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Chapter 1: What is the significance of Leon Cooperman's $50 million donation?
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Well, our next guest needs really no introduction. He's familiar to the Bloomberg audience. Leon Cooperman spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs. He was a partner and chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He then went on to create the hedge fund Omega Advisors in the Omega family office, where he now oversees more than $10 billion in assets.
He's also known for his philanthropy, signing on to the Giving Pledge more than a decade ago and having donated many millions to various causes, including Columbia Business School, St. Barnabas Medical Center, and most recently, $50 million to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, something we want to talk with him about. And yes, a lot more. With us is Leon Cooperman. He is chair and CEO of
of the Omega Family Office. He joins us along with John Schreiber, President and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, both joining us from Newark. And gentlemen, great to have you here with us. Thank you.
Nice to be with you. Let me correct one thing you said. I managed $10 billion when I was in business. I retired in 2018. Unfortunately, we have less than $10 billion. What we have is my own money and my son and my wife's. Less than $10 billion by a lot.
We appreciate that because we like to get it right here. So thank you. Thank you for that. And thank you again, both of you for joining us. We want to talk about this gift, but got to say, Leon Lee, that we would certainly get a lot of flack from our Bloomberg users if we didn't ask you about the market environment as well. So we just want to take a few moments just to ask you about that.
You know, We have seen records on Wall Street again this week. There are concerns about overvaluation. I'm just curious, do you feel comfortable with where the market is and do you expect it to continue to move up higher, especially when it comes to U.S. stocks?
I'm not comfortable. I think I'm less optimistic than the consensus. I'm bothered by the excessive valuation relative to history. We're in the 98th percentile valuation. And certainly relative to the obvious macro issues which the market for some reason is ignoring. I'm bothered by the excessive reliance on debt. We have a guns and butter economic policy.
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Chapter 2: How does Leon Cooperman view the current market environment?
So simply stated, my wife and I have lived the American dream and our financial resources are largely being directed to help the NC kids achieved what we have been by virtue of their hard work, luck, and a few intuitive decisions during my earlier on in my career. So in my case, my father came to America in 1920 from Warsaw, Poland. He came at the age of 12. So he was born in 1908.
And he had no formal education. And I went to public school in the Bronx, high school in the Bronx, college in the West Bronx. Both my grade school and my public school was the East Bronx. I followed the advice of Harlow Scrooge and went west. I moved to the West Bronx. And then I had a short stay at Columbia Business School, which opened the door to Goldman Sachs and my career on Wall Street.
So yeah, we want to give kids today the chance to achieve the same things that my wife and I achieved. It's as simple as that. Yeah. And I figured out there were four things you can do with money. And I'm more different than your boss, Mike Bloomberg, because I have a few less zeros.
He's extremely close. Understood.
I've been working for 25 years. Yeah. Since I returned able to vote. That's 40 years ago. And when he ran for president, I switched to the Democratic Party so I can vote work for him and support him. Fortunately, he kind of flamed out very quickly. But I'd say there are only four things you can do with money.
The first thing you can do with money is you can pleasure yourself and buy planes, buy a automobile, buy baseball teams. There's nothing wrong with that. My wife and I have simple tastes. We both have a similar view that less is more. So, you know...
And, you know, one of the things we want to do, Lee, is actually talk to John Schreiber about what this money means to him.
Yeah, John Schreiber, come on in here. President and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Talk about how transformative this gift is. What exactly you can do with the $50 million.
It's a remarkable gift. And we, of course, couldn't be more grateful to Lee and Toby for making it. It's an endowment gift. We spend at NJPAC about $8 million a year on what we call social impact work. That's work in arts education, community engagement, the intersection of arts and health.
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Chapter 3: What impact does Cooperman believe his donation will have on the community?
As I mentioned, you've spent a lot supporting causes, including Columbia Business School, St. Barnabas Health, other health care facilities as well. Of course, the performing arts, not just with this most recent gift, but with other gifts as well. Where else are you thinking of supporting?
Well, I have a long list of things I support. One of the things that I like the most, other than New Jersey Foreign Law Center, is I created something called Coopman College Scholars.
And so basically, if you live in Essex County, New Jersey, and you take a three-week free course offered to explain what to expect when you're in college, and you're academically qualified, I'm big on giving people equal opportunity, but not equal outcomes, that we'll give you a four-year college education for free. And so, you know, now you ask for measurements.
So I did, I gave that program $25 million seven years ago. And I told them I knew the statistics, 35% new type of case, 35% of Newcastle kids went to college, only 5% graduated. I told him I worked too hard for this money for 5% graduation rate. He had to show me a change. Well, our first cohort graduated a year ago, and we had a 35% graduation rate, which is competitive nationwide.
I gave another $25 million. This morning I asked them what I have to do to endow the program in perpetuity. I'm thinking now at my age of doing bequests to organizations that I've supported. I've supported Columbia. I've supported Hunter College. I've supported New Jersey Performing Arts Center. I've supported Artemis, which is now their initiation.
A guy I have the enormous regard for is Ken Langone. When I gave the book to Barnabas, he asked me to take a change in the name of the hospital to come and buy this. I said, why do you want to do that? He said, well, Ken Langone did a lot for NYU. And I said, I don't have his money, though I have enormous respect for Ken. He's a very special guy. So, you know, there's no shortage of good causes.
There's a shortage of money.
Well, we certainly appreciate getting some time with both of you and the best to both of you. Lee Cooperman, thank you. Chair and CEO of the Omega Family Office. And of course, John Schreiber, President and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, both joining us from New Jersey.
Bloomberg Daybreak is your best way to get informed first thing in the morning, right in your podcast feed. Hi, I'm Karen Moscow.
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