Roy Bahat

Bahat was born circa 1977.[1] His mother worked for the American Jewish Committee and his father was an architect.[1] He graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford.[1] At Oxford, Bahat earned a Master's degree in economics.[1]

Bahat had several different roles during his career.[2] He worked for then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2002 as the Senior Policy Director.[2] He left to work for a non-profit called NYC2012, which advocated for the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in New York City.[3] In 2007, Bahat started at News Corporation.[1] He later led the News Corp. brand IGN Entertainment.[4] Bahat left News Corp. in August 2012.[5] He also cofounded a gaming console company called OUYA and created a non-profit.[2]

Bahat has been a venture capitalist since about 2012.[2] He was known in part for funding smaller startups where the founders still had day jobs.[2] In September 2020, Bahat moved temporarily to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in an effort to influence politics in a swing state.[6] He raised money for the Democratic party.[6] He was also involved with "Walk the Vote," a non-partisan group that organizes marches to voting booths.[6] Bahat was on the board of a New York City Jewish day school called the Abraham Joshua Heschel School.[1]

In 2013, Bloomberg Beta was created and Bahat was appointed head of the new entity.[7] Bahat is a partner of Bloomberg Beta along with Karin Klein and James Cham.[8] Bahat started teaching an MBA course on leading a unionized workforce at University of California, Berkeley.[9] He also was a member of the Future of Work Commission, a governmental organization focused on economic growth in California.[8]

Bahat is married with two children.[6] He and his wife are both involved in political activism in support of the Democratic party in the United States.[6] His wife works in the arts.[6] Bahat and his wife married in 2007.[1]

• Personal website