Kenneth Lipper is a prominent figure in the arts, in the world of finance, and in government. He served as New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Finance and Economic Development under Ed Koch (1983-1985),[1] and has worked variously as a lawyer, investment banker, professor, novelist, screenwriter, Academy Award winning movie producer, hedge fund manager, book publisher, entrepreneur, and commercial real estate executive.[2] In 2003, Lipper returned capital to investors in one of his hedge funds after a rogue employee pleaded guilty to defrauding Lipper and other investors.[3][4] In November 2010, after undergoing 21 investigations and litigations over an eight year period,[5] Lipper was awarded more than $15 million in indemnification, and a New York State Supreme Court judge noted that “none of the investigation and claims asserted against [Lipper] had resulted in a finding that he had engaged in ‘negligence, malfeasance or [a] violation of applicable law.’”[6] The rogue employee who betrayed Lipper served 6 years in prison,[7] and the fund's auditor was barred from the industry.[8] On June 7, 2011, a New York State judge approved a settlement which awarded Lipper $13 million and dismissed all claims against him.[9]
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Lipper earned his B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa) at Columbia, his J.D. at Harvard Law School, his LL.M. at NYU and did postgraduate work in law and economics at the University of Paris.
Thereafter he was an associate with a Wall Street law firm for a year before serving as director of industry policy for the Office of Foreign Direct Investment in Washington, D.C.. He has been associate and partner of Lehman Brothers (1969–75) and managing director and partner at Salomon Brothers (1976–82) before being recruited by Mayor Ed Koch for his position as deputy mayor in charge of the budget, taxation, and economic development.[10]
In the late 1980s, Lipper founded the investment firm Lipper & Company, which managed more than $5 billion on behalf of institutions and high-net-worth individuals. The firm’s investment banking division advised on billions of dollars of mergers and acquisitions, and was ranked the 13th largest M&A firm in 1992.[11] Financial World Magazine ranked Lipper as the 40th highest earner on Wall Street for 1993 and 1994.[12]
He has taught at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs for many years[13] and serves on the school's advisory board. His proposals for investing in America's cities by developing and supporting the entrepreneurial class have gained wide public attention.[14]
From 2003 to 2006, Lipper served as Senior Executive Vice President at Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.[15]
On June 21, 2011, Lipper appeared at Bloomberg's High Yield Conference in West Hollywood, California, where he discussed his opinions about the stock and bond markets, and government debt.[16][17]
On December 7, 2011, Lipper appeared on Fox TV's "Good Day New York," where he discussed unemployment and economic development.[18]
Lipper triumphed in the publishing world with the success of his novel Wall Street, adapted from Oliver Stone's award-winning film of the same name, in which Lipper himself served as technical advisor and had a brief cameo. His experience in government was the inspiration for another film, 1996's City Hall, starring Al Pacino, for which he served as producer and wrote the screenplay and novel. Lipper appeared on Charlie Rose, discussing his novel and movie "City Hall," in 1996.[19] Lipper was also producer of The Winter Guest, starring Emma Thompson, and the Holocaust documentary The Last Days, for which he won an Academy Award.
Lipper has endowed scholarships in the name of his mother, Sally Lipper, at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Israel’s Weizmann Institute.[20]
In 1994, Lipper gifted $3.2 million to Harvard to establish a chair in Holocaust Studies. When Harvard refused to fill the position, Lipper transferred the money to Harvard Medical School.[21]
Ken Lipper, Wall Street (1987)
Ken Lipper, City Hall (1996)
Ken Lipper, “Born in the Real World: The Two Wall Street Movies,” Wall Street: The Collector’s Edition (2010)[22]