Sam Zell

Sam Zell (1941 to 2023) was an American real estate investor and businessman, born Shmuel Zielonka in Chicago to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Poland months before his birth. He began by managing apartment buildings as a student at the University of Michigan and went on to build a large portfolio of property companies, among them the predecessor of Vivmark Residential, founded in 1968, the office building investor that became EQ Office, and Equity Lifestyle Properties, which owns mobile home parks. He also bought companies out of distress, including Itel, Anixter and Covanta, and in December 2007 took control of Tribune Media in a leveraged buyout that ended in bankruptcy a year later. He endowed real estate and entrepreneurship centers at the Wharton School and the University of Michigan, and in 2017 published a book on his business philosophy.