- Vivek Ramaswamy announced his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in February 2023.
- The biotech entrepreneur, who is the son of Indian immigrants, was Harvard and Yale-educated.
- He became a conservative firebrand after writing anti-woke books and regularly appearing on Fox News.
Vivek Ramaswamy might not have a background in politics, but that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the first candidates to announce their run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, behind only former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The biotech millionaire, who was once the CEO of Roivant, has somewhat struggled for exposure in a crowded field for the Republican nomination, but his past shows he isn’t afraid of a challenge.
Ramaswamy is the son of immigrants from India, was an overachiever at school, and even had a short-lived rap career while at Harvard.
Though his campaign is picking up a little steam, he’s still a longshot for the GOP nomination. But the conservative firebrand says he has big plans to start a “cultural movement.”
Here’s what there is to know about Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy was born on August 9, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to parents who had immigrated to the US from Kerala, India.
He was raised in a traditional Hindu family but attended a Catholic high school.
Ramaswamy graduated top of his class at St. Xavier High School, a private prep school on the outskirts of Cincinnati, where he was a nationally ranked junior tennis player.
He also spent his time playing the piano for Alzheimer’s patients.
He attended Harvard College, where he graduated summa cum laude with a major in biology.
While at Harvard, he was chair of the university’s political union. He told The Harvard Crimson at the time that he considered himself to be a “contrarian” who liked to argue.
Academically, he thrived. The summary of his senior thesis on the ethics of creating human-animal chimeras was published in The New York Times.
Ramaswamy would dress entirely in black and take to the stage as his rapper alter ego “Da Vek” during his college days, according to The Harvard Crimson.
The student publication said he rapped “libertarian prose with the utmost of ease.”
In an interview with the publication in 2006, Ramaswamy also said that Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” was his life’s theme song.
In 2007, Ramaswamy co-founded StudentBusinesses.com, a resource for college-age entrepreneurs. It was acquired by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2009.
He worked at QVT Financial, a Wall Street hedge fund manager, from 2007 to 2014.
Successful trades and his knowledge of the potential of certain drugs quickly impressed his bosses, leading to Ramaswamy becoming a partner at just 28 years old.