Speaker 1: One of the best known business families in the United
Speaker 1: States is the Pritzker family from Chicago. One of the
Speaker 1: stars of that family is Penny Pritzker, who not only
Speaker 1: built her own venture capital in real estate business, but
Speaker 1: also serve as Secretary of Commerce under Barack Obama. I
Speaker 1: recently sat down with her in Chicago to talk about
Speaker 1: her extraordinary career and what she hopes to accomplish as
Speaker 1: a role model for business leaders throughout the United States,
Speaker 1: particularly women. Penny, you are a driven person. I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to say, but very often you see people
Speaker 1: who come from wealthy families as your family is, are
Speaker 1: not quite as driven as you are. Where did you
Speaker 1: get the drive to work so hard and never kind
Speaker 1: of let up at all? You seem to be one
Speaker 1: of the most driven people I've ever met coming from you.
Speaker 1: That's a compliment, David. Thank you. You know, I grew
Speaker 1: up in a family where I was taught by my
Speaker 1: parents to who much has given, much is expected, and
Speaker 1: I saw them really engage in building a business. I mean,
Speaker 1: my mom and dad really partners with one another. My
Speaker 1: dad was the CEO building a hotel company, and my
Speaker 1: mom was really his right hand She was in charge
Speaker 1: of every esthetic decision, and they were really host and
Speaker 1: hostess together. It was a perfect business for them. And
Speaker 1: I saw them find joy and purpose in being involved
Speaker 1: in building, and I was really affected by that. And
Speaker 1: they weren't just building a business, they were also part
Speaker 1: of a new community. They had moved out to the
Speaker 1: West Coast. They were building in there in our local community,
Speaker 1: and so that motivated me. That inspired me, that sense
Speaker 1: of having things where you're making a difference and creating opportunity.
Speaker 1: Your family is one of the wealthiest families in the
Speaker 1: United States currently, the Pritzker family, and you have your
Speaker 1: grandfather had three sons, as I understand it, one is
Speaker 1: Jay Pritzker, who was a very legendary dealmaker, One was
Speaker 1: who was a very accomplished businessman and oversaw a lot
Speaker 1: of large businesses that the family owned. And then your father,
Speaker 1: who was the youngest, and he helped to run and
Speaker 1: built a highatt hotels. So can you describe what happened?
Speaker 1: Your father died tragically when he was thirty nine and
Speaker 1: you were just thirteen. So what is it like. You're
Speaker 1: in a wealthy family and you presumably have a lot
Speaker 1: of advantages, but then your father dies when you're thirteen,
Speaker 1: you have two younger brothers. What was that like and
Speaker 1: how did your father die? So suddenly, my dad died
Speaker 1: of a massive heart attack playing tennis, and it was
Speaker 1: a massive blow to our family. You know, imagine the
Speaker 1: first thirteen years of my life. I lived in a
Speaker 1: family that was building a business. My mom and dad
Speaker 1: were very involved. My mother was as active in the
Speaker 1: business as my father, even though she wasn't paid. And
Speaker 1: my father dies and all of that goes away. I mean,
Speaker 1: our dinner table conversations had been about business, our travel
Speaker 1: had been about building the company. It had really been
Speaker 1: a huge part of our life. And more importantly, though,
Speaker 1: my father was this warm, fun funny individual and just
Speaker 1: you know, I was so close to him, and you know,
Speaker 1: I have enormous sympathy for children who lose their parents.
Speaker 1: It leaves a massive hole in your heart and your
Speaker 1: life is instantly changed. So when you were younger, all
Speaker 1: the story is that your father would take you on
Speaker 1: visits to hotels and you would be the person that
Speaker 1: would inspect the ladies rooms. Yes, is that true? Totally true?
Speaker 1: We would go we are The business began as a
Speaker 1: series of exterior corridor motels up and down the west coast,
Speaker 1: and we would on Saturday mornings, we would go to
Speaker 1: our motel and he would have me go into the
Speaker 1: ladies room to make sure it was clean, and he'd
Speaker 1: go in the men's room, and then we'd walk the
Speaker 1: property and we talked to the general manager, and we
Speaker 1: talked to the bellman. And you know, back then there
Speaker 1: weren't big computers until, of course, we got the big
Speaker 1: IBM computer, which probably took up the entire space of
Speaker 1: this room. And it was, as I said, it was
Speaker 1: really a family endeavor. Now in your family, the larger
Speaker 1: Pritzker family, there were many business leaders, but most of
Speaker 1: them were men, if not all of them. As a
Speaker 1: young girl, you said to your grandfather, as I recall,
Speaker 1: how come I can't be in the business world. What
Speaker 1: did your grandfather say? And why were you so attracted
Speaker 1: to business as opposed to other things? When I was
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, it was my grandfather's eightieth birthday, and
Speaker 1: my mother said, you can give your grandfather anything you
Speaker 1: want for his birthday, and I wrote him a letter.
