Self-made billionaire kicks off IIT lecture series
He started off selling magazines in grade school and earned a 200% profit. Today, Sam Zell, the son of Polish immigrants, is in the top tier of commercial real estate moguls and #100 on the 2002 Forbes magazine list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
Zell made his first appearance on the main campus of Illinois Institute of Technology on Oct. 22, 2002, to kick off the new “Thought Leaders Seminar” series of lectures. The series is sponsored by IIT’s Leadership Academy and Entrepreneurship Program.
Zell, 60, is one of Chicago’s first homegrown billionaires. He began his career in real estate while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan by managing apartment buildings. He continued his interests in real estate with the founding of Equity Group Investments, L.L.C., (formerly known as Equity Financial and Management Company), an entrepreneurial real estate investment firm based in Chicago, where he currently serves as chairman of the board.
Zell holds a bachelor’s in political science and a law degree, both from the University of Michigan. He has endowed chairs at Michigan and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also serves as a trustee of the Field Museum and is an avid skier, racquetball player and motorcyclist.
Zell’s lecture is the first of six in the “Thought Leaders Seminar” series at IIT. All lectures will take place at Perlstein Hall Auditorium, 10 W. 33rd Street, at 4 p.m. A question and answer session follows each lecture.
The other guest speakers for the “Thought Leaders Seminars” are as follows:
Nov. 21, 2002 Sam Pitroda, chairman, WorldTel, Inc.
Feb. 13, 2003 Karl Klessig, former CEO, Xdrive Technologies, Inc.
Mar. 11, 2003 Craig Watson, president, Payment Engineering, LLC.
Apr. 8, 2003 Frank Kreusi, president, Chicago Transit Authority
Apr. 22, 2003 Sandy LaMantia, CEO, Shure, Inc.
Christine Schyvinck, VP for operations, Shure, Inc.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
