Thomas Fahr Steyer (born June 27, 1957) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and environmentalist. He is the founder of Farallon Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, as well as NextGen America, a progressive political action committee, and Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate change-centered investment firm. A member of the Democratic Party, he unsuccessfully ran for the party's nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election.
Steyer is a graduate of Yale University (BA) and Stanford University (MBA). He is the founder and former co-senior managing partner of Farallon Capital. Following his departure from the company in 2012, he became an advocate for climate action and founded NextGen America. His book, Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We'll Win the Climate War, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2024.
A billionaire, Steyer has been one of the largest donors in American Democratic Party politics, using his wealth to fund both environmental causes and political campaigns. In 2020, he ran for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. After spending $253 million on his campaign, he withdrew from the race in February 2020 without having received any pledged delegates. In 2025, Steyer announced his candidacy in the 2026 California gubernatorial election to succeed term-limited governor Gavin Newsom.
Early life
Steyer was born on June 27, 1957, in Manhattan, New York City.[1] His mother, Marnie (née Fahr), was a teacher of remedial reading at the Brooklyn House of Detention and his father, Roy Henry Steyer, was a partner in the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell[2][3] and was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.[4] His father was Jewish and his mother was Episcopalian.[1]
Steyer grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and attended the Buckley School. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy as valedictorian of his class.[1] Steyer then graduated from Yale University summa cum laude in economics and political science. At Yale, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, was captain of the soccer team, and was a member of the Wolf's Head Society.[5] Steyer received his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.[1][6]
Career
After graduating from Yale, Steyer began his professional career at Morgan Stanley in 1979 and spent two years there.[1] Steyer worked at Goldman Sachs from 1983 to 1985 as an associate in the risk arbitrage division, where he was involved in mergers and acquisitions.[1] Steyer also worked for San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.[7][8] In January 1986, Steyer founded Farallon Capital, a hedge fund firm headquartered in San Francisco.[9][10]
Philanthropy
In 2006, Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, founded OneRoof, Inc., a B Corp and social enterprise business designed to bring broadband connectivity, computer literacy, and employment skills via OneRoof Internet Centers to small rural towns in rural India and Mexico.[25]
In 2007, Steyer and Taylor founded Beneficial State Bank, a community development bank, for the purpose of providing commercial banking services to underserved Bay Area businesses, nonprofits, and individuals, with operations now in California, Oregon, and Washington. Its stock ownership is entirely held by a foundation such that all profits are reinvested in local communities.[26][27]
Steyer and Taylor put up $22.5 million to start the bank and create the One PacificCoast Foundation to engage in charitable and educational activities, provide lending support, investments, and other services for disadvantaged communities and community service organizations in California.[17][28]
Political activity
In 1983, Steyer worked on Walter Mondale's presidential campaign.[37] He raised money for Bill Bradley in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.[38] An early supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2008, Steyer became one of Barack Obama's most prolific fundraisers. Steyer served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 2004 and 2008.[39] Steyer has been a member of the Hamilton Project[40] and has been involved with the Democracy Alliance, a network of progressive donors whose membership in the group requires them to donate at least $200,000 a year to recommended organizations.[41][42]
Political positions
Environmentalism
Keystone Pipeline
After holding several conversations during the summer of 2012 with environmental writer Bill McKibben, Steyer decided to focus much of his attention on the Keystone Pipeline.[103] Steyer officially left Farallon in 2012.[104] He was criticized by some Republicans for attacking the pipeline even though he held some investments in the fossil-fuel industry. The investments included stock in Kinder Morgan, which had its own pipeline connecting the Canadian bitumen sands to a port on the Pacific, which could be seen as a rival to the Keystone pipeline. Steyer promised to fully unload his holdings there within a year. In September 2013, Steyer appeared in a series of commercials in opposition to the proposed pipeline.[19]
Awards and honors
Steyer has received a number of awards and honors for his environmental work, including the Phillip Burton Public Service Award of Consumer Watchdog (2011),[66][122] the Environmental Leadership Award of the California League of Conservation Voters (2012),[123] the Environmental Achievement Award of the Environmental Law Institute (2013),[124] and the Land Conservation Award of the Open Space Institute (2015).[125]
Steyer received Equality California's 2015 Humanitarian Award "for his work advancing progressive causes that benefit the LGBT community."[126]
Personal life
In August 1986, Steyer married Kathryn Ann Taylor, a graduate of Harvard College who earned a Master of Business Administration and a Juris Doctor from Stanford University. Kathryn was on the President's Council for the United Religions Initiative, an interfaith group.[127] The Reverend Richard Thayer, a Presbyterian minister, and Rabbi Charles Familant performed the ceremony.[2] They have four children.[10]
Steyer has two brothers: Hume Steyer, an attorney in New York City; and Jim Steyer, who founded Common Sense Media.[1][128]
Men's Journal mentioned the modest aspects of his lifestyle, noting that he owns an "outdated hybrid
Bibliography
- Steyer, Tom. Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We'll Win the Climate War. (2024). Spiegel & Grau. ISBN 9781954118645.
External links
References
- Joe Hagan. Tom Steyer: An Inconvenient Billionaire Men's Journal, February 18, 2014, retrieved June 13, 2016^
- Kathryn Taylor Weds T.F. Steyer The New York Times, August 17, 1986^
- World Who's who in Commerce and Industry