Speaker 1: You know, what did you give your grandfather who seemed
Speaker 1: to have everything? From where I stood and letter was
Speaker 1: your grandpa. You know you are always talking to the the
Speaker 1: boys in the family about business. Why don't you teach
Speaker 1: me more about business? And I'll never forget the night
Speaker 1: of his eightieth birthday party, he grabs me and takes
Speaker 1: me out into the hallway, and he had my letter
Speaker 1: in his pocket. It was on green stationary. I'll never
Speaker 1: forget that. He pulls a letter out and he says, Penny,
Speaker 1: I was born in eighteen ninety six. How am I
Speaker 1: supposed to know girls are interested in business? But he said,
Speaker 1: but if you are, come, spend several weeks this summer
Speaker 1: with me and I'll teach you accounting. You have to remember,
Speaker 1: my grandfather taught Arthur Anderson accounting. My grandfather believed that
Speaker 1: accounting was the foundation of all business, and so this
Speaker 1: was his way of saying, Okay, I'm going to help you.
Speaker 1: So ten years after your father died in a sudden
Speaker 1: heart attack, your mother died tragically as well. So at
Speaker 1: the age of twenty three, you have two younger brothers
Speaker 1: and no parents. So your job was to help raise
Speaker 1: your younger brothers. Is that how you did it? You know,
Speaker 1: we banded together after my dad died. My mom wasn't
Speaker 1: very well, and so it was a tumultuous time for us,
Speaker 1: and the three of us tried as best as we
Speaker 1: could as young people to take care of each other.
Speaker 1: You know, we were teenagers and you know, so it
Speaker 1: was it was a complex time for all of us,
Speaker 1: but we made it through and uh and try to
Speaker 1: carry forward, you know, the values and the principles that
Speaker 1: our parents taught us at a young age. Did your
Speaker 1: brother say to you at the time, I'm going to
Speaker 1: become governor of Illinois at some point? Did he said
Speaker 1: that when he was a little boy. You know, my brother,
Speaker 1: my younger brother, Um has always wanted to be in politics,
Speaker 1: and he's a natural politician. He's extremely friendly, he's very bright,
Speaker 1: and very capable, and he cares deeply about people. Is
Speaker 1: enormous empathy. So I'm so proud of him that he's
Speaker 1: become governor of Illinois. And I think he's doing a
Speaker 1: heck of a job. Is he going to run for
Speaker 1: presidents someday? I have no idea, but you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just really thrilled with the job he's doing today. Okay,
Speaker 1: so your family business is growing, and Jay Pritzker, your
Speaker 1: uncle is considered one of the greatest dealmakers of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century, and he built an incredibly big business empire.
Speaker 1: When he passed away, it turned out that he said
Speaker 1: he wanted three people to kind of run the family business.
Speaker 1: Your cousin Tom Pritzker, your another cousin, Nick, and then you.
Speaker 1: So there were three of you. Were you surprised that
Speaker 1: that's what he wanted to do. I was flattered because
Speaker 1: I was much younger, at least ten years younger than
Speaker 1: my cousin Tom, and more younger than my cousin Nick.
Speaker 1: But my uncle Jay and I had always had a
Speaker 1: very special relationship. He frankly, my early career was very
Speaker 1: much about being an entrepreneur and starting new businesses, and
Speaker 1: I think he really admired that entrepreneurial nature as well
Speaker 1: as my hard work. I think he was intrigued by
Speaker 1: me as a woman. I mean, he'd not grown up
Speaker 1: with women executives. In fact that when I showed up
Speaker 1: at the office for the very first time, I was
Speaker 1: the first woman who wasn't basically an assistant in the
Speaker 1: office anywhere, And so I think he and I developed
Speaker 1: a lot of mutual respect. He was a mentor to me,
Speaker 1: and so I, you know, we ultimately that's not the
Speaker 1: direction that we ended up going as a family, But
Speaker 1: I was really I felt very flattered by his that gesture.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, the three of you are running this large
Speaker 1: family business, which is one of the larger family owned
Speaker 1: businesses in the United States, and at one point a
Speaker 1: cousin or several cousins said, we don't think that's fair.
