Robert D. Ziff (born 1967) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

, and the middle son of publishing magnate

William Bernard Ziff Jr. William Bernard "Bill" Ziff Jr. (June 24, 1930 – September 9, 2006) was an American publishing executive. His father, William Bernard Ziff Sr., was the co-founder of Ziff Davis Inc. and when the elder Ziff died in 1953, Ziff took over the mana ...

and grandson of William Bernard Ziff Sr. He and his two brothers inherited the family fortune in 1994.

Early life and education

Robert was born in 1967. His mother was Barbara Ingrid Beitz, an ethnic

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 **Ger ...

whose parents were declared as "

Righteous among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

" for providing refuge and risking their lives to save Jews during World War II. His father was the

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

media magnate William Ziff Jr. (d. 2006), who had built the Ziff-Davis magazine empire founded by William Bernard Ziff Sr. that included titles such as

Popular Aviation Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, an ...

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

, and

Car and Driver ''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was fou ...

.New York Times: "For Ziffs, Sale Is a Family Affair" by Geraldine Fabrikant
June 11, 1994 Ziff studied undergraduate electrical and computer engineering at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, graduating magna cum laude. In 1992, he graduated first in his class from

Cornell Law School Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, it offers four law degree programs, JD, LLM, MSLS and JSD, along with several dual-deg ...

and was editor of the Cornell Law Review.Cornell Law School news: "Kevin Clermont named First Robert D. Ziff Professor of Law"
retrieved May 30, 2012 After law school, Ziff clerked for Chief Judge Monroe G. McKay of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Dist ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and later served as vice president of strategic planning at Ziff Communications Company.

Career

Robert and his brothers

Dirk A dirk is a long bladed thrusting dagger.Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), ''Dagger'', The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. VII, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (1910), p. 729 Historically, it gained its name from the Highland Dirk (Scot ...

and

Daniel Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...

inherited the family fortune in 1994 after their father sold 95% of the business to

Forstmann Little Forstmann, Little & Company was a private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts (LBOs). At its peak in the late 1990s, Forstmann Little was among the largest private equity firms globally. Ultimately, the firm would suffer from the burs ...

for $1.4 billion and retired. The father had originally wanted to pass the company on to his sons but they were not interested. Instead, they formed New York City-based Ziff Brothers Investments, investing their inheritances broadly across equities, debt, real estate, commodities, private equity and hedge funds. They also provided seed money to fund manager

Daniel Och Daniel Och (born 1961) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman and former CEO of Och-Ziff Capital Management, a global hedge fund and alternative asset management firm. According to ' ...

in exchange for a 10% stake in

Och-Ziff Capital Management Sculptor Capital Management (formerly Och-Ziff Capital Management Group) is an American global diversified alternative asset management firm. They are one of the largest institutional alternative asset managers in the world. The firm operates m ...

which went public in 2007.Forbes Magazine "Forbes 400 Richest Americans: Robert Ziff"
March 2014 The brothers dissolved Ziff Brothers Investments in 2014 and now invest independently.

Personal life

Robert is married to fellow

graduate and attorney Michelle Angelic Locher. They live in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

with their twin sons, Caleb and Jonathan Ziff. He is on the board of trustees at The Browning School and The IDEAL School of Manhattan. His wife donated $40,000 to the campaign of Montana governor

Steve Bullock Steve, Steven, or Stephen Bullock may refer to: *Steve Bullock (British politician) (born 1953), first directly elected mayor of the London Borough of Lewisham *Steve Bullock (American politician) (born 1966), 24th Governor of Montana (2013–2021) ...

, Democrat (second only to David Gray, a partner and chief legal officer at Ziff Brothers Investments who gave $45,000).

Philanthropy and political contributions

In 2008, he established the Robert D. Ziff Professorship of Law at Cornell Law School.Cornell Law School: Robert D. Ziff Professorship of Law
retrieved May 30, 2012 He also made headlines in 2011 for his financial contributions to Republican legislators supportive of gay marriage. In 2017, he endowed the Robert B. Kent Public Interest Fund at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in honor of his law school professor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziff, Robert D. American billionaires American people of German descent American people of Jewish descent Living people 1967 births Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni Cornell Law School alumni Robert D. American philanthropists