Early Life and Education
John Alfred Paulson was born on December 14, 1955, in Queens, New York. He is the third of four children. His father, Alfred G. Paulson, was of Ecuadorian descent. His mother, Jacqueline, was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Romania. Paulson excelled in academics from a young age. He attended New York University, graduating summa cum laude in finance in 1978, and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1980.
Rise to Success
Paulson began his career at the Boston Consulting Group. After graduating from Harvard, he joined Odyssey Partners and later worked at Bear Stearns in mergers and acquisitions. In 1994, he founded Paulson & Co. with $2 million and one employee. Paulson gained international recognition in 2007 for his successful bet against the U.S. subprime mortgage market. This strategy resulted in approximately $15 billion in profits for his firm, transforming him into a prominent figure in high finance. Paulson's firm focuses on event-driven investments, including mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcies.
Key Business Strategies
Paulson's key strategies involve identifying and capitalizing on market inefficiencies and mispriced assets, employing deep fundamental analysis and a contrarian approach. His investments have included a successful bet on gold in 2009 and positions in financial entities post-2008. He is known for his macroeconomic insights and contrarian investment strategies.
Philanthropy
John Paulson is committed to philanthropy. He has donated millions to educational institutions, including Harvard University ($400 million) where the engineering school was renamed in his honor, New York University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has also supported cultural institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2012, he donated $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy.
