Bruce Stanley Kovner (born 1945) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist. He is chairman of CAM Capital, which he established in January 2012 to manage his investment, trading and business activities. From 1983 through 2011, Kovner was founder and chairman of

Caxton Associates Caxton Associates is a global macro hedge fund founded by Bruce Kovner in 1983 in New York City. The firm's headquarters are located in London, and also has offices in New York, Sydney, Australia and Princeton, New Jersey. Caxton Associates ident ...

, a diversified trading company. As of April 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$6.2 billion. Kovner is chairman of the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

and vice chairman of

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

. He is on the boards of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

,"Board of Directors,"
https://www.metopera.org/ MetOpera.org], retrieved June 16, 2020. and

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. ...

."Board of Trustees,"
https://www.aei.org/ aei.org], retrieved June 18, 2020.

Early life and education

Bruce Stanley Kovner was born in New York City's

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

borough to Jewish parents Isidore Kovner, an engineer who briefly played semi-professional football, and his wife, Sophie. Kovner spent his early years in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn with his parents and three siblings before the family relocated to suburban Los Angeles in 1953. Early on, he was a high achiever, becoming a Merit Scholar. He was the student-body president of

Van Nuys High School Van Nuys High School (VNHS) is a public high school in the Van Nuys district of Los Angeles, belonging to the Los Angeles Unified School District: District 2. The school is home to a Residential Program and three Magnet Programs—Math/Science, ...

at 16, and an accomplished

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and pianist. Kovner went to

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

starting in 1962, a time marred by the

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

of his mother back in his family's

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, t ...

home in 1965. Nonetheless, he was considered a good student and was well liked by his classmates. Kovner stayed at Harvard, studying

political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

at the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

, notably under prominent conservative scholar

Edward C. Banfield Edward Christie Banfield (November 19, 1916 – September 30, 1999) was an American political scientist, best known as the author of ''The Moral Basis of a Backward Society'' (1958), and ''The Unheavenly City'' (1970). His work was foundational to ...

. Kovner did not finish his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

, but continued his studies at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government until 1970. Over the next few years, he engaged in a number of eclectic efforts; he worked on political campaigns, studied the

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

, was a writer, and a cab driver. It was during the latter occupation, not long after his marriage to now ex-wife Sarah Peter, that he discovered

commodities trading A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing i ...

Investment career

Kovner's first trade was in 1977 for $3,000, borrowed against his MasterCard, in

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...

s. Realizing growth to $40,000, he then watched the contract drop to $23,000 before selling. He later claimed that this first, nerve-racking trade taught him the importance of risk management. In his eventual role as a trader under Michael Marcus at

Commodities Corporation Commodities Corporation (frequently referred to as "CC") was a financial services company, based in Princeton, New Jersey that traded actively across various commodities. The firm was noted as one of the leading commodity and futures trading firm ...

(now part of

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

), he purportedly made millions and gained widespread respect as an objective and sober trader. This ultimately led to the establishment of

, in 1983, which at its peak managed over $14B in capital and has been closed to new investors since 1992. Kovner was a director of Synta Pharmaceuticals from 2002 to 2016. In September 2011, Kovner announced his retirement from his position as CEO at Caxton, succeeded by Andrew Law. Kovner established CAM Capital in January 2012 to manage his investment, trading, and business activities.

Philanthropy and political donations

Kovner established The Kovner Foundation in 1996 to support organizations that promote excellence in the arts and education, initiatives that defend private enterprise and protect individual rights, and scholarly studies and research that strengthen American democratic principles. A long-time supporter of The Juilliard School, Kovner has been chairman of the School's board since 2001. In 2013 Bruce and his wife, Suzie Kovner, endowed the Kovner Fellowship Program at Juilliard with a gift of $60 million - the largest one-time gift to the school. In 2012 Kovner donated $20 million to Juilliard to endow the school's graduate program in historical performance. Kovner also donated a collection of music manuscripts to Juilliard in 2006. Kovner is vice chairman of Lincoln Center for the performing arts as well as a major funder of the redevelopment of Lincoln Center. He is also managing director of the Metropolitan Opera's board of directors. Kovner founded and was chairman of the School Choice Scholarships Foundation, which awarded scholarships to financially disadvantaged youth in New York City. He has actively supported other charter schools, such as the

Success Academy Charter Schools Success Academy Charter Schools, originally Harlem Success Academy, is a charter school operator in New York City. Eva Moskowitz, a former city council member for the Upper East Side, is its founder and CEO. It has 47 schools in the New York ar ...

, where his wife Suzie serves on the board. Kovner has contributed extensively to

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

causes. In January 2012 he donated around $500,000 to Restore our Future, a Super PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney. He is the former chairman of the

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

of the American Enterprise Institute. His close acquaintances have included former

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...

neoconservative Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and coun ...

figures

Richard Perle Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American political advisor who served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under President Ronald Reagan. He began his political career as a senior staff member to S ...

and

James Q. Wilson James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American political scientist and an authority on public administration. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UCLA and Harvard University. He was the chairman of the Council of A ...

