George Soros hands over OSF leadership to his son

George Soros, one of the world’s best-known investors and liberal donors, has handed over leadership of his multibillion-dollar foundation to his son Alex Soros. 

The appointment as chair of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which was made quietly in December, places Alex Soros at the head of one of the wealthiest global philanthropic foundations. 

“We are going to double down on defending voting rights and personal freedom at home and supporting the cause of democracy abroad,” Alex Soros told the Financial Times through a spokesperson. 

His comments signal a more prominent role for the 37-year-old as US political parties gear up for the 2024 presidential election. George Soros has been one of the biggest donors to Democratic candidates in US politics. 

In his first interview after taking on the role, Alex Soros told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that he is “more political” than his father. “As much as I would love to get money out of politics, as long as the other side is doing it, we will have to do it, too,” he told the newspaper. 

A source close to the family said the Soros’ priorities in US politics would be unchanged by Alex’s appointment. Leadership of the foundation will make Alex, who this week tweeted a photo of himself posing with US vice-president Kamala Harris, a potential target for the rightwing groups and leaders who have attacked his father.

In an opinion piece for CNN this month, Alex praised the Biden administration’s move to fight antisemitism and condemned attacks on his father by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán and by Elon Musk. He also rebuked Trump for “dog-whistle language” in a campaign ad featuring George Soros.

The 92-year-old made his fortune as a prominent hedge fund investor, including his famous 1992 bet against the value of the British pound, on which he made a more than $1bn profit. 

Alex, a child of George’s second marriage to Susan Weber, studied history at New York University and earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. 

While he has sometimes received media attention for his celebrity connections, he has also focused on his own philanthropic initiatives such as progressive Jewish organisations, environmental causes and aiding domestic workers in the US. 

He became his father’s deputy as chair of the OSF in 2017. Alex also sits on the investment committee for the foundation that oversees Soros Fund Management. The vast majority of SFM’s $25bn AUM belongs to OSF. 

The OSF received $18bn from George Soros in 2018 and is expected to benefit from the bulk of his remaining fortune, estimated by Forbes at nearly $7bn. The foundation, which spent $1.5bn in 2021, supports a wide range of causes including recently backing “activists documenting war crimes” during the war in Ukraine, according to the organisation. 

Alex has travelled extensively as part of his work, taking an interest in international issues from Ukraine to the western Balkans, south Asia and Congo. “With my background, there are a lot of ways I could have gone astray. Instead I became a workaholic, and my life is my work,” Soros said.