Leon G. Cooperman

Leon G. Cooperman, CFA, is the Founder of Omega Advisors, Inc. and Chairman and CEO of Omega Family Office, Inc. in New York.

At the end of 1991, following 25 years of service, Cooperman 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, Cooperman 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, Cooperman 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, Cooperman 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, NJ.

Cooperman received his MBA 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 and an inductee into Hunter College’s Hall of Fame.

Cooperman was also 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, Cooperman 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 Cooperman 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.

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