from short positions on Black Monday. Griffin graduated from Harvard in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.
Career
After graduating in 1989, Griffin moved to Chicago to work with Frank Meyer, founder of Glenwood Capital Investments. Meyer allotted $1 million of Glenwood capital for Griffin to trade and Griffin made 70% in a year. In 1990, Griffin founded Citadel LLC, with assets under management of $4.6 million, aided by contributions from Meyer. His funds made 43% in 1991 and 40% in 1992. In the early 2000s, Griffin founded market maker Citadel Securities. In January 2022, Citadel Securities raised $1.15 billion from Sequoia Capital and Paradigm at a valuation of $22 billion, in its first outside investment since its founding. As of January 2026, Citadel has approximately $67 billion in assets under management, after distributing $5 billion in 2025 profits to investors. Since its founding in 1990, Citadel has generated approximately $90.4 billion in net gains after fees, making it the most profitable hedge fund in history, according to LCH Investments. In 2003, aged 34, Griffin was the youngest person on the Forbes 400, with an estimated net worth of $650 million. From the time of his second marriage to Anne Dias in 2003 until late 2009, Griffin was the lead investor in Aragon Global Management, a hedge fund run by his then wife. The fund was also seeded with money from Julian Robertson. Griffin lost 20% of his investment in the fund. In 2006, Citadel acquired the positions of Amaranth Advisors at a steep discount. During the 2008 financial crisis, for 10 months, Griffin barred his investors from withdrawing money, attracting criticism. At the crisis's peak, the firm was losing "hundreds of millions of dollars each week". It was leveraged 7:1 and the biggest funds at Citadel finished 2008 down 55%, but rebounded with a 62% return in 2009. In 2022, as global markets suffered their worst losses since 2008, Citadel's flagship Wellington fund delivered a 38.1% return, generating a record $16 billion in profits for investors, the largest annual gain in hedge fund history, surpassing John Paulson's $15 billion gain during the 2007 subprime crisis. At year end, Citadel returned $7 billion in profits to investors to keep its asset base lean. From Citadel LLC, Griffin earned $900 million in 2009, $1.4 billion in 2014, $600 million in 2016, $1.4 billion in 2017, $870 million in 2018, $1.5 billion in 2019, and $1.8 billion in 2020. In November 2020, according to Bloomberg News, Griffin's net worth surpassed $20 billion due to an increase in the value of Citadel, of which Griffin's stake was worth $11.2 billion. Citadel Securities, a market maker, increased its profit to $2.36 billion during the first half of 2020 compared to $982 million for the same period in 2019, due to increased volatility, volume and retail trader engagement. In January 2021, Griffin attracted criticism for the role Citadel played in the GameStop short squeeze. On January 25, it was announced that Citadel would invest $2 billion into Melvin Capital, which had suffered losses of more than 30% on account of its short positions, particularly on GameStop. On January 28, Robinhood, an electronic trading platform favored by many traders involved in buying GameStop stock and options, announced that it would halt all purchases of GameStop securities and only allow these securities to be sold; the price of GME stock declined steeply shortly thereafter. Because Robinhood received a substantial portion of its revenue through a payment for order flow relationship with Citadel, 85% of which Griffin owned, many commentators criticized the potential for conflict of interest when the same entity both plays the role of market-maker and also participates in the market it makes; Griffin has been at the center of much discussion of this controversy. On February 18, 2021, he testified before the House Financial Services Committee about his role in the GameStop controversy; Griffin had donated money directly to four members of the committee, Republicans French Hill, Andy Barr, Ann Wagner, and Bill Huizenga. Thereafter, the SEC concluded that conspiracy theories about the event were unfounded. In June 2022, Griffin announced that Citadel and Citadel Securities would move their global headquarters from Chicago to Miami. He said that Miami offered a growing business environment and cited concerns regarding crime and public policy in Chicago. Citadel indicated that it would continue to maintain offices in Chicago while establishing Miami as its headquarters. In January 2026, Griffin partnered with Goldman Properties to spend at least $180 million for an office building in the Wynwood creative district, expanding Citadel's footprint in Miami.
Philanthropy
Griffin is a large private donor to charities and nonprofit organizations, having donated over $2 billion to charities so far.
Griffin Catalyst
In September 2023, Griffin launched Griffin Catalyst, a platform intended to organize and highlight his philanthropic and civic engagement initiatives. According to him, the effort was designed to provide an umbrella framework for future charitable giving and focuses on six areas: education, science and medicine, upward mobility, freedom and democracy, enterprise and innovation, and communities. Reuters described Griffin Catalyst as a platform showcasing philanthropic organizations and initiatives supported by his giving.
Arts
From 2000 to 2022, Griffin served on the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's board of trustees. In July 2007, Griffin donated a $19 million addition to the Art Institute of Chicago designed by Renzo Piano and named Kenneth and Anne Griffin Court. One of his paintings by Paul Cézanne was loaned to the institute. In 2010, Griffin contributed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's productions at Millennium Park. Griffin contributed to the Art Institute of Chicago and resigned from its board in 2022. He serves on the board of trustees at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, whose lobby bears his name: Kenneth C. Griffin Hall. In February 2015, Griffin donated $10 million to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago to create the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art. In December 2015, Griffin donated an unrestricted $40 million to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2018, he donated $20 million to the Norton Museum of Art.
