Seth Klarman American billionaire, founder of 'Baupost Group' Date of Birth: 21.05.1957 Country: USA

Seth Klarman: The Conservative Investor

Seth Klarman is an American billionaire and the founder of Baupost Group, a private investment partnership based in Boston. He was born on May 21, 1957, in New York City, to a Jewish family, and grew up in Baltimore. His father worked in public healthcare economics at Johns Hopkins University, while his mother was an English teacher.

Klarman attended Cornell University and Harvard Business School, where he was classmates with prominent figures such as Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, Steve Burke, the CEO and President of NBCUniversal, Stephen Mandel, the founder of Lone Pine Capital, and Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. While at Cornell, Klarman was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity and often studied while watching television in the fraternity library. Despite his unconventional study habits, Klarman was later inducted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society, which recognizes the most outstanding graduates of American universities.

Before founding Baupost Group, Klarman worked for Max Heine and Michael Price at Mutual Shares, which is now part of Franklin Templeton Investments. In 1982, he established Baupost Group, which managed $22 billion in 2010 and grew to $29.4 billion in 2012. Despite his unconventional investment strategy, Klarman consistently achieves high returns. He is known for holding a significant portion of his investment portfolio in cash, sometimes more than 50% of assets. Klarman often makes unconventional investments, buying unpopular assets while they are undervalued, utilizing complex derivatives, and purchasing put options.

Klarman maintains a low public profile, rarely appearing in public or giving interviews. However, in 2006, he expressed pessimism about the stock market and warned of future inflation. He is sometimes referred to as the "Warren Buffett of his generation." In 1991, Klarman published the book "Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor," which has become a classic in the investment business over the past two decades. Today, copies of this book can be purchased on Amazon and eBay for $1200-$2000.

In 2014, Klarman was listed by Forbes as one of the top 25 hedge fund managers with the highest earnings for the previous year. His total income in 2013 was $350 million, ranking him 20th on Forbes' list. Klarman established The Klarman Family Foundation, which had $255 million in assets as of 2010, and makes donations to medical institutions, Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Committee, the Academy of the Pacific Rim in Massachusetts, and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston, as well as causes related to Israel.

Klarman serves as the chairman of Facing History and Ourselves, an organization that develops programs to combat anti-Semitism and intolerance. He is also actively involved in The Israel Project, a pro-Israel group that gathers and disseminates information about Israel to journalists. From 2008 to 2010, he donated $4 million to the organization. Additionally, Klarman actively donates to Republican Party groups and individual candidates. He is a major sponsor of political non-profit organizations such as the Ending Spending Fund and the American Unity Fund, which advocate for the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Seth Klarman is married to Beth Klarman, and his brother, Michael Klarman, is a professor of law at Harvard University. Klarman is a key American investor in The Times of Israel, an English-language online newspaper that covers events in Israel and the Jewish world.