Vivek Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur and author. He is running as a candidate in the 2024 Republican Party presidential elections. In 2016, he was ranked 24th on the America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40 list by Forbes.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy [1]Zee Business was born on Friday, 9 August 1985 (age 38 years; as of 2023) in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. His zodiac sign is Leo. He went to public schools until the eighth grade. In 2003, he completed his schooling at St. Xavier High School, a Catholic school, in Cincinnati. While studying at school, he was the valedictorian of his class and a junior tennis player with a national ranking. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in biology, from Harvard College in 2007; [2]Paul & Daisy Soros he was also a member of the oldest academic honour society called ‘Phi Beta Kappa.’ When he was studying at Harvard, he became known for his bold libertarian beliefs. Later, he became the president of the Harvard Political Union. At Harvard, he used the stage name and alter ego ‘Da Vek’ to perform covers of Eminem songs and create rap music with libertarian themes. [3]Politico Later, he interned at Amaranth Advisors, a hedge fund, and Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. He earned a Bowdoin Prize for his senior thesis on the ethical questions related to the creation of human-animal chimeras. In 2011, he received a post-graduate fellowship from the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. In 2013, he graduated from Yale Law School in Connecticut with a J.D. (Juris Doctor) degree. [4]Paul & Daisy Soros
A childhood image of Vivek Ramaswamy with his younger brother
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 8″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Vivek belongs to a Hindu family in Ohio, United States. [5]The New Yorker
Parents & Siblings
His father, V. G. Ramaswamy, worked as an engineer and patent attorney at General Electric Company, and his mother, Geetha Ramaswamy, worked as a geriatric psychiatrist. His parents are Indian Hindu immigrants, who came from Palakkad district in Kerala, India. Vivek’s family had an ancestral home in a traditional agraharam located in the town of Vadakkencherry, Kerala, which he used to visit during his summer vacations. [6]The Times of India [7]Kerala Kaumudi He has a younger brother named Shankar Ramaswamy, who is the co-founder and CEO of Kriya Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company.
Vivek Ramaswamy with his parents and brother
Wife & Children
On 31 May 2015, Vivek got married to Apoorva Tewari, a physician. Reportedly, they first met each other when they were studying at Yale University. The couple has two sons named Karthik Ramaswamy and Arjun Ramaswamy.
Vivek Ramaswamy with his wife and children
Religion/Religious Views
He is a monotheistic Hindu. While growing up in Ohio, he often visited the local Hindu temple in Dayton along with his family. [8]The New York Times
Caste
He is a Tamil-speaking Brahmin. [9]The New Yorker
Signature/Autograph
Career
Early Career
In 2007, Vivek and Travis May co-founded Campus Venture Network, which created a private social networking website for university students aspiring to start a business. In 2009, they sold the company to Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. From 2007 to 2014, he worked at QVT Financial, a hedge fund. He was a partner and co-manager of QVT’s biotech portfolio. During Ramaswamy’s tenure at QVT, the company invested in biotech firms such as Palatin Technologies, Concert Pharmaceuticals, Pharmasset, and Martin Shkreli’s Retrophin.
Entrepreneur
Roivant Sciences
In 2014, Ramaswamy established Roivant Sciences, a biotechnology company. The ‘Roi’ in the name ‘Roivant’ stands for return on investment. The company was registered in Bermuda, a tax-friendly location, and received around $100 million in initial funding from QVT and other investors. Roivant’s plan involved buying patents for drugs from big pharmaceutical companies that hadn’t been fully developed yet and then working to make those drugs available to the public. In 2017, Ramaswamy signed a deal with Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SoftBank, after which SoftBank invested $1.1 billion in Roivant. In January 2021, Vivek left his position as CEO of Roivant Sciences and became the executive chairman. [10]Reuters In February 2023, he resigned as the chairman of Roivant to concentrate on his presidential campaign.
Axovant
In 2015, Ramaswamy gathered $360 million for a Roivant subsidiary called Axovant Sciences. This was to promote a drug named intepirdine as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. [11]Forbes In December 2014, Axovant bought the patent for intepirdine from GlaxoSmithKline. This drug had previously failed in four clinical trials. [12]The New York Times Even though the company had only eight employees, including Ramaswamy’s family members, its market value rapidly rose to nearly $3 billion. [13]The New York Times He later earned a substantial amount by selling a portion of his shares in Roivant to Viking Global Investors. He reported over $37 million in capital gains in the 2015 tax year. In September 2017, the company revealed that intepirdine had not succeeded in its extensive clinical trial. [14]Stat News Axovant tried to transform itself into a gene therapy company; however, it dissolved in 2023. [15]The New York Times
Other Ventures
In 2020, Vivek helped start Chapter Medicare, a platform to help with Medicare navigation. He was also part of the Ohio COVID-19 Response Team. He was the chairman of OnCore Biopharma, and he continued in that role when OnCore merged with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals in March 2015. He also chaired the board of Arbutus Biopharma, a Canadian company. In 2022, Ramaswamy helped establish Strive Asset Management, a company based in Columbus, Ohio, focused on managing assets. Strive has positioned itself as a fund against “woke” and “ESG” approaches. Ramaswamy has criticized big asset managers like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, claiming that their ESG efforts blend business with politics and harm shareholders. [16]The New Yorker [17]Politico In October 2022, Ramaswamy had private discussions with South Carolina legislators, arranged by state treasurer Curtis Loftis, to present Strive as a potential manager for the state’s pension funds. In June 2023, these meetings faced criticism after The Post and Courier reported on them, suggesting they might be unregistered lobbying. His campaign manager denied any wrongdoing. [18]The Post and Courier He served as Strive’s executive chairman before he stepped down from the position in February 2023 to concentrate on his presidential campaign. [19]Investment News
Author
In 2021, he published his first book titled ‘Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,’ which is a New York Times bestseller.