Communities
In December 2021, Griffin gave $5 million to support the construction of Miami's 10-mile linear park and urban trail The Underline. In 2022, he created the Ukraine Math and Science Achievement Fund with $3 million, which supports young Ukrainian refugees studying at Cambridge University. In May 2022, he gave $5 million to help launch the Miami Disaster Resilience Fund, which prepares the city for disasters like hurricanes. In April 2024, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach announced a $7 million gift from Griffin. The money is to be used to support the restoration of Phipps Ocean Park, expand community education, and increase accessibility.
COVID-19 donations
In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Griffin contributed $2.5 million to support food services for children in Chicago Public Schools. In May 2020, Griffin and his partners at Citadel made a £3 million donation to help develop a COVID-19 vaccine and to support NHS Nightingale Hospitals. Griffin oversaw a $2 million donation from Citadel to Weill Cornell Medicine to help fund the development of new ways to protect people from COVID-19 and identify new cases of the illness.
Education
Griffin has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to promote charter schools in the U.S. and fund tutoring. In 2011, he worked with University of Chicago economics professor John A. List to test whether investment in teachers or in parents produces better student performance outcomes. At the beginning of 2014, Griffin made a $150 million donation to the financial aid program at Harvard University, his alma mater, the largest single donation ever made to the institution at the time. In 2014, he was elected to a five-year term on the University of Chicago's board of trustees. He is also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the civic committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. Griffin is the vice chairman of the Chicago Public Education Fund. In October 2017, Griffin's charitable fund donated $1 million to the Obama Foundation. In November 2017, Griffin's charitable fund made a $125 million gift to support the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago, renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics. Griffin donated $21.5 million to the Field Museum of Natural History and its dinosaur exhibit is named the Griffin Dinosaur Experience. In October 2019, Griffin's charitable fund announced a $125 million gift to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the largest gift in the museum's history. The museum was renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. In April 2021, he donated $5 million to an initiative to provide Internet access to students in Miami. In November 2021, Griffin outbid a group of crypto investors to purchase the last privately held copy of the United States Constitution at auction for $43.2 million. Griffin said, "I intend to ensure that this copy of our Constitution will be available for all Americans and visitors to view and appreciate in our museums and other public spaces", with plans to display it first at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. In March 2022, Griffin donated $40 million to the American Museum of Natural History in New York to help complete the 230,000 square foot renovation. In July 2022, he donated $130 million to Chicago nonprofits before his move to Florida. In October 2022, Griffin donated $250,000 to a Miami scholarship program for STEM students, his first donation since moving Citadel's headquarters there. Griffin, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Walton Family Foundation have funded The Education Recovery Scorecard, an analysis of pandemic learning loss released in October 2022 that uses local and national test score data to map changes in student performance. In April 2023, Griffin donated $300 million to the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Harvard announced that it would rename its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after him. A few weeks later, Griffin donated $25 million to Success Academy Charter Schools, New York City's largest charter school network, and gave $20 million to Miami Dade College, where he also addressed the 2023 graduating class. In April 2024, Griffin donated $9 million to fund a math-tutoring program for students in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, in partnership with the University of Chicago and Accelerate, to address education gaps caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2025, Griffin make a second donation to the Success Academy Charter Schools, donating $50 million to expand in South Florida. In November 2025, the University of Florida announced a $5.5 million gift from Griffin to its Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education. The gift supports expansion of small, discussion-based courses modeled on the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. It establishes the Griffin Fellows, graduate fellowships for doctoral candidates in the Western tradition, and the Griffin Scholars, merit-based undergraduate scholarships, supporting study abroad, research, and internships in law and public policy. In September 2026, Griffin pledged $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, the largest single donation to an American university. The pledge provides $2 billion for a new campus in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood and $1 billion for the Pittsburgh campus, divided equally between a fund for the university's top priorities and the School of Computer Science. The school will be renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science.
Military and veterans
In July 2020, Griffin donated $10 million to the U.S. Navy SEAL Foundation. The gift will support the expansion of resiliency programming for children, fund a scholarship program for higher education, and support other programs for Navy SEALs and their families. In November 2023, he donated $30 million to the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation to support the construction of a museum in Arlington, Texas, honoring the recipients of the medal. The museum will include a theater and a conference center to provide national educational programming.
Poverty
Griffin supported the University of Chicago's Center for Urban School Improvement, a program encouraging the construction of an inner-city charter high school, and contributed to the Lurie Children's Hospital. In 2017, Griffin contributed $15 million to the Robin Hood Foundation. In May 2022, The University of Chicago announced a $25 million donation from Griffin to launch an initiative design to train police managers and prevent neighborhood violence. The funds will aid in launching two community Safety Leadership Academies. The Policing Management Academy aims to professionalize departments by educating their leaders though coaching, accountability and data-driven decision making. This donation came after Griffin's $10 million donation to the Crime Lab in 2018 to implement an early intervention system to investigate citizen complaints.
Religion
Griffin is a member of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, where he was married. In 2011, he donated $11.5 million of the $38.2 million needed to build a new chapel at the church. The modern building is called "The Gratz Center" in honor of Griffin's grandparents. His children were baptized in the Fourth Presbyterian Church.
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