Andrew Yang

His parents emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in the 1960s and met in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley.

Yang is of Hoklo Taiwanese descent.

His father graduated with a PhD in physics and worked in the research labs of IBM and General Electric, generating over 50 patents in his career.

His mother graduated with a master's degree in statistics before becoming a systems administrator at a university, and later an artist.

Yang has an older brother, Lawrence, who is a psychology professor at New York University.

Yang grew up in Somers in Westchester County, New York.

He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire.

Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician.

Andrew Yang was born on January 13, 1975, in Schenectady, New York.

Yang was part of the 1992 U.S. national debate team, which competed at the world championships in London.

After graduating from Exeter in 1992, he enrolled at Brown University, where he majored in economics and political science, graduating in 1996.

He then attended Columbia Law School, earning a Juris Doctor in 1999.

After graduating from law school, Yang began his career as a corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City.

Yang later described the job as "a pie-eating contest, and if you won, your prize was more pie".

He left the law firm after five months, which he has called "the five worst months of my life".

In February 2000, Yang joined his office mate, Jonathan Philips, in launching Stargiving, a website for celebrity-affiliated philanthropic fundraising.

The startup had some initial success, but folded in 2002 as the dot-com bubble burst.

Yang became involved in other ventures, including a party-organizing business.

From 2002 to 2005, he served as the vice president of a healthcare startup.

After working in the healthcare industry for four years, Yang left MMF Systems to join his friend Zeke Vanderhoek at a small test preparation company, Manhattan Prep.

In 2006, Vanderhoek asked Yang to take over as CEO.

While Yang was CEO, the company primarily provided GMAT test preparation.

It expanded from five to 69 locations and was acquired by Kaplan, Inc. in December 2009.

Yang resigned as the company's president in early 2012.

Yang later said it was during his time at Manhattan Prep that he became a millionaire.

Yang was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary.

He is the co-chair of the Forward Party, alongside former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman.

The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Yang was born and raised in New York state.

He attended Brown University and Columbia Law School.

Yang became a prominent candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

His signature policy was a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 a month as a response to job displacement by automation.

Yang marketed his UBI as the "Freedom Dividend" and has been credited with popularizing the idea of universal basic income through his candidacy and activism.

News outlets described Yang as a dark horse candidate in the 2020 election cycle, going from a relative unknown to a major competitor in the race.

Yang qualified for and participated in seven of the first eight Democratic debates.

His supporters, informally known as the "Yang Gang", included several high-profile celebrities.

Yang suspended his campaign on February 11, 2020, shortly after the New Hampshire primary.

After his campaign ended, Yang joined CNN as a political commentator, announced the creation of the political nonprofit organization Humanity Forward, and ran in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary.

Yang conceded the race shortly after the initial ranked choice votes were released, which placed him fourth.

On October 4, 2021, Andrew Yang announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, faulting what he characterized as a system stuck in increasing polarization and saying that he is "more comfortable trying to fix the system than being a part of it".

Later in October 2021, Yang founded the Forward Party – a centrist political action committee and political party.