Jason H. Karp

Jason H. Karp (born 1976) is an American businessman and investor who is the founder and CEO of HumanCo, a mission-driven, private holding company located in Austin, TX and New York, NY. HumanCo incubates and invests in companies with consumer-facing products focused on healthier living and sustainability. Karp is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of Hu Kitchen, a healthy-lifestyle private food company. For almost 21 years until 2019, Karp worked in the hedge fund industry at several multi-billion dollar investment firms as a professional investor in both public and private companies.
== Education ==
Karp was born in Hartford, CT. He attended The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut for his high school years and later served on its Board of Trustees for 13 years.
He then graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Economics and a concentration in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1998.
Karp grew up playing competitive tennis; in college, he switched to squash where he was an Academic All-American as well as Academic All-Ivy as a varsity squash player.
== Career ==
After graduating from The Wharton School, Karp started his career with George Weiss Associates where he was Partner before moving on to be Director of Research at SAC Capital. In 2009, he became Co-Chief Investment Officer at Dallas-based hedge fund Carlson Capital. Karp was named an Institutional Investor Rising Star in 2011.
In 2012, Karp founded and served as CEO of Tourbillon Capital Partners, an investment fund that managed more than $4 billion in assets. In 2015, Tourbillon won the Institutional Investor award for Emerging Hedge Fund Manager of the year. At the end of 2018, Karp decided to return all investor money and close Tourbillon to focus his efforts on private investments within health and wellness.
Karp, along with his wife and brother-in-law, co-founded Hu Kitchen in 2012 and also created Hu Products, a line of healthy snacks and chocolates that are sold nationwide in stores including Whole Foods Market, Amazon, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Wegmans across the United States. In the spring of 2019, Mondelēz International announced a minority investment in Hu.
In 2019, Karp founded HumanCo, a private holding company that creates and invests in companies with a focus on healthier living and sustainability. Karp partnered with nutrition scientist, Dariush Mozaffarian, as chair of HumanCo’s Scientific Advisory Board to ensure that all HumanCo companies and investments have an evidence-based, scientific basis for healthier living.
HumanCo’s mission is to take a sustainable, long-term approach to create profitable, impactful and philanthropic companies that genuinely help people live a healthier life.
== Health ==
At age 23, Karp was diagnosed with several autoimmune conditions and a degenerative eye disease, Keratoconus, which caused him to see double vision and start losing his eyesight. Doctors informed Karp that he could expect to be blind by 30 and that his other autoimmune symptoms were incurable. Karp chose to take a different approach to try to heal, and after 9 months of changing his lifestyle and eliminating processed food, caffeine and alcohol from his diet, Karp was able to reverse his conditions and restore his vision. Karp has integrated his newfound lifestyle and belief in food as medicine into his career by founding Hu Kitchen, Hu Products and HumanCo. 
Karp frequently speaks on the topic of healthier living, using his finance and health journey as an example.
== Philanthropy and boards ==
Karp’s philanthropic interests include a focus on education, entrepreneurship, prevention and treatment of autoimmune diseases, chronic diseases and childhood obesity. Karp is philanthropically involved with the Milken Institute and has been on numerous speaking panels and featured in industry articles regarding food and nutrition.
Karp sits on the Board of Advisors for Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, as well as Tufts Food & Nutrition Innovation Council.
Karp has created scholarships for economically disadvantaged students for both Loomis Chaffee and The Wharton School. He previously served on the Loomis Chaffee Board for 13 years, where he chaired the Investment Committee. He currently sits on board of the University of Pennsylvania Squash Program.Karp was an anchor donor for the Wharton Venture Initiation Program.
== Personal life ==
Karp married his wife, Jessica (Brown) Karp in 2004. Jessica Karp is also a Co-Founder in Hu Kitchen and Hu Products, along with her brother, Jordan Brown.
Together, Jason and Jessica reside in Austin, Texas with their two children. Karp listed their New York City apartment for sale in 2019 to move to Austin, Texas.
== References ==
==External links==
* Jason H. Karp on linkedin
* Jason H. Karp | HumanCo
* Jason H. Karp on twitter
* Jason H. Karp | Crunchbase
* Jason H. Karp of Tourbillon Capital Partners Lp - Profile
* Jason H. Karp – Medium
* Jason H. Karp's research works | University of California, San Diego
* Integrated CBD Adds Jason H. Karp and Nat Turner as Advisory Board Members
* Jason Karp – From Hedge Funds to Health and Wellness at HUMANCO
* Jason H. Karp (@humankarp) on Threader
Category:1976 births
Category:American businesspeople
Category:American businessmen
Category:American investors
Category:American company founders
Category:People from Hartford County, Connecticut
Category:Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Category:Bachelor's degrees