David Tepper
A 65-year-old proclaimed self-made American billionaire and a leading hedge fund manager at Appaloosa Management
Who is David Tepper?
David Alan Tepper is a 65-year-old proclaimed self-made American billionaire. He is a leading hedge fund manager at Appaloosa Management. Some may even know him as the owner of the National Football League, Carolina Panthers. He also owns a team from Major League Soccer, Charlotte FC.
He worked for successful firms before having his own. One of those businesses is a commonly known bank, Goldman Sachs. Undoubtedly, he has had success in business, from politics to philanthropy and sports.
The self-made billionaire has been married twice and divorced once in his lifetime. First being married to his ex-wife Marlene Resnick Tepper and secondly to his present wife, Nicole Tepper. He has three children Brian, Casey, and Randi Tepper.
As of the start of 2023, he is considered one of the top one-hundred earners. His ranking in the top hundred is eighty-seven. He has also had the accomplishment of being named of the greatest hedge fund managers.
Tepper has become very successful in his lifetime. He has been able to overcome challenges in tragic events such as the stock market crash of 1987. His hard work may have paid off because today, he has a net worth of 18.5 billion USD as of 2023.
Key Takeaways
- David Tepper, a self-made billionaire, has excelled in finance, sports ownership, politics, and philanthropy, showcasing versatility in his career.
- Tepper's childhood passion for trading led him to graduate with honors in economics and pursue an MBA at Carnegie Mellon University.
- Despite setbacks, Tepper's strategic decisions during the 1987 stock market crash and the founding of Appaloosa Management in 1993 highlight his resilience and success in finance.
- Tepper cautiously views cryptocurrency as akin to gold but expresses skepticism about its potential as a bubble, showcasing a pragmatic stance on investments.
David Tepper’s Early Life
Tepper’s father, Harry, and his mother, Roberta, had three kids. He was the middle child among his siblings and was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
His mother, Roberta, was an elementary teacher. His father was an accountant, whom Tepper said in a commencement address given in 2018 at Carnegie Mellon University, was abusive towards him.
He grew up in a Jewish household. Most of his early life he spent in Pittsburgh. The neighborhood he was raised in was Stanton Heights, near the city.
When he was young, he liked spending his time playing sports such as football. He also enjoyed collecting baseball cards.
He believed he had an almost photographic memory. Tepper started to believe this because of what he could do at a young age. He was able to memorize the statistics that were on the back of the baseball cards that his grandfather gave him.
Peabody High school was the school he attended in Pittsburgh. When it came to college, he was accepted into and attended the University of Pittsburgh. To help pay for his college, he spent his time working at the library.
While in college, he began to make small investments in many different markets. His father also contributed to the investments by giving him one in Pennsylvania Engineering Co. and the other in Career Academics. Unfortunately, both of the companies he invested in resulted in going bankrupt.
Note
As a student, he would trade on the stock exchange. He did well in trading so that he would be able to pay for tuition and living arrangements.
He finished college with honors and received a bachelor's degree in economics. After completing school, he went out into the workforce of finance. After graduating, one of his early jobs was working as a credit analyst for Equibank.
Although it was not until he realized he was not happy with the work he was doing that he decided to go back to school. He attended Carnegie Mellon University business school.
There he successfully earned his MBA. Although back then, when he was in school, his MBA was known as a Masters of Science in Industrial Administration.
David Tepper’s Career
Tepper has worked various jobs in his lifetime. After receiving his master's, he went to work for Republic Steel. He worked at the firm in 1982 in the treasury department. The company did a seven percent salary cut two months after he started.
In 1984 he left Ohio for Boston to work for Keystone Mutual Funds. At Keystone, he flourished. He became one of the best credit analysts in the district.
A year later, he was recruited by a very well-known firm. Goldman Sachs recruited him as a credit analyst. In as little as six months, he became a head trader for the firm. He stayed working for them for eight years.
Working at Goldman Sachs was an accomplishment for him. To have the ability to work at the company despite not coming from an Ivy League school.
Tepper believes that when starting your career, it is important to have more experience than money. He had a few obstacles on his path to success. Although with enough experience and confidence, he made it through.
Having a love and interest in what he did also helped him. While working at Goldman Sachs, he was able to change the use of a standard model that he believed was wrong.
Stock Market Crash
In 1987 the stock market crash occurred. The markets fell by twenty percent in just a day. It was so bad that it was named Black Monday due to Wall Street's unexpected crash. A lot of companies and people were in panic mode.
Tepper handled the crash differently. He helped Goldman Sachs survive the tragic event. He was able to play a huge role in the crash.
One thing he did during the crash was to make his portfolio short. He decided he was not going to take on any long positions.
He was able to help them gain profits despite the constant losses everyone was suffering. Later, he thought he could become a Goldman Sachs partner, but unfortunately, he was not selected.
Goldman Sachs' reason for declining its partnership with him was his personality. They considered him loud and disrespectful, which a lot of executives disliked. Tepper has seen this particular moment as a bump in the road to success.
Appaloosa Management
Eventually, he quit Goldman Sachs in 1992. He quit due to being passed over as a partner twice. After quitting he traded his account to make money.
In 1993 he was able to start his fund and created Appaloosa Management. He began to make successful progress with his company. Within ten years of opening, he earned an estimated $7 billion for his hedge fund.
He founded the company with Jack Walton. The firm specializes in distressed debt. They also invest in fixed-income markets and public equity from all around the world. The company was founded in Chatham, New Jersey.
He distressed stocks from firms such as Bank of America. Their common stock was at three dollars a share. Once they recovered is when he profited from it, making him wealthy.
