Worcester Economic Club: Jeff Greene

Jeff Greene was born in 1954 in Worcester, Massachusetts. His father ran a business selling used textile machinery and his mother was a religious school teacher. His parents taught and instilled in him a strong set of economic values that would become the basis of a long and fortuitous career in real estate investment and development and business.

A 1972 graduate of Worcester’s Doherty High School, Greene worked his way through The Johns Hopkins University teaching religious school three days a week and checking ID’s outside the Hopkins gym, as well as working winter vacations as a busboy and waiter at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. He received his BA in economics and sociology from Johns Hopkins in just two and a half years. After Johns Hopkins, Greene worked on‐the‐road as a circus promoter for almost 3 years, saving the seed capital for what would become a billion dollar real estate portfolio. After his time with the circus , Greene attended Harvard Business School where he received his MBA in 1979.

While at Harvard, Greene began investing in residential real estate by purchasing a 3‐family home not far from the Cambridge campus. He gained a quick understanding of the real estate business, and by the time he completed his second year he had accumulated 18 properties and a net worth of over a million dollars. Post Harvard, Greene moved to Los Angeles where he was able to successfully navigate a roller coaster real estate market through the 80’s and 90’s. By 2006, he had accumulated a $1 billion real estate portfolio, but he worried about the possible collapse of the real estate market. In response, Greene devised a hedge for that portfolio in which he would short what he determined were enormously overvalued subprime mortgage backed securities. His investment has been described as the most successful trade in history by an individual on Wall Street.

In 2010, and now a resident of  Florida, Greene felt that the country was heading in the wrong direction and ran for the Democratic nomination for United States Senate, for which he was defeated.

Greene manages a vast portfolio of financial investments in real estate, hospitality and energy. He is an active philanthropist supporting a variety of charities and is a signatory to the Buffet‐Gates Giving Pledge.