Ken Griffin

Ken Griffin
Born	15 10 1968 (age 58 years old (as of 2026) )
Residence	Miami, Florida
Occupation	hedge-fund manager
Known for	Founder and CEO of Citadel LLC; Citadel Securities
Education	Harvard University (BA)

American hedge-fund manager; founder and chief executive of Citadel and founder of Citadel Securities

Kenneth C. "Ken" Griffin (born 15 October 1968) is an American hedge-fund manager who founded and runs Citadel LLC, a Miami-based hedge-fund firm, and the market-making firm Citadel Securities.^[1] He is one of the largest individual donors to Republican and conservative federal committees in recent election cycles.^[2]^[3] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Ken Griffin 33rd in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$56.95 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as Hedge funds.^[1]^[4] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Ken Griffin 37th, at US$49.8 billion.^[5]

Early life and education

Forbes reports that Griffin began trading from his Harvard dormitory in 1987, putting a satellite dish on the roof to receive real-time stock quotes, and that his first job was selling Franklin Mint collectibles.^[1] The Harvard Crimson identifies him as a member of Harvard's class of 1989.^[6] Inside Philanthropy says he went to middle school and high school in Boca Raton, Florida.^[3]

Business career

Griffin founded Citadel in 1990. Forbes says the firm now manages US$77 billion in assets and, citing LCH Investments, calls Citadel "the world's most profitable hedge fund", with US$90 billion in net gains since its founding. It also reports that Citadel Securities handles one in every four stock trades in the United States.^[1] In 2022 Griffin moved Citadel's headquarters from Chicago to Miami, citing crime levels in Chicago and Florida's business climate.^[3]

Wealth

Forbes gives the source of his wealth as hedge funds.^[1]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 21 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2006. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list, and, where applicable, the rank and estimate in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.^[5]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)	Forbes 400 rank	Forbes 400 net worth (US$ bn)
2003	–	–	377	0.7
2004	–	–	363	0.8
2005	–	–	207	1.5
2006	512	1.5	204	1.7
2007	583	1.7	117	3.0
2008	368	3.0	97	3.7
2009	468	1.5	158	2.0
2010	488	2.0	159	2.3
2011	512	2.3	171	2.3
2012	377	3.0	128	3.1
2013	316	4.1	103	4.4
2014	270	5.2	91	5.5
2015	216	6.5	69	7.0
2016	157	7.5	57	7.5
2017	166	8.0	52	8.5
2018	172	9.0	45	10.0
2019	117	11.7	38	12.7
2020	100	12.1	34	15.0
2021	119	16.0	47	16.1
2022	53	27.2	21	30.8
2023	35	35.0	22	35.4
2024	42	36.4	22	43.0
2025	35	42.3	21	50.4
2026	37	49.8	20	60.5

Philanthropy

Forbes estimates Griffin's lifetime giving at about US$2.7 billion. It names Success Academy, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and non-profit hospitals in Miami among recent recipients. It also reports that he bought rare editions of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, signed by Abraham Lincoln, to be lent for public display.^[1] Forbes says the University of Chicago renamed its economics department after him in 2017 following a US$150 million gift, and that Harvard's graduate school of arts and sciences bears his name after a US$300 million gift in 2023.^[1]

In December 2023 Memorial Sloan Kettering announced a combined US$400 million gift from Griffin and the David Geffen Foundation, the largest donation in the hospital's history.^[7]^[8] Inside Philanthropy reported that in July 2022 Griffin gave US$130 million to 40 Chicago organisations. It said his giving had since shifted towards South Florida, including US$25 million for a tower at Nicklaus Children's Hospital and US$20 million in scholarships at Miami Dade College, and that he had joined Schmidt Futures in a US$50 million commitment to Convergent Research. It noted that the Kenneth and Anne Griffin Foundation closed after the couple's 2015 divorce, that Griffin is listed as president of the Citadel Group Foundation, and that much of his giving probably passes through the Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund, which does not publish its finances.^[3] His philanthropic and civic activity is presented under the name Griffin Catalyst.^[8]^[3]

In January 2024, at a Managed Funds Association conference in Miami, Griffin said he was pausing donations to Harvard over its handling of antisemitism on campus.^[6]^[9] CNN put his giving to Harvard over the years at more than US$500 million.^[9]

Political activity

Inside Philanthropy described Griffin as a major Republican donor. It said he gave US$100 million to conservatives in the 2024 election cycle and had been Florida's largest political donor over the previous four years.^[3] Itemised Federal Election Commission records for contributions listing Citadel as his employer show very large gifts to Republican-aligned super PACs, chiefly the Senate Leadership Fund and the Congressional Leadership Fund (see table). The figures are a lower bound, because only the largest 100 records per cycle were retrieved.^[2]

Across the 78 non-memo records retrieved for the 2022–2026 cycles, the filtered total is US$212,639,000 (a lower bound). The largest recipient committees, as named in the filings, were SENATE LEADERSHIP FUND (US$52,000,000), CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP FUND (US$44,000,000), KEYSTONE RENEWAL PAC (US$16,000,000), AMERICAN PATRIOTS PAC (US$10,750,000), SLF PAC (US$10,000,000).^[2]

Federal contributions (FEC Schedule A, itemised; lower bound)
Cycle	Total (US$, lower bound)	Records	Largest recipient committees (as filed with the FEC)
2022	$72,446,300	31	CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP FUND ($27,000,000); SENATE LEADERSHIP FUND ($22,000,000); HONOR PENNSYLVANIA, INC. ($8,800,000); STRONG LEADERS FUND ($3,500,000)
2024	$108,062,100	34	SENATE LEADERSHIP FUND ($30,000,000); CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP FUND ($17,000,000); KEYSTONE RENEWAL PAC ($16,000,000); MARYLAND'S FUTURE ($10,000,000)
2026	$32,130,600	13	SLF PAC ($10,000,000); CLF ($5,000,000); CONSERVATIVES FOR AMERICAN EXCELLENCE INC. ($3,000,000); FIGHTING FOR WYOMING ($2,500,000)

Controversies and legal issues

In October 2023 the New York Post, citing The New York Times, reported that Griffin had pressed Harvard to respond more forcefully to a student letter that blamed Israel for the 7 October Hamas attack. It said he would not hire the leaders of the student groups that signed it, though he limited this to the groups' heads rather than individual members.^[10] No legal proceedings against Griffin personally were found in the sources checked.

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."

Israel (investments, operations, donations, contracts, statements)

In May 2024 Business Insider, citing an interview with the Financial Times, reported that Griffin had described pro-Palestinian campus protests as "almost like performative art" and said they were not helping "Palestinians or Israelis".^[11] For his October 2023 comments on Harvard students and his January 2024 pause in donations to Harvard, see above.^[10]^[6] No donations to Israeli state bodies or to pro-Israel lobbying organisations were found in the sources checked.