Scott Peppet serves as president of Chai Trust Company, LLC, the private trust company that serves as the family office for Sam Zell and his family. Equity Group Investments (EGI), a division of Chai Trust Company, LLC, provides investment management services on behalf of Chai Trust. Before joining Chai, Scott was a professor at the University of Colorado Law School for nearly 20 years.
Scott serves on the boards of companies in which Chai Trust and the Zell family have significant interests, including Equity LifeStyle Properties, a leading REIT owner of manufactured housing and recreational vehicle properties, and Equity International, Inc., a private investment firm focused on building real estate businesses in emerging markets. He was also a director on the board of Anixter International Inc., a leading global provider of communications, security, and wire and cable products, which sold in 2020 for $4.5 billion.
He has also been involved in entrepreneurship-related philanthropic ventures sponsored by the Zell Family Foundation, including the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, the Zell Fellows Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at Reichman University in Israel. In addition, he writes about family enterprise and generational wealth.
Scott holds a JD degree from Harvard Law School, a master’s in finance from the University of Colorado Boulder – Leeds School of Business, and a BA from Cornell University.