Even for the scion of a billionaire family, Todd Ricketts has had an eclectic career — trader in a securities industry startup, part-owner of the Chicago Cubs, proprietor of a suburban bike shop and even guest star on a reality show.
But through it all, Ricketts has maintained unwavering devotion to his family, and to Republican causes.
On Wednesday, those forces came together when President-elect Donald J. Trump selected Ricketts, a Nebraska native who now lives in Wilmette, to be deputy commerce secretary. Ricketts would work under Wilbur Ross Jr., a billionaire investor known for turning around troubled companies, who was picked for commerce secretary.
Trump also chose Steven Mnuchin, a former partner at Goldman Sachs and the national finance chairman of the Trump campaign, to be his secretary of the Treasury. All three must be confirmed by the Senate.
“This team will be instrumental in implementing the president-elect’s America First economic plan that will create more than 25 million jobs over the next decade,” Trump’s transition team wrote in a news release.
If nothing else, the nomination of Ricketts, 47, represents a sharp turnaround in his family’s political alliances.
Last year, Joe Ricketts, the patriarch of the family and founder of TD Ameritrade, helped finance the Our Principles political action committee, an anti-Trump effort that sought to derail the candidate’s push for the GOP nomination. That prompted Trump to lash out at the family on Twitter in February.
At that time, many of the Rickettses were heavily invested in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s bid for the White House. Todd Ricketts was a donor to a Walker-aligned super PAC, and the family’s matriarch, Marlene Ricketts of Nebraska, donated $5 million to it. Walker withdrew from the race in September 2015.
But Todd Ricketts’ allegiance shifted as Trump tightened his grip on the nomination.
In July, Ricketts was an at-large delegate for Trump in the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention and took part in fundraisers for his presidential candidacy.
He also became an influential factor for two groups that backed Trump: the Future45 super political action committee and the related 45 Committee, which does not have to disclose its donors.
Now, he finds himself on the cusp of joining the president-elect’s administration.
A request for an interview with Ricketts was denied by a spokesman. In a statement, Ricketts said, “Advancing practical policies that promote economic opportunity is critical to making America great again.”
His journey, though, was an unlikely one. Raised in Omaha as the youngest of four children, Ricketts, like his siblings, moved to Chicago to attend college. He earned a bachelor’s in economics at Loyola University and later attended the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
But he left Booth before finishing his MBA requirements to work as a trader at a New York-based startup, Knight Securities.
Later, he went to work with his family’s businesses, Ameritrade and Incapital, the latter started by his brother Tom.
In recent years, he has carved a more independent path, as the owner of Higher Gear, a bicycle store in Wilmette, a northern suburb where he lives with his wife, Sylvie Legere, and three children.
Todd Ricketts also serves in varied civic roles, joining neighbors four years ago to revive the worn-out Evanston Wilmette Community Golf Course, and serving as a board member of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, which was founded by the late historian Stephen Ambrose.
All the while, he has maintained strong ties with his siblings, living in Wilmette near his brother Tom and sister Laura, the Democrat in the family. He remains a board member of what is now TD Ameritrade.
The only sibling not in Wilmette is his oldest brother, Pete, a fellow Republican who is governor of Nebraska and who hailed his brother’s selection in a statement Wednesday: “He will use his experience in small, medium, and large businesses to help President-elect Donald Trump’s administration encourage job growth as well as cut regulation and red tape for entrepreneurs and job creators.”
The potential role represents a significant leap for Todd Ricketts, who has not been as high-profile as his siblings.
In 2009, the Ricketts family, led by Tom, bought the Chicago Cubs from the bankrupt Tribune Co. for $845 million. Todd, along with his brothers and sister, serves on the team’s board.
Since the family’s purchase, the Cubs have staged a dramatic turnaround, both on the field and off, capped this fall by their first World Series championship since 1908.
But the purchase of the team has also given Todd Ricketts a public platform, a stage he has used to promote the team and raise his own profile.
In 2010, he appeared in an episode of “Undercover Boss,” a reality television show in which senior executives in a company work undercover in menial jobs to better understand a company’s operations.
Ricketts grew a beard, wore fake glasses and pretended to be a roofer to get a job with the Cubs. He cleaned toilets, among other tasks, only to be dismissed.
Friends and associates describe him as unassuming and unflappable.
“You’ll see him at 2 p.m. at a Cubs game on TV and at 4:30, he’s trick-or-treating with the kids,” said neighbor John Powers, who serves with Ricketts on the board of the not-for-profit that runs the public golf course.
He recalls one morning when he and Ricketts were standing with their kids, waiting for the school bus to arrive. They were discussing the golf course management, Powers said, when Ricketts asked, “Hey, what do you think about Joe Maddon?”
“I said, ‘I’m not so sure he’d be right for the golf course,’ and Todd said, ‘No, I mean for the Cubs,'” Powers recounted, laughing.
And he is no stranger to Washington, D.C., where he has a home, said Brian Baker, president and general counsel of Ending Spending, an organization founded by Joe Ricketts that advocates for reduced government spending.
As CEO of the group, Todd Ricketts “makes regular trips to Washington to meet with policymakers — with Republicans, Democrats, think tanks,” Baker said.
Still, Ricketts will face enormous challenges at the Commerce Department.
It is an agency with almost 47,000 employees in 50 states and more than 86 foreign countries. It takes in the Census Bureau, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the International Trade Administration and the National Weather Service, among other entities.
Bill Daley, commerce chief from 1997 to 2000, said Wednesday that as the department’s top boss he visited 45 countries, many of them with President Bill Clinton.
Daley has said the frequent travel left his deputy secretary to become the “inside guy” who helped manage the nuts and bolts of the department and its employees.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said having Ricketts in the Commerce Department will be helpful as Chicago looks for federal support because they have dealt with each other before, while also noting, “Obviously Mr. Ricketts and I don’t agree on policy.
“I know him, we’ll have a relationship and a dialogue that will be good for the city of Chicago, good for the state,” the mayor said after the City Council meeting.
Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson and John Byrne contributed.
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