Billionaire financier George Soros is handing control of his massive empire to his son Alexander, a Soros spokesperson confirmed on Sunday. The spokesperson confirmed the details from an interview with Soros published in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. A hedge fund manager turned philanthropist and significant backer of liberal causes, Soros, 92, said he previously didn’t want his Open Society Foundations (OSF) to be taken over by one of his five children. Still, he changed his mind after the death of his wife in 2017.
Soros’ philanthropic work spans more than 120 countries. His OSF spends about $1.5 billion annually backing groups that back human rights and helps build democracies. Soros has funded efforts in the US to boost voting access and support same-sex marriage. He also backed efforts to curb racial bias in the criminal justice system.
Alex has been named chairman of OSF, which oversees the family’s foundations worldwide. He told The Wall Street Journal he shares his father’s liberal aims and is “more political” than him. He said he’d keep using the family’s wealth to fund his father’s goals.
The younger Soros has been one of the biggest donors to Democratic candidates, including Stacey Abrams for governor of Georgia and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the United States. He also has given millions to liberal cause groups and a left-leaning political action committee.
But he’s not without his critics. Many on the right have alleged Soros has used his fortune to undermine democracy and promote anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment.
The son of a Hungarian Jewish family, Soros grew up in Budapest and fled to London during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. He earned a bachelor’s and advanced degrees in philosophy. He became famous for his hedge-fund investments in the 1980s and 1990s, including a $1bn bet that the pound would fall. Soros’ fortune soared when the Berlin Wall came down and opened Central and Eastern Europe to Western capitalism. He is estimated to be worth $25bn. Soros poured his money into liberal causes, particularly those in his native Hungary. He’s also backed efforts to promote nonviolent democratization in post-communist states. His philanthropic activities include supporting universities, aiding Central and Eastern European scientists, and giving to civil rights groups. Soros has donated to dozens of groups, including the Open Society Institute and the Stefan Batory Foundation in Poland. His foundations have a reputation for operating independently of government interference, but in some cases, they operate in collaboration with the US State Department.
