People

Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson

Formal First Name
Whitney
Dates
1966 - present

Whitney Tilson is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Empire Financial Research and Kase Learning. He is well-known as an educator and practitioner of value investing, a former hedge fund manager, writer, and sports enthusiast. He has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post and has spoken widely on value investing and behavioral finance. A highly-reputable philanthropist, Tilson is involved with a number of charities focused on education reform and Africa. He was also among the first people to join Wendy Kopp in 1989 to launch Teach For America, the national teacher corps.

Professional Experience


Academic History

  • Tilson spent much of his childhood in Tanzania and Nicaragua. 
  • His parents are both educators and were the first couple to meet and marry in the Peace Corps.
  • He was elected a Baker Scholar at Harvard Business School.
  • He spent five years working with HBS Professor Michael Porter studying the competitiveness of inner cities and inner-city-based companies nationwide. 


CURRENT APPOINTMENTS
  • Co-Founder, Chairman, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Value Investor Insight
  • Co-Founder and Chairman of the Value Investor Congress
  • Board Member of the Pershing Square Foundation
  • Board Member and Co-Founder of Democrats for Education Reform
  • Member of the Manhattan Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization


    PAST APPOINTMENTS

    • Chairman of the Manhattan Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization
    • Finance Committees of Barack Obama and Newark Mayor Cory Booker
    • Board of Cutter & Buck
    • Board of the Fistula Foundation
    • Board of the Thorn Tree Project and the Samburu Scholarship Fund
    • Board of the KIPP Academy charter school in the South Bronx

    PUBLICATIONS
    • He has written for Forbes, Kiplinger’s, Motley Fool, The Financial Times, and TheStreet.
    • He was featured in two 60 Minutes segments in December 2008 about the housing crisis and in March 2015 about Lumber Liquidators.
    • He authored a 292-slide presentation, A Right Denied: The Critical Need for Genuine School Reform, that was made into a documentary by the same name in early 2010.
    • He has appeared as a guest on Real Vision.

    AWARD

    • Tilson is an avid mountaineer.
    • He has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Blanc, the Matterhorn, and the Eiger.
    • He also regularly competes in obstacle course races.
    • He is the two-time winner and all-time record holder in the 50+ age group at the 24-hour World’s Toughest Mudder, having completed 75 miles and nearly 300 obstacles in 2016.