Nationality American Occupation Hedge fund manager | Name William Oberndorf | |
Alma mater Williams College, Stanford Graduate School of Business | ||
William Ernst Oberndorf is an American businessman and conservative political donor.
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Career
Oberndorf graduated from Williams College in 1975 and received an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1978. Oberndorf was inspired to become an investor by Warren Buffett. In 1989, Oberndorf founded the investment firm SPO Partners. Oberndorf was a major investor in Voyager, which created a literacy curriculum that was implemented by Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
Oberndorf has served on the boards of numerous companies, including Aggregates USA, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Equity Funds, Plum Creek Timber, Voyager Learning Company, Taft Broadcasting, and Wometco Cable Television Corporation.
Other activities
Oberndorf is a major donor to the California Republican Party, and donated over $1 million to the party and its candidates between 2001 and 2011. Oberndorf was a prominent supporter of California Proposition 32. Oberndorf is a strong supporter of education privatization, and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Oberndorf was a major backer of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2008 and 2012, but played a major role in discouraging Romney from running for a third time in 2016. In 2015, Oberndorf co-hosted two fundraisers for Jeb Bush.
On October 12, 2016, The Guardian reported William Oberndorf "donated $49,999 to a divisive ballot measure intended to clear San Francisco’s streets of homeless encampments, according to campaign filings."