Nicolas Berggruen

Nicolas Berggruen (born 10 August 1961) is an investor and philanthropist. A dual American and German citizen, he is the founder and president of Berggruen Holdings, a private investment company and the Nicolas Berggruen Institute, a think tank that works on addressing governance issues. His father created the Museum Berggruen in Berlin. The press has sometimes referred to Berggruen as 'the homeless billionaire' because he lives in hotels and does not own a home.

Education and Business Career
Berggruen was born in Paris, the son of art collector Heinz Berggruen, of Austrian and Albanian descent. His maternal grandfather was Albanian-Austrian actor Aleksandër Moisiu and his maternal grandmother, Maria, was from Vienna. Berggruen attended the École Alsacienne in Paris and Le Rosey in Switzerland, before completing a baccalauréat as a candidate libre in 1978. That same year, at the age of 17, he worked as a trainee at London Merchant Securities, known today as LMS Capital Plc. Between 1983 and 1987, Berggruen was a Principal at Jacobson and Co.

In New York, he began building his fortune, based on a trust fund worth about $250,000, Today, the investments Berggruen oversees through Berggruen Holdings are highly diversified, including the Karstadt department store chain in Germany, the Keys Hotels in India, the IEC College chain of vocational schools in California, and assorted companies in energy, manufacturing, distribution, media and real estate. Through the institute, he has launched several government reform projects including the 21st Century Council which is focused on global governance challenges, the Council for the Future of Europe, to support work on European integration and the Think Long Committee for California a bi-partisan effort focused on reforming California's system of governance.

The 21st Century Council was formed in 2011 to address gaps in global governance. The group includes political leaders such as Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Felipe González, Gerhard Schröder, Gordon Brown, George Yeo, Pascal Lamy, and Zheng Bijian. The council also includes several Nobel laureates and leading thinkers such as Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Spence, Lawrence Summers, and Francis Fukuyama as well as business and technology leaders Eric Schmidt, Jack Dorsey, and Pierre Omidyar among many others.

The Council for the Future of Europe, was formed in 2011. In a statement released by the group in September 2011, the group advocated for a stronger, more integrated Europe suggesting that Europe's economic crisis can only be solved by a political solution. The group includes political leaders and thinkers such as Tony Blair, Gerhard Schröder, Felipe González, Jakob Kellenberger, Jean Pisani Ferry, Jacques Delors, Mario Monti and Robert Mundell.

His project in California, the Think Long Committee for California also includes members from politics, industry, labor from both Democrats and Republicans, such as George Schultz, Condoleezza Rice, Willie Brown, Gray Davis, Eric Schmidt, Eli Broad and Laura Tyson.

Berggruen is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Director on the Board of the Pacific Council on International Policy and a member of Foro Iberoamericano. He has in the past funded the campaigns of U.S. Democrats, including Senator Charles Schumer of New York and President Barack Obama.