David Tepper is an American businessman and philanthropist who has net worth of $12 billion dollars. For many years he was one of the richest people in New Jersey. After relocating to Palm Beach, he is one of the richest people in Florida. Tepper earned his fortune as the founder of the hedge fund Appaloosa Management. He struck out on his own in 1993 after being repeatedly passed over for partnership at Goldman Sachs. He owns the Carolina Panthers NFL team and the Charlotte FC MLS soccer team. David Tepper’s net worth makes him one of the richest sports team owners on the planet.
Early Life: David Tepper was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Sep 11, 1957. Tepper graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, and then earned his M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. Decades later, in 2013, Carnegie Mellon named its business school the Tepper School of Business after receiving a $67 million donation from the finance tycoon.
Career: He began his professional career in finance with a job at Equibank. After completing his Masters, he began working for Republic Steel. He then worked for Keystone Mutual Funds in the mid-80s. This led to a job offer from Goldman-Sachs, where he worked for eight years, ultimately ascending to head trader on a high-yield desk. Despite being a high-performer, Tepper felt repeatedly looked-over each year when it was time to name new partners.
Frustrated by the rejection Tepper decided to go his own way. In 1993 he launched Appaloosa Management. Appaloosa Management. It took a few years to gain some traction, but by the early 2000s Appaloosa was thriving. In 2001 the firm generated a 61% return, primarily through investing in distressed bonds. Distressed bonds would become a trademark. Tepper made savvy investments in the debt of “dicey” companies.
In 2009 Appaloosa earned $7 billion in profits. Tepper personally took home $4 billion of those profits. That was enough to make him the highest-paid hedge fund manager of the year, by a long shot. He earned that accolade again in 2012 after personally earning $2.2 billion.
In 2019 David announced his plan to convert Appaloosa into a family office, meaning the firm would return outside money to investors and would eventually manage his own personal assets alone.
At its peak, Appaloosa had $14 billion in assets under management, roughly 70% of which were Tepper’s own money.
David Tepper ATM Receipt
Tepper is perhaps most famous for withdrawing $400 from an ATM in the Hamptons and accidentally leaving the receipt. The next person who used the ATM found his receipt and noticed his account balance was close to $100 million! The ATM receipt was posted on the internet and became sensation:
Real Estate
In 2010 – the year after he earned $4 billion – David paid $43.5 million for an oceanfront mansion in the Hamptons hamlet of Sagaponack. The property is extremely rare in that it spans 6.5-acres, basically unheard-of for the area. The previous owner had been known to rent the property for $900,000 for the summer. The purchase also provided a little bit of revenge for Mr. Tepper. The seller of the home was Joanne Dougherty. Joanne received the house as part of a divorce settlement from a man named Jon Corzine. Joanne and Jon were married from 1969 to 2003. Jon Corzine is notable for two reasons.
#1) He was the governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010
#2) Prior to becoming governor, Jon worked at Goldman Sachs from 1979 to 1999.
Jon was David’s boss. He was the one who kept David from becoming a partner all those years. Corzine’s partnership stake earned him $400 million on the day Goldman went public in May 1999. At that point David and Appaloosa were still a scrappy upstart. In what must have been the ultimate move of sweet revenge, not only did Tepper buy the Hamptons mansion from Corzine’s ex-wife, he quickly moved to raze their mansion to the ground. He then built a mansion twice the size in its place. Tepper and Joanne did the deal without any brokers. It was a simple transaction with no fees or commissions.
You can see the new mansion David Tepper built in the following drone video which was taken a beautiful morning after a major snow dump. You can see the house starting at the 10 second mark, through the 40 second mark. You can’t miss it:
In 2016, Tepper relocated his business empire from New Jersey to Florida. The move was so devastating in terms of lost state income tax that New Jersey was forced to disclose the loss as a potential budget risk. He had been New Jersey’s largest individual taxpayer for several years running.
In 2017 he paid $10.7 million for a condo in Miami, Florida.
In February 2021 Tepper paid $73 million for an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
In October 2020 Tepper indicated he would potentially be moving back to New Jersey.
| Net Worth: | $12 Billion |
| Date of Birth: | Sep 11, 1957 (64 years old) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Profession: | Businessperson, Investor |
| Nationality: | United States of America |