Anthem Management

James Crown, president of the family office and a director at General Dynamics, oversees investment strategy and capital allocation. He leads a lean internal team in Chicago that evaluates direct opportunities and external manager commitments. The office operates with a multi-generational perspective, consistent with a family that has controlled significant wealth for over a century.

Anthem Management functions as the investment office within the broader Crown family enterprise, which includes Henry Crown and Company as a legacy operating and holding entity. James Crown leads both Anthem Management and Henry Crown and Company, creating an integrated structure for the family's investment and business interests. Henry Crown and Company historically held the family's industrial and real-estate assets, while Anthem focuses on financial-portfolio management.

Anthem Management employs a hybrid approach, combining direct investments in real estate and select private companies with commitments to external private-equity funds. The family has historically participated in middle-market buyout partnerships and occasionally co-invests alongside fund managers. This dual strategy allows direct concentration in industrials and real estate while accessing specialized deal flow through external GPs.

The office selectively participates in co-investment opportunities presented by its private-equity fund relationships, leveraging its permanent-capital base to evaluate deals without fund-lifecycle pressure. Co-investments typically align with the family's industrial knowledge in manufacturing, distribution, and business services. Anthem does not publicly solicit co-investment partners and structures these engagements privately.

The fortune originates with Henry Crown, who founded Material Service Corporation in 1919 and built it into a leading aggregates and building-materials supplier. In 1959, Material Service merged with General Dynamics, and the Crown family received a substantial equity stake, becoming the defense contractor's largest shareholder. That position, compounded over six decades of General Dynamics' growth, forms the core of the family's wealth alongside real estate and private-investment returns.