One of Chicago’s wealthiest families has named new leaders and appointed a board for the dynasty’s business after the death of Jim Crown at a racetrack accident in 2023.
Bill Crown, Jim’s first cousin, will replace him as president and CEO of Henry Crown & Co., according to a statement released Friday. Jim's brother Steve Crown will serve as executive chairman of a board of directors that will have five members.
A year on, Chicago is still grappling with the void that Jim Crown's death created
The new company structure comes after almost a decade of talks and family planning by the Crowns. It also follows the death of Jim Crown, the longest-serving board member of JPMorgan Chase & Co., in a car accident at the Aspen Motorsports Park in Colorado on his 70th birthday.
The board will now have three nonfamily members.
“For many years, our family and our advisers have been discussing, designing and planning a governance structure that supports the continued growth of our family,” said Lester Crown, the family company’s chairman emeritus. “The business board is key to that evolution.”
Lester Crown’s father, Henry Crown, amassed his fortune through Material Service Corp., which he founded with his brothers Irving and Sol in 1919 and built to become one of the largest cement distributors in the U.S. General Dynamics, one of the country’s largest defense contractors, later acquired Material Services. Lester Crown sat on its board from 1974 to 2006.
Bill Crown joined the family business in 1993 and served in various leadership positions including co-president. Steve was also co-president, and both helped lead the family business alongside Jim Crown.
The nonfamily board members are Roger Ferguson, former CEO of TIAA; Craig Martin, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP; and Anne Mulcahy, former chairman and CEO of Xerox.
Through the family’s philanthropy, the Crown name adorns Chicago institutions including the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place, the Henry Crown Space Center at the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry and buildings at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.