RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Kenneth C. "Ken" Griffin will be honored by the Board of the Chicago Historical Society at its 27th Annual Making History Awards on June 2, 2021; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of his achievement by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, Ken will be receiving the Bertha Honore Palmer Making History Award for Distinction in Civic Leadership; and
WHEREAS, Over the past twenty-six years, the Making History Awards have honored 121 Chicagoans and 13 Chicago companies whose enduring contributions have made Chicago a better and vibrant place to live; and
WHEREAS, Ken was bom in 1968 in Dayton Beach, Florida, and grew up in Boca Raton, Florida where he attended middle school and high school; and
WHEREAS, Ken graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor's degree in economics; and
WHEREAS, After graduating Harvard, Ken moved to Chicago to work with Frank Meyer, founder of Glenwood Capital Investments; and
WHEREAS, In 1990, Ken founded the Citadel LLC, which had $38 billion of assets under management as of March 2021; and
WHEREAS, Ken has been previously been honored with the Navy SEAL Foundation Patriot Award, Institutional Investor's Lifetime Achievement Award, Institutional Investor's Alpha's Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame, and the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement; and
WHEREAS, Ken has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the promotion of charter schools in the U.S., and to fund tutoring; and
WHEREAS, In 2011, Ken worked with University of Chicago economics professor John A. List to test whether investment in teachers ot in parents produces better student performance outcomes; and
WHEREAS, In 2014, he made a $150 million donation to the financial aid program at Harvard University, the largest single donation ever made to the institution at the time; and
WHEREAS, In October 2017, Ken's charitable fund donated $1 million to the Obama Foundation; and
WHEREAS, In November 2017, Ken'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; and
WHEREAS, Ken donated $21.5 million to the Field Museum of Natural History; and
WHEREAS, In October 2019, Ken'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; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we; the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council, assembled this twenty-first day of April, 2021, do hereby congratulate Kenneth C. Griffin on receiving the Bertha Ilonore Palmer Making History Award and do hereby extend our best wishes to him; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Kenneth C. Griffin.
Edward M. Bijirke Alderman, 14 th Ward