Former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson is running for New York mayor – BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson plans to run for New York mayor, joining a crowded field of candidates seeking to succeed the embattled Eric Adams next year.

“We need a leader who can unite New Yorkers and bring new thinking,” he said in a letter Tuesday.

Tilson, 58, who formerly ran the $200 million hedge fund Kase Capital Management, is active in philanthropic circles in New York. He sits on the advisory board of Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation and is a board member of KIPP Academy Charter School in the South Bronx.

Tilson is just the latest potential candidate in a rapidly growing field of candidates seeking to challenge Adams in the June Democratic primary, which includes City Comptroller Brad Lander, former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and the state senator Queens, Jessica Ramos, belong to others.

Tilson isn’t the first Wall Street veteran to seek the mayoralty of New York City – in 2021, former Citigroup Inc. banker Ray McGuire ran in the Democratic primary, securing prominent endorsements from Jay-Z and Spike Lee and privately collected millions of contributions. But McGuire placed seventh in the primary and ultimately received just 3% of all votes cast in the city’s ranked-choice voting system.

In September, Adams became the first sitting mayor in New York City’s modern history to be indicted on federal corruption charges. Adams, a former police captain who was elected in 2021 on a promise to combat then-soaring crime rates, has since struggled with low poll numbers and an exodus of top executives.

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