Ken Langone is a major donor to the Republican Party.
35 Facts About Ken Langone
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Ken Langone's father was a plumber and his mother a cafeteria worker.
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Ken Langone was a student at Bucknell University and the New York University Stern School of Business.
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In 1968 Ken Langone met and persuaded Ross Perot to let Pressprich handle Electronic Data Systems's IPO.
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Ken Langone organized financing for Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank to found Home Depot.
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Ken Langone was a member of the board of directors of General Electric from 1999 to 2005.
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Ken Langone defended Jack Welch's tenure as chief executive of GE, blaming Welch's successors for the company's steep decline.
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Ken Langone was a member of the boards of Geeknet, Database Technologies, ChoicePoint Inc.
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Ken Langone was chairman of the New York Stock Exchange's Compensation Committee from 1999 to 2003.
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The lawsuit named Ken Langone, who had approved the pay package.
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Ken Langone denied that the pay packages were illegal considering that the NYSE had direct knowledge of the board's decision.
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Ken Langone donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee and to Republican-aligned outside spending groups, such as Karl Rove's American Crossroads super PAC, and Norm Coleman's dark money group, the American Action Network.
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In 2008, Ken Langone supported Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid, and was a bundler for the Giuliani's campaign.
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Ken Langone heavily donated to efforts to defeat Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.
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Ken Langone led an effort by a group of wealthy Republican donors to draft Chris Christie to run; when he declined, Langone backed Mitt Romney.
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Ken Langone criticized the Affordable Care Act championed by Obama, although he was critical of Republican congressional leadership for triggering a government shutdown in an effort to block the ACA.
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In 2014, Langone likened populist appeals to raise taxes on the rich in the United States to Hitler's rhetoric in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
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In July 2022, Ken Langone helped found a group of US business and policy leaders who share the goal of constructively engaging with China in order to improve US-China relations.
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Ken Langone later donated to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
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In 2019, Ken Langone praised Trump for raising tariffs on China.
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On January 13,2021, days after the January 6 attack against the US Capitol, Ken Langone said he felt "betrayed" by Trump's actions during the assault.
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Ken Langone nevertheless continued to back Trump after the Capitol attack, and contributed $1 million to a fund working to defeat Democratic senators and $500,000 to Americans for Prosperity, the Koch family-backed group.
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In December 2023, Ken Langone endorsed Nikki Haley's campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and became a major donor to a super PAC supporting Haley.
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However, after the January 2024 Iowa caucuses, Ken Langone said he would withhold further major financial support for Haley's candidacy unless she had a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary, and said that he believed Trump would likely win the nomination.
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Ken Langone said he would "probably" vote for Trump if he were the Republican Party's nominee.
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Ken Langone has lived on Elderfields Road in nearby Flower Hill, and has maintained a winter home in North Palm Beach, Florida.
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Ken Langone is a devout Catholic who has financially contributed to the church and sat on the board of St Patrick's Cathedral.
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Ken Langone was made a knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI.
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Ken Langone has been critical of Benedict's successor, Pope Francis, taking issue with Francis's statements condemning the indifference of the prosperous toward the poor.
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Ken Langone has donated $300 million to the NYU School of Medicine and NYU Medical Center ; this includes a $100 million pledge in 2018 toward a $450 million program to make tuition free for all medical students at the NYU School of Medicine.
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Ken Langone has been a member of the boards of trustees of NYU Ken Langone Health, the Harlem Children's Zone, the Robin Hood Foundation, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Ken Langone was a member of the Bucknell University board of trustees from 1981 to 1996; he and his wife gave $11 million to the university in 1999, to fund a new athletics center, and approximately $42 million to the university between 2013 and 2017.
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In 2024, Ken Langone received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
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Ken Langone is portrayed by actor Ray Iannicelli in the 2017 HBO Films production The Wizard of Lies.
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Ken Langone is extensively featured in the documentary Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer where he discusses his fierce rivalry with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.