Our People

Biography

James Schine Crown is President of Henry Crown and Company, a privately owned investment company which invests in public and private securities, real estate and operating companies. He is a director of General Dynamics Corporation, JPMorgan Chase and Sara Lee Corporation. Mr. Crown is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago.  He is also a trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry and the Orchestral Association.

Jim Crown was born in Chicago in 1953, the son of Lester and Renée (Schine) Crown. Mr. Crown earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1976 from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He received his law degree in 1980 from Stanford Law School, where he was projects editor of the Stanford Law Review and a member of the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation.

Upon graduating, Mr. Crown joined Salomon Brothers Inc, in New York City, as an associate. He became a vice president of the Capital Markets Service Group in January 1983. In April 1985 he returned to Chicago to join his family's investment firm.

Mr. Crown is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association. Mr. Crown has been married to the former Paula Hannaway since 1985. She was also a vice president of Salomon Brothers, and is currently working at Henry Crown and Company. Mrs. Crown is a Trustee of the Children's Memorial Medical Center, Conservation International, the Museum of Modern Art, the Aspen Music Festival, Duke University, the Latin School of Chicago, Vice Chair of the Board of High Jump and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community Trust. She is on the Board of Advisors of Nasher Museum of Art and serves on the Women's Boards of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the University of Chicago.  They have four children.