Robert Reffkin

Robert L. Reffkin

Reffkin is African American and Jewish and grew up in Berkeley, California.^[3] His father was an African American man from Louisiana, who already had two children, and shortly after Reffkin was born abandoned him and his mother.^[4] Emigrating from Israel at age 7, his mother Ruth Reffkin, after having her son, was disowned by her family after learning that their grandson was of African American descent.^[5] Since his mother never married his biological father, his mother gave Reffkin his last name, from her first marriage to Gene Reffkin, also Reffkin's Godfather.^[5] His father, a jazz musician,^[6] passed away when he was 11 years old.^[7]

Through

In 2000, Reffkin graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in under two years.^[7] After graduating from Columbia, he worked for McKinsey & Company from 2000 to 2002 before returning to school and graduated from Columbia Business School with a M.B.A. in 2003.^[7][9] At the time of his hiring, he was the youngest analyst hired by McKinsey.^[1][10]

He then moved into investment banking and spent two years working for

In 2007, Reffkin began a nonprofit, New York Needs You (now America Needs You) to mentor low-income college students. He did a $1 million fundraising by running a marathon in each of the 50 states in the United States and launched NYNY in 2009.^[6][14]

In 2012, he co-founded the online real estate technology company

Reffkin worked with Peter Koechley, Upworthy co-founder and former managing editor of The Onion, in writing the book No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can, published in 2021.^[20]

References