David Alan Tepper (born September 11, 1957) is an American
billionaire hedge fund manager. He is the owner of the
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...
of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL) and
Charlotte FC
Charlotte FC is an American professional soccer club based in Charlotte. The team competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The team is owned by David Tepper, who was awarded the expansion franchise ...
in
Major League Soccer (MLS). Tepper is the founder and president of
Appaloosa Management
Appaloosa Management is an American hedge fund founded in 1993 by David Tepper and Jack Walton specializing in distressed debt. Appaloosa Management invests in public equity and fixed income markets around the world.
History
In 1993, David Teppe ...
, a global hedge fund based in
Miami Beach, Florida.
He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
in 1978, and an MBA from
Carnegie Mellon University in 1982. In 2013, he donated his largest gift of $67 million to Carnegie Mellon, whose
Tepper School of Business
The Tepper School of Business is the business school of Carnegie Mellon University. It is located in the university's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.
The school offers degrees from the undergraduate through doctoral levels, in addition ...
is named after him.
For the 2012 tax year, Institutional Investor's Alpha ranked Tepper's $2.2 billion paycheck as the world's highest for a hedge fund manager. He earned the third position on ''Forbes''
''The Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers 2018
'' with an annual earnings of $1.5 billion. A 2010 profile in ''
New York'' described him as the object of "a certain amount of hero worship inside the industry," with one investor calling him "a golden god."
Tepper revealed plans to eventually convert this hedge fund into a
family office
A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50-$100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer ...
.
Early life and education
Tepper was born on September 11, 1957.
He is the second of three children of Harry, an accountant, and Roberta, an elementary school teacher. He was raised in a Jewish family in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of the East End of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.
[Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business: "Meet the Man Behind the Gift"]
November 17, 2004 As a boy he “played football and memorized the baseball statistics on the backs of cards given to him by his grandfather—early evidence of what he claims is a
photographic memory
Eidetic memory ( ; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''pho ...
.”
In a 2018 commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University, he revealed that his father had been physically abusive toward him. He attended
Peabody High School in Pittsburgh's
East Liberty neighborhood,
followed by the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
, helping pay his way by working at the
Frick Fine Arts library. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
and graduated with honors. He also began small scale investing in various markets during college.
His first two investments, given to him by his father, were Pennsylvania Engineering Co. and Career Academies. Both companies went bankrupt.
[
After graduation he entered the ]finance industry
Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, ...
, working for Equibank as a credit analyst in the treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...
department. In 1980, unsatisfied with this position, he enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University's business school to pursue its then-equivalent of an MBA, a Master of Science in Industrial Administration (MSIA).
Business career
Republic and Keystone
After earning his MBA in 1982, Tepper accepted a position in the treasury department of Republic Steel
Republic Steel is an American steel manufacturer that was once the country's third largest steel producer. It was founded as the Republic Iron and Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899. After rising to prominence during the early 20th Centu ...
in Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
.
In 1984, he was recruited to Keystone Mutual Funds (now part of Evergreen Funds) in Boston.
Goldman Sachs
In 1985, Tepper was recruited by Goldman Sachs as a credit analyst, which was forming its high yield group in New York City. Within six months he became its head trader, remaining at Goldman for eight years. His primary focus was bankruptcies and special situations.
He is credited with playing a major role in the survival of Goldman Sachs after the 1987 stock market crash
Black Monday is the name commonly given to the global, sudden, severe, and largely unexpected stock market crash on Monday, October 19, 1987. In Australia and New Zealand, the day is also referred to as ''Black Tuesday'' because of the time z ...
. He bought underlying bonds in the financial institutions that had been "crippled by the crash”, which soared in value once the market picked up again. He assumed he would be made a Goldman partner but was passed over, partly because his “loud and profane” manner rubbed other more restrained Goldman executives the wrong way.
Appaloosa Management
In December 1992, after being passed over for partner at Goldman Sachs twice in two years, Tepper quit. He began operating from a desk in the offices of mutual-fund manager and Goldman client Michael Price, aggressively trading his personal account in hopes of raising enough money to start his own fund.
He created Appaloosa Management
Appaloosa Management is an American hedge fund founded in 1993 by David Tepper and Jack Walton specializing in distressed debt. Appaloosa Management invests in public equity and fixed income markets around the world.
History
In 1993, David Teppe ...
in early 1993.
In 2001, he generated a 61% return by focusing on distressed bonds, and in the fourth quarter of 2005 he pursued what he saw as better opportunities in Standard & Poor's 500 stocks. Tepper “keeps the market on edge” and makes significant gains year after year by investing in the “diciest of companies,” such as MCI and Mirant
GenOn Energy Holdings, formerly Mirant Corporation, was a subsidiary of GenOn Energy, and is now a part of NRG Energy.
The company was spun off from its former parent, Southern Company, on April 2, 2001. The company was merged into GenOn Energy ...
