Samuel “Sam” Zell (born Shmuel Zielonka on September 27, 1941) is an American businessman, with investments in commercial real estate, energy, manufacturing, logistics/transportation, healthcare, and communications.
Zell is the founder and chairman of Equity International, a private investment firm focused on building real estate-related businesses in international emerging markets. In addition, Zell maintains substantial interests in, and is the Chairman of, several public companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, including: Equity Residential (EQR), the largest apartment real estate investment trust (or REIT) in the U.S.; Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), a REIT that owns and operates manufactured home and resort communities; Equity Commonwealth (EQC) an office REIT; Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA), an international owner/operator of energy-from-waste and power generation facilities; and Anixter (AXE), a leading global provider of communications, security, and wire and cable products. He is chairman of Equity Group Investments (EGI), the private investment firm he founded in 1969.
Early life and education
Zell was born in Chicago to a Jewish family, the son of Ruchla and Berek Zielonka. His parents were Jewish emigrants from Poland, where his father had been a successful grain trader. They immigrated to the United States with their young daughter, Leah, via Tokyo just before the German invasion of Poland of 1939. Soon after arriving, his parents changed their first and last names, becoming Rochelle and Bernard Zell. They then moved from Seattle to the Albany Park neighborhood in Chicago where his father became a jewelry wholesaler. When he was twelve, the family moved to Highland Park, Illinois where he graduated from Highland Park High School In 1963, Sam graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, where he was also a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. While in school, Zell managed a 15 unit apartment building in return for free room-and-board and was soon managing the owner’s other properties. Joined by his fraternity brother Robert H. Lurie, he won a contract with a large apartment development owner in Ann Arbor who was impressed with Zell’s knowledge of what students wanted. By the time he graduated with a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1966, he and Lurie were managing over 4,000 apartments and owned 100-200 units outright. After school, he sold his interest in the management company to Lurie and moved to Chicago.
Zell is the founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, a Chicago-based investment firm. The closely held business has stakes in publicly traded wiring-parts maker Anixter; waste-energy company Covanta; and real estate investment trusts Equity Residential, Equity Lifestyle Properties and Equity Commonwealth.
Source: