Donald Sussman

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Donald Sussman

Picture of Donald Sussman

Born Selwyn Donald Sussman[1][2]

June 8, 1946 (age 72)

Miami, Florida, US

Residence Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US[3][4]

North Haven, Maine, US

Education Columbia College

New York University

Occupation Financier

Known for Philanthropy

Spouse(s) Laurie M. Tisch (divorced)

Chellie Pingree (divorced)

Children 2

Parent(s) Beatrice Zimmerman Sussman

William Sussman

Selwyn Donald Sussman (born June 8, 1946) is an American financier and philanthropist. He is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of the Paloma Funds and the founder of New China Capital Management LLC. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Hall,[5] a member of the Board of Directors of ProPublica,[6] and an Honorary Trustee of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.[7] His company Paloma Partners, was the largest contributor to the Clinton campaign.[8]

Contents

1 Early life and education

2 Career

3 Maine

4 Philanthropy

5 Personal life

6 Awards

7 References

Early life and education

Sussman was born to a Jewish family[9] in June[10] 1946, the son of Beatrice (née Zimmerman) and William Sussman.[11] His father was a real estate developer.[11] He was raised in Miami, Florida[12] and attended the Windsor Mountain School, a boarding high school located in Lenox, Massachusetts.[11] After high school, he attended Columbia College and then went to New York University where he earned a B.S. and an M.B.A.[5] He received honorary degrees from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel,[5] and the Maine College of Art.[6]

Career

Sussman's career in finance began in 1958, when, at the age of 12, he made a 6x return on a $300 investment in the stock of Michigan Sugar, by correctly predicting that the Cuban Revolution would disrupt sugar supplies and drive up the price of sugar commodities.[13][14] After school, he served as vice president and chief financial officer of the Titan Industrial Corporation and then as a partner in the New York law firm of Gelberg & Abrams.[11] In 1981, he founded Paloma Partners, a Connecticut-based hedge fund with over $3 billion in assets under management.[15] Paloma's middle and back-office operations were acquired by JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services in February 2006 for an undisclosed sum.[16][17]

Following the sale to JPMorgan, Sussman has acted as a serial investor and backer of new hedge funds such as Naseem Taleb's Empirica Capital and David Shaw's D.E. Shaw & Co.[18][19] In 2013, Paloma Partners agreed to back Rhodium Capital. Rhodium Capital, based in London, is a long-short European credit fund founded by Ifftikhar Ali and Jeffrey Tirman.[20] Sussman continues to run Paloma Partners and is also the Chairman of Trust Asset Management.

He has donated US$11 million to Priorities USA Action, a Super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.[21] Paloma Partners was the single largest supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with contributions totaling $21,613,800.[22]

Sussman manages Paloma Partners which received $200 million in US taxpayer funds as part of the AIG bailout.[23][24]

Maine

In 1994, Donald Sussman purchased his first Maine home in Deer Isle.[25] In 2008, Sussman purchased Turner Farm, a historic farm located on the island of North Haven, ME, 12 miles off shore in Penobscot Bay.[26] The history of Turner Farm dates back to the 1780s and under Sussman's ownership, the property has been returned to a working farm producing organic vegetables, flowers, poultry, beef, pork and cheese.[27] Sussman and Chellie Pingree reside on the farm. It is their primary residence in Maine.[28]

In 2012, Maine Values LLC, a company owned by Sussman, invested approximately $3.3 million in MaineToday Media in order to provide the Maine newspaper company with much needed working capital. MaineToday Media is the owner of the Kennebec Journal, the Morning Sentinel and the Coastal Journal, the Portland Press Herald and several digital media properties. The investment, originally made as a loan, was restructured as a purchase of equity and resulted in Maine Values owning 75% of MaineToday Media.[29][30] In 2015, Sussman sold MaineToday to Reade Brower, a Maine printer and newspaper owner.[31]

Philanthropy

>>5305957

contd

Sussman has made substantial donations to educational, charitable, community, and political organizations. Sussman donated $22.8M[32] to the 2016 failed campaign of Hillary Clinton for President of the United States. Since 1992, Sussman has donated in excess of $7M to numerous political candidates and grassroots organizations.[33][34] Sussman stated in an interview in 2011 that, “My political donations are a very small part of my philanthropy and I consider my political donations to be philanthropy because I do not have an agenda.”[35]

During October 1997 it was announced that Sussman had donated $1M to Blue Hill Memorial Hospital to construct an outpatient building.[36] The building was later named “Sussman Medical Office Center".

In 2008 he was appointed to the board of trustees at the University of the Virgin Islands, and at this time made a pledge of $1,000,000 to the university.[37]

In 2010, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Sussman donated the use of his private jet to transport medical supplies to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.[38] Also in 2010, the same aircraft was used to transport a dying man back to Maine.[39] On June 3, 2010 it was announced that Sussman had donated a new 7000 sq ft facility to the Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC) to promote sustainable fisheries in Maine.[40] On Oct 31, 2010, Skidmore College, a private liberal arts college located in Saratoga Springs, NY, announced that Sussman had committed a $12M gift to the school. The donation was part of a larger $200M effort to build Co-Ed housing.[41] Sussman has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Skidmore College until 2012 and continues to serve on the Skidmore College Investment Committee.[42][43]

In 2012, friends and colleagues of Donald Sussman established the S. Donald Sussman Award at the MIT Sloan School of Management in honor of his lifelong contribution to quantitative finance. This award is presented to individuals or groups who exhibit innovation and excellence in quantitative investment strategies and models.[44] In 2012, Sussman made a $12 million donation for the redevelopment of student housing at Skidmore College. After redevelopment, the student housing was renamed 'Sussman Village' and was completed in 2013. It is scheduled to accept students in October 2013.[45] In 2013, Sussman donated $1 million to Pen Bay Healthcare to help complete its new Hospice House, construction of which had already begun on the northern edge of the 64-acre Pen Bay Medical Center campus in Rockport. The Hospice House will be named in honor of Sussman's grandmother, Ida Sussman. Construction is estimated to be completed in July 2014.[46][47]

Personal life

In 1981, Sussman married Laurie M. Tisch, daughter of Preston Robert Tisch who was the co-owner of the New York Giants. In 1992, they divorced. They had two children:[48]

Carolyn Tisch Sussman received her undergraduate degree from Yale University and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School. In 2012, she married William Blodgett in a Jewish ceremony in Greenwich, Connecticut.[49]

Emily Tisch Sussman graduated from Skidmore College in 2004 and later received her JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.[41] In 2012, Cardozo awarded her the Gates Award for her efforts to eliminate DADT.[50] In 2015, she married Kevin James Craw at the Four Freedoms Park at Roosevelt Island, New York. Senator Cory Booker became a minister of the American Fellowship Church for the occasion and officiated the ceremony.[51]

On June 18, 2011, Sussman was remarried to Chellie Pingree, a Democratic U.S. representative from Maine, in a private ceremony on Turner Farm.[52][53] On September 8, 2015, Pingree announced an "amicable and truly mutual decision" to separate from Sussman and begin divorce proceedings.[54] The divorce was finalized in the summer of 2016.[55]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Sussman

Clinton Bundlers

Donald Sussman Rye Brook NY Paloma Partners $47,519,441

https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/bundlers

>>5305966

Capital Markets

Company Overview of New China Capital Management, LLC

Snapshot

People

Company Overview

New China Capital Management, LLC is a venture capital and private equity firm specializing in growth capital investments and turnarounds. The firm provides restructuring including restructuring offshore, if needed to its portfolio companies. It seeks to invest in agriculture and environment; chemicals and energy; consumer products; education; financial services; healthcare and pharmaceuticals; information technology; infrastructure; transportation; transportation infrastructure; alternative energy resources; natural resources; light manufacturing and heavy industry, media and advertising; mining; property development; and telecom equipment sectors. The firm seeks to invest in companies oper…

Detailed Description

One Dock Street

Suite 610

Stamford, CT 06902-5836

United States

Founded in 1992

Phone:

203-328-1800

Fax:

203-328-1801

www.cathay-capital.com

Key Executives for New China Capital Management, LLC

Mr. Paul Steven Wolansky J.D.

CEO & Chairman

Age: 62

Mr. Selwyn Donald Sussman

Co-Founder and Director

Ms. Anita Eng CPA

Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Ling M. Liu

Managing Director

Mr. J. David Selvia

Managing Director

Age: 42

Compensation as of Fiscal Year 2018.

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The Democrats’ Mystery Man: Fred Eychaner

https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-democrats-mystery-man-fred-eychaner/

The Democrats’ Mystery Man:

Fred Eychaner donates tens of millions to politicians and left-wing causes,

but the mainstream media have never told you about him

By Barbara Joanna Lucas, Foundation Watch, September 2015, (PDF here)

Summary: Fred Eychaner is one of the most powerful political players and tycoons you’ve never heard of.

Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, collected $250,000 when she visited the Chicago mansion of Fred Eychaner in May for a fundraising event. The occasion prompted a rare bit of media coverage of the multimillionaire mogul usually described as “reclusive” or “secretive” in media accounts because he avoids interviews and cameras.

“Everybody working together needs to make Hillary the next president,” the 70-year-old Eychaner told the gathering of rich Democrats.

Most Americans haven’t heard of Eychaner (pronounced Eye-can-er). Those versed in media giants are certainly familiar with Rupert Murdoch or Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger. Those who know the political donor class know about George Soros, the Koch brothers and Tom Steyer. Eychaner is a media mogul political donor who manages to operate under the radar.

But every serious Democrat who wants to rake in big campaign donations knows Eychaner’s name. He favored Hillary Clinton in the 2008 cycle over the inexperienced senator from his home state who unexpectedly snatched the nomination away from the former first lady. But like most donors, he then dutifully switched his support to Barack Obama. Now he is backing Clinton again, after reaching hall-of-fame status among Democratic donors.

Many ironies surround Eychaner. He is worth at least $500 million but calls his wealth a “burden.” He says he doesn’t like consolidation, but his company, Newsweb Corp. keeps gobbling up smaller, family-owned companies.

He doesn’t often speak publicly, but when he does, he uses over-the-top, incendiary language, accusing Republicans of being divisive.

Above all, he says he staunchly opposes the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, which affirmed the free speech rights of unions and corporations to publicize their political opinions. Yet he was the biggest Democratic super PAC donor of the 2012 election cycle, and fourth overall among political donors that year from either party. Moreover, he is the secretive figure who donated all that money to the party that professes to hate “dark money.” Eychaner even ranks fifth nationally among lifetime donors to the Democratic National Committee.

A secretive money man who gave and bundled, Eychaner received a presidential appointment from President Obama and not surprisingly is part of the Chicago political machine. He is closely aligned with former Obama advisers David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel (the latter now mayor of Chicago), as well as the dynasty of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his daughter, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Despite his political ties, Eychaner doesn’t always put his mouth where his money is. He has given somewhat faint praise to the Democrats, which seems out of proportion to the vast sums of money he has sent their way.

“At the end of the day, are we better off with Republicans or Democrats?” he said when explaining why he throws so much money at Democrats. Axelrod describes Eychaner in National Journal as “a very, very smart, discerning guy.”

Among Eychaner’s other inconsistencies are his dealings with the Clintons. Politico has reported that his donations to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation don’t add up. He is listed on the Clinton Foundation’s website as among the elite donors who gave $25 million or more, and the website also reports that it received between $10,001 and $25,000 from Eychaner’s Alphawood Foundation. But the Alphawood Foundation’s IRS filings show it contributed $7.25 million from 2003 to 2007. The Clinton Foundation said Alphawood’s $7.25 million is included in Eychaner’s total, while Alphawood executive director James McDonough explained that his “understanding is that they’ve lumped all our donations under Fred Eychaner’s name” (Politico, May 20, 2015

>>5306305

contd

Alphawood Foundation

Eychaner founded the Alphawood Foundation, which boasted assets of $169 million in 2013, the most recent data available, with much of those funds gained from the killing he made when he sold his Chicago TV station to Murdoch. The organization’s primary funding areas are gay rights groups, AIDS/HIV treatment, domestic violence prevention, the environment, arts, education, and architecture preservation. National Journal reported he is the single largest donor to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

The foundation has more than $100 million in assets and is larger than the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Ronald McDonald House Charities (Chicago Tribune, June 7, 2005).

Though Eychaner has a journalism background, Alphawood doesn’t finance many journalism-related organizations or causes, such as greater freedom of information access. Some exceptions have been the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting, and the left-wing Free Speech TV.

Because of his reclusive nature, Eychaner initially wanted to call the organization “Anonymous,” but then found it was already taken, so he arrived at the name Alphawood, Inside Philanthropy reported.

Alphawood does not accept grant proposals from organizations. First-time grants are made by invitation only, according to Inside Philanthropy. The organization’s grants typically range from $50,000 to $150,000. One of the largest gifts it has made was $32 million to an Asian arts program at a British university (National Journal, May 8, 2014). Eychaner is the president of the organization, while he tapped former Sun-Times Media general counsel James McDonough to be the executive director (Breitbart, Sept. 16, 2014).

Eychaner, Obama, and Democrats

Eychaner has visited the White House at least 18 times, according to White House visitor logs. Seven of those visits were in 2012, when he apparently knew the price of admission. One of those visits came when he secured a highly coveted seat at the official state dinner with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Six of those visits came during President Obama’s second term. Not surprising access for the man who may have been the first super PAC donor in the United States, according to the Center for Public Integrity, which tracks money in politics.

>>5306323

contd

Eychaner has a history with the president. When Obama ran for his only term in the U.S. Senate in 2004, Eychaner contributed $12,000 to his campaign. After Obama won the 2008 presidential nomination, Eychaner hosted Michelle Obama’s appearance at his Chicago mansion where he tried to rally support from the LGBT community behind the Obamas (Hot Air, Dec. 7, 2009).

In September 2010, Obama appointed Eychaner, an arts lover, to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Eychaner has been on the boards of both the Joffrey Ballet and the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 2012, Eychaner really went to bat for Obama. When Obama sought a second term, Eychaner directed $14.1 million to Democratic super PACs in that election cycle, with $4.5 million of those donations going to Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama super PAC headed by erstwhile journalist David Brock.

He contributed $5,000 directly to Obama’s re-election campaign and bundled more than $500,000 for Obama, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and swing-state Democratic parties.

Boosting Democrats

Nevertheless, he doesn’t like to be thought of as a big money man. He told the National Journal, “I am not the progressive Koch brother.”

But clearly, he isn’t just boosting pro-Obama super PACs. During that 2012 cycle, he also contributed $4.3 million to Senate Majority PAC and $4.25 million to the House Majority PAC and $200,000 to America Votes Action Fund, all Democratic groups. Joining the preposterous “war on women” narrative, he donated $750,000 to Women Vote, a super PAC run by the pro-abortion Emily’s List. He also donated $50,000 to the pro-lesbian LPAC. (For more on the false left-wing narrative, see “The War on Women Myth,” Organization Trends, January 2014.)

In fact Eychaner violated the legal contributions limits at the time by $1,000, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Ironically, the violation became a moot point after the Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, another pro-First Amendment court decision that Eychaner and his friends condemn.

In 2013, he spent another $100,000 toward the campaign of former DNC chief Terry McAuliffe for governor of Virginia. McAuliffe won, but in 2014, Eychaner’s political investments did not pay off so well. He contributed $5 million to the Senate Majority PAC and $2.5 million to the House Majority PAC in a year when Democrats took a royal thrashing, arguably their worst defeat in history (Center for Responsive Politics).

He endeared himself with the Chicago political machine not only with his money but also his actions. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has had a close relationship with Eychaner going back to 2005, when Emanuel first served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Emanuel, a former ballet dancer in college, greatly appreciates Eychaner’s role in bringing the Joffrey Ballet to Chicago (Bloomberg, May 20, 2015).

Eychaner shared Presidenth Obama’s enthusiasm for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a disgraced radical left-wing nonprofit that declared bankruptcy after scandals cost it federal funding. Obama worked for and represented ACORN in court as a lawyer and was a community organizer before he entered electoral politics. Eychaner gave $100,000 to ACORN-affiliated Project Vote (Hot Air, Dec. 7, 2009).

>>5306305

Clinton Bundlers

Fred Eychaner Chicago IL Newsweb Corp $68,447,376

https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/bundlers

>>5305983

You read it all whiny baby.