Quick Facts: Guggenheim Partners
| Principal Owner / CEO | Mark Walter |
| Ownership Type | Private (employee/partner owned) |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | New York, NY & Chicago, IL (dual HQ) |
| AUM | ~$325+ billion |
| Other Sports Ownership (Walter) | LA Dodgers (controlling), LA Lakers (majority stake with Boehly, pending deal), Chelsea FC (minority, via separate BlueCo vehicle) |
| Publicly Traded | No |
Who Owns Guggenheim Partners?
Guggenheim Partners is privately held. Mark Walter founded the firm in 1999 with backing from Peter Lawson-Johnson II, an heir to the Guggenheim family name, and remains its CEO and controlling owner today.
The firm doesn’t disclose exact ownership percentages. What’s public is that Walter holds the controlling stake, with the rest spread across senior partners and executives who built the firm alongside him.
Todd Boehly joined two years after founding, in 2001, and spent 14 years at Guggenheim — eventually becoming its president and one of Walter’s closest deal-making partners. He left to build his own holding company, Eldridge Industries, in 2015, and has since become a sports-ownership figure in his own right (Los Angeles Dodgers, a growing Lakers stake, and Chelsea F.C. through the separate BlueCo consortium).
History and Background
Walter started Guggenheim Partners in 1999 with about $5 billion under management. The name draws on the Guggenheim family’s industrial and philanthropic legacy — but the firm is a completely separate entity from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which runs the Guggenheim museums.
Two years in, Walter hired Boehly, a former Credit Suisse First Boston banker, to build out a leveraged-finance team trading loans and junk bonds. That hire helped push Guggenheim from a boutique shop into one of the largest independent financial-services firms in the world, spanning investment banking, asset management, and insurance.
About Mark Walter
Mark Walter is an American billionaire financier best known outside finance circles for his sports holdings. He’s the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, part of a Guggenheim Baseball Management group that bought the team in 2012 — since then, the Dodgers have won World Series titles in 2020 and 2024.
Walter and Boehly jointly bought a 27% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers from Philip Anschutz in 2021. Later reporting points to Walter and Boehly moving toward roughly 85% combined ownership of the Lakers as an ownership transition completes, with Walter positioned as the majority partner.
Guggenheim Energy & Income Fund
Guggenheim Investments — the asset-management arm of Guggenheim Partners — also runs closed-end funds like the Guggenheim Energy & Income Fund, which focuses on income-generating investments in the energy sector.
Funds like this periodically run tender offers, inviting shareholders to sell shares back to the fund near net asset value. Results — how many shares were accepted and at what price — get reported publicly through SEC filings and press releases.
Key Ownership Highlights
- Mark Walter is the founder, CEO, and controlling owner — he started the firm in 1999 with backing from a Guggenheim family heir and has run it ever since.
- Todd Boehly built his sports empire after leaving Guggenheim — 14 years at the firm, rising to president, before founding Eldridge Industries in 2015 and going on to acquire stakes in the Dodgers, Lakers, and Chelsea F.C.
- The firm manages over $325 billion across investment banking, asset management, capital markets, and insurance solutions — all without ever going public.
- Guggenheim Partners has no operational link to the Guggenheim museums — both draw on the same family name, but the museum foundation and the financial firm are entirely separate organizations.
- The firm’s investment vehicles, like the Guggenheim Energy & Income Fund, operate semi-independently — running their own tender offers and shareholder-liquidity events reported separately from the parent firm’s affairs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Guggenheim Partners?
Mark Walter, who founded the firm in 1999, is the CEO and controlling owner. Guggenheim Partners is privately held and does not disclose exact ownership percentages.
Did Todd Boehly co-found Guggenheim Partners?
No. Mark Walter founded Guggenheim Partners alone (with backing from Guggenheim family heir Peter Lawson-Johnson II) in 1999. Todd Boehly joined two years later, in 2001, and rose to president before departing in 2015 to start Eldridge Industries.
Is Guggenheim Partners publicly traded?
No. It’s a privately held firm, and ownership stakes are not disclosed in detail.
What is the Guggenheim Energy & Income Fund?
It’s a closed-end fund managed by Guggenheim Investments, focused on income-generating energy-sector investments. Like similar funds, it periodically runs tender offers letting shareholders sell shares back near net asset value.
Is Guggenheim Partners related to the Guggenheim Museum?
No. They share the Guggenheim family name, but Guggenheim Partners is a separate entity from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which operates the Guggenheim museums.
Related Reading
The Guggenheim/Boehly-led consortium also owns Premier League club Chelsea.