The Art Institute has named Chicago tech billionaire and Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky as its new board chairman, putting the serial entrepreneur in charge of overseeing the museum, the school and an ambitious plan to usher in an era of new development at the historic South Michigan Avenue campus.
Lefkofsky, 55, who joined the Art Institute board in 2008 — the same year he launched the daily deals website — was elected Tuesday to succeed Denise Gardner as chair. The e-commerce pioneer will help lead a potentially transformative bricks-and-mortar expansion that has yet to break ground.
“My job over the next several years is to hopefully be as good a steward of the institution as the people that came before, and really to make sure that we leave things in a better place than when we found them,” Lefkofsky told the Tribune. “I’m going to take my time and work with the team and make sure that all the current projects they have in flight, which include expanding the campus, all come to fruition, hopefully under my tenure.”
A prominent civic leader and entrepreneur who helped build the post-millennium Chicago tech ecosystem, Lefkofsky becomes chairman at a pivotal time for the 145-year-old Art Institute. The second-largest art museum in North America, which features a collection of nearly 300,000 works, is planning to get even bigger by adding several major buildings to its sprawling lakefront campus.
Lefkofsky takes the reins from Gardner, a marketing executive who became the first Black chairwoman at the Art Institute, in 2021. During her three-year tenure, Gardner navigated formidable challenges, including pandemic disruption, layoffs and labor strife, which led to the unionization of the museum’s workforce. She also helped raise $200 million, including a $75 million gift to build a new contemporary art gallery.
“I am incredibly proud of the work we have done over the past three years to position the Art Institute for sustained success,” Gardner said in a news release. “For me personally, now is the right time to take a step back while continuing to serve on the board and I look forward to supporting Eric and his vision for the future.”
Job one for Lefkofsky may be finalizing plans for the new three-story gallery, and where it will go.
In September, the Art Institute announced a $75 million gift to create the Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed Building, which will house the museum’s collection of late 19th century modern and contemporary art.
While a location has yet to be determined, it will be the first new structure on the 17-acre site since opening the Modern Wing in 2009, a 264,000-square-foot building overlooking Millennium Park.
The new gallery is part of a broader master plan crafted by Barcelona architectural firm Barozzi Veiga, which was hired in 2019 to expand the museum’s 1 million square feet of space. It is envisioned as the first of several new buildings to join the eight existing structures spread across the campus, a longtime cultural nexus and tourist magnet for Chicago.
The centerpiece of the Art Institute is a classical Beaux Arts building built in 1893 for the World’s Columbian Exposition, which was designed by Boston architectural firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. The lions on pedestals guarding the South Michigan Avenue entrance were added the following year.
Making the new and old pieces fit together will be a challenge and an opportunity, Lefkofsky said.
“When you have one of the top cultural institutions in the world, which we have with the Art Institute, and you have this incredible campus that is really a treasure for the city, to the extent you’re fortunate enough to be able to expand upon it, and you can do so in a way that’s sustainable, it can be really wonderful,” Lefkofsky said.
A Detroit native, Lefkofsky earned a bachelor’s and a law degree at the University of Michigan before making his mark on the burgeoning Chicago tech scene at the dawn of the new millennium.
Lefkofsky, who made his fortune as co-founder of Chicago-based daily deals site Groupon in 2008, is ranked the 606th richest person in the world with a net worth of $5.5 billion, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list.
Lefkosfsky also co-founded venture capital firm Lightbank and serves as the CEO of Tempus, a Chicago-based, AI-powered healthcare technology company he co-founded nearly a decade ago to help treat cancer and other diseases.
Groupon, which built its business on daily online deals featuring deep discounts on everything from laser hair removal to kickboxing classes, was valued at $16 billion when it went public in 2011. In recent years it has been downsizing and retooling its business model amid ongoing revenue declines. On Tuesday, the company reported a 9% revenue drop in the third quarter, hammering the stock and shrinking its market cap to about $450 million.
In January, Groupon vacated its massive headquarters at 600 W. Chicago Ave. and moved to smaller digs at the Leo Burnett building at 35 W. Wacker Drive.
Once its largest shareholder with a 40% stake, Lefkofsky stepped down from an active leadership role at Groupon in 2015 and began paring his holdings, which currently stand at about 15%, he said.
“I’m no longer on the board, but I continue to be a large shareholder, and I continue to wish nothing but good things for the company,” Lefkofsky said.
Lefkofsky has remained a prominent civic leader in Chicago, serving on a number of boards, including the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern Medicine. He has been on the Art Institute board for more than 15 years, serving as vice chair since 2023.
“Eric has been a steadfast collaborator and partner to the museum and taking on this leadership role is a natural progression in his tenure on the board,” James Rondeau, the Art Institute’s president and director, said in a news release. “His leadership will be essential as we plan for the future of the museum’s campus.”
Lefkofsky, who lives on the North Shore, became an avid collector of contemporary art about 20 years ago. He was encouraged to get involved with the Art Institute board by Louis Susman, a retired Chicago investment banker who went on to become ambassador to the United Kingdom during the Obama administration.
As a kid, his collectible interest ran more toward baseball cards, but Lefkofsky’s success as a tech entrepreneur enabled both his passion for art and the opportunity ahead to help guide the Art Institute.
“I didn’t collect art when I was young,” Lefkofsky said. “I didn’t have the money to buy art, barely baseball cards.”
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