Speaker 1: We just want to break up the entire empire. Was
Speaker 1: that devastating to you and the two cousins who are
Speaker 1: helping you run the business, And why did you decide
Speaker 1: let's just get out of this and we'll break up
Speaker 1: everything and everybody will get their share. Was that a
Speaker 1: hard decision to make, You know, it was a complicated decision,
Speaker 1: but frankly, we made it relatively quickly because fundamentally people
Speaker 1: don't want to be partners in business. They shouldn't be
Speaker 1: partners in business. The complex part was it was like
Speaker 1: a big spaghetti bowl in the middle of the table,
Speaker 1: all intertwined, very complicated, and so to take spaghetti out
Speaker 1: of the bowl and put spaghetti on everybody's plate, it
Speaker 1: took us almost a decade to do it, and we
Speaker 1: had to build at the same time we were dividing
Speaker 1: things up. You couldn't be static. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: static in business, you die, right, And so we had
Speaker 1: to both build and vide, And so we took companies public,
Speaker 1: we sold businesses, we merged, we did you know it
Speaker 1: was it was like getting an additional PhD in business
Speaker 1: that ten year period. Let me ask you about being
Speaker 1: Secretary of Commerce. Yes, you're You're a very successful business
Speaker 1: person in Chicago, very active and civic events and so forth.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, if somebody you knew, Barack
Speaker 1: Obama becomes President United States and in a second term
Speaker 1: you became Secretary of Commerce. So why did you want
Speaker 1: to uproot yourself moved to Washington for the second part
Speaker 1: of his administration? And did you enjoy being Secretary of Commerce?
Speaker 1: I loved being Secretary of Commerce. It was an honor
Speaker 1: of a lifetime to serve our country and to serve
Speaker 1: in his administration. You know, Obama and I have relatively
Speaker 1: long history. I met him when my kids were five
Speaker 1: and seven years old and their basketball coach at the
Speaker 1: Lincoln Belmont. Why was Michelle Robinson's brother, Craig Robinson, and
Speaker 1: I met Barack and Michelle when he was a state senator,
Speaker 1: and I think she was working at the University of Chicago,
Speaker 1: and so I had known them for a long time.
Speaker 1: I knew what terrific individuals they were. And when Barrock
Speaker 1: decided he was going to run for the presidency, he
Speaker 1: contacted me in two thousand and six and said, would
Speaker 1: you help me? Would you become my national finance chair?
Speaker 1: Would you raise the money for me to run for president?
Speaker 1: And I thought this was a crazy idea. I'd never
Speaker 1: raised money on a national level for a presidential campaign.
Speaker 1: I had no idea how you one did that. And
Speaker 1: he said, no, no, I want you to do this role.
Speaker 1: And I did, and it was but I really almost
Speaker 1: said no. And what happened was I was sitting talking
Speaker 1: to my husband after the evening that Brock had asked me.
Speaker 1: He said to me, this is destiny knocking on the
Speaker 1: door of our nation, and you've got to find a
Speaker 1: way to help. And so that led me to get
Speaker 1: involved in Barack's campaign. I was the eleventh person in
Speaker 1: the campaign, and over the ensuing two years, we built
Speaker 1: the equivalent of a fortune five hundred company. We went
Speaker 1: from eleven people to three thousand people. That we were
Speaker 1: paying and thousands of volunteers. We raised the most amount
Speaker 1: of money ever for a presidential campaign. It was an
Speaker 1: extraordinary experience. I didn't serve in the first term, but
Speaker 1: when the President called me and asked me if I
Speaker 1: would help him, he really felt that his relationship with
Speaker 1: the business community was challenged, that he really needed a
Speaker 1: Chief Commercial Officer for the United States and he wanted help.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a call that everyone hopes that they get.
Speaker 1: So when you're a friend of somebody becomes president, you
Speaker 1: call him all the time, Barack, Barack Barack for many years.
Speaker 1: When you're Secretary of Commerce and he's the president, it's
Speaker 1: a different kind of relationship. Did it make it more
Speaker 1: difficult for you to socialize with him? Or I assume
Speaker 1: you stopped calling him baraqu But what was the relationship
Speaker 1: like when you were Secretary of Commerce and he was president?
