NET WORTH: $2.2 billion
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Founder, Elliott Management Corporation
FUNDING AREAS: Education, culture, humanitarian missions and animal rights
OVERVIEW: Singer has a lot of money, and created a foundation, but thus far hasn't donated much to charity. Most of his philanthropy seems to go to political groups.
BACKGROUND: Paul Elliott Singer is CEO of Elliott Management Corporation, a hedge fund he founded in 1977 with the $1.3 million he gathered from friends and family. The Jersey born son of a Manhattan pharmacist, Singer now lives on the Upper West Side. Singer was born and raised in New Jersey. He studied Psychology as an undergrad, then graduated to Harvard Law. He was a Wall Street lawyer at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette for just three years before going into business. His net worrth now sits north of $2 billion, and over $25 billion in hedge fund assets. When he's not overseeing Elliott's investments, or the directing the Paul E. Singer Foundation, he's actively involved in conservative political policy shaping.
Singer is a complex figure, full of contradictions that have made him famous. He is a vocal supporter of Republican causes--who puts his money where his mouth his--as well as a gay rights activist. His gay son no doubt inspired him to take up the cause, and he played no small part in the passage of marriage equality in New York.
ISSUES
CONSERVATIVE CAUSES: Singer is a conservative libertarian who bundled hundreds of thousands in campaign donations for George W. Bush and Rudy Guiliani. He has given millions more to neoconservative organizations favoring a strong military. Most notably, he funds and chairs the board of trustees for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a rightwing thinktank interested in dismantling social programs and promoting free market principles. He's also on the boards of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and Commentary Magazine.
GAY RIGHTS: Singer started the American Unity PAC with $1 million in initial funding, in order to "enourage Republican candidates to support same-sex marriage." The PAC has an innovative strategy: provide a financial safety net for politicians who fear their campaign funding will be withdrawn by anti-gay groups.
MISC: Singer's bold and creative tactics have kept Elliott's assets on the rise for over forty years. He's also applied that drive to philanthropy, founding the Paul and Emily Singer Family Foundation in 2008 (Emily is his now divorced wife and the foundation goes by the Paul E. Singer Foundation now). The Foundation created the Singer Prize for Excellence in Secondary Teaching, the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, the Food Bank for New York City, and the New York City Police Foundation. The Paul E. Singer Foundation gives over $50,000 a year to organizations spanning arts and culture, education, conservation, humanitarian issues, and animal rights. One of the Foundation's most notable ventures is the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund.
LOOKING FORWARD: At the moment, Singer shows no signs of slowing down, having already been very active thus far in the lead up to this year's presidential primaries, no doubt warming up for the general election.
VIDEO:
CONTACT:
- Paul E. Singer Foundation, bsinger@singerff.org
LINKS:
