Jonathan Tivadar Soros (born September 10, 1970) is an American investor and businessman serving as co-founder and partner of One Madison Group, a private investment firm. He previously served as chief executive officer of JS Capital Management LLC and as co-deputy chairman of

Soros Fund Management Soros Fund Management is a privately held American investment management firm. It is currently structured as a family office, but formerly was a hedge fund. The firm was founded in 1970 by George Soros and, in 2010, was reported to be one of th ...

. He has been a prominent donor to Democratic and progressive political causes. Soros started the Friends of Democracy PAC, now merged into Every Voice, to push for

campaign finance Campaign financealso called election finance, political donations, or political financerefers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Donors and recipients include individuals, corpor ...

reform and the abolition of the

electoral college An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

Early life and education

Soros's parents are Annaliese Witschak and

business magnate A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

, who divorced in 1981. He is the brother of Andrea and Robert Soros and half-brother of Gregory and Alexander, from his father's second marriage to Susan Weber. He received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

in Middletown,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, in 1992. He then received a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

and a

Master of Public Policy The Master of Public Policy (MPP) is a graduate-level professional degree. It provides training in policy analysis and program evaluation at public policy schools. The MPP program places a focus on the systematic analysis of issues related to pu ...

from

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

Career

Early career

Soros worked for a federal judge as a law clerk before joining Soros Fund Management.

Soros Fund

Soros worked at

beginning in 2002 and in 2004, he and his brother, Robert, became co-deputy chairmen of the organization that managed $12.8 billion in funds at that time. Their father stepped down at that time, but remained as chairman. He focused on operations and was the organization's chief investment officer until he stepped down in 2011. His father said that Jonathan was "the principal architect of our transition to a healthy and stable investment operation" out of a turbulent financial period. However, that year, the organization had incurred "significant losses" and had converted to a family office—managing the funds of George, his foundation, and Soros family members— and no longer operating as a hedge fund. In the process, its investors received $1 billion from the fund. Reuters states that the move was made to avoid a deadline to register at the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

as an investment manager. Jonathan remained on the board of his father's foundation.

JS Capital Management

Soros was the founder and chief executive officer of JS Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm, located in

midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

near

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

. The second quarter 2015 filings showed that the U.S. assets in its portfolio were valued at $500 million, up from $394.76 million the previous quarter. In 2015, Bloomberg Politics identified him as one of the hedge fund titans. JS Capital Management is now doing business as One Madison Group.

One Madison Group

In 2016 JS Capital partnered with One Madison Corporation, a private investment firm, to form a special purpose acquisition company that purchased Ranpak Holdings Corp. In 2024, JS Capital combined with One Madison Group. Jonathan Soros and JS Capital's CIO, Salil Seshadri joined One Madison Group's CEO Omar Asali as co-founders and partners.

Political advocacy

Campaign reform

He advocates for the removal of the

, which he says is undemocratic and unconstitutional. This is the position of the Every Voice political advocacy group and the

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact MD, NJ, IL, HI, WA, MA, DC, VT, CA, RI, NY, CT, CO, DE, NM, OR, MN, ME AZ, KS, PA, SC, VA, TX, MT The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all t ...

that advocates for electoral votes to be given to each state based upon certified results of the popular vote. In July 2012, Soros started and funded Friends of Democracy PAC (now merged into Every Voice), a hybrid political action committee and super PAC designed to push for

reform that would mandate a public financing system for all federal elections. Soros's organization was described as an "anti-super PAC super PAC" by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''. Founded with Ilyse Hogue, formerly with

Media Matters for America Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a non-profit left-leaning watchdog journalism organization. It was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Research Center. It seeks to ...

and MoveOn.org, and David Donnelly, executive director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, the goal of the organization is to elect candidates that support campaign reform, including public matching funds for elections. Its strategy is to identify 10 to 15 districts where incumbent senators or congressmen have not supported "citizen-led" elections, and use multiple forms of media—like television ads, direct mail, phone calls, internet ads—to communicate the lawmaker's position on campaign funding. For instance, Soros, the organization's largest contributor, helped fund the 2012 election of

Cecilia Tkaczyk Cecilia F. Tkaczyk (born December 18, 1961) is an American politician who served as a member of the New York State Senate for the 46th district. She was elected to the Senate as a member of the Democratic Party and was sworn in on January 23, ...

, who supports changes to funding for state elections by implementing a system of public financing. She won by a small margin, in a district that historically elected Republicans. By 2014, he gave $2 million over a few years to support initiatives and candidates, and a total of $3.7 million was spent by Soros for Democratic candidates by October of that year. Seven of the eight candidates that the PAC chose to back were elected in 2014. He is a member of

Democracy Alliance The Democracy Alliance is a network of progressive megadonors who coordinate their political donations to groups that the Alliance has endorsed. Since its founding in 2005, the Democracy Alliance has given more than $1 billion to liberal organiz ...

, an organization that funds Democratic campaigns. ''

The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and Progressivism in the United States, progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The America ...

'' said of him, "Jonathan Soros has emerged in recent years as a savvy donor and operative, much more hands-on than his father, George, the billionaire investor and Democratic donor." He backed two state legislative initiatives in 2016 to reform campaign financing, one in the state of

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

and the other in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

. Washington Initiative 1464 would have provided $150 for each voter to contribute towards a candidate of their choice and limited contributions by government contractors and lobbyists. It did not pass. However, South Dakota's Government Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act was successful.

Other groups

Soros has worked with MoveOn.org and other political advocacy groups. He is a senior fellow at the

Roosevelt Institute The Roosevelt Institute is a liberal American think tank headquartered in New York City. History and overview The Roosevelt Institute was created in 1987 through the merger of the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four ...

and a member of the board of directors of the

New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is an American Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal think tank founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security, technology, health, gender, ...

and the

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

. He is a donor to the

. He supports the New York Leadership for Accountable Government, formed about 2012. By March 2013, he supported small donor democracy, in which small-dollar campaign contributions are multiple-matched to increase participation by citizens and donor diversity. He contributed to

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

and

Martin O'Malley Martin Joseph O'Malley (born January 18, 1963) is an American politician who served as the 17th commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 2023 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was th ...

's presidential campaigns in 2015. In 2016, he donated $1 million to the

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization

Super PAC, which supported the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

Personal life

Soros married Jennifer Allan in 1997, who was a social worker when they met. The two first met while working for the 1992 Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. Beginning in 2000, the couple lived in a townhouse in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The West Village is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to ...

of Manhattan.

Early life and education

Career

Early career

Soros Fund

JS Capital Management

One Madison Group

Political advocacy

Campaign reform

Other groups

Personal life

Notes

See also

References

Further reading