Mark Walter

Mark Richard Walter (born January 1, 1960) is an American businessman and the chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, a privately held global financial services firm with more than $325 billion in assets under management.

Outside investing, Walter is best known for his extensive investments in professional sports. He is the primary owner and chairman of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, which have won two World Series under his leadership. He is also the primary owner of auto racing organization Andretti Global, which operates the Cadillac Formula 1 team, and the Women's National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Sparks. In addition, he owns 20% of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers and 12.7% of BlueCo, a holding company that controls Premier League club Chelsea and Ligue 1 club RC Strasbourg. He also owns the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and sits on the boards of his alma maters Creighton University and Northwestern University.

Personal life

Mark Walter is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and graduated from Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School in 1978. His father, Ed, worked at a local concrete block manufacturing plant. Growing up, he was a fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Walter attended Creighton University, where he studied accounting and graduated with a bachelor's degree in business in 1982. He then graduated from Northwestern University Law School in 1985. Walter gave Northwestern's law school $40 million in 2014 and endowed a law scholarship with his wife in 2015.

Walter is married to Kimbra Walter, an attorney. She attended Northwestern University and Southern Methodist University Law School. They have a daughter and live in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Walter serves as a trustee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Creighton University; Northwestern University; and the Field Museum. Kimbra Walter is a trustee of the Lincoln Park Zoo. Walter and his wife own White Oak Conservation, an animal refuge in Florida. In 2011, Walter made a $30,800 contribution to the Democratic National Committee, as well as a $5,000 contribution to Obama for America.

Business history

Walter is notoriously private, and estimates of his wealth vary wildly. In May 2024, '' Bloomberg Businessweek'' estimated that Walter's net worth was $6 billion. However, in October 2024, Bloomberg raised the estimate to $12 billion, on the assumption that Walter owned 20% of Guggenheim Partners. As of February 2025, ''Forbes'' valued Walter's net worth at $6.1 billion.

In 1996, Walter, Tom Irvin and Steven E. Johnson co-founded the Liberty Hampshire Company. In 2000, he helped found Guggenheim Partners with assistance from Guggenheim family heir Peter Lawson-Johnson II; he now serves as its CEO. Through his work at Guggenheim, he got to know future investment partner Todd Boehly, who spent 14 years with the firm.

Walter is heavily involved in the insurance industry. He owns 21% of TWG Global Holdings, through which he owns 19% of Group 1001, a company that owns various insurance companies. He is the controlling shareholder of Delaware Life Holdings, LLC, and serves on the board of EquiTrust Life. TWG Global also maintains a stake in Carvana.

Walter has a personal stake in Beyond Meat. In addition, in 2021, it was reported that Walter had purchased numerous commercial and historic buildings in Crested Butte, Colorado, where his family frequently vacations, for an unknown purpose.

Sports investments

Business model

According to the ''Los Angeles Times'', Walter utilized financial firepower from various Guggenheim-related insurance funds to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012. The Guggenheim insurers frequently deal in annuities, which provide large amounts of upfront capital but commit the insurers to long-term payment calendars. Walter frequently co-invests with Todd Boehly, a former Guggenheim employee who helped Walter's Guggenheim Partners acquire annuity specialist Security Benefit and bought the company from Guggenheim in 2015. According to Boehly, his investment business creates or buys cash-needy companies, which Security Benefit's cash flow helps grow. Provided that the companies actually turn a profit, these profits can then be used to fund Security Benefit's annuities. Boehly earns money, in part, by buying stakes in the companies, which appreciate in value due to the investment from Security Benefit. ''Forbes'' noted that other investors, like Warren Buffett (whose Berkshire Hathaway company owns insurer GEICO), have used similar tactics to make investments and acquisitions, although it added that Buffett "prefers mundane businesses like truck stops and ketchup."

Because of their long-term payment horizon, insurers that sell annuities are expected to prioritize long-term financial stability. As such, Guggenheim's investments in sports have sometimes been questioned by industry commentators. When Walter bought the Dodgers in 2012, ''The New York Times''' Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote a critical column opining that insurance companies ordinarily do not invest in comparatively risky assets like sports franchises. After insurers reportedly contributed at least $300 million to the Dodgers bid, government regulators investigated the arrangement but declined to take further action. In addition, in 2015, a representative from the Consumer Federation of America said that he would prefer to see a more conservative strategy from the Guggenheim insurers. By controlling multiple insurance companies, Guggenheim freshens up the balance sheets of each insurer by arranging for one insurer to provide reinsurance for the others, a practice that Guggenheim has defended as regulator-approved. Guggenheim has also struck a reinsurance deal with a company owned by a Dodgers investor.

Following early qualms, Guggenheim's financial position was strengthened by high television rights fees, as "live sports programming has proven far more resistant to disruption from the likes of Netflix and Amazon than other entertainment fare such as TV series and films." In buying the Dodgers, Walter intentionally broke with the conventional wisdom that National Football League franchises were more valuable than baseball teams, pointing out that the NFL does not allow teams to own their own television broadcasting rights. In addition, Walter and his business associates have provided collateral to the insurers, including Dodgers shares, Walter's stake in Carvana, and various Wendy's hamburger franchises. Sorkin has acknowledged that Guggenheim's investment principles are not unique, as "many insurance companies use their premiums to make investments ... a slice of which can sometimes even be speculative," and that insurance companies ordinarily comply with the law if they "meet minimum capital requirements as determined by various regulators."

