Tepper vs Mikhelson
Appaloosa Management and NOVATEK.
The differences
- Forbes puts David Tepper about $0.2B ahead of Leonid Mikhelson.Forbes figures from 9 Oct 2026 and 9 Oct 2026.
- Both started the company their money comes from.
- David Tepper is from United States; Leonid Mikhelson is from Russia.
- David Tepper has held a public or government advisory role; Leonid Mikhelson has none on record.
Put someone else on either side
Side by side
Tepper
MikhelsonThe money
- Net worth, Forbes
- $28.5BForbes, 9 Oct 2026
- $28.3BForbes, 9 Oct 2026
- Net worth, Bloomberg
- $28BBloomberg, 16 Oct 2026
- $23.2BBloomberg, 17 Oct 2026
- Forbes rank
- No. 80Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026
- No. 81Real-Time list, 9 Oct 2026
- Billionaire since
- Not stated
- Not stated
Where it came from
- How it started
- Founded itLeft Goldman Sachs, where he headed the junk-bond desk, to found Appaloosa Management in 1993
- Founded itForbes calls him Novatek's founder (it began in 1994 as Novafininvest); he bought control of SIBUR from Gazprombank in 2010-2011. Forbes' 2006 list called his fortune 'inherited and growing', noting his father ran the USSR's largest pipeline-construction trust
- Main source
- His own capital in Appaloosa's hedge funds and the Carolina PanthersBloomberg: Appaloosa hedge funds $10.8 billion, Carolina Panthers $8.07 billion, cash $9.18 billion
- Novatek and SIBUR stockBloomberg: 'The majority of Leonid Mikhelson's fortune is derived from a 25% stake in Novatek'
- Companies
- Appaloosa Management, Carolina PanthersAppaloosa Management: President and founder; Carolina Panthers: Owner and chairman
- NOVATEK, SIBURNOVATEK: Chairman of the management board and board member; SIBUR: Chairman of the board of directors
- Biggest stake
- Carolina Panthers100% owned
- SIBUR30.6% owned
The person
- Born
- 1957East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- 11 Aug 1955Kaspiysk, Dagestan, Russia (then the Soviet Union)
- Country
- United StatesLives in Palm Beach, Florida, United States
- RussiaLives in Moscow, Russia
- Education
- Graduate degreeEconomics degree, University of Pittsburgh (1978); master's in industrial administration, Carnegie Mellon University (1982)
- Not statedCivil construction engineering, Kuibyshev Institute of Civil Engineering (1977)
- Parents
- Son of Harry Tepper, an accountant, and Roberta Tepper, a schoolteacher
- His father Viktor Mikhelson headed the Kuibyshevtruboprovodstroy trust, which Forbes called the largest pipeline-construction trust in the USSR
What they give
- Giving Pledge
- Not a signer
- Not a signer
- Foundation
- The Tepper FoundationFounded in 1996 as the David A. Tepper Charitable Foundation; led by his daughter Randi
- V-A-C Foundation (Victoria - the Art of Being Contemporary)Founded by him in Moscow in 2009, named after his daughter
- Lifetime giving
- Not stated
- Not stated
Role and record
- Role now
- Runs the companyPresident of Appaloosa Management; owner and chairman of the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC
- Runs the companyChairman of NOVATEK's management board; chairman of SIBUR's board
- Successor
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Public office
- Member, Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets, Federal Reserve Bank of New York2014
- None found
- Legal record
- None found
- None found