. Investments in Conseco
CNO Financial Group, Inc. (formerly Conseco, Inc. (from Consolidated National Security Corporation)) is a financial services holding company based in Carmel, Indiana. Its insurance subsidiaries provide life insurance, annuity and supplemental he ...
and Marconi also led to huge hedge fund profits for the company.
In a 2010 speech he recommended several supposedly risky investments, including AIG
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...
debt, Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...
equity, and European banks. Citing experts who predicted hyperinflation or depression and deflation, he argued neither would happen: “The point is, markets adapt, people adapt. Don’t listen to all the crap out there.”
In 2009, Tepper's hedge fund earned about $7 billion by buying distressed financial stocks in February and March (including Bank of America common stock at $3 per share), and then profiting from their recovery that year. $4 billion of those profits went to Tepper's personal wealth, making him the top-earning hedge fund manager of 2009 according to ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. In June 2011, he was awarded the Institutional Hedge Fund Firm of the Year.[ In 2013, '']Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' ranked him as top hedge fund earner of 2012, moving him up to the 166th wealthiest person in the world.[Forbes The World's Billionaires: David Tepper](_blank)
March 2014
Forbes listed Tepper as one of the 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers in 2013 and 2016.
According to ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', Tepper has a net worth of $11.4 billion as of February 2017. The Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...
Billionaires Index ranked him as the wealthiest person in New Jersey.
In January 2018, Tepper praised President Trump's corporate tax cuts, saying that the bull market still had room to grow and denying it was overvalued. “World growth is higher,” Tepper said. “There's no inflation. The market coming into this year doesn't look rich; in fact, it looks almost as cheap as coming into last year.”
Tepper keeps a pair of brass testicles in a prominent spot on his desk, a present from former employees. He rubs them for luck during the trading day to get a laugh out of colleagues.
In 2020 the largest parts of his portfolio are Alibaba with 13% and Amazon with 11%.
Professional sports
Pittsburgh Steelers
On September 25, 2009, Tepper purchased a 5% stake in the National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
's (NFL) Pittsburgh Steelers.
Carolina Panthers
Tepper bought the NFL's Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...
from original owner and founder Jerry Richardson in May 2018, and was forced to sell his Steelers shares. He beat out a rival bidder with more ties to the Carolinas, Ben Navarro, thanks both to speedy NFL vetting (his Steelers part-ownership allowed the league's owners to bypass the process) and his $2.2 billion bid, the highest in NFL history, lacking other investors (unlike Navarro's). The team's lease on Bank of America Stadium expired after the 2018 season. In a statement, Tepper committed to keeping the team in the Carolinas.
Charlotte FC
Upon closing the Panthers purchase in 2018, Tepper suggested his desire to bring a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to Charlotte. The Panthers organization placed a bid for an expansion team in July 2019 and were awarded the 30th MLS team on December 17, 2019. Charlotte FC
Charlotte FC is an American professional soccer club based in Charlotte. The team competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The team is owned by David Tepper, who was awarded the expansion franchise ...
was awarded to Tepper on December 17, 2019, and began play in 2022 at Bank of America Stadium. Tepper reportedly paid $325 million in expansion fees for the franchise, setting an MLS record.
Political activities
Tepper and his wife contributed $10,400 to 2013 Jersey City mayoral candidate Steve Fulop. According to the Jersey Journal on October 24, 2012, "David Tepper, the billionaire who supports tenure reform and charter schools, contributed $10,400 to Fulop's council candidates, while Tepper's wife gave the team an additional $10,400." Fulop's former campaign manager Shelley Skinner became the deputy director of Tepper's nonprofit Better Education for Kids.
In 2015, Tepper donated to both U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer and then-U.S. House Speaker John Boehner. In 2016, he donated over $1 million to political action committees supporting Jeb Bush and John Kasich's presidential bids. Tepper supported the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign
The 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb Bush, the 43rd Governor of Florida, was formally launched on June 15, 2015, coming six months after announcing the formal exploration of a candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination for the President of ...
.
Philanthropy
On March 19, 2003, Tepper announced that he would make a single donation of $55 million to Carnegie Mellon University's business school (then called the Graduate School of Industrial Administration—GSIA). This donation was made after he had been encouraged by Kenneth Dunn, his former professor (who became dean of the school). He accepted the suggestion but made the contribution a “naming gift” and suggested that the school's name be changed to the David A. Tepper School of Business. Further, in November 2013, Carnegie Mellon announced a $67 million gift from Tepper to develop the Tepper Quadrangle on the north campus. The Tepper Quad will include a new Tepper School of Business facility across the street from the Heinz College as well as other university-wide buildings and a welcome center which will serve as a public gateway to the university. This brings Tepper's total gift to Carnegie Mellon to $125 million.
