- Source of Wealth: Business – Internet (Tempus and Groupon)
- Age: 50
- Birth Place: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
- Marital Status: Married (Elizabeth Kramer)
- Full Name: Eric Paul Lefkofsky
- Nationality: American
- Date of Birth: September 2, 1969
- Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
- Occupation: Founder and CEO of Tempus and Co-founder of Groupon
- Education: University of Michigan
- Children: 3
American serial entrepreneur, Eric Paul Lefkofsky, has an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion. The Chicago investor is the co-founder and 21% owner of the fastest-growing company ever, Web phenom Groupon, which updates its online audience about deep discounts on products and services. Eric Lefkofsky seeded Groupon with its first $1 million in 2008, shot to business fame in June 2011 when the e-commerce company filed for one of the most hotly anticipated IPOs of the year. Lefkofsky was listed as Groupon’s largest shareholder, with 21% of the shares–three times as much as Andrew Mason, the CEO and public face of the company.
His venture fund, Lightbank, has stakes in 11 companies, including two now public ones: Innerworkings and Echo Global Logistics. He is also the author of Accelerated Disruption and an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Lefkofsky grew up in the Detroit suburbs, attended the University of Michigan and then Michigan’s law school. Started business in college selling carpet scraps to incoming freshmen on the move-in day during the fall. By his senior year, he had 10 universities under contract.