Cover of the 2021 book ‘Woke, Inc. – Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam’
In September 2022, he published another book ‘Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence’ in which he mentioned that the truth of true American identity is to unapologetically strive for excellence and refuse to embrace a culture of victimhood. [20]Politico In 2023, he launched his third book ‘Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn’t Vote For.’
Politics
Presidential Campaign
Before running for president, Vivek declared entering the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Ohio. On 21 February 2023, he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Tucker Carlson Tonight, an American talk show. He made his personal income tax returns from the last 20 years public and encouraged his competitors in the primary to do the same. Between February and July 2023, he lent his campaign over $15 million. By the end of the second quarter of 2023, his campaign had approximately $9 million in available funds. [21]The Hill In May 2023, Ramaswamy’s campaign acknowledged that he had paid an editor to make changes to his Wikipedia biography before he announced his candidacy. However, they denied any political motivation behind this action. [22]HuffPost According to Forbes, it was reported that Ramaswamy might have paid an editor to modify his Wikipedia page to present a more favourable image to political conservatives. These edits included removing references to his postgraduate fellowship with the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and his participation in the Ohio COVID-19 Response Team. [23]Forbes His campaign rejected the notion that they were trying to ‘scrub’ his Wikipedia page and contended that the changes were aimed at correcting ‘factual distortions.’ [24]HuffPost Ramaswamy supports the idea of increasing the voting age to 25, which would involve overturning the 26th Amendment of the Constitution. This proposal would potentially exclude around 9% of the American voting population. He has also proposed that individuals between 18 and 24 could still vote if they are serving in the military, working as first responders, or successfully passing a civics test.
Even though he had decided to compete against Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, Ramaswamy is an outspoken supporter of the former president. [25]The New York Times He also supports making significant compromises to Russia in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war. He suggests stopping U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, not including Ukraine in NATO, and permitting Russia to control certain areas of Ukraine as part of a deal where Russia would sever its partnership with China. [26]Mediaite [27]The Hill He referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “bully” [28]The Hill and, in a 2023 interview, made unsubstantiated statements about the mistreatment of Jews and other minorities in Ukraine during Zelensky’s leadership, despite Zelensky being Jewish himself. [29]Jewish Insider
In one of his campaigns, he mentioned that he did not deny the existence of climate change but viewed it as not completely negative. He expressed the opinion that people should take pride in living a lifestyle that contributes to high carbon emissions. [30]The Washington Post While he acknowledges that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, he has advocated for increased extraction and use of fossil fuels like drilling, fracking, and burning coal, arguing that this approach would boost the economy and assist in funding efforts to climate change mitigation. [31]The New York Times During a presidential debate in Miami on November 8, 2023, Ramaswamy took a swipe at his opponent, Nikki Haley. While expressing his concern, he questioned Haley about her daughter’s use of TikTok, citing worries that the app could potentially be exploited by China for spying purposes. In response, Haley retaliated by labeling Ramaswamy as “scum.” Ramaswamy continued his criticism by targeting Haley’s foreign policy views and referred to her as “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.” [32]The Guardian On January 15, 2024, Vivek Ramaswamy announced his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential elections. The decision came in the wake of disappointing results in the Iowa caucuses. While announcing his exit from the elections at Horizon Event Center in Clive, Iowa, US, Vivek expressed his support for Donald Trump and said,
I called Donald Trump earlier tonight to congratulate him on his win. And from now on, he will have my full backing for the presidency. Tomorrow, I will join Donald Trump at a rally in New Hampshire to share our vision for the country’s future.”
Properties
He owns a house in Butler County, Ohio. [33]Cincinnati Business Courier Reportedly, he also owns a house in Franklin County in Columbus, Ohio. [34]The New York Times
Vivek Ramaswamy’s house in Ohio
Net Worth
In 2023, he revealed that in 2013 his net worth was approximately $15 million through his engagements in the finance, pharmaceutical, and biotech sectors, even before he completed his JD at Yale University. [35]The New York Times In 2023, his net worth was estimated to be $630 million. [36]Forbes According to his campaign advisor, his net was exceeding $1 billion in 2023. [37]The New York Times
Facts/Trivia
- When Vivek was studying in school, he used to take private piano lessons and is a skilled pianist.
- In 2014, he was listed on the 30 Under 30 list by Finance.
- In 2015, he appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine.
Vivek Ramaswamy on the cover of Forbes magazine
- Reportedly, he speaks Tamil fluently and understands Malayalam; however, he can not speak Malayalam. [38]Deccan Herald
- He follows a vegetarian diet. [39]The New York Times
- On 12 August 2023, Ramaswamy performed Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ during one of his campaigns at the Iowa State Fair in the United States; however, on 23 August 2023, a performing rights organisation named BMI sent a letter to Vivek Ramaswamy, asking him to stop performing tracks of Eminem. Ramaswamy later addressed this matter in an interview, stating that he would no longer use Eminem’s songs. Still, he also acknowledged the opportunity to get more media attention. [40]BBC Ramaswamy’s post on X regarding the matter read,
Will The REAL Slim Shady Please Stand Up? He didn’t just say what I think he did, did he?”
- In 2023, Ramaswamy was reported to be looking for a nanny for his children. According to a job listing on a staffing website, a salary of $100,000 per year was offered for the role. [41]Mint
References
