GREEN RANKING FOR 2009
Ranking: 42=
Worth: £800m
Green investment: Electric cars

Nicholas Pritzker’s grandfather was a Chicago lawyer who went into business, creating the Hyatt hotel chain and the industrial group Marmon. The Pritzker family became hugely rich as a result. But it has been plagued by dynastic feuding and the empire has been split 11 ways. Nicholas Pritzker’s share was put at £1 billion by Forbes in its October 2008 list of the 400 richest Americans. We reckon that will have slipped to £800m in the recession. This is still enough for Pritzker to support favoured environmental causes and investments. He was a backer in 2006 of the electric car firm Tesla Motors. In 1996 he set up a community foundation to support environmental causes in Chicago funded from the profits of a local Hyatt casino. He also supports Conservation International, the group that helps to conserve land and preserve species.