Ryan spent his childhood in
Wilmette, Illinois, the son of Helen Marie (Bruns) and Donald Robert Ryan, a managing partner at a trade and clearing house.
[1][2][3]One of six siblings, he attended
New Trier High School.
[4] He graduated from high school in 1977 and went on to
Dartmouth College, where he graduated
summa cum laude and
Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his MBA from
Harvard Business School, and his JD from
Harvard Law School, with honors.
[4] After this, he worked at Casa Juan Diego, a refugee camp for Latinos fleeing the Central American civil wars. He worked for
Goldman Sachs as an investment banker and eventual partner, first in New York City, and then in the Chicago branch.
[4]
In 2000, after Goldman Sachs went public, Ryan's net worth was in the tens of millions. He retired from Goldman as a partner and taught for three years at a Bronzeville, Chicago,
parochial school, Hales Franciscan High School.
[4] He left his teaching position to run for the Senate in 2004.