Prince Alexander von Fürstenberg (born Alexandre Egon Prinz von Fürstenberg; January 25, 1970) is an American businessman and socialite and the son of fashion designer
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg (born Diane Simone Michele Halfin, 31 December 1946) is a Belgians, Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürst ...
(née Halfin) and
Prince Egon von Fürstenberg.
Early life and education
He is the son of fashion designers
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg (born Diane Simone Michele Halfin, 31 December 1946) is a Belgians, Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürst ...
(née Halfin) and
Prince Egon von Fürstenberg. His mother is from a Belgian Jewish family, from present-day Moldova and Greece;
and his father was half
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and half
Italian, the son of the German Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg of the
House of Fürstenberg
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...
and his Italian first wife,
Clara Agnelli, the elder sister of the chairman of
FIAT
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiar ...
,
Gianni Agnelli
Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce a ...
. His parents separated in 1972, and were divorced in 1983.
Prince Alexander and his sister
Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg
Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince.
Princess as a subst ...
were raised in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Alex attended
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, where he earned a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree in 1993.
Work
Alexander von Fürstenberg began his career in 1993 as a trader on the Risk Arbitrage Desk of
Allen and Company. He is now the
Chief Investment Officer The chief investment officer (CIO) is a job title for the board level head of investments within an organization. The CIO's purpose is to understand, manage, and monitor their organization's portfolio of assets, devise strategies for growth, act as ...
of Ranger Global Advisors, LLC, a family company he founded which focuses on opportunistic value-based investing. Previously, he was the Co-Managing Member and
Chief Investment Officer The chief investment officer (CIO) is a job title for the board level head of investments within an organization. The CIO's purpose is to understand, manage, and monitor their organization's portfolio of assets, devise strategies for growth, act as ...
of Arrow Capital Management, LLC, a private investment firm focused on global public equities. Since 2001, he has acted as Chief Investment Officer of Arrow Investments, Inc., a private investment office that serves the Diller-von Furstenberg family.
Fürstenberg led the restructuring of Diane von Fürstenberg Studio, LP, a global luxury lifestyle brand, taking it from $100 million in annual revenue to more than $200 million. He remains a partner and director in the company and also serves on the Board of Directors of
IAC, a U.S.-based internet conglomerate.
Philanthropy
Fürstenberg is Director and Secretary of the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, which is managed by him, his mother,
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg (born Diane Simone Michele Halfin, 31 December 1946) is a Belgians, Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürst ...
, his stepfather,
Barry Diller, the former Chief Executive of
IAC/InterActiveCorp
IAC Inc. is an American holding company that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet. The company is incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in New York City. Joey Levin, who previously led t ...
, and his sister, Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg.
The Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation is involved in a number of charitable pursuits in
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
, community reform,
environmental
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scal ...
advocacy
Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using fac ...
,
disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
research
Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
,
childcare,
arts and
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...
and
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
. The foundation is also responsible for two significant endowments to the
High Line
The High Line is a elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Opera ...
, a New York City park built on the foundations of a decommissioned high line railway. Fürstenberg serves on the Board of Directors of
Our Time, Board of
Friends of the High Line, and the National Advisory Council of
ACRIA
''Acria'' is a moth genus of the superfamily Gelechioidea. It is placed in the family Depressariidae, which is often – particularly in older treatments – considered a subfamily of Oecophoridae or included in the Elachistidae
The El ...
.
Personal life
As a teen he lived in the
Carlyle Hotel
The Carlyle Hotel, known formally as The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, is a combination luxury apartment hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and East 76th Street, on the Upper East Side of New York City. O ...
, two floors below
duty-free shop
A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, w ...
s owner
Robert Warren Miller and his family; that is where he met Miller's youngest daughter
Alexandra
Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "p ...
, who was three years his junior. They married on October 28, 1995, in a Catholic ceremony at the
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City. They had two children,
Talita Natasha (b. May 7, 1999) and Tassilo Egon Maximilian (b. August 26, 2001), who is named for his paternal great-grandfather. In 2002, they separated and were later divorced. He later announced his engagement to designer
Alison "Ali" Kay, who gave birth to their son Leon in July 2012. Ali Kay gave birth to a second son Vito in June 2020 and on September 19, 2020, Kay's 36th birthday, the couple civilly married.
See also
List of Greek Americans
The following is a list of notable Greek Americans, including both original immigrants of full or partial Greek descent who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
Architecture
* George J. Efstathiou – architect
*C ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furstenberg, Alexander Von
1970 births
Living people
Agnelli family
American chief executives
American corporate directors
American people of Belgian-Jewish descent
American people of German descent
American people of Greek-Jewish descent
American people of Italian descent
American people of Moldovan-Jewish descent
Philanthropists from New York (state)
American socialites
Brown University alumni
Businesspeople from New York City
Catholics from California
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
German princes
People from Malibu, California
Chief investment officers