Tepper also has made several large gifts to the University of Pittsburgh, including several endowed undergraduate scholarships and support of academic centers and university-run community outreach programs. Tepper and wife Marlene have pledged $3.4 million to Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
- Mason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers. Mason Gross offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, Theater, Digi ...
, the alma mater of his wife.
In 2006, Tepper donated $1 million to United Jewish Communities
The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), formerly the United Jewish Communities (UJC), is an American Jewish umbrella organization representing 146 Jewish Federations and 300 independent Jewish communities across North America, which rais ...
of MetroWest New Jersey toward their Israel Emergency Campaign.
In March 2012, Tepper and his former colleague, Alan Fournier founded a political action group, Better Education For Kids. "Better Education for Kids is entering the fray as private organizations are poised to play a larger role in education in New Jersey. Christie wants more charter schools, and he’s pushing legislation that would allow private companies to take over struggling public schools." According to the NJ Star Ledger on June 24, 2011, "Last week, the fledgling group launched a $1 million campaign to advertise its mission and solicit donations. Unlike traditional non-profits, Better Education for Kids is a type of non-profit not required to disclose its donors.
Though the group cannot formally coordinate its work with lawmakers, it will be advised by two of the state’s top political consultants: Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist with close ties to Christie, and Jamie Fox, a Democrat who served as former Gov. James E. McGreevey’s chief of staff."
After Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
, David Tepper donated $200,000 in gift cards to Jersey City and Hoboken families who suffered loss in the storm.
Tepper serves as a member of the business board of advisors for the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon and serves on various boards and committees for charitable and community organizations in New York and New Jersey.
In 2018, Tepper was the keynote speaker at Carnegie Mellon University's 121st Commencement and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree.
In 2020, along with other philanthropists, Tepper donated $2.65 million through David A. Tepper Foundation to help Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
with its share of struggle from the coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
. All donations to the fund will be distributed to nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
s, who will help give citizens a wider access to the help they need, such as basic supplies, food, utility, mortgage and rent, household funds, as well as safety and operations assistance. In April 2020, Tepper's cumulative donations toward COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
relief efforts exceeded $22 million.
In September 2021, it was announced that the Nicole & David Tepper Foundation and the David A. Tepper Charitable Foundation would donate $1 million to the Hurricane Ida
Hurricane Ida was a deadly and extremely destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 200 ...
relief effort.
Personal life
In 1986, he married Marlene Resnick Tepper; they have three children: Brian, Randi, and Casey. In 2016, he and his wife divorced. In 2019, he married Nicole Bronish after a long term relationship.
He has characterized himself as “a regular upper-middle-class guy who happens to be a billionaire.”
''The Washington Post'' has described him as “a man who’s unpolished and proud of it, whose reputation as a candid and at times controversial voice has grown almost as fast as his net worth.” In New Jersey, he and his family lived in a modest stone house in Livingston, and his New York offices “resemble a high-end sports bar—all polished mahogany and flat-screen TVs and black-and-gold Steelers paraphernalia—or a wealthy frat house.” He told an interviewer in 2010 that sometimes, “if someone is an asshole, like a waiter at a restaurant, I think, I could just buy this place and fire that guy.” According to the Post, he “paid $43.5 million for the beachfront mansion of a former Goldman Sachs supervisor who had passed him over for promotion. Then he had the house demolished.” He then built a house nearly twice as big on the same property. He had bought the property from the ex-wife of his former boss.
Asked by a reporter about the origins of his strong confidence, Tepper said: “I was never afraid to go back to Pittsburgh and work in the steel mills.”
In 2016, he relocated his company to Miami Beach, Florida. He had been New Jersey's richest taxpayer at the time. The move caused a state official to warn of a risk to the budget of New Jersey because of the resulting loss of income tax.
In October 2020, Tepper announced he was returning to New Jersey for family reasons, a move which may cost him up to $120 million in state income tax.
References
Bibliography
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External links
Named Investment Guru of 2010
David Tepper Portfolio
wit
stock Picks
David Tepper's Appaloosa Stock Portfolio, updated quarterly
Tepper school official website
"David Tepper Hedge Fund Manager Appaloosa Management,"
aTrader, May 4, 2010
'' Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', December 22, 2009
"Ready to be Rich,"
(September 26, 2010 profile in New York Magazine)
"Fund Boss Made $7 Billion in the Panic"
''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', December 23, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tepper, David
1957 births
Living people
American billionaires
American financial analysts
American financiers
American sports businesspeople
Jewish American philanthropists
Jewish American sportspeople
American money managers
American hedge fund managers
Goldman Sachs people
People from Livingston, New Jersey
Businesspeople from Pittsburgh
Stock and commodity market managers
Tepper School of Business alumni
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Carnegie Mellon University trustees
Businesspeople from New Jersey
New Jersey Republicans
Carolina Panthers owners
Major League Soccer owners