John Patrick Grayken (born June 1956) is an American-born Irish billionaire financier, the founder and chairman of the private equity firm Lone Star Funds. According to the ''

Bloomberg Billionaires Index The ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people based on their net worth. It draws information from "action in the stock market, economic indicators and news reports", features a p ...

'' in 2021, Grayken is worth $8.7 billion, an increase of $592 million from 2020.

Early life

John Patrick Grayken was born in June 1956, and was brought up in

Cohasset, Massachusetts Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 8,381. History Cohasset was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to European colonization, from whom English c ...

, a suburb of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. He received a BA degree in economics from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1982.

Career

Grayken first worked at

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

, before joining the Texas billionaire

Robert Bass Robert Muse Bass (born 19 March 1948) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He was the chairman of Aerion Corporation, an American aerospace firm in Reno, Nevada. In 2018 he had a net worth of $5 billion. Bass has served on ...

. Grayken founded Lone Star in 1995. In 1999, Grayken became an Irish citizen, "for tax purposes", renouncing his American citizenship.

Philanthropy

In March 2017, Eilene and John Grayken gave a $25 million gift to the

Boston Medical Center Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a non-profit 514-bed academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest safety-net hospital and Level I trauma center in New England. BMC employs 1,466 physicians—including 711 residents and f ...

(BMC) to create the BMC Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine. The gift is the largest donation in BMC's history. While the couple usually makes their donations anonymously, they explained that they were going public this time to de-stigmatize addiction and to encourage others to do so as well. In April 2017, John P. Grayken gave a leadership gift to the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

of the

to fund the Grayken Program in International Real Estate at the Wharton School. In February 2019, Grayken and his wife made a $10 million gift to create the Grayken Center for Treatment at South Shore Health, a non-profit, charitable health system in southeastern Massachusetts offering outpatient treatment for substance use disorders. The Center also serves pregnant and post-partum women facing behavioral health and substance use disorders. In October of that year, Grayken matched donations to the Hart Speech Foundation for the treatment of stutters and other speech impediments. Grayken and his wife made a 2022 donation of £50 million to the

Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospit ...

, earmarking the funds to find new and better ways to treat childhood illnesses.

Personal life

Grayken divorced his first wife soon after he became a "tax refugee"; they reunited within a month of the final divorce decree, but divorced again six months later. Grayken later married actress Eilene Davidson in London, a British theatre producer and former actress. They have four children. As of 2015, they owned Pyrford Court, Surrey, which features prominently in the 1976 movie, ''

The Omen ''The Omen'' is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spen ...

''. Pyrford Court is a Grade II listed 15-bedroom house, built in 1910 for

Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh, (29 March 1874 – 14 September 1967) was an Anglo-Irish businessman, politician, oarsman and philanthropist. Born in London, he was the eldest son of Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh. ...

. As of 2017, they live in a $70 million home in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area. Chelsea histori ...

, purchased through a company in Bermuda.

References

External links

Profile
at Lone Star Funds {{DEFAULTSORT:Grayken, John 1956 births Living people Irish billionaires Irish financial businesspeople Irish investors Naturalised citizens of Ireland People from Cohasset, Massachusetts American emigrants to Ireland University of Pennsylvania alumni Harvard Business School alumni Former United States citizens