Kenneth Cordele 'Ken' Griffin, born October 15, 1968, in Daytona Beach, Florida, is an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager. He grew up primarily in Boca Raton, Florida, with some time spent in Texas and Wisconsin, attending Boca Raton Community High School where he served as president of the math club and ran a discount mail-order education software firm called EDCOM from his bedroom. Griffin enrolled at Harvard University in 1985, graduating in 1989 with a BA in economics. During his undergraduate years, he began trading convertible bond arbitrage from his dorm room in Cabot House, installing a satellite dish for real-time market data, and launched his first hedge fund at age 19. After graduation, Griffin founded Citadel LLC in 1990 in Chicago with backing from investor Frank Meyer, serving as CEO, co-chief investment officer, and 80% owner. Citadel has grown into one of the world's most successful multinational hedge funds, managing over $65 billion in assets as of recent reports, and is now based in Miami, Florida. He also established Citadel Securities in 2002, a leading market maker serving institutional clients globally. Griffin's net worth was estimated at $51.2 billion in January 2026, ranking him among the world's richest individuals and one of America's wealthiest. A prominent Republican political donor and major Republican donor, he has supported various causes and urged policy changes like distancing the White House from the Federal Reserve. Griffin is a major philanthropist, having donated over $2 billion through the Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund and Citadel Foundation to education, medical research, economic mobility, arts, and community initiatives. Notable gifts include $150 million to Harvard for financial aid in 2014, $125 million to the University of Chicago's Department of Economics, and $400 million to Harvard Griffin GSAS. He has served on boards for institutions like the Art Institute of Chicago and Whitney Museum. Personally, Griffin was married to Katherine Weingartt (1991-1996) and Anne Dias (2003-2015), with whom he has three children.