Speaker 1: He was my boss, and in fact we talked about
Speaker 1: it when he interviewed me for the job. He said
Speaker 1: he really asked me point blank and whether I could
Speaker 1: accept the idea. He said, Look, you've been a CEO,
Speaker 1: You've made decisions. You know what running an organization is like,
Speaker 1: He said, can you accept the fact that I'll listen
Speaker 1: to all your arguments, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I'm the decision maker. And I said, mister President, of
Speaker 1: course I can. And what I thought to myself is,
Speaker 1: mister President, you've never worked in a family business. It's
Speaker 1: a lot like that. So you were confirmed ninety seven
Speaker 1: to one. Yes, there aren't that many people these days
Speaker 1: confirmed that way, So were you surprised that the confirmation
Speaker 1: took not that long compared to what some people might
Speaker 1: have expected. And do you think Washington is more or
Speaker 1: less broken these days because the Democrats Republicans can't really
Speaker 1: agree to almost anything. You know, one of the nice
Speaker 1: parts about commerces is bipartisan. And I worked really hard
Speaker 1: during the process of confirmation to meet people across the
Speaker 1: aisle and even folks who like a Ted Cruz, who
Speaker 1: would have very little in common with Barack Obama, you know,
Speaker 1: he and I saw Ey'd eye on what you know,
Speaker 1: the Commerce Department could do, you know, for the state
Speaker 1: of Texas. And so I really made it my business
Speaker 1: to say I'm going to I will work for everyone
Speaker 1: in Commerce in Congress, regardless of what party. And I
Speaker 1: answered the phone and tried to help them solve problems.
Speaker 1: Regardless of who called me. You were Secretary of Commerce
Speaker 1: for almost four years. What are you most proud of
Speaker 1: having achieved? You know, we did a number of things
Speaker 1: that I'm really proud of. We laid one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: miles of broadband. We revamped the Patent and Trademark Office.
Speaker 1: We worked with Ukraine to help them. They really wanted
Speaker 1: to turn from east to west and to attack and
Speaker 1: address their corruption. You know, one of the things that
Speaker 1: I did was, as it relates to it became really
Speaker 1: obvious to me that the semiconductors, we were going to
Speaker 1: have a problem in the United States with a shortage
Speaker 1: of semiconductors. Also that we were going to really run
Speaker 1: into a national security challenge because we were designing our
Speaker 1: semiconductors but we weren't producing them. And so I galvanized
Speaker 1: the department to write a report to the administration into
Speaker 1: the federal government about this, and that actually turned out
Speaker 1: to be the foundation of what became the Chips in
Speaker 1: Science Act. Avrel Haynes, who was head of DNI, and
Speaker 1: Ben Rhodes and others who were involved in the transition
Speaker 1: to the Biden administration asked me about a number of
Speaker 1: things for advice, and I said, you know, you got
Speaker 1: to focus on the semiconductor challenge that we face, and
Speaker 1: so we did a whole kind of things that have
Speaker 1: had a huge amount of impact. With such a diverse department,
Speaker 1: you get to be involved in a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: At the end of the Obama administration, you came back
Speaker 1: to Chicago and you restarted your family business PSP Partners,
Speaker 1: and you got involved as well in a lot of philanthropy.
Speaker 1: So what are the philanthropic interests that you and your
Speaker 1: husband and your children most care about. Now, we're very
Speaker 1: focused on Chicago. We think Chicago is it's our home,
Speaker 1: it's a place we're very, very committed to. And we've
Speaker 1: really chosen to focus our philanthropy in two areas. One
Speaker 1: is investing in underinvested communities. So we started, for example,
Speaker 1: of something called the Chicago Prize. We just awarded our
Speaker 1: second Chicago Prize. It's a ten million dollar grant to
Speaker 1: a part of the city that's been underinvested in and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: our black and brown communities have had massive disinvestment. And
Speaker 1: so the recent winner of the Chicago Prize is West
Speaker 1: Garfield Park and that's a community that has not had
Speaker 1: any investment for fifty years. There's seventeen thousand people that
Speaker 1: live in that neighborhood. They don't have any healthcare. And
Speaker 1: so in partnership with RUSH and with Erie, which is
Speaker 1: a great federally qualified health clinic, we're building and creating
Speaker 1: both a health clinic, community services, and hopefully there will
Speaker 1: be a new grocery store in that community. Our goal
Speaker 1: in develop in investing in these types of communities the
Speaker 1: first Chicago Prize went to Auburn Gresham, is to be
Speaker 1: a catalyst for additional investment in really these underserved communities.
