American businessman (born 1960) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark 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 and headquarters in Chicago and New York. He is also the part-owner and chairman of the Major League Baseball franchise Los Angeles Dodgers and co-owner of Premier League club Chelsea.[1] He also owns the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL).
Mark Walter | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1, 1960 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Creighton University (B.A.) Northwestern University (J.D.) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Owner of Chelsea Chairman of Los Angeles Dodgers Owner of Professional Women’s Hockey League |
| Spouse | Kimbra Walter |
Mark Walter is a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native and graduate of Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School. He attended Creighton University before earning his Juris Doctor degree at Northwestern University.[1]
In 1996, he co-founded the Liberty Hampshire Company, LLC with Steven E. Johnson, in Chicago.[2] In 2000, he helped found Guggenheim Partners and serves as its CEO.[3]
According to Forbes, Walter has personal stakes in Beyond Meat and Carvana.[1] In 2021, it was reported that Walter had purchased numerous commercial and historic buildings in Crested Butte, Colorado for an unknown purpose.[4][5]
Walter also serves as a trustee or director of several organizations including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which is named after the Guggenheim family,[6] Northwestern University and the Field Museum.[7] In 2011, Walter made a $30,800 contribution to the Democratic National Committee, as well as a $5,000 contribution to Obama for America.[8]
On May 1, 2012, Walter helped lead Guggenheim Baseball Management, a private partnership formed in 2011 to acquire the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the successful purchase of the storied baseball franchise for $2.15 billion. His partners in Guggenheim Baseball Management include Peter Guber, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Stan Kasten, Todd Boehly, and Bobby Patton.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Billie Jean King and her partner Ilana Kloss joined the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group in 2018.[15] Entrepreneurs Alan Smolinisky and Robert L. Plummer joined the ownership group in September 2019.[16][17][18]
On December 10, 2012, in its annual survey of the "50 Most Influential People in Sports Business," the SportsBusiness Journal named Walter the 8th most influential person in sports business due to the historic Dodgers purchase.[19]
Walter and several of his partners also bought the Los Angeles Sparks basketball team in 2014.[20]
He later joined the bid led by his partner Boehly to buy the English football club Chelsea in April 2022.[21]
The 2018-19 PSA World Squash Championships presented by the Walter Family doubled the previous highest purse of $500,000 to $1 million. Each winner was guaranteed the largest paycheck in history. Mark and Kimbra Walter have contracted for four more $500,000 Windy City Opens and four more $1 million World Championships over the next eight years, through 2027.[22]
On June 29, 2023, the Mark Walter Group and BJK Enterprises purchased the intellectual property and other key elements of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), a professional women's hockey league in the United States and Canada.[23] Headed by Walter and Billie Jean King, respectively, both businesses had entered a partnership with the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) in May 2022, with the intent to create a new professional women's ice hockey league in North America.[24] The buyout changed the landscape in North American women's professional hockey, as it resulted in a single league, the Professional Women's Hockey League, with stakeholders from both the PHF and PWHPA. The new league started in Toronto on January 1, 2024, with King performing the ceremonial puck drop.[25] The Mark Walter Group owns the inaugural six teams.[26][27] The league's championship trophy, the Walter Cup, is named after Mark Walter and his wife, Kimbra.[28]
In November 2024, it was announced that TWG Global, the holding company founded by Walter, had reached an agreement with General Motors and Formula One to launch the Cadillac Formula 1 Team for the 2026 F1 season.[29] Reports covering the announcement stated that TWG Global had also become the owner and operator of American racing teams Andretti Global, Spire Motorsports and Wayne Taylor Racing and that Dan Towriss would be CEO of TWG's motorsports businesses.[30]
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