Jared Kushner

Jared Corey Kushner, born on January 10, 1981, in Livingston, New Jersey, is an American businessman and investor. He is the son of Seryl (née Stadtmauer) and Charles Kushner, a real estate developer who was convicted on multiple criminal charges. His paternal grandparents, Reichel and Joseph Kushner, were Holocaust survivors who emigrated from Navahrudak, now in Belarus, in 1949. His maternal grandfather was Morris Stadtmauer. Kushner was raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish family.

He graduated from the Frisch School, a Modern Orthodox yeshiva high school, in 1999. In the same year, he enrolled at Harvard University, where he was elected to the Fly Club and supported the campus Chabad house. According to reports, his father's donation of $2.5 million to Harvard occurred shortly before Jared's admission. Kushner graduated from Harvard in 2003 with honors, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in government. He subsequently enrolled in a JD/MBA dual degree program at New York University, graduating in 2007 with both degrees. During his studies, he interned at Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office and at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Following his father's incarceration from March 2005 to August 2006, Kushner assumed a more prominent role in the family's real estate business, Kushner Companies. He expanded the company's holdings, acquiring nearly $7 billion in property assets over ten years, primarily in New York City. Kushner was active in real estate investments during his college years; notably, he purchased and sold real estate in Somerville, Massachusetts, achieving a profit of $20 million.

In 2007, Kushner Companies purchased the office building at 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion, a record at the time, most of which was financed through debt. He became CEO in 2008. After the 2008 property crash, the company was unable to service its debt on the building, leading to a sale of a controlling stake to the Carlyle Group and Stanley Chera, with Vornado Realty Trust becoming a 50% partner. The company's loss on this investment exceeded $90 million. Kushner continued to acquire properties, including a 130,000-square-foot office tower at 200 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, which he bought for $50 million in 2011 and sold two years later for $150 million. In 2013, Kushner Companies purchased the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters in Brooklyn Heights for $375 million, transforming it into an office park leased to tenants like Etsy.

In addition to real estate, Kushner co-founded WiredScore in 2013, a global organization providing digital connectivity ratings for buildings. Between 2013 and 2014, his company acquired over 11,000 residential units across New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. In Maryland, he purchased a three-building apartment portfolio in Middle River for $38 million and later sold it for $68 million. In 2015, Kushner acquired a 50.1% stake in the Times Square Building for $295 million.

Kushner co-founded Cadre in 2014 with his brother Joshua and Ryan Williams, an online real estate investment platform. The firm received funding from Goldman Sachs and billionaire George Soros, with Soros providing a $250 million credit line in 2015. Kushner’s ownership stake in Cadre was estimated between $25 million and $50 million in 2020.

In 2006, Kushner purchased The New York Observer, a weekly New York City newspaper, for $10 million. Under his ownership, the publication saw increased online traffic and expanded coverage, despite challenges in maintaining relationships with the veteran editorial staff. He hired Elizabeth Spiers as editor-in-chief in 2011 and later Ken Kurson in 2013. During this period, the Observer endorsed Donald Trump for the Republican primary in 2016. Kushner stepped down from the newspaper in January 2017 to join the Trump administration, with his brother-in-law Joseph Meyer succeeding him.

In the political realm, Jared Kushner was initially registered as a Democrat and made donations to Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton in 2008. Over time, he registered as an Independent in 2009 and as a Republican in 2018. He played a significant role in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, sometimes regarded as its de facto manager. His appointment to a senior advisory position in the Trump administration in 2017 was met with concerns about nepotism and potential conflicts of interest. Kushner led efforts to pass the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill signed into law in 2018, and was the primary U.S. diplomat involved in Middle East peace negotiations, including the development of the Trump peace plan and facilitating normalization agreements such as the Abraham Accords in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he advised President Trump that media coverage exaggerated the threat of the virus.

After leaving government service in 2021, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a private equity firm funded primarily by the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund.