Biography of US President-elect published will President Vivek Ramaswamy become US President part 1
Biography of US President-elect published will President Vivek Ramaswamy become US President part 1
Transcript
00:00Publish the biography of the U.S. President-elect, President Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:07Part 1 Biography of U.S. President-elect published
00:12Will President Vivek Ramaswamy become U.S. President?
00:16We continue to tell a stage of the life of the Publish the biography of the U.S. President-elect,
00:22President Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:24Vivek Ganpati Ramaswamy born Aug. 9, 1985 is an American entrepreneur.
00:30He founded Roivan Sciences, a pharmaceutical company, in 2014.
00:36In February 2023, Ramaswamy declared his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination in the
00:422024 United States presidential election.
00:45He suspended his campaign in January 2024 after finishing fourth in the Iowa caucuses.
00:52Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati to Indian immigrant parents.
00:57He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in biology and later earned
01:01a law degree from Yale Law School.
01:04Ramaswamy worked as an investment partner at a hedge fund before founding Roivan Sciences.
01:10He also co-founded an investment firm, Strive Asset Management.
01:14Ramaswamy sees the United States in the middle of a national identity crisis precipitated
01:19by what he calls new secular religions like COVIDism, climatism, and gender ideology.
01:25He is also a critic of environmental, social, and corporate governance initiatives, ESG.
01:31In January 2024, Forbes estimated Ramaswamy's net worth at more than $960 million.
01:38His wealth comes from biotech and financial businesses.
01:41Vivek Ganpati Ramaswamy was born on Aug. 9, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indian Hindu
01:48immigrant parents.
01:50His parents are Tamil-speaking Brahmins from Kerala.
01:54His father, V. Ganpati Ramaswamy, a graduate of the National Institute of Technology Calicut,
01:59worked as an engineer and patent attorney for General Electric, while his mother, Geeta
02:04Ramaswamy, a graduate of the Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, worked as
02:08a geriatric psychiatrist.
02:11His parents immigrated from Pulakkad district in Kerala, where the family had an ancestral
02:16home in a traditional agraharam in the town of the Dakinsheri.
02:20Ramaswamy was raised in Ohio.
02:23Growing up, Ramaswamy often attended the local Hindu temple in Dayton with his family.
02:28His conservative Christian piano teacher, who gave him private lessons from elementary
02:33through high school, also influenced his social views.
02:37He spent many summer vacations traveling to India with his parents.
02:41In high school, Ramaswamy was a nationally ranked tennis player.
02:46Ramaswamy attended public schools through 8th grade.
02:49He then attended Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School, a Catholic school affiliated with
02:54the Jesuit Order, graduating as valedictorian in 2003.
02:59In 2007, Ramaswamy graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum
03:04laude, in biology, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
03:09At Harvard, he gained a reputation as a brash and confident libertarian.
03:14He was a member of the Harvard Political Union, becoming its president.
03:19He told the Harvard Crimson that he considered himself a contrarian who loved to debate.
03:24While in college, he performed Eminem covers and libertarian-themed rap music under the
03:29stage name and alter ego Davek, and was an intern for the hedge fund Amaranth Advisors
03:33and the investment bank Goldman Sachs.
03:36He wrote his senior thesis on the ethical questions raised by creating human-animal
03:40chimeras and earned a Bowdoin Prize.
03:43In 2011, Ramaswamy was awarded a postgraduate fellowship by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships
03:49for New Americans, which he used to attend Yale Law School.
03:53Later, Ramaswamy said that by the time he attended Yale, he was already wealthy from
03:57his activities in the finance, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries.
04:02He said in 2023 that he had a net worth of around $15 million before graduating from
04:08law school.
04:10At Yale he befriended fellow Ohio native and future U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance.
04:15He earned a Juris Doctor in 2013.
04:19In a 2023 interview, Ramaswamy said that he was a member of the campus Jewish Intellectual
04:24Discussion Society Shapti while a law student.
04:28In 2007, Ramaswamy and Travis May co-founded Campus Venture Network, which published a
04:33private social networking website for university students who aspired to launch a business.
04:39The company was sold to the non-profit Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2009.
