Vivek Ramaswamy Height, Weight, Age, Education, Biography

Vivek Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur, politician, and former business executive who used to work as an investment partner at a hedge fund (a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets) firm before founding Roivant Sciences (a healthcare and biotech company focused on applying technology to drug development) in 2014. He stepped down as its CEO in 2021. In 2022, Vivek co-founded Strive Asset Management, an investment firm that opposes ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance – a set of aspects considered when investing in companies) initiatives. In January 2023, Strive Asset Management launched a proxy advisory service to compete with mainstream firms operating in this area. In February 2023, Vivek resigned as the firm’s executive chairman and declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination (the Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States) for the 2024 presidential election in the United States. However, he was out of the race for the 2024 Presidential election in January 2024 after he finished 4th in the Iowa Caucuses.

Born Name

Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy

Nick Name

Vivek

Sun Sign

Leo

Born Place

Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States

Residence

Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, United States

Nationality

Education

After having attended public schools through the 8th grade, Vivek studied at Saint Xavier High School, a private, college-preparatory school situated in Springfield Township, Hamilton County, Ohio. He graduated from there in 2003.

He then joined Harvard College, the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League (a group of 8 private research universities in the Northeastern United States that symbolize academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism) university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Vivek graduated summa cum laude (‘with highest praise’ – typically awarded to graduates in the top 1%, 2%, or 5% of their class, depending on the institution) from there in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in biology.

He wrote his senior thesis on the ethical questions raised by creating human-animal chimeras (a chimera is a single organism composed of cells with more than one distinct set of genetic material) and won a ‘Bowdoin Prize’ (a set of prestigious awards given annually to undergraduate and graduate students of Harvard University) for this work.

In 2013, Vivek earned a JD (Juris Doctor) degree from Yale Law School, the law school of Yale University, an Ivy League university in New Haven, Connecticut.

Occupation

Entrepreneur, Politician, Former Business Executive

Family

• Father – V. G. Ramaswamy (Engineer and Patent Attorney for General Electric, an American multinational conglomerate)
• Mother – Geetha Ramaswamy (Geriatric Psychiatrist)
• Siblings – Shankar Ramaswamy (Younger Brother) (Entrepreneur, Doctor)

Net Worth

In August 2023, Vivek Ramaswamy’s net worth was estimated to be more than $950 million according to Forbes.

Build

Slim

Height

5 ft 7 in or 170 cm

Weight

70 kg or 154.5 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Vivek has dated –

1. Apoorva Tewari (2015-Present) – Vivek married a surgeon and an assistant professor named Apoorva Tewari on May 31, 2015. They first met in the early 2010s at Yale University where he was studying law and she was studying medicine. They have 2 sons together named Karthik Ramaswamy (b. 2020) and Arjun Ramaswamy (b. 2022).

Race / Ethnicity

Asian (Indian)

Hair Color

Black

Eye Color

Dark Brown

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

• Slender frame
• Short-cropped, side-parted, wavy hair
• Cheerful smile
• Clean-shaven look

Religion

Hinduism

Vivek Ramaswamy Facts

1. Although Vivek’s parents emigrated to the United States from the southern Indian state of Kerala, his family’s origins can be traced to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. Hence, he is fluent in Tamil but only understands (does not speak) Malayalam, the primary language spoken in Kerala.
2. Growing up in the United States, he would often attend a local Hindu temple with his family. The family also used to spend most of their summer vacations in India.
3. Vivek, during his school days, used to take private lessons from a conservative Christian piano teacher. This teacher is said to have had a major influence on Vivek’s social and political views.
4. During his time at Harvard University, he became the president of the ‘Harvard Political Union’ and was viewed as a libertarian (libertarianism is a political philosophy that is often described as conservative on economic issues and liberal on personal freedom).
5. During this time, Vivek served as an intern for Amaranth Advisors LLC (an American multi-strategy hedge fund) as well as The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (an American multinational investment bank and financial services company – the 2nd largest investment bank in the world by revenue).
6. Soon after graduating from Harvard University in 2007, he co-founded Campus Venture Network, a company that used to run a private social networking website for university students aspiring to launch a business. It was sold in 2009.
7. Between 2007 and 2014, Vivek also worked at a hedge fund firm called QVT Financial. He was a partner there and used to co-manage the firm’s biotech portfolio. By the time he graduated from Yale University in 2013, he already had a net worth of around USD 15 million.
8. In 2014, he founded Roivant Sciences, a biotechnology company aimed at revolutionizing drug development. The company was incorporated in Bermuda, a tax haven, and amassed nearly USD 100 million in start-up capital. The company’s core strategy was to purchase patents for drugs (that had not yet been successfully developed) from larger pharmaceutical companies and bring the finished product to the market. Forbes magazine included Vivek in its ’30 Under 30 – Finance’ list for 2014.
9. In 2015, Axovant Gene Therapies (a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roivant Sciences) raised USD 315 million in its IPO (initial public offering – a stock launch in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually, also to retail investors). Its market value soon soared to almost USD 3 billion even though it only had 8 employees at that time – including Vivek’s brother and mother. Axovant Gene Therapies started to decline in September 2017 after a failed large clinical trial. It tried to attempt to reinvent itself as a gene therapy company but eventually dissolved in 2023.
10. In 2017, SoftBank Group Corp. (a Japanese multinational investment holding company – the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund) invested USD 1.1 billion in Roivant Sciences. In January 2021, Vivek stepped down as the CEO of Roivant Sciences and assumed the role of executive chairman.
11. Later that year, he published a book titled Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam. In September 2022, he released another book titled Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.
12. In February 2023, Vivek declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election in the United States. Soon after this, he stepped down from the role of the executive chairman of Roivant Sciences to focus on his electoral campaign.
13. Later that year, Vivek published yet another book – titled Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn’t Vote For.
14. He is a vegetarian.
15. In September 2023, Vivek promised to end the H-1B visa lottery system if he won the 2024 Presidential elections.
16. In late 2023, he was looking for a nanny for his 2 kids in the U.S. with a starting salary of $100,000 (INR 83 lakh) per year. The nanny was required to travel often via private air travel with them.

Featured Image by Vivek Ramaswamy / Instagram