The institution announced the move on Tuesday, April 11, after a new $300 million contribution boosted Griffin’s total support for his alma mater by more than half a billion dollars. Griffin, 54, is the founder and CEO of Citadel, a $59 billion hedge fund, and Citadel Securities, which trades securities. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is the 35th richest person in the world with a net worth of $34.9 billion.
According to student newspaper Harvard Crimson, Griffin will become the fourth person to have a school named after him in exchange for a donation. The decision, predicts the Guardian, will be controversial, thanks to Griffin’s status as a major political donor to right-wing politicians and investments from his firearms and ammunition company. Griffin companies invested more than $139 million in arms and ammunition makers as of March 2022, according to NPR’s Chicago affiliate WBEZ. These include US arms manufacturers Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger, as well as US ammunition manufacturers Olin, Vista and Ammo Corporations.
The investment was the subject of public debate in 2022 when Griffin paid millions to the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois. Griffin accused incumbent Democratic Gov. Jay Pritzker of failing to fight crime in Chicago, where Griffin’s businesses were based. He then moved his company’s headquarters to Miami. A WBEZ analysis of the types of firearms seized by Chicago police following a violent crime over a five-year period found that nearly one in four firearms were made by companies in which Citadel invests.
Griffin rejected the Chicago Sun-Times’ call for his companies to steer clear of gun and ammunition makers, writing in a letter to the editor that “40% of American families own guns” and that “the violence that is destroying our city is not the result of… the legal purchase of guns, but rather the failure to prosecute criminals, lack of police support and left-wing progressive legislation that places criminals ahead of law-abiding citizens. He added: “I will not accept today’s cancel culture nor engage in amateur displays of virtue based on blind ideology.”
Griffin is also a major political donor and one of the most prominent supporters of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whom he encouraged to run for president in 2024.
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