Leon Cooperman

At the end of 1991, following 25 years of service, Lee retired from his positions as a general partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and as chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management to organize and launch an investment-management business, Omega Advisors, Inc., which he ran for 27 years before converting it to a family office at the end of 2018. At its height, Omega Advisors managed more than $10 billion of client funds.

At Goldman Sachs, Lee spent 15 years as a partner and one year (1990–1991) as of-counsel to the management committee. In 1989, he became chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and chief investment officer of the firm’s equity product line, managing the GS Capital Growth Fund, an open-end mutual fund, for one and a half years. Prior to those appointments, Lee had spent 22 years in the investment research department as partner-in-charge, co-chairman of the investment policy committee and chairman of the stock selection committee. For nine consecutive years, he was voted the number-one portfolio strategist in Institutional Investor Magazine’s annual All-America Research Team survey.

A designated chartered financial analyst, Lee is a senior member and past president of the New York Society of Security Analysts; chairman emeritus of the Saint Barnabas Development Foundation; a member of the board of overseers of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; a member of the board of directors of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation; a member of the investment committee of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center; and board chairman of Green Spaces, a committee organized to rebuild 13 parks in Newark, New Jersey.

Lee received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and his undergraduate degree from Hunter College. He is a recipient of Roger Williams University’s Honorary Doctor of Finance and of Hunter College’s Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; an inductee into Hunter College’s Hall of Fame; and a recipient of the 2003 American Jewish Committee (AJC) Wall Street Human Relations Award, the 2006 Seton Hall Humanitarian of the Year Award, the 2009 Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark Award for Caring, and the 2009 UJA-Federation of New York’s Wall Street and Financial Services Division Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2013, Lee was inducted into Alpha Magazine’s Hedge Fund Hall of Fame and was honored by the AJC at their 50th anniversary with the Herbert H. Lehman Award for his professional achievements, philanthropic efforts, and longstanding support for AJC. In 2014, Columbia Business School awarded Lee its Distinguished Leadership in Business Award, and Bloomberg Markets named him to its fourth annual “50 Most Influential” list (one of only ten money managers globally to be so honored, selected “based on what they’re doing now, rather than past achievements”). He was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association in April 2015.

Lee and his wife, Toby, have two sons and three grandchildren.