. Previously, he was a backer of the conservative

Manhattan Institute The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is a conservative American think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs, established in Manhattan in 1978 by Ant ...

and had invested in

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

daily newspaper. A paper by Robert Brulle noted that his foundation funded conservative organizations that may have been involved in conservative climate change studies from 2003 to 2010. The paper was criticized in ''The Guardian'' since the majority of organizations in the study have multiple focuses, and Brulle could not say what portion of money (if any) was devoted to climate issues. Other philanthropic causes he has supported include the

Institute for Justice The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a libertarian non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. It has litigated ten cases before the United States Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain, interstate commerce, public financing for e ...

, a public interest law firm that focuses on school choice; the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, which help serve wrongly-convicted inmates, and Lambda Legal, which advocates for equality and civil rights for the LGBTQ community.

Personal life

Kovner has three children—including

Rachel Kovner Rachel Peter Kovner (born September 29, 1979) is an American lawyer from New York and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Education Kovner earned her Bachelor of Arts, magna c ...

, a federal district judge in Brooklyn—and has been married twice. In 1973, at age 28, he married artist Sarah Peter, in a Jewish ceremony in Connecticut. They divorced in 1998. In 2007, he married Suzie Fairchild, the daughter of Robert Fairchild, and great-granddaughter of Louis Fairchild who founded the company with his brother, Edmund Fairchild, that became

Fairchild Fashion Media Fairchild Media is a publisher of fashion trade magazines, websites, and conferences for the fashion, retail and beauty industries. Fairchild Media brands include ''Women’s Wear Daily'', ''Footwear News'' (FN), ''Beauty Inc'', ''M'' and ''Fairch ...

, now a division of

Condé Nast Publications Condé is a French place name and personal name. It is ultimately derived from a Celtic word, "Condate", meaning "confluence" (of two rivers) - from which was derived the Romanised form "Condatum", in use during the Roman period, and thence to t ...

. His

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

mansion in New York City, the Willard D. Straight House, features a lead-lined room to protect against a chemical, biological, or dirty bomb attack.

Legacy and awards

In 2008, he was inducted into the Institutional Investor's Alpha's Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame along with Alfred Jones,

David Swensen David Frederick Swensen (January 26, 1954 – May 5, 2021) was an American investor, endowment fund manager, and philanthropist. He was the chief investment officer at Yale University from 1985 until his death in May 2021. Swensen was responsi ...

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...

, Jack Nash,

James Simons James Harris Simons (; born 25 April 1938) is an American mathematician, billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York. He and his ...

, Julian Roberston, Kenneth Griffin,

Leon Levy Leon Levy (September 13, 1925 – April 6, 2003)
April 8, 2003. was an American investor, Louis Bacon Louis Moore Bacon (born July 25, 1956) is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder and chief executive of Moore Capital Management. ''Forbes Magazine'' estimates his net worth to be US$1.81 billion, mak ...

Michael Steinhardt Michael H. Steinhardt (born December 7, 1940) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and former antiquities collector. In 1967, he founded a hedge fund, Steinhardt Partners which he ran until he closed it in 1995. After a ...

Paul Tudor Jones Paul Tudor Jones II (born September 28, 1954) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, conservationist and philanthropist. In 1980, he founded his hedge fund, Tudor Investment Corporation, an asset management firm headquartered in Stamford, ...

Seth Klarman Seth Andrew Klarman (born May 21, 1957) is an American billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and author. He is a proponent of value investing. He is the chief executive and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group, a Boston-based private inve ...

and

Steven A. Cohen Steven A. Cohen (born June 11, 1956) is an American hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball since September 14, 2020, owning roughly 97.2% of the team. He is the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Manageme ...

. Kovner is a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from The Juilliard School. In 2016 he awarded both the

William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership The William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership is an annual award given by the William E. Simon Foundation in honor of its founder, former Secretary of the Treasury and financier William E. Simon, and administered by the Philanthropy Ro ...

by the

Philanthropy Roundtable The Philanthropy Roundtable is a nonprofit organization that advises conservative philanthropists. History The Roundtable was founded in 1987 as a project of the now-defunct Institute For Educational Affairs. It was founded as a conservative al ...

and the Alexander Hamilton Award by the Manhattan Institute.

References

External links

BruceKovner.com

The Kovner Foundation

CAM Capital

Fortune magazine, September 29, 2003
"Curated Alpha: Curated Interview With Bruce Kovner From Market Wizards"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovner, Bruce 1945 births American billionaires American Enterprise Institute American financial analysts American financiers American hedge fund managers American investors American money managers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American stock traders Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard Kennedy School alumni Jewish American philanthropists Living people People from Borough Park, Brooklyn Stock and commodity market managers Van Nuys High School alumni American agnostics Philanthropists from New York (state) Harvard College alumni 21st-century American Jews