Whitney Tilson
Whitney Tilson | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 1, 1966 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Hedge fund manager, author, activist |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Known for | Founder of Kase Capital; 2025 NYC mayoral candidate |
| Notable work | More Mortgage Meltdown (2009); The Art of Value Investing (2013); The Art of Playing Defense (2021) |
Whitney Richard Tilson (born November 1, 1966) is a former American hedge fund manager, author, and activist affiliated with the Democratic Party. He was a contender in the Democratic primary for the 2025 New York City mayoral race.
Early life and education
Tilson was born in New Haven, Connecticut and is a great-grandson of John Q. Tilson, a Republican who represented his district in the United States House of Representatives for 22 years, including six years as House Majority Leader during the administrations of Presidents Coolidge and Hoover.
His parents met while serving in the Peace Corps, teaching overseas; by 2015, both they and his sister resided in Kenya. During his childhood, Tilson lived in Tanzania and Nicaragua, reflecting his parents' Peace Corps assignments. At six years old, he took part in the renowned Stanford marshmallow experiment.
Tilson completed his secondary education at Northfield Mount Hermon School in 1985. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in government from Harvard College in 1989. Subsequently, he earned an MBA with high honors from Harvard Business School in 1994, where he was distinguished as a Baker Scholar, an honor bestowed upon the top 5% of his class.
Finance
Before attending business school, Tilson worked for two years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). His start date was postponed by six months to allow him to assist with the launch of Teach for America.
Following this, Tilson managed hedge funds for 18 years, applying the investment principles of value investing as championed by Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham. From 1999 to 2017, he founded and led Kase Capital, overseeing three value-focused hedge funds along with two mutual funds. By February 2004, his fund had achieved a cumulative return of 68% (53% net of fees) since inception, outperforming the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which had declined by 3% during that timeframe. The fund's assets reached over $200 million at their peak but were closed in September 2017 after several years of lagging behind the S&P.
In 2019, Tilson became an editor at Stansberry Research, contributing to its investment newsletter with over 100,000 paying subscribers. As of January 2025, he held the position of lead analyst for the Stansberry Investment Advisory newsletter.
Writing
Tilson has either written or co-written three books: More Mortgage Meltdown: 6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Times (2009), co-authored with Glenn Tongue; The Art of Value Investing: How the World's Best Investors Beat the Market (2013), alongside John Heins; and The Art of Playing Defense: How to Get Ahead by Not Falling Behind (2021). Additionally, he contributed to Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger (2023).
He regularly provides articles for financial outlets including the Stansberry Investment Advisory newsletter, Financial Times, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, The Motley Fool, Forbes, TheStreet, and CNBC.
Media
Tilson appeared in two separate segments on 60 Minutes. The first, aired in December 2008, addressed the 2008 housing crisis and received an Emmy Award.
In 2015, he was featured in a report concerning Lumber Liquidators, which faced allegations of selling laminate flooring imported from China that contained formaldehyde levels surpassing regulatory limits. After the company’s stock price more than doubled over a year, Tilson took a short position and invested $5,000 to test product samples. His tests revealed formaldehyde concentrations two to six times higher than California Air Resources Board standards. Following the broadcast, Lumber Liquidators’ stock dropped 25% on that day and declined by 75% within eight months. Ultimately, the firm paid a $33 million fine.
Antisemitism
Tilson publicly condemned Harvard’s handling of antisemitism after the Gaza war and the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. In November 2023, he refused to meet with a Harvard Business School fundraising official, criticizing the institution’s insufficient response to antisemitic incidents. He likened the harm done to Harvard’s reputation since October 7 to the failures of New Coke and Elon Musk’s tenure at Twitter, describing Harvard as "the least needy charity on earth."
Education reform
As a founding participant in Teach For America, Tilson helped place recent college graduates into underserved schools. During his time at Harvard Business School, he partnered with Professor Michael Porter to create the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, which has channeled $1.7 billion into minority-owned businesses across the United States.
He has backed various education reform organizations, including serving twenty years on the board of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Academy, a charter school located in the South Bronx, and is an outspoken supporter of charter schools. Tilson also co-founded and sits on the board of the national political action committee Democrats for Education Reform.
In 2007, Tilson played a key role in launching Reach (Rewarding Achievement), a $1 million initiative funded by philanthropists that incentivized New York City public and Roman Catholic high school students who performed well on Advanced Placement exams. Students achieving a score of five received $1,000, with lower scores earning proportionally smaller amounts. The program focused on schools with large populations of low-income Black or Latino students and was initially financed by the Pershing Square Foundation.
Politics
Tilson has contributed to the finance committees of Barack Obama and Cory Booker and financially supported a variety of Democratic candidates. In 2016, Senator Elizabeth Warren labeled him a "hedge fund billionaire... enthusiastic about Donald Trump's economic team," although The New York Times highlighted that Tilson openly opposed Trump, backed Hillary Clinton, and donated to Warren herself. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof described Warren's statement as an "unfair tirade," for which she subsequently issued an apology.
After President Joe Biden's underwhelming performance in the June 2024 debate against Donald Trump, Tilson, despite being a longtime donor, called on Biden to withdraw from the Democratic ticket. He expressed that continuing support would be "a waste of my time and money" given Biden's reduced prospects.
2025 New York City mayoral campaign
In November 2024, Tilson declared his intention to run in the June 2025 Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City. His campaign centers around combating violent crime, reducing city expenditures, tackling the high cost of living, and enhancing public education. He dismissed the "defund the police" slogan as "the three dumbest words of all time."
Following a federal Justice Department directive for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney to dismiss bribery and corruption allegations against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Tilson denounced Adams as corrupt and accused him of betraying New Yorkers to evade prosecution.
Taxation
Tilson is affiliated with the Patriotic Millionaires, a bipartisan organization promoting tax reforms aimed at increasing fiscal contributions from wealthy individuals. In a 2012 Washington Post opinion piece, he contended that financially secure affluent citizens should accept higher taxes without compromising their standard of living.
Other
Tilson has held a board position with the Fistula Foundation, which supports surgical treatment for obstetric fistula. In 2011, he matched donations up to $100 each and raised $200,000 for charities addressing famine, violence, and mass rape during Somalia’s civil war. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, he volunteered and contributed $7,000 towards establishing a 68-bed field hospital in Central Park to accommodate overflow patients from Mount Sinai Hospital. Although critical of the evangelical group Samaritan's Purse leading the initiative, Tilson prioritized aiding their Covid relief efforts over ideological disagreements.
Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Tilson has traveled there four times and raised more than $18 million to provide humanitarian assistance including medical supplies, ambulances, generators, and battery packs.
Personal life
Tilson lives in Manhattan with his wife Susan Dana, whom he married in 1993, along with their three grown daughters. He has been a longtime member of Manhattan's Central Synagogue, despite not being Jewish himself; his wife and daughters are Jewish. Tilson actively participates in obstacle course racing, having competed in seven 24-hour World's Toughest Mudder events, winning the over-50 division twice and setting an age group record of 75 miles in 2016. A passionate rock climber and mountaineer, he has summited renowned peaks such as El Capitan, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Blanc, the Matterhorn, and the Eiger.