Jeff Yass

Yass was born in 1958 in Queens, New York City, and grew up there in a middle-class Jewish family. He is the son of Gerald and Sybil Yass. He has a sister, Carole. Gerald Yass died on January 6, 2024, aged 94, in Boca Raton, Florida. Yass attended public schools in Queens, graduating from Bayside High School in 1975. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Economics from Binghamton University. He pursued graduate studies in Economics at New York University. ==Career==

While at the State University of New York at Binghamton in the 1970s, Yass and five fellow students became friends and in 1987 co-founded Susquehanna International Group (SIG), the largest trader of liquid stocks in the US. In the 1970s and early 1980s, before establishing his trading firm, Yass was a professional gambler, winning sums from poker and horse betting. Billionaire trader Israel Englander sponsored Yass for a seat on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and SIG was initially run from an office at the Exchange. His father, Gerald Yass, played an integral role in founding the company, contributing his expertise as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and helping to build SIG’s back-office bookkeeping operations. Gerald remained actively involved with the firm for decades, providing crucial support to its early infrastructure. As of 2021, SIG generates almost one-tenth of the market making trade volume in exchange-traded funds. == Political activities ==

US federal and state contributions Yass has contributed significant sums to political efforts. In 2015, Yass donated $2.3 million to a super PAC supporting Rand Paul's presidential candidacy. He and his wife contributed just over $5 million in 2016. In the 2020 election cycle, Yass was one of the ten largest political donors in the United States donating $25.3 million, all to Republican candidates including 47 lawmakers who sought to overturn the 2020 US presidential election. He donated approximately $100 million during the 2024 US election cycle to Republican groups and campaigns, including $6 million in political contributions via the Commonwealth Leaders Fund PAC, supporting Republican Dave Sunday over Democrat Eugene DePasquale in the 2024 Pennsylvania Attorney General election. In the first half of 2025, Yass donated $16 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports Donald Trump, with Yass's donation being the highest record donation during that period. He donated $10 million to Vivek Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial super PAC in 2025. Foreign contributions In March 2021, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Jeff Yass and Arthur Dantchik were behind a large portion of the donations to the Kohelet Policy Forum, Also according to Haaretz, Yass is a major supporter of Israeli right-wing think tanks. In April 2024, The Guardian reported that Jeff Yass donated $16 million to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups. School choice Yass and his wife strongly support school choice, and the couple writing an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2023 advocating for parental school choice in Pennsylvania. In November 2021, he donated $5 million to the School Freedom Fund, a PAC that runs ads for Republican candidates running in the 2022 election cycle nationwide. From 2010 to 2022, Yass contributed $41.7 million to Students First political action committee; Yass co-founded the PAC, which supports the school choice movement. After Yass and Trump met in March 2024 at a Club for Growth event, Trump went from supporting a ban on TikTok to opposing a ban. At the same time Yass's SIG bought a substantial share in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), which it had been acquiring since 2021, providing Trump with a massive influx of money at a time when he faced mounting legal expenses. ==Wealth and taxes==

Yass is the richest resident of Pennsylvania since 2022. ProPublica estimated "that if Yass' tax returns had resembled those of his competitors" (specifically, Ken Griffin, John Overdeck, and David Siegel), Yass "would have paid $1 billion more in federal income taxes" during the period 2013 to 2018. ==Recognition==

In 2001, Yass appeared as one of 76 Revolutionary Minds in Philadelphia magazine. ==Personal life==

Yass is married to Janine Coslett. They have lived in Haverford in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, for some years. ==Philanthropy==

In December 2001, following the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, he announced a donation to the charitable fund established by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to assist the victims. He has supported Save the Children, "Spirit of Golf Foundation", People's Emergency Center Families First building, and the Franklin Institute's Franklin Family Funfest Committee. Jeff and Janine Yass founded the Yass Prize for Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless (STOP) education, which was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. This initiative aims to recognize and support innovative, non-traditional education models. In 2022, the Yass Prize awarded over $20 million, including a $1 million grand prize to the Arizona Autism Charter Schools for their individualized learning programs. In November 2025, Jeff Yass donated $100M to the University of Austin, founded in 2021 by Bari Weiss and others. It was the largest donation the institution received since its founding in 2021. The university's website says it will never charge tuition. == References ==