04:44Ramaswamy worked at the hedge fund QVT Financial from 2007 to 2014.
04:50He was a partner and co-managed the firm's biotech portfolio.
04:55QVT's biotech investments under Ramaswamy included stakes in Palitent Technologies,
05:00Concert Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacet, and Martin Shkreli's Retrofin.
05:04In a 2023 speech and in his book Woke Inc., Ramaswamy called Shkreli, whose company had
05:10greatly increased the cost of a life-saving drug, both brilliant and a pathological liar.
05:16He criticized the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecuting Shkreli, calling his fraud
05:20a victimless crime.
05:22In 2014, Ramaswamy founded the biotechnology firm Royvon Sciences, the Roy in the company's
05:28name refers to return on investment.
05:31The company was incorporated in Bermuda, a tax haven, and received almost $100 million
05:36in startup capital from QVT and other investors, including RA Capital Management, Vizium Asset
05:42Management, and the hedge fund managers DE, Shaw & Co. and Falcon Edge Capital.
05:47Royvon's strategy was to purchase patents from larger pharmaceutical companies for drugs
05:52that had not yet been successfully developed, and then bring them to the market.
05:57The company created numerous subsidiaries, including Dermavant, focused on dermatology,
06:02Uravant, focused on urological disease, and China-based Sinovant and Cytovant, focused
06:07on the Asian market.
06:09In 2015, Ramaswamy raised $360 million for the Royvon subsidiary Axovan Sciences in an
06:16attempt to market intipridine as a drug for Alzheimer's disease.
06:21In December 2014, Axovan purchased the patent for intipridine from GlaxoSmithKline, where
06:26the drug had failed four previous clinical trials, for $5 million, a smallsum in the
06:31industry.
06:32Ramaswamy appeared on the cover of Forbes in 2015 and said his company would be the
06:37highest return on investment Endeavor ever taken up in the pharmaceutical industry.
06:42Before new clinical trials began, he engineered an initial public offering, IPO, in Axovan.
06:49Axovan became a Wall Street darling and raised $315 million in its IPO.
06:55The company's market value initially soared to almost $3 billion, although at the time
07:00it only had eight employees, including Ramaswamy's brother and mother.
07:04Ramaswamy took a massive payout after selling a portion of his shares in Royvon to Viking
07:09Global Investors.
07:11He claimed more than $37 million in capital gains in 2015.
07:16Ramaswamy said his company would be the Berkshire Hathaway of drug development and touted the
07:20drug as a tremendous opportunity that could help millions of patients, prompting some
07:25criticism that he was over-promising.
07:28In September 2017, the company announced that intipridine had failed in its large clinical
07:33trial.
07:34The company's value plunged — it lost 75 percent in one day and continued to decline
07:39afterward.
07:41Shareholders who lost money included various institutional investors, such as the California
07:46State Teachers Retirement System pension fund.
07:50Ramaswamy was insulated from much of Axovan's losses because he held his stake through Royvont.
07:55The company abandoned intipridine.
07:58In 2018, Ramaswamy said he had no regrets about how the company handled the drug.
08:04In subsequent years, he said he regretted the outcome but was annoyed by criticism of
08:09the company.
08:11Royvont attempted to reinvent itself as a gene therapy company but dissolved in 2023.
08:17In 2017, Royvont partnered with the private equity arm of the Chinese state-owned CITIC
08:22Group to form Cinevont.
08:24In 2017, Ramaswamy struck a deal with Masayoshi Son in which SoftBank invested $1.1 billion
08:31in Royvont.
08:33In 2019, Royvont sold its stake in five subsidiaries, or vans, including Enzevont, to Sumitomo
08:39Danepan Pharma.
08:42Ramaswamy made $175 million in capital gains from the sale.
08:47The deal also gave Sumitomo Danepan a 10% stake in Royvont.
08:52While campaigning for the presidency, Ramaswamy called himself a scientist and said, I developed
08:57a number of medicines.
08:59His undergraduate degree is in biology, but he was never a scientist, his role in the
09:04biotechnology industry was that of a financier and entrepreneur.
09:08In January 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO of Royvont Sciences and assumed the role
09:14of executive chairman.
