Tom Steyer is an American billionaire investor, environmental activist, and Democratic politician who built a major hedge fund before turning full-time to climate and progressive politics. As of late 2025, he is also a declared candidate for governor of California in the 2026 election.

Who Tom Steyer Is

  • Thomas Fahr Steyer was born June 27, 1957, in New York City and grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
  • He is known as a former hedge fund manager who became a prominent environmentalist and Democratic mega‑donor focused on climate change and progressive causes.

Education and Early Career

  • Steyer attended elite schools (Buckley School, Phillips Exeter Academy) and graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in economics and political science, then earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
  • Early in his career, he worked at Morgan Stanley and then Goldman Sachs in risk arbitrage and mergers and acquisitions, developing a reputation as an aggressive investor.

Business and Investing

  • In 1986, Steyer founded Farallon Capital Management in San Francisco, which grew into a multibillion‑dollar hedge fund using a multi‑strategy approach.
  • He also co‑founded OneCalifornia Bank (later Beneficial State Bank), designed as a socially responsible bank supporting low‑ and moderate‑income communities and nonprofits.

Activism and Politics

  • Around 2012, Steyer left Farallon to focus on political and climate activism and began divesting from fossil‑fuel‑related investments inconsistent with his environmental agenda.
  • He founded NextGen Climate/NextGen America and the NextGen Climate Action Committee, which have spent heavily on environmental, youth‑vote, and progressive electoral campaigns across the United States.

National Profile and Recent Moves

  • Steyer gained national attention through his “Need to Impeach” campaign targeting then‑President Donald Trump and through his run in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, where he emphasized climate change, economic inequality, and political corruption.
  • In November 2025, he entered the 2026 race for governor of California, presenting himself as an outsider focused on affordability and reform, and continues to promote his agenda on social media platforms like X.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.