For those in cryptocurrency and the stock markets who’ve been feeling some pain, the Robin Hood Foundation benefit Monday night offered a few hours’ respite. It also offered a chance at a real picker-upper: a ride to space.
Ken Griffin, billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel, made the winning $8 million bid, in absentia. He doesn’t plan to take the flight; instead he’s giving his seat on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Shepard to a New York City public school teacher.
“I hope this moment will ignite the imagination of our students and inspire the next generation to push the boundaries of what humanity can achieve while underscoring the extraordinary role our teachers play in the lives of our children,” Griffin said Tuesday in an emailed statement.
Umesh Subramanian, Citadel’ chief technology officer, made the final bid on behalf of Griffin. Crypto investor Mike Novogratz had raised his hand at $4 million.
Taking it all in at the Javits Center were Bezos and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez; Dina Powell McCormick, Alison Mass, Lisa Opoku and Chris Kojima of Goldman Sachs; Guggenheim’s Alan Schwartz; Nelle Miller of JPMorgan; and hedge fund managers Boaz Weinstein, Scott Goodwin, Larry Robbins and Leon Cooperman.
The live auction, conducted by Lydia Fenet of Christie’s, was brief, but it drove home the big idea of the night: Those with money, power, privilege and access are in a position to lift up those with less.
The event brought in $126 million, all for Robin Hood’s poverty-fighting initiatives in New York. A big chunk of that—$100 million—is expected to fund a new initiative to expand child care programs. The goal is not only to nurture children but also to support working parents.
Mayor Eric Adams said the city would contribute $50 million, while Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit and of 776 Fund Management, put in $25 million. The Bezos Family Foundation kicked in $10 million. Some of the rest came from donations made during the event, solicited by Paul Tudor Jones, who donned a spacesuit for the occasion.
“Every dollar invested in quality early childhood experience yields $9 in benefits to society,” Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery said.
“That’s a 900% return,” Tudor Jones added, “which is a hell of a lot better than the stock market’s doing this year.”
After dinner, guests lined up to go inside a New Shepard crew capsule, as John Legend performed.
Solace over the markets was still in order. For the “finance folk who’ve had a rough week or so,” Legend said, he played “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Before the auction began, comedian John Mulaney voiced skepticism about going to space.
“If a force is trying to hold you on a planet, stay on that planet,” Mulaney said. “Also, what are everyone’s priorities right now? We need to go to Mars? Get Florida under control.”
Source: crainsnewyork.com
