Tom Steyer

Tom Steyer ‘79 is a climate investor, author, politician, and activist championing a future with solutions to the climate crisis. In 2021, he founded Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate-based investment firm delivering capital and expertise to accelerate climate solutions. Steyer ran in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and later raised over $17 million for the Biden-Harris campaign through the initiative Climate Leaders for Biden while co-chairing the campaign’s Climate Engagement Advisory Council. His book, Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War, was an instant New York Times best-seller upon its publishing in 2024. Steyer served as the top economic advisor on the Business and Jobs Recovery Task Force for the state of California, appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020. Before California firmly established itself as a leader in climate policy, Steyer worked to help make it the largest jurisdiction in the world with a 100% clean energy law and prevented the oil and gas industry’s effort to roll back the state’s climate protections. He cofounded Beneficial State Bank, a triple bottom line community development bank dedicated to economic justice and environmental sustainability. His initiative NextGen is credited with both helping to drive record numbers of young voters to the polls in the 2020 U.S. presidential election as well as its influence in making climate a significant issue on ballots. Steyer is the founder of Farallon Capital Management, a hedge fund that pioneered the multi-strategy approach to investing. Steyer grew up in New York City and graduated from Yale College in 1979. He received his MBA from the Stanford School of Business in 1983.