Due to the large sum of money, his fund earned $4 billion of the profits went to him. After that, The New York Times named him one of the top-earning hedge fund managers.
Note
His firm, Appaloosa Management, was awarded the Institutional Hedge Fund Firm Of the Year in 2011. Two years later, he was the 166th wealthiest person in the world. He was then considered one of the richest people in New Jersey.
Before the company was known for being a hedge fund, it was first known as a junk bond investment boutique. They started to be known as a hedge fund in the 2000s. He has invested in companies such as Marconi, Conseco, MCI, and Mirant.
When the financial crisis happened in 2008, Appaloosa was able to survive it. That was the second time Tepper could make a company survive a crisis.
They have a client base of high-net-worth people, pensions, foundations, etc. They got 149 percent returns for their investors in 2003.
Investors looking to invest here have to commit to a locked period of three years. Their withdrawals are then limited to only twenty-five percent of their total investment.
In 2016 Appaloosa moved to Miami Beach. Tepper then relocated the company again in 2020 back to New Jersey. The reason was family reasons. The relocation had an estimated cost of $120 million in state income tax.
Sports
Some people may not have known him from his finance business side but his sports business side. He has invested in sports teams such as the Panthers, Charlotte FC, and the Steelers. In 2009, he bought a five percent stake in the NFL's Steelers.
When he bought the Carolina Panthers from its original owner, he had to sell the shares he owned from the Steelers. He bid $2.2 billion in a bidding war. Afterward, his bid became the highest in the history of the NFL.
The billionaire owner believes that the executive team for the Carolina Panthers is one of the most diverse in the NFL.
He set another record in 2019. He bought Charlotte Fc from Major League Soccer. He set a record in Major League Soccer when he paid $325 million in fees.
It is with no doubt that he loves sports, telling from when he was young and took an interest in baseball cards and their statistics.
Politics and Charity
Tepper is one of many persons in the world to have some involvement in politics. A lot of billionaires often contribute to politics for their benefit. When they contribute, it gives them a window for elected officials to adopt taxes that can favor the rich.
He is known to have contributed, along with his wife, at least $10,400 to a mayoral candidate in Jersey City. He also has donated to United States Senators, to political action committees, and supported presidential campaigns.
He donated to U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer in 2015 and House Speaker John Boehner. As for the political action committees, he has donated an estimated $1 million. The presidential campaign he supported was Jeb Bush in 2016.
Jeb Bush was a Republican governor. He was the forty-third governor of the state of Florida. Bush is the previous President George H. W. Bush the son.
Philanthropy
He scored 2 in philanthropy, meaning he has at least given away 1% to 4.99% of his wealth. He has made several donations in his lifetime. Such donations include a total of $125 million donation to Carnegie Mellon University business school.
He made several donations to the business school, and they suggested changing the school's name to David A. Tepper School of Business.
There have been other donations to other schools as well. Other places he has donated or pledged to were the University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers University. His former wife Marlene and he pledged $3.4 million to Rutgers University once.
He also supported the Jewish community by donating to the United Jewish Communities to help with their Emergency campaign. Also, he has helped fund groups such as Better Education for Kids.
When a city is in a crisis, he does his best to help. He donated to Jersey city after Hurricane Sandy and to Chicago during the pandemic crisis. When Hurricane Ida happened, he also donated.
Note
After COVID-19, Tepper donated to help with relief. It is estimated he donated over twenty-two million for covid relief.
It is without a doubt that Tepper likes to donate to education systems. He consistently does it and gives them a large sum of money. One of the schools to whom he donated enormously decided to change their name to Tepper’s name in honor of him.
David Tepper's Personal Life
The successful hedge fund manager was married to his first wife and mother of his children Marlene Resnick Tepper in 1986. Together they have three children: Casey, Brian, and Randi Tepper. After thirty years together, they divorced.
His only son Brian is 35, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in gaming development from Full Sail University, and is now a lead engineer.
Casey, who is 30, graduated from school with a bachelor’s degree in digital arts in 2015 and worked as a freelance graphic designer. Randi, who is 33, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and worked as a product manager.
Three years after he divorced his wife, he remarried his now-current wife, Nicole Bronish. The couple has not had any additional children. His ex-wife also remarried Barry Brandt, who works in real estate.
There are no details on how much Marlene could have gotten from the divorce. There is no net worth for her as of today.
Even though he is one of the wealthiest men in the world, he considers himself just an upper-middle-class person. Some people consider him as someone who is unpolished for a billionaire. However, it does not mean mine and is proud of being so-called unpolished.
David Tepper and Cryptocurrency
When it comes to the new cryptocurrency, Tepper thinks of it as if it were gold. He owns a little bit of it. He believes it stores value. He also commented that the previous year’s charts looked like a tulip chart for him but were not too certain because he thought he could just be reading it wrong.
He believes the crypto boom may be a bubble because he is very successful in trading and bonds. He doesn’t see himself as a crypto investor. Although believing that in 2021 he wished he had invested in crypto that year.
When talking about the price of bitcoin, he believed in asking himself what its price should be. To make new coins in crypto, you need to mine them. He mentioned that the price of bitcoin can go if the Fed delays raising rates.
Cryptocurrency is a new currency that became popular with the coin Bitcoin. It is a new way for investors to make investments. However, the government does not regulate crypto.
Many celebrities, major banks, and countries have become involved with the new cryptocurrency. Tepper’s previous employer, Goldman Sachs, invested in about eleven companies focusing on crypto.
Researched and Authored by Sandra Martinez | LinkedIn
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