Tom Steyer
Thomas Fahr Steyer is an American billionaire, entrepreneur, politician, and environmentalist.
Steyer is the founder and former co-senior-managing-partner of Farallon Capital, and the co-founder of OneCalifornia Bank, which became Beneficial State Bank. Steyer served on the board of trustees at Stanford University from 2007 to 2017. He was formerly a partner and member of the executive committee at Hellman & Friedman.
Switching his focus to politics and environmental advocacy, Steyer retired from Farallon Capital in 2012 and launched NextGen America, a nonprofit organization that supports progressive positions on climate change, immigration, health care, and education. In California state politics, Steyer co-chaired or sponsored a series of ballot campaigns: 2010's No on Prop. 23 campaign that preserved the AB32 climate change law, 2012's Proposition 39, which closed a tax loophole to fund clean-energy infrastructure, and Proposition 56 in 2016, a tobacco-tax increase to fund healthcare and smoking cessation programs.
Steyer sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, but dropped out of the race after the first four state contests, having spent more than $191 million on campaign advertising but failing to obtain any pledged delegates.
In 2025, Steyer backed Proposition 50, a measure that shifted congressional-district redistricting power to the legislature until 2030. In November 2025, Steyer announced his candidacy in the 2026 California gubernatorial election.
Early life and education
Steyer was born in Manhattan, New York City. His mother, Marnie was a teacher of remedial reading at the Brooklyn House of Detention and his father, Roy Henry Steyer was a partner in the New York law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, and was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. His father was a non-practicing Jew, and his mother was Episcopalian.Steyer grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and attended the Buckley School and Phillips Exeter Academy as valedictorian of his class. He graduated from Yale University summa cum laude in economics and political science, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was captain of the soccer team. At Yale, Steyer was a member of Wolf's Head Society Steyer received his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He has served on the Stanford University board of trustees.
Career
After graduation from Yale, Steyer began his professional career at Morgan Stanley in 1979. After two years at Morgan Stanley, he attended Stanford Graduate School of Business. Steyer worked at Goldman Sachs from 1983 to 1985 as an associate in the risk arbitrage division, where he was involved in mergers and acquisitions. He later became a partner and member of the Executive Committee at Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco–based private equity firm.In January 1986, Steyer founded Farallon Capital, a hedge fund firm headquartered in San Francisco. Steyer made his fortune running Farallon, which was managing $20 billion by the time he left the company. Steyer was known for taking high risks on distressed assets within volatile markets.
In October 2012, Steyer stepped down from his position at Farallon in order to focus on advocating for alternative energy. Steyer decided to dispose of his carbon-polluting investments in 2012, although critics say he did not dispose of them quickly enough and noted that the lifespan of the facilities he funded would extend through 2030. A 2014 New York Times article said coal-mining companies that Farallon invested in or lent money to under Steyer had increased their coal production by 70 million tons annually since receiving money from Farallon, and that Steyer remained invested in the Maules Creek coal mine. Prior to Steyer leaving Farallon, a student activist group called UnFarallon criticized the company for investments in companies with anti-environmental policies. In 2016, some critics noted that Farallon had also invested in private prisons while Steyer was leading the hedge fund. According to SEC filings, Steyer was at the helm as the hedge fund purchased nearly $90 million of Corrections Corporation of America stock. After leaving Farallon, Steyer hosted a two-day think-tank entitled the 'Big Think Climate Meeting' to discuss how to address climate change.
On April 17, 2020, it was announced that California Governor Gavin Newsom had selected Steyer to chair a task force focused on the state's economic recovery after the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. Steyer's co-chair was political advisor Ann O'Leary.
In 2021, Steyer co-founded Galvanize Climate Solutions with Katie Hall, his longtime friend and business partner. Galvanize is a climate-focused investment firm.
On May 28, 2024, Spiegel & Grau published Steyer's book, Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We'll Win the Climate War. The book is a New York Times bestseller.