Los Angeles sports teams

Los Angeles Dodgers

According to a family representative, Walter owns 27% of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. In 2012, he led Guggenheim Baseball Management (GBM)'s $2.15 billion purchase of the team. His personal contribution was reportedly $100 million, with Guggenheim Partners-related businesses contributing another $1.213 billion. (The precise contribution from insurance companies has been disputed, with ''The Wall Street Journal'' estimating a contribution of "at least $300 million" and '' LA Weekly'' putting the figure at $100 million.) He had previously looked into buying the Houston Astros.

The price paid for the Dodgers was initially described as "stunning," as ''Forbes'' had valued the team at $1.4 billion and rivals were considering opening bids in the $1.6 billion range. However, journalist Molly Knight later revealed that Steven A. Cohen (who later bought the New York Mets) had already offered Dodgers owner Frank McCourt $2 billion. Walter explained that he opened with his best bid so that McCourt would call off his auction for the Dodgers, which was scheduled for the following day. In March 2024, ''Forbes'' valued the Dodgers at $5.45 billion.

Walter appointed Stan Kasten to run the team. Under Walter, Kasten, and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the team became baseball's "most perennially competitive team," and won the World Series in 2020 and 2024. Less than a year after GBM bought the team, the Dodgers signed the most lucrative television deal in baseball. Aided by the TV deal, the Dodgers significantly increased their payroll, which had previously been constricted by McCourt's cash flow issues. Although the Dodgers have not always been the year's biggest spender, Walter greenlighted spending sprees in 2012 (when the Dodgers "easily" set the MLB single-season payroll record for the next season), 2023 (when the team signed $1.145 billion in contracts), and 2024 (when the team added four nine-figure contracts in fewer than 12 months).

Other members of the Guggenheim consortium include Peter Guber, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Stan Kasten, Todd Boehly, Bobby Patton, Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Alan Smolinisky, and Robert L. Plummer.

Basketball

Walter owns one-sixth of the Los Angeles Sparks women's basketball team, which a group of Dodgers partners bought in 2014. The WNBA's press release described Walter and Magic Johnson as the leaders of the ownership group. After buying the team, Walter commented that Johnson "came to me and said we need to help save the Sparks and keep them in Los Angeles." The Sparks won the 2016 WNBA championship and made the 2017 WNBA Finals. Beyond the Sparks, a Group 1001 subsidiary signed Caitlin Clark as a brand ambassador in March 2024, shortly before the 2024 WNBA draft.

Walter owns 20% of the Los Angeles Lakers men's basketball team. In 2021, he teamed up with Boehly to buy out Philip Anschutz's 27% stake for an estimated $1.35 billion. Walter and Boehly reportedly have a right of first refusal if the Buss family ever sells the team. Walter had previously joined David Geffen, Oprah Winfrey, and Larry Ellison's unsuccessful 2014 bid for the Los Angeles Clippers, which eventually went to Steve Ballmer.

Hockey

Walter once led a consortium that bid for Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the Los Angeles Kings and is the Lakers' landlord, but Philip Anschutz decided to keep the company.

Motorsports

Walter is a co-owner of several motorsport teams through TWG Global and its subsidiary TWG Motorsports:

* Andretti Global (primarily open-wheel racing, such as IndyCar, Indy NXT, Formula E);
* Cadillac Formula 1 Team (Formula One team entering competition in the 2026 Formula One World Championship);
* Spire Motorsports ( stock car and truck racing, such as NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and ARCA);
* Walkinshaw Andretti United ( Supercars Championship team); and
* Wayne Taylor Racing ( sports car racing, such as the IMSA SportsCar Championship).

Through TWG's subsidiaries Group 1001 and Gainbridge, TWG began sponsoring Andretti Global in 2018, when it was still owned by Michael Andretti. In 2019, Gainbridge also became the presenting sponsor of the Indianapolis 500.

European football ownership (Chelsea, Strasbourg)

Walter owns 12.7% of BlueCo, a holding company that bought English Premier League football club Chelsea in 2022 and Ligue 1 club RC Strasbourg Alsace in 2023. BlueCo is primarily owned by Clearlake Capital (represented by Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano), and Eghbali is the primary figure at BlueCo, but Walter's investment partner Todd Boehly has a veto over major decisions. Walter serves on Chelsea's board, but does not play an active role in day-to-day operations.

Women's ice hockey

Walter owns North America's top-level professional women's ice hockey league, the Professional Women's Hockey League. In collaboration with Dodgers partners Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss, Walter formed a unified league by consolidating the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association with the remnants of its rival, the Premier Hockey Federation. The purchase ended the PWHPA's boycott of the PHF, which the PWHPA was pressuring to invest more in the sport.

Walter appointed the Dodgers' Stan Kasten to oversee the league's business operations, and reportedly "committed hundreds of millions of dollars to launch the league," which began play in 2024. The Mark Walter Group owns the inaugural six teams, although the PWHL has not ruled out adding expansion teams. The league's championship trophy is named after Mark and Kimbra Walter.

Squash

Walter and his wife were the primary financial backers of the 2018-19 PSA World Squash Championships; with their help, the event presented its largest winners' purses in history. They continue to back the event, as well as the Windy City Open.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walter, Mark
1960 births
Living people
American chief executives of financial services companies
BlueCo
Chelsea F.C. chairmen and investors
Los Angeles Dodgers executives
Los Angeles Dodgers owners
Major League Baseball executives
Creighton University alumni
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni