Eric Lefkofsky

Eric Lefkofsky
Eric Lefkofsky
Born	Eric Paul Lefkofsky 2 9, 1969
Birthplace	West Bloomfield, Michigan, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman, entrepreneur, investor
Title	Founder and CEO, Tempus AI
Known for	Co-founder of Groupon, founder of Tempus AI, co-founder of Echo Global Logistics, co-founder of InnerWorkings, co-founder of Mediaocean
Education	University of Michigan (BA, JD)
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Kramer
Children	3
Website	[[lefkofsky.com lefkofsky.com] Official site]

Eric Paul Lefkofsky (born September 2, 1969) is an American billionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and investor who has founded or co-founded multiple publicly traded companies across industries ranging from e-commerce and logistics to advertising technology and healthcare. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Tempus AI, a technology company that uses artificial intelligence and data analytics in the healthcare sector. Lefkofsky is perhaps most widely known as the co-founder of Groupon, the daily deals marketplace that became one of the fastest-growing companies in Internet history during its early years. He also co-founded Echo Global Logistics (NASDAQ: ECHO), InnerWorkings (NASDAQ: INWK), and Mediaocean, a major advertising software platform. In addition to his operating roles, Lefkofsky serves as co-managing partner of Lightbank, a Chicago-based venture capital firm. Across a career spanning more than two decades, Lefkofsky has been a central figure in Chicago's technology and entrepreneurial ecosystem, building a series of companies that reached public markets and helping to establish the city as a hub for technology startups. His philanthropic activities, including a pledge to donate the majority of his wealth, have also drawn public attention.

Early Life

Eric Paul Lefkofsky was born on September 2, 1969, in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He grew up in the Metro Detroit area and attended Southfield-Lathrup High School in Southfield, Michigan. Lefkofsky is of Jewish heritage, a background he has discussed publicly on occasion.

Growing up in Michigan, Lefkofsky developed an early interest in business and entrepreneurship. His upbringing in the Detroit metropolitan area, a region historically defined by its manufacturing economy and the automotive industry, shaped his perspective as an entrepreneur who would later seek to build technology-driven businesses. After completing high school at Southfield-Lathrup, Lefkofsky went on to pursue higher education at the University of Michigan, remaining within his home state for both his undergraduate and graduate studies.

Education

Lefkofsky attended the University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He subsequently remained at the university to pursue a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School. The combination of a liberal arts education and legal training would prove influential in his subsequent career as a serial entrepreneur, providing him with a foundation in both analytical thinking and the legal and regulatory frameworks relevant to building and scaling businesses. After completing his law degree, Lefkofsky chose to pursue entrepreneurship rather than a traditional legal career.

Career

Early Ventures and Ha-Lo Industries

Following his education at the University of Michigan, Lefkofsky embarked on an entrepreneurial career that would see him launch and co-found a series of companies over the next two decades. His early business activities were centered in the Chicago area, which became his adopted home and the base for virtually all of his subsequent ventures.

One of Lefkofsky's earliest prominent business involvements was with Ha-Lo Industries, a promotional products company. Through his involvement with Ha-Lo and its Internet-related business activities, Lefkofsky began to establish himself in the Chicago business community during the late 1990s, a period marked by the rapid growth and subsequent collapse of the dot-com bubble. This early period provided Lefkofsky with experience in scaling companies and navigating the challenges of rapidly evolving markets, lessons that would inform his later ventures.

InnerWorkings

Lefkofsky co-founded InnerWorkings, a marketing execution firm that managed print and promotional procurement for large enterprises. The company, which traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol INWK, went public in August 2006. InnerWorkings applied technology-driven solutions to the traditionally fragmented print procurement industry, using proprietary software to connect buyers with a network of suppliers to optimize pricing, quality, and delivery. The company's initial public offering represented one of Lefkofsky's early successes in taking a company from founding to the public markets, establishing a pattern that would recur throughout his career.

Echo Global Logistics

Lefkofsky also co-founded Echo Global Logistics, a provider of technology-enabled transportation and supply chain management services. The company, which traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker ECHO, utilized a proprietary technology platform to connect shippers with carriers across multiple transportation modes. Echo Global Logistics represented another instance of Lefkofsky's approach to entrepreneurship: identifying large, fragmented industries and applying technology to create more efficient marketplaces. The company's successful IPO further cemented Lefkofsky's reputation as a serial entrepreneur capable of building companies to scale.

Groupon

Lefkofsky's most prominent venture, and the one that brought him the greatest public attention, was Groupon. Lefkofsky co-founded the company, which pioneered the concept of online daily deals, offering consumers significant discounts on local goods and services. Groupon grew at an extraordinary pace following its founding, rapidly expanding from its base in Chicago to cities across the United States and eventually to international markets.

The founding of Groupon was connected to a series of prior collaborations between Lefkofsky and his business partners, including Andrew Mason, who served as the company's initial CEO. Lefkofsky and his partners at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) had teamed up on several ventures prior to Groupon, establishing a working relationship that facilitated the new company's launch and growth.

Groupon's initial public offering in November 2011 was one of the most closely watched technology IPOs of the era. The company raised approximately $700 million in its debut on the public markets, giving it a valuation that made it one of the largest Internet IPOs since Google. However, the IPO and the company's pre-IPO period were not without controversy. Media reports noted concerns about certain financial metrics and disclosures in the lead-up to the offering.

