Ex-Hedge Fund Manager Whitney Tilson Runs for NYC Mayor – BNN Bloomberg

On November 27, 2024By Littum

(Bloomberg) — Former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson plans to run for mayor of New York, joining a crowded field seeking to succeed embattled Eric Adams next year.

“We need a leader who can unite New Yorkers and bring new thinking,” he said in a letter Tuesday.

Tilson, 58, who used to run the $200 million hedge fund Kase Capital Management, is active in New York philanthropic circles. He sits on the advisory board of Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation and serves on the board of the KIPP Academy charter school in the South Bronx.

Tilson is just the latest potential entrant in a fast-growing field of candidates considering challenging Adams in the June Democratic primary, which has grown to include City Comptroller Brad Lander, former New York City Controller Scott Stringer and Queens State Senator Jessica Ramos, among a host of others.

Tilson isn’t the first Wall Street veteran to seek the mayorship of New York — in 2021, former Citigroup Inc. banker Ray McGuire ran in the Democratic primary, bringing in celebrities from Jay-Z and Spike Lee and raising millions privately . contribution. But McGuire came in seventh in the primary, ultimately earning just 3% of all ballots cast in the city’s ranked-choice election system.

In September, Adams became the first sitting mayor in modern New York history to be indicted on federal corruption charges. Adams, a former police captain who was elected in 2021 on a promise to address then-rising crime, has since struggled with low polls and an exodus of top staff.