Employees were also entertained by Coldplay, Calvin Harris
Asia-based employees of Citadel and Citadel Securities were flown to Tokyo's Disney resort in late October as a treat from Citadel CEO Ken Griffin to mark both companies' anniversaries.
Bloomberg and Business Insider reported that some 1,200 Asia-based staff and family members were treated to Tokyo Disney Resort, including Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, as part of the three-day celebration.
They were also entertained by musical performances from Maroon 5 and Calvin Harris, according to the reports.
The audience included employees from the companies' offices in Asia-Pacific, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Gurugram. Also in attendance were their families, including 300 children, as well as Zhao Peng, chief executive officer of Citadel Securities.
Griffin paid for the Disney tickets, as well as costs for travel, hotels, food, entertainment, and childcare, according to Insider's report.
The trip was part of a delayed celebration for Citadel's 30th and Citadel Securities' 20th anniversaries - which were both not celebrated in APAC due to restrictions stemming from the pandemic, Bloomberg reported.
"Today, the range of talent we have brought together is simply astonishing. We've created not one, but two firms at the forefront of the industry. Together, we have imagined and built the future of finance," Griffin said as quoted by Insider.
This is not the first time that Griffin dug from his own pockets to celebrate milestones with his employees.
In 2022, Reuters reported that Griffin also treated about 10,000 staff and their families to Walt Disney World in Florida for three days of celebration.
These employees were flown from across the US and Europe, with the CEO also shouldering the costs for hotels, plane tickets, park tickets, and food.
Coldplay, Carly Rae Jepsen, and DJ Diplo were also present to entertain the guests, who came from New York, Houston, Paris, Zurich, and other cities.
Griffin in his speech at the time described his teams as the "most extraordinary" in the history of finance.
"We have an incredible future ahead of us – and I look forward to the chapters yet to be written," he said as quoted by Reuters.
