Our History Section

The Pritzker Family traces its roots to Nicholas J. Pritzker, who immigrated to Chicago in 1881. Nicholas established Pritzker & Pritzker as a law firm in 1902. By the 1950’s, Pritzker & Pritzker evolved into a merchant bank for the Family’s business holdings. Our business model was to acquire and build companies to create long term value. That continues to be our culture to this day. In the 1990s, the name was changed to The Pritzker Organization (TPO) to reflect its commercial, rather than legal, mission. Through the successive leadership of A.N. Pritzker, followed by Jay, followed by Tom, The Pritzker Organization has used our Family’s capital base to work with partners and Management teams to found, acquire, and build companies. This resulted in a significant and diverse portfolio of businesses which were, for the most part, privately held. TPO is led by Tom Pritzker, who has worked at the firm for more than 40 years.