About Leon Black

Leon Black is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and art investor. In 1990, he founded Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s foremost alternative asset managers where he served as Chairman and CEO for more than thirty years. Today, Apollo manages over $500 billion in assets including private equity, credit, real estate and insurance.

Over several decades, Leon and his family have leveraged this platform to fund, support and raise awareness for numerous causes, specifically those related to healthcare and medical research, gender equality, education, and initiatives within the Jewish community. Most recently, the Black family launched a philanthropic effort that promotes gender equity by supporting education and advancement opportunities for women and girls, access to high quality maternal healthcare, and addressing gender-based violence.

The Black family’s ongoing commitment to fund and amplify medical research spans many years. In 2020, they co-founded The Foundation for OCD Research (FFOR) with $25 million to help develop treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In 2007, Leon with his wife, Debra, co-founded the Melanoma Research Alliance (“MRA”), a non-profit that has become the largest private funder of Melanoma research in the world, committing over $150 million in funding to advance understanding of the disease. MRA sponsored research has led to the development of 12 FDA-approved drugs instrumental to the immunotherapy revolution used to combat over thirty different cancers. Additionally, Leon serves as a trustee at Mount Sinai and, in 2005, donated $10 million to establish The Black Family Stem Cell Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. The Institute integrates research in embryonic stem cells, developmental biology and adult stem cell biology.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Leon and his family, with a $20 million donation, created the Healthcare Heroes, a city-wide philanthropic program to support the heroic efforts of the more than 100,000 New York City healthcare professionals on the front lines combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare Heroes provided 300,000 packages of shelf-stable food, household cleaning and personal care products, as well as over-the-counter medicine to staff at hospitals across the five boroughs.

The Blacks are also deeply invested in the support and long-term care of veterans. The Apollo Veterans Initiative was launched in 2014 and supports companies committed to hiring and retaining veterans, national guard, reserves, and military spouses and partners. Leon and his family also fund a graduate student fellowship program for U.S. veterans and active-duty military members at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.  The fellowship program covers the annual cost of attendance of program participants and supports leadership development. 

As one of the world’s leading investors in art, Leon is involved with a number of art institutions. He is a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art where he was the chairman from 2015 to 2021 and served on the boards of the Asia Society and of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for over 15 years. His impressive art portfolio includes renowned works by Pablo Picasso, Cezanne, J.M.W. Turner and Edvard Munch.

Being the son of a prominent Jewish businessman who emigrated to the United States from Poland, Leon continues to also be involved with and give back to the global Jewish community, supporting Jewish causes and organizations including Jewish Lives (publishing over 55 biographies of famous Jews in partnership with Yale University Press), Park Ave Synagogue Educational Center, AIPAC and the UJA.

Leon graduated from Dartmouth College in 1973 and continues to give back to his alma mater, creating two separate Chairs for Jewish and Shakespeare studies. In September 2012, Leon and his wife, Debra, donated over $48 million to Dartmouth for The Black Family Visual Arts Center to serve as an intellectual and cultural hub in Dartmouth’s Arts District.

Leon has been married to his wife Debra since 1982 and the couple have four children together, all of whom are actively involved and contribute to the family’s ongoing philanthropy.