Curated By: Business Desk
Last Updated: August 21, 2023, 12:14 IST
While the transgender community is still an ostracised part of society in many countries with a lot left to be achieved to truly empower the community with equal rights, things are better than they were about two decades back. Today, transgender people are achieving things that were deemed impossible for them until a few years back and are slowly but surely, leaving their mark on the world. While in India, eminent personalities like Joyita Mondal, who is the first transgender judge in India, are the flag bearers of change, on a global scale, Jennifer Pritzker, the world’s richest transgender person is doing the same. She is also the only transgender billionaire in the world.
Jennifer Pritzker is a member of the Pritzker family, one of the wealthiest American families and also the clan behind the famed Hyatt Hotels brand. According to Forbes, she is one of the 11 millionaire heirs to the family fortune. The Pritzker family’s total net worth is more than US$36.9 billion, or almost Rs 3.06 lakh crore. Her own net worth stands at Rs 15,800 crore. Hyatt Hotels, a tobacco company, an airline and a number of other business endeavours are the sources of her enormous family’s riches.
You will be amazed to know that this billionaire, who is an inspiration for the transgender community all over the world, also has other attributes to make her the pride of her community. She has even been an Army vet. At the young age of 23, Pritzker enlisted in the US military in 1974. James Pritzker, who later became Jennifer, spent more than 25 years in the US Army before retiring as a Lieutenant.
In addition to inheriting the shares in the upscale Hyatt Hotels, Pritzker founded and serves as CEO of Tawani Enterprises, a private wealth management company. Pritzker came out of her closet in 2013, declaring to the world openly that she is transgender, which makes her the only known billionaire to have come out. Since then, she has appropriated a massive portion of her personal wealth to the development and empowerment of the transgender community.