Philanthropy
In 2006, Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, founded OneRoof, Inc., a B Corp and social enterprise business designed to bring broadband connectivity, computer literacy, and employment skills via OneRoof Internet Centers to small rural towns in rural India and Mexico. Neither Steyer nor Taylor remain with the organization.In 2007, Steyer and Taylor founded Beneficial State Bank, a community development bank, for the purpose of providing commercial banking services to underserved Bay Area businesses, nonprofits, and individuals, with operations now in California, Oregon, and Washington. Its stock ownership is entirely held by a foundation such that all profits are reinvested in local communities.
Steyer and Taylor put up $22.5 million to start the bank and create the One PacificCoast Foundation to engage in charitable and educational activities, provide lending support, investments, and other services for disadvantaged communities and community service organizations in California.
In August 2010, Steyer and his wife signed onto The Giving Pledge, an initiative of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. In 2011 Steyer founded Advanced Energy Economy, an energy research and lobbying group with Hemant Taneja, an Indian-born American venture capitalist. Neither Steyer nor Taneja remains with the organization.
Steyer and Taylor created the TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, California, near Half Moon Bay. The ranch is meant to research and demonstrate a sustainable way of doing agriculture. The ranch's activities include underwriting healthy food programs and co-producing an independent film, La Mission, starring Benjamin Bratt, about San Francisco's Mission neighborhood. Around 2011, Steyer joined the board of Next Generation, a nonprofit intending to tackle children's issues and the environment. In 2013, Steyer founded NextGen Climate, an environmental advocacy nonprofit and political action committee.
In August 2015, Steyer launched the Fair Shake Commission on Income Inequality and Middle Class Opportunity, which was intended to advocate policies for promoting income equality.
Political activity
In 1983, Steyer worked on Walter Mondale's presidential campaign. He raised money for Bill Bradley in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.An early supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2008, Steyer became one of Barack Obama's most prolific fundraisers. Steyer served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 2004 and 2008. Steyer has been a member of the Hamilton Project and has been involved with the Democracy Alliance, a network of progressive donors whose membership in the group requires them to donate at least $200,000 a year to recommended organizations.
After the Obama victory in 2008, Steyer was considered for appointment as Secretary of Treasury. Jim Steyer, Tom's brother, told Men's Journal that Obama and his advisors would regret having chosen someone else, due to his expertise. In January 2013, rumors briefly arose that Steyer might be named as a replacement for Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Asked whether he would accept such an appointment, Steyer said he would.
California ballot measures
Steyer has been active in California politics, particularly in ballot initiative campaigns. In 2010, Steyer joined the former Secretary of State, San Francisco-based George Shultz, to co-chair the No on Prop. 23 campaign. Proposition 23, backed by a coalition including conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, aimed to overturn California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Steyer donated $5 million to the No on Prop. 23 campaign, which succeeded with a margin of 61%.In 2012, Steyer was the leading sponsor of Proposition 39 on the ballot in California. Its purpose was to close a loophole that allowed multi-state corporations to pay taxes out of state, mandating that they pay in California. Funds raised by closing the loophole, estimated at $1 billion annually, went to a combination of clean energy projects and the state's general fund. Steyer contributed $29.6 million to the campaign, saying that he could wait no longer for the change. The initiative passed with 61% of the vote.
While supporters of Steyer's effort said it would "help break the partisan gridlock in Sacramento", critics objected that "the increasing involvement of rich individuals perverts the original intent of the initiatives". Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said that the level of giving was unprecedented for an individual donor. Some critics called the initiative an ineffective jobs stimulus, while Steyer labeled it a success for closing a corporate loophole.
Steyer co-chaired the 2016 campaign in support of California's Proposition 56, which raised the state's tobacco tax by $2 per pack to fund a combination of healthcare programs, Medi-Cal, and tobacco-use prevention. He contributed more than $11 million to the effort and appeared in the campaign's television advertising. When Proposition 56 was approved with 64% of the vote, it became the first successful ballot initiative to raise the tobacco tax in over a decade, ultimately directing over $1 billion per year to the Medi-Cal program.
In 2025, Steyer donated $12 million to become the largest contributor to the campaign for California's Proposition 50, which redrew California's congressional districts in response to what supporters described as partisan gerrymandering efforts in other states. The initiative passed with 64% of the vote.