37-Year-Old Indian-Origin CEO To Run For US President In 2024: Who Is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has announced his 2024 presidential bid with a promise to "put merit back" and end dependence on China, becoming the second community member to enter the Republican Party's presidential primary after Nikki Haley.

After Haley, the 37-year-old has emerged as a challenger to former US president Donald Trump who declared his reelection run last November.

Reuters

¡°I am proud to say tonight that I am running for president to revive those ideals in this country,¡± Ramaswamy said in an interview with Fox News. ¡°I think we need to put ¡®merit¡¯ back into ¡®America¡¯ in every spirit of our lives.¡±

So who is Vivek Ramaswamy and what are his plans for the 2024 US presidential elections? We take a look.

Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Ramaswamy's parents moved to the US from Kerala and worked at a GE factory in Ohio. His mother was a geriatric psychiatrist and his father worked as an engineer and a patent lawyer at General Electric, reported The New Yorker.

As per a Politico report, Ramaswamy, a native of southwest Ohio, went to Harvard for undergrad, where he studied biology and got a law degree from Yale. He started his career as a biotech investor and developed medicines.

We¡¯ve celebrated our ¡°diversity¡± so much that we forgot all the ways we¡¯re really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago. I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I¡¯m running for President to revive them. pic.twitter.com/bz5Qtt4tmm

¡ª Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

His net worth: US $600 million

The 37-year-old second-generation Indian American launched Roviant Sciences, a pharmaceutical research company, in 2014, where he made hundreds of millions of dollars, reported The New Yorker.

He led the largest biotech IPOs of 2015 and 2016, eventually culminating in successful clinical trials in multiple disease areas that led to FDA-approved products, as per his social media account. According to a Forbes report in 2016, Ramaswamy's net worth was US $600 million.

He has founded other successful healthcare and technology companies. In 2022, he launched Strive Asset Management, a new firm focused on restoring the voices of everyday citizens in the American economy by leading companies to focus on excellence over politics.

Reuters

Author, crusader of anti-woke culture

Dubbed the ¡°CEO of Anti-Woke Inc¡± by The New Yorker, Ramaswamy is the author of the book Woke, Inc: Inside Corporate America¡¯s Social Justice Scam.

He is an anti-ESG or environmental, social, and governance crusader who warns about the threat of ¡°wokeism¡± and socially-responsible investing, reported Politico.

The businessman has been vocal against "woke capitalism", which he says is companies focusing on cultural and political issues instead of profits and innovation, as per Bloomberg.

Reuters

"I grew up in Ohio in the 90s as a skinny kid with nerdy glasses and a funny last name. My parents taught me that if you're going to stand out, then you might as well be outstanding. Achievement was my ticket to get ahead. I went on to found multi-billion-dollar companies. And I did it while getting married ¨C raising a family and following my faith in God."

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