Joseph Mansueto is the founder and executive chairman of the independent investment research firm, Morningstar. He stepped down as CEO in 2017 and now owns just under half of the firm.
Mansueto founded Morningstar in 1984 as a research firm that would provide independent evaluations of mutual funds to individual and professional investors. He started the company from his home with $80,000 in savings.
Morningstar.com launched in 1997 and has been named a top-10 investment website by Barron's, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, SmartMoney, Money Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. By 2000, Morningstar had grown under Mansueto’s leadership to a $50 million company revolutionizing the mutual funds industry.
The company went public in May 2005, and it has twice been named to Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. SmartMoney Magazine recognized Mansueto among its “SmartMoney Power 30” in 2007, an annual list of the most powerful forces in business and finance.
Mansueto has served as chairman of the board of directors from the company’s inception in 1984, and as CEO from 1984 to 1996 and again from 2000 to 2016. By 2011, his majority ownership in Morningstar earned him a spot on Forbes’ World's Billionaires list, with a net worth of $1.6 billion at the time of publication. As of late 2020, his net worth sat around $4.7 billion.
In 2008, Mansueto and his wife, Rika, pledged $25 million toward the expansion of the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. The new wing, named the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, was completed in 2011.
In 2016, the couple announced a $35 million donation for the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago. They have also committed to The Giving Pledge, committing to give away at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. Mansueto also serves on the board of directors for Whole Foods Market, Inc.
Mansueto holds his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Chicago. He lives in Chicago with his wife and their three children.