Former Biotech CEO Walbert Bought $13.5M Lake Geneva Home

Timothy P. Walbert, former CEO of biotechnology company Horizon Therapeutics, is behind one of the largest deals of the year in ritzy Lake Geneva.

Walbert and his wife, Keli, paid $13.5 million in June for the six-bedroom, 8,756-square-foot mansion on Loramoor Drive in an off-market deal, the Chicago Tribune reported. David Curry of Geneva Lakefront Realty represented the buyers and sellers, John and Sarah Cobb.

At the time, the closing price surpassed all Lake Geneva sales in 2023, until a waterfront mansion changed hands for $16.5 million in September. The Walberts’ purchase was for a time also the priciest in Lake Geneva since October 2022, when a 12,280-square-foot home at W3415 Snake Road sold for $17 million.

While Lake Geneva isn’t technically part of the Chicago metropolitan area despite its allure among wealthy city dwellers, the transaction tops the most expensive sale in Chicagoland of 2023, topping RxBar co-founder Jared Smith’s $12.5 million purchase of a 12,000-square-foot Winnetka mansion.

The Cobbs quietly listed their Loramoor Drive estate for $14 million in April. It’s different than for Cook County deals of homes on Lake Michigan’s shoreline, where listings priced north of eight figures typically undergo at least one big price chop before landing a buyer.

John Cobb is a retired executive at Ventas, a Chicago-based real estate investment trust. Walbert, recognized for launching major drugs like Humira during his tenure at Abbott Laboratories and later leading Horizon Therapeutics, sold the biotech company to Amgen for $28 billion earlier this year. The couple, who already own property in Lake Geneva, used a Northbrook-based land trust for this acquisition.

The mansion, designed by Evanston architectural firm Morgante Wilson Architects in 2018, has seven-and-a-half bathrooms and features including a suspended hallway connecting bedroom wings. The 1.4-acre property also includes a swimming pool, pier and two boat slips, the publication reported.

— Quinn Donoghue