David Tepper

David Alan Tepper (born September 11, 1957) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, the founder and president of Appaloosa Management, a global hedge fund based in Miami Beach, Florida.

He is also the owner of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL) and Charlotte FC of Major League Soccer (MLS).

He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1978, and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982. In 2013, he donated his largest gift of $67 million to Carnegie Mellon, whose Tepper School of Business is named after him.

For the 2012 tax year, Institutional Investor's Alpha ranked Tepper's $2.2 billion paycheck as the world's highest for a hedge fund manager. He earned the third position on Forbes ''The Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers 2018'' with an annual earnings of $1.5 billion. A 2010 profile in New York described him as the object of "a certain amount of hero worship inside the industry," with one investor calling him "a golden god." In 2019, Tepper revealed plans to eventually convert this hedge fund into a family office.

Tepper was born on September 11, 1957. He is the second of three children of Harry, an accountant, and Roberta, an elementary school teacher. He was raised in a Jewish family in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a boy he “played football and memorized the baseball statistics on the backs of cards given to him by his grandfather—early evidence of what he claims is a photographic memory.” In a 2018 commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University, he revealed that his father had been physically abusive toward him.

He attended Peabody High School in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood, followed by the University of Pittsburgh, helping pay his way by working at the Frick Fine Arts library. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and graduated with honors. He also began small scale investing in various markets during college. His first two investments, given to him by his father, were Pennsylvania Engineering Co. and Career Academies. Both companies went bankrupt.

After graduation he entered the finance industry, working for Equibank as a credit analyst in the treasury department. In 1980, unsatisfied with this position, he enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University's business school to pursue its then-equivalent of an MBA, a Master of Science in Industrial Administration (MSIA).

After earning his MBA in 1982, Tepper accepted a position in the treasury department of Republic Steel in Ohio.

In 1984, he was recruited to Keystone Mutual Funds, now part of Evergreen Funds, in Boston.

In 1985, Tepper was recruited by Goldman Sachs as a credit analyst, which was forming its high yield group in New York City. Within six months he became its head trader, remaining at Goldman for eight years. His primary focus was bankruptcies and special situations.

He is credited with playing a major role in the survival of Goldman Sachs after the 1987 stock market crash. He bought underlying bonds in the financial institutions that had been "crippled by the crash”, which soared in value once the market picked up again. He assumed he would be made a Goldman partner but was passed over, partly because his “loud and profane” manner rubbed other more restrained Goldman executives the wrong way.

In December 1992, after being passed over for partner at Goldman Sachs twice in two years, Tepper quit. He began operating from a desk in the offices of mutual-fund manager and Goldman client Michael Price, aggressively trading his personal account in hopes of raising enough money to start his own fund.

On September 25, 2009, Tepper purchased a 5% stake in the National Football League's (NFL) Pittsburgh Steelers.

Tepper bought the NFL's Carolina Panthers from original owner and founder Jerry Richardson in May 2018, and was forced to sell his Steelers shares. He beat out a rival bidder with more ties to the Carolinas, Ben Navarro (Founder and CEO of Beekmok Capital), thanks both to speedy NFL vetting (his Steelers part-ownership allowed the league's owners to bypass the process) and his $2.2 billion bid, the highest in NFL history, lacking other investors (unlike Navarro's). The team's lease on Bank of America Stadium expired after the 2018 season. In a statement, Tepper committed to keeping the team in the Carolinas.

Since the start of his ownership in 2018, the Panthers have had 7 head coaches and 8 consecutive losing seasons, and have also missed the playoffs every season except 2025, in which they finished first in the NFC South with a record of 8-9. Tepper has been described as one of the NFL's worst owners, with the Panthers going into a downturn since his ownership began.

In 2022, Tepper canceled the construction of a practice facility for the team in Rock Hill, South Carolina, after claiming that the city didn't hold up the end of their deal, had his real estate arm declare bankruptcy over the failed project and was forced to demolish the half-built facility.

On September 11, 2022, Tepper welcomed the NFL's first ever transgender cheerleader to the Panthers TopCats squad. Justine Lindsay has been a member of the TopCats for 4 years as of the start of the 2025 season.

Tepper and his wife contributed $20,800 to 2013 Jersey City mayoral candidate Steve Fulop. According to the Jersey Journal on October 24, 2012, "David Tepper, the billionaire who supports tenure reform and charter schools, contributed $10,400 to Fulop's council candidates, while Tepper's wife gave the team an additional $10,400." Fulop's former campaign manager Shelley Skinner became the deputy director of Tepper's nonprofit Better Education for Kids.

In 2015, Tepper donated to both U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and then-U.S. House Speaker John Boehner. In 2016, he donated over $1 million to political action committees supporting Jeb Bush and John Kasich's presidential bids. Tepper supported the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign.

On March 19, 2004, Tepper announced that he would make a single donation of $55 million to Carnegie Mellon University's business school (then called the Graduate School of Industrial Administration—GSIA). This donation was made after he had been encouraged by Kenneth Dunn, his former professor (who became dean of the school). He accepted the suggestion but made the contribution a “naming gift” and suggested that the school's name be changed to the David A. Tepper School of Business.

In November 2013, Carnegie Mellon announced a $67 million gift from Tepper to develop the Tepper Quadrangle on the north campus. The Tepper Quad will include a new Tepper School of Business facility across the street from the Heinz College as well as other university-wide buildings and a welcome center which will serve as a public gateway to the university. This brings Tepper's total gift to Carnegie Mellon to $125 million.

Tepper has made several large gifts to the University of Pittsburgh, including several endowed undergraduate scholarships and support of academic centers and university-run community outreach programs. Tepper and wife Marlene have pledged $3.4 million to Rutgers University – Mason Gross School of the Arts, the alma mater of his wife.

In 2006, Tepper donated $1 million to United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey toward their Israel Emergency Campaign.

In March 2012, Tepper and his former colleague, Alan Fournier founded a political action group, Better Education For Kids. "Better Education for Kids is entering the fray as private organizations are poised to play a larger role in education in New Jersey. Christie wants more charter schools, and he’s pushing legislation that would allow private companies to take over struggling public schools." According to the NJ Star Ledger on June 24, 2011, "Last week, the fledgling group launched a $1 million campaign to advertise its mission and solicit donations. Unlike traditional non-profits, Better Education for Kids is a type of non-profit not required to disclose its donors.

In 1986, he married Marlene Resnick Tepper; they have three children. In 2016, he and his wife divorced. In 2019, he married Nicole Bronish.

He has characterized himself as "a regular upper-middle-class guy who happens to be a billionaire."