Bernard Thierry Selz (born February 7, 1940) is a fund manager and anti-vaccination supporter based in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
. His wife Lisa serves as president of the Selz Foundation, a charitable group. They are major financiers of
anti-vaccination groups.
Early life and education
Selz earned a bachelor's of art degree from
Columbia College Columbia College may refer to one of several institutions of higher education in North America:
Canada
* Columbia College (Alberta), in Calgary
* Columbia College (British Columbia), a two-year liberal arts institution in Vancouver
* Columbia In ...
in 1960.
He is married to Lisa Selz; they have two adult children.
Businesses
Selz founded Selz Capital in November 2003. The firm is headquartered in New York City. It has approximately $750 million from 24 high net worth clients under management. It employs four people.
Previously, he served as the Senior Managing Director at
ING Furman Selz. He founded that firm in 1973. Selz began his career in the securities industry in 1960 at
Lazard Freres
Lazard Ltd (formerly known as Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's lar ...
.
Charitable activities
The Selz Foundation has been described operating "with a focus on humanitarian, educational, geriatric,
homeopathic
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dis ...
, animal causes and the arts." The foundation has been a major supporter of
LaGuardia Community College
LaGuardia Community College is a Public college, public Community colleges in the United States, community college in New York City. It is in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in and part of the City University of New York. LaGuardia i ...
in Queens and Columbia University where it has endowed professorships in medieval art and Pre-Columbian art and archaeology. The foundation does not accept unsolicited requests.
The Selz Foundation provides roughly three-fourths of the funding for the
Informed Consent Action Network
The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) is one of the main anti-vaccination groups in the United States. Founded in 2016 by Del Bigtree, it spreads misinformation about the risks of vaccines and contributes to vaccine hesitancy, which has bee ...
, an
anti-vaccination
Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...
charity led by Lisa Selz and
Del Bigtree
Del Matthew Bigtree is an American television and film producer as well as CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network. He produced the film '' Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe'', based on the discredited opinions o ...
. The foundation also gave $1.6 million to two non-profits, one of which (AMC Foundation) funded Autism Media Channel LLC, the group that produced the 2016 American documentary film
Vaxxed
''Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe'' is a 2016 American pseudoscience propaganda film alleging a cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a purported link between the MMR vaccine and autism. According to ''Varie ...
. . In total, the Selz Foundation is estimated to have donated over $3 million to the anti-vaccine movement.
Bernard Selz sits on the board of
World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and traini ...
and has sat on the boards of the
Center for Jewish History
The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Mus ...
,
and the
Frick Collection
The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Selz, Bernard
1940 births
Living people
American anti-vaccination activists
American financiers
American investors
American money managers
Businesspeople from New York City
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Jewish American philanthropists
21st-century American Jews