Speaker 1: The other areas workforce in skills development that we're really
Speaker 1: interested in helping people get the skills they need to
Speaker 1: be successful. So you now have PSP partners and you're
Speaker 1: running making investments, and among other things, you're building real
Speaker 1: estate companies, and you're doing things with other women. In
Speaker 1: some cases you build a company form in real estate
Speaker 1: with another woman. Is important to you to have women
Speaker 1: in business and are you trying to be a role
Speaker 1: model and have you trying to be a role model
Speaker 1: for women in the business world. Well, I think it's
Speaker 1: really important to have diverse voices at the table absolutely,
Speaker 1: no matter what you're doing and in business, particularly because
Speaker 1: most consumers are women. Also, I have built two businesses
Speaker 1: in partnership with women. We started the first, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Thirteen years ago. My partner, Deb Harmon and I started
Speaker 1: the first woman owned real estate private equity firm in
Speaker 1: the United States. It's hard to believe. Thirteen years ago
Speaker 1: there wasn't one. Today, we're we compete a little bit
Speaker 1: with Carlyle. We're much smaller than Carlyle, but we compete
Speaker 1: sometimes with Carlyle. But we've built a real firm and
Speaker 1: one of our ambitions with the firm my partner Deb
Speaker 1: and I. At the time, we'd each been more than
Speaker 1: twenty years in real estate. Real estate's a very male
Speaker 1: dominated field. One of our missions was to be excellent
Speaker 1: and superb, to deliver great returns to our investors, but
Speaker 1: also to help diversify our industry. Recently, you've been selected
Speaker 1: as the first woman in Harvard's nearly four hundred year
Speaker 1: to be effectively the chairman of the board of Harvard.
Speaker 1: So how do you have time for that and why
Speaker 1: were you so committed and interested in doing that job?
Speaker 1: Which is a very very time consuming position. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, Harvard is near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 1: I went to college there, and I went to college
Speaker 1: at a tumultuous time in my life, and it really
Speaker 1: served a very grounding as a very grounding place for me.
Speaker 1: I met all kinds of people that have really influenced
Speaker 1: my life. I have dear, dear friends from my experience
Speaker 1: at Harvard, and I think higher education is under attack,
Speaker 1: and I like a challenge. And frankly, after three hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty six years, is about time they had a
Speaker 1: woman leading, and so I felt also a call to
Speaker 1: rise to that occasion. Harvard Corporation is the twelve people
Speaker 1: that more or less run Harvard. It's like a board
Speaker 1: and you're a senior fellow or the chair of it.
Speaker 1: What do you really do during that efforts? As a
Speaker 1: senior fellow, what is your responsibility? Well, David, as you know,
Speaker 1: because you're serve on the corporation with me, we're a
Speaker 1: board really of we have two roles. We really advise
Speaker 1: the president and the senior leadership of the university on
Speaker 1: very significant issues that are affecting either the schools or
Speaker 1: the university at large. Were involved in financial decisions, were
Speaker 1: involved in governance decisions during COVID, lots of major topics
Speaker 1: that we worked with the university on. So we have
Speaker 1: the fiduciary duty as the corporation. The senior fellow is
Speaker 1: the leader of the corporation. It's like a lead independent director,
Speaker 1: if you will. And it's a you know, Harvard, like
Speaker 1: the University of Chicago, like many many of our significant
Speaker 1: universities in this country. They're very important to the success
Speaker 1: of our country and it's important that these institutions thrive.
Speaker 1: And I find it very stimulating to try and be
Speaker 1: a good advisor and thought partner to the leadership of
Speaker 1: a university. So some people have suggested that you would
Speaker 1: be a candidate, a good candidate for the United States
Speaker 1: Senate or the presidency itself. Have you ever thought of
Speaker 1: running for anything like that. No, I don't think I
Speaker 1: would be a good politician. I think I'm a good
Speaker 1: leader and manager, but I'm not sure i'd be a
Speaker 1: good politician. Well, suppose somebody gets elected president who's a
Speaker 1: Democrat and says I'd like you to come back in
Speaker 1: government as Secretary of Treasury or Secretary of State or something.
Speaker 1: Would you go back in government. I would never rule
Speaker 1: out serving my country, but I'm really excited about what
Speaker 1: I'm doing today in business, in philanthropy. Suppose somebody says
Speaker 1: I want to be Penny Pritzker, a younger says, I
Speaker 1: like what she's done business, government, family, philanthropy. How do
Speaker 1: you tell somebody they can achieve what you've done? Is
Speaker 1: it working hard, studying hard, getting along with people. What
Speaker 1: are the skill sets that you think are most important. Well,
Speaker 1: I think one of the most important things to do
Speaker 1: is to recognize that life is a team sport and
Speaker 1: that you can't do anything alone. And it's important to
Speaker 1: be surrounded by people are good at the things you're
Speaker 1: not good at, and good at the things you are
Speaker 1: good at, but also surrounded by diverse voices and diversity
Speaker 1: of all types. And I really got to see that
Speaker 1: in government. I think the second thing that's important is
Speaker 1: to have an open mind, to be curious, to have
Speaker 1: a growth mindset, to listen and to be constantly learning
Speaker 1: and growing. And then I think it's important to be
Speaker 1: empathetic and you know, to care about humanity. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to hear more of my interviews. You can subscribe
Speaker 1: and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen.