Daniel Och

Daniel S. Och is an American billionaire investor and philanthropist renowned for founding Och-Ziff Capital Management in 1994, which evolved into a leading global alternative asset manager overseeing tens of billions in assets before rebranding as Sculptor Capital Management following his 2019 departure amid client outflows, subpar returns, and fallout from international bribery investigations.

Och began his career at Goldman Sachs in 1982 within the risk arbitrage department, advancing over more than a decade to head proprietary trading in the equities division, honing expertise in merger arbitrage and convertible securities that informed his subsequent hedge fund strategies. With initial backing from the Ziff family, he launched Och-Ziff as a multistrategy firm emphasizing risk arbitrage, credit, and real estate, achieving peak assets under management exceeding $50 billion by the mid-2010s through consistent performance and institutional allocations.

Daniel Och was born in 1961 to Golda and Dr. Michael Och, a Jewish couple.

In, Och and his wife established the Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation, a private grant-making entity that underscores their collaborative role in family-oriented philanthropy, including support for Jewish causes, education, and public health initiatives. This joint endeavor reflects a stable marital partnership without documented public disputes or separations, aligning with their shared focus on transmitting values through charitable activities rather than personal publicity.

Och hails from a Jewish family background, as the son of Golda and Dr. Michael Och, and attended the Solomon Schechter Day School in New Jersey during his upbringing. This heritage is evident in family philanthropic efforts, such as a $15 million challenge grant in 2010 to the Golda Och Academy—renamed in honor of his late mother—to promote accessible Jewish education and preserve cultural traditions for future generations, including likely influences on their own children's rearing.