Redeem now - Billionaire Ken Griffin treated Citadel employees and their families to a weekend at Disney World.
- Guests had part of Epcot all to themselves, and Coldplay performed.
- The 30th-anniversary event for Citadel Securities is one of many lavish events for the firm.
Citadel has plenty of reasons to celebrate this year, and the hedge fund giant is doing it in style.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.This weekend, founder Ken Griffin treated Citadel and Citadel Securities' employees and their partners and children to an all-inclusive weekend in Disney World. Some 10,000 people attended the event, and about a quarter were children. The billionaire, worth $32.3 billion by Forbes' estimate, footed the bill for hotel, food, park tickets to the "happiest place on earth" as well as Universal Studios, and travel.
The firms, which moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miami earlier this year, have roughly 4,000 employees. Employees from the US, Canada, and Europe were invited and came from as far as Toronto and Zurich to revel in Orlando, Florida, according to spokesperson Zia Ahmed. Citadel's Asia-Pacific employees will have a separate event in the second half of next year.
The Disney World extravaganza was the 30th-anniversary celebration of market maker and trading firm Citadel Securities, and a belated event for hedge fund Citadel's 30th anniversary, which was in 2020.
It also caps off a stellar year for the $50 billion fund, which gained 30.7% year-to-date as of November 1, beating rivals like Millennium and D.E. Shaw.
The festivities kicked off on Friday with an exclusive night at Epcot, where employees had the space and technology-themed World Discovery segment of the park all to themselves, including the "Guardians of the Galaxy" ride introduced this year. Saturday's anniversary party had a concert headlined by Coldplay, which featured singer Carly Rae Jepsen and DJ Diplo.
The firm is known for holding grand events for its employees. Citadel's 50-plus corporate events this year included a Halloween party at famous New York City eatery Cipriani with more than 1,000 employees and guests, matches at Wimbledon, buying out a theater for a screening of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
This past June, Citadel also rented out the Four Seasons in Fort Lauderdale for an off-site summit with 290 interns. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, the firm created a bubble for interns by renting an entire resort in Kohler, Wisconsin, and another bubble at the Four Seasons for Citadel Securities' trading floor.
In June, Griffin announced he was moving his firms' headquarters to Miami, Florida, from Chicago, where it's been based since 1990. He cited his employees' safety as a reason to move to the Sunshine state. Griffin, a Florida native, now lives in Miami.
Griffin is a strong supporter of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who stripped Disney of its self-governing status earlier this year after the entertainment giant opposed a law banning educators from discussing gender and sexuality with young students. (Griffin has said he did not agree with the Florida governor going after Disney's tax status). DeSantis has yet to announce a presidential campaign, but Griffin, a prominent donor to the Republican party, has said he would support his run.
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