09:16In 2021, after he resigned as CEO, Royvont was listed on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger
09:21with Montes Arquimedes Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition vehicle.
09:27In February 2023, Ramaswamy stepped down as chair of Royvont to focus on his presidential
09:33campaign.
09:34Ramaswamy remains the sixth-largest shareholder of Royvont, retaining a 7.17% stake.
09:41Royvont has never been profitable.
09:44In 2020, when Ramaswamy was CEO of Royvont Sciences, the company established a non-profit
09:49social impact arm, Royvont Social Ventures, RSV, with his support.
09:54An earlier iteration of RSV, the Royvont Foundation, was created in 2018.
10:00Although Ramaswamy's presidential campaign centers on opposing corporate diversity, equity,
10:05and inclusion, DEI, and environmental, social, and corporate governance, ESG, initiatives.
10:12RSV worked in support of pro-DEI and ESG initiatives, including promoting health equity and diversity
10:17within the biopharma and biotech industries.
10:21While campaigning, Ramaswamy has downplayed his role in creating and overseeing RSV.
10:27In 2020, Ramaswamy co-founded Chapter Medicare, a Medicare navigation platform.
10:33He served on the Ohio COVID-19 response team.
10:37He was chairman of Encore Biopharma, a position he maintained at Tecmara Pharmaceuticals when
10:42the two companies merged in March 2015.
10:45He also was chair of the board of Arbutus Biopharma, a Canadian firm.
10:51In May 2024, Ramaswamy acquired a 7.7% stake in BuzzFeed, later increased to 8.4%, making
10:58him the second-largest class A shareholder in the company.
11:02Soon after the acquisition, he sent a letter to the company's board of directors, in which
11:06he suggested they hire conservative pundits such as Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and
11:10Bill Maher, as well as three high-profile directors, with strong track business records
11:15and new media whom he knew.
11:17Analysts have predicted that his direction could seriously shift BuzzFeed's content
11:21and editorial approach.
11:24In early 2022, together with his high school friend Anson Frerichs, Ramaswamy co-founded
11:29Strive Asset Management, a Columbus, Ohio-based asset management firm.
11:34The firm raised about $20 million from outside investors, including Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance,
11:40and Bill Ackman.
11:42Strive has branded itself as anti-woke and its funds as anti-SG.
11:47Ramaswamy has claimed that the largest asset managers, such as BlackRock, StateStreet,
11:51and Vanguard, mix business with ESG politics to the detriment of their funds' investors.
11:57Pension fund managers take account of ESG in the assessment of long-term risk, including
12:01climate risks, when making portfolio decisions.
12:05Ramaswamy has crusaded against ESG and emphasizes the doctrine of shareholder primacy, famously
12:11articulated by Milton Friedman.
12:14In his book Woke, Inc., Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam and Elsewhere,
12:18he has depicted private corporations' socially conscious investing as simultaneously ineffective
12:23and the greatest threat to American society.
12:27He published a second book, Nation of Victims, Identity Politics, The Death of Merit, and
12:31the Path Back to Excellence, in September 2022, a few months before announcing his presidential
12:37candidacy.
12:39Its flagship fund, the exchange-traded fund DRLL, launched in 2022 as an anti-woke energy
12:44sector index fund.
12:47Ramaswamy said that Strive would push energy companies to drill for more oil, frack for
12:51more natural gas, and do whatever allows them to be most successful over the long run without
12:55regard to political, social, cultural or environmental agendas.
13:00In October 2022, Ramaswamy held closed-door meetings with South Carolina lawmakers in
13:05a session arranged by state treasurer Curtis Loftus, during the meetings, Ramaswamy pitched
13:10Strive to manage South Carolina pension funds.
13:13In June 2023, after the Post and Courier reported on the meetings, the sessions were criticized
13:19as a form of unregistered lobbying, Ramaswamy's campaign manager denied any impropriety.
13:25Ramaswamy was Strive's executive chairman before resigning in February 2023 to focus
13:30on his presidential campaign.
13:33I stop at this point today.
13:36Until next time, stay curious.
13:39Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
13:44Soon we will publish.
13:46Part.
13:472.
13:48Thank you, for watching.