George Soros bows out. The American billionaire, one of the most famous investors in the world, a major donor to the Democratic Party, has chosen one of his youngest sons, Alexander, 37, to succeed him at the head of his foundations. “Alex”, from his second marriage, will watch over an empire weighing 25 billion dollars.
“ More political ” than his father by his own admission, determined to prevent the return of Trump to power, he intends to continue giving the family money to support left-wing politicians, by adding causes that close to his heart such as the right to abortion, the vote of Latino and African-American voters or gender equality.
Thick black frames, a closely trimmed beard, a Berkeley Ph.D. in history, Alex was not his father’s original choice. The businessman had first declared that he did not want “the foundation to be taken over by one of (his) children, as a matter of principle”. Before one of his elders, Jonathan, 52, from a first bed, a lawyer with a financial profile, was long tipped to succeed him. Tall, athletic, he played tennis with his father, worked alongside him for a time and came to the aid of his hedge fund when he went through a zone of turbulence. Then a falling out between the two men pushed Jonathan towards the exit ten years ago.
Alex, who always walks around with a notebook in hand, has won his father’s trust, replacing him in recent years on trips around the world. His colleagues speak of his collegial management and his attention to detail. Last December, the board of directors of the family foundations, Open Society Foundations (OSF), finally chose him to succeed his father. He “well deserved it”, judged the latter. Alex now also leads OSF’s political activities. He is the only family member to serve on the investment committee of Soros Fund Management, the firm that oversees the funds, according to the Wall Street Journal. Most of the 25 billion dollars with which it is endowed will go in the coming years to the OSF, which pays around 1.5 billion dollars a year to its various causes. $125 million has been set aside to fund political activities.
Alexander has come a long way. This fan of hip-hop and the New York Jets, the American football team, was first noticed by the tabloids for his social life, photographed in Cannes or in the Hamptons, a select resort on Long Island alongside models and actresses. Introverted when he was a child, uncomfortable with the family fortune, he was very discreet during the first meetings of the OSF Council.
After proving himself alongside his father, Alexander will now have to make a name for himself. He succeeds a figure of American capitalism who built his fortune in the 1970s, being one of the first managers of hedge funds, particularly on currencies. His best shot? He bet in 1992 on the collapse of the British pound and made more than 1 billion dollars in profits.
(Re)converted into a philanthropist at the height of his career, the businessman devoted his money to the defense of his ideas, from the fight against apartheid to the support of activists for democracy in dictatorships, marked by the memory of the war and then of communist totalitarianism in Eastern Europe. In 2019, his foundation had finally left Hungary, his native country, after being targeted by President Viktor Orban.
Hated by conservatives and conspirators in the United States, he suffered the wrath of Elon Musk last month after notably revealing that he no longer held Tesla shares. Musk had tweeted that George Soros reminded him of Magneto, one of the Marvel comics villains, with superpowers (including the ability to control metal), a Holocaust survivor like the businessman. A comparison that had created controversy. “‘George wants to destroy the very essence of civilization,'” Musk said, drawing ire from an anti-Semitism organization. “‘I’m the scapegoat when they need to blame someone,'” Soros had replied.
