Daniel and Jane Och
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Chairman and CEO of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group
FUNDING AREAS: Education, Jewish Causes, Health, NYC Community
OVERVIEW: Daniel Och Jane live in Westchester County, and their philanthropy centers around New York City. Och sits on the board of directors of the Robin Hood Foundation, and has given millions to that organization. He has also given millions to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where Och has served on the board of trustees since 2005. Other philanthropy has centered on Jewish causes and supporting the schools that he attended.
According to available tax filings, the Och’s foundation, the Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation awarded $20.1 million in grants in 2017.
BACKGROUND: Daniel Och grew up in New Jersey and attended Wharton, receiving a B.S. in Finance. Och spent eleven years at Goldman, Sachs & Co, starting out in the risk arbitrage department. His other roles included head of proprietary trading in the equities division and co-head of U.S. equities trading. In 1994, Och founded Och-Ziff Capital Management Group with an initial investment from the Ziff brothers. Och-Ziff Capital Management Group is one of the largest institutional alternative asset managers in the world, with nearly $35 billion in assets under management as of this writing.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION: Och has given millions to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. The Ochs do not spread their money around widely, but give rather large sums to a handful of organizations. Another major beneficiary is Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, a grade school that Och attended, which recently changed its name to Golda Och Academy. His ties to the school are strong, as Och's parents were among its founding families in the 1960s. Och gave $15 million in 2010 alone, and in 2021, Ochs pledged $10 million to the academy to establish the Dr. Michael Och Fund for Faculty Excellence, named for his father. Och has also given to Cornell and on the K-12 front has supported Khan Academy and College Summit.
JEWISH CAUSES: Och is on the honorary board of Birthright Israel Foundation, which the couple supports generously. He has also given millions to the UJA Federation of New York, and to Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Life, and several other outfits in the past few years.
HEALTH: Och has been a trustee of New York Presbyterian Hospital since 2005 and given millions to the hospital. He has recently supported the Duke Cancer Institute, the Hospital for Special Surgery, and White Plains Hospital in Westchester County.
NEW YORK CITY COMMUNITY: Och is yet another hedge funder who sits on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation and supports the antipoverty organization.
LOOKING FORWARD: So far, Och's philanthropy is just getting started, but with billions to tap, he and his family's philanthropy should be watched closely.
CONTACT:
The Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation provides no clear avenue for getting in touch with the couple, but an address is listed below:
The Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation
325 Columbia Turnpike, Ste. 202
Florham Park, NJ 07932
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