In August 2013, following the departure of CEO Andrew Mason, Lefkofsky was appointed as CEO of Groupon. The announcement coincided with the company's second-quarter earnings results, and Groupon's stock price surged approximately 20 percent on the news. As CEO, Lefkofsky oversaw efforts to transition Groupon from its original daily deals model toward a broader local commerce marketplace. His tenure as CEO saw the company work to stabilize its business and adapt to a competitive landscape that had evolved significantly since Groupon's early explosive growth.

Lefkofsky's business profile during the Groupon era was documented by Bloomberg Businessweek, which noted his role as a key figure in the company's leadership structure and his broader portfolio of business interests.

Mediaocean

Lefkofsky co-founded Mediaocean, an advertising software platform formed through the merger of two major media buying and planning companies. The creation of Mediaocean was approved by regulators, and the combined entity became one of the dominant platforms for media buying, planning, and financial management in the advertising industry. Mediaocean's platform processes tens of billions of dollars in annual advertising spend, serving as the financial backbone for much of the global advertising industry. The company's founding represented another instance of Lefkofsky's strategy of applying technology to transform large, established industries.

Lightbank

In addition to his operating company roles, Lefkofsky serves as co-managing partner of Lightbank, a Chicago-based venture capital firm. Through Lightbank, Lefkofsky invests in early-stage technology companies across a range of sectors, including healthcare, financial technology, and enterprise software. The firm has backed numerous startups and has played a role in building Chicago's technology startup ecosystem. Lightbank's investment thesis has generally focused on technology-enabled businesses that address large market opportunities, reflecting the same approach that has guided Lefkofsky's own company-building efforts.

Tempus AI

Lefkofsky's most recent major venture is Tempus AI, a technology company that applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to healthcare and life sciences. Lefkofsky founded the company and serves as its CEO. Tempus AI builds and operates one of the largest libraries of clinical and molecular data, using AI to analyze information and provide insights to physicians, researchers, and healthcare systems. The company's platform is used to personalize treatment decisions, particularly in oncology and other complex disease areas.

In June 2024, Tempus AI went public, marking the fourth IPO for a company founded or co-founded by Lefkofsky. The IPO attracted attention both for the scale of the company's ambitions in the healthcare AI space and for Lefkofsky's track record of building companies to the public markets. Tempus AI's debut on the NASDAQ represented a significant milestone in the growing intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare, a sector that has attracted substantial investment and regulatory attention.

The founding of Tempus has been connected to personal motivations. Lefkofsky has discussed how experiences with cancer within his family influenced his decision to apply technology and data science to improving healthcare outcomes, directing his entrepreneurial energy toward what he viewed as one of the most consequential applications of modern technology.

Personal Life

Lefkofsky is married to Elizabeth Kramer, and the couple has three children. The family is based in Chicago, Illinois, where Lefkofsky has built the majority of his business career. In 2015, it was reported that Lefkofsky was associated with a significant residential real estate transaction in Chicago, reflecting the family's deep roots in the city.

Lefkofsky and his wife have been active in philanthropy. In December 2013, the couple publicly pledged to donate at least half of their wealth to charitable causes, joining the broader movement of high-profile billionaires making similar commitments. Their philanthropic interests have spanned healthcare, education, and the arts in the Chicago area.

Elizabeth Kramer Lefkofsky's mother, Mary Kramer, was also a figure in the Chicago community.

Recognition

Lefkofsky's career has drawn attention from business and media organizations. His role in co-founding Groupon, one of the most discussed technology companies of the early 2010s, placed him in the public eye and led to extensive media coverage of his business activities. The successful IPOs of multiple companies he founded or co-founded — InnerWorkings, Echo Global Logistics, Groupon, and Tempus AI — have been noted as a distinctive achievement in the technology and entrepreneurial world.

In November 2024, Lefkofsky was named chairman of the board of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The appointment reflected his prominence in Chicago's civic and cultural life and his engagement with institutions beyond the technology sector.

Lefkofsky has been recognized by the University of Michigan for his accomplishments as an alumnus, and he has been featured in various business publications and rankings over the course of his career. His pledge, alongside his wife, to donate the majority of their wealth to charity has also been widely reported.

Legacy

Lefkofsky's career is notable for the number of companies he has founded or co-founded that have reached the public markets. With four IPOs to his name — InnerWorkings, Echo Global Logistics, Groupon, and Tempus AI — he is among a small group of entrepreneurs to have achieved this distinction. Each of these companies applied technology to address inefficiencies in large, established industries: print procurement, transportation logistics, local commerce, and healthcare data analytics, respectively.

His impact on the Chicago technology ecosystem has been substantial. Through his company-building activities and his investments via Lightbank, Lefkofsky has helped to attract talent, capital, and attention to Chicago as a center for technology entrepreneurship. Groupon's rapid growth in the early 2010s, in particular, helped to catalyze a broader wave of technology startup activity in the city, and the company's alumni have gone on to found or lead numerous other ventures in the region.

Lefkofsky's transition from Groupon to Tempus AI marked a shift in focus from consumer-facing e-commerce to healthcare technology, an area with potentially far-reaching implications. Tempus AI's efforts to apply artificial intelligence to clinical decision-making and drug discovery represent an application of the data-driven, technology-first approach that has characterized Lefkofsky's career, now directed toward one of the most complex and consequential sectors of the economy.

His philanthropic commitments, including the pledge to donate at least half of his wealth, and his civic engagement, including his role as chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago, reflect an engagement with public life that extends beyond his business activities. Lefkofsky's career, taken as a whole, illustrates a model of serial entrepreneurship in which technology is applied across diverse industries to build companies of significant scale.