Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Born 1960 · Age 65
Lebanese–American essayist, mathematical statistician, former derivatives/options trader, risk analyst and author of the Incerto (including The Black Swan and Antifragile). Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at NYU Tandon and scientific adviser to Universa Investments.
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Life & Career Timeline
Born in Amioun, Lebanon
Born to Minerva Ghosn and Nagib Taleb in Amioun, Lebanon.
Lebanese Civil War begins; family wealth reduced
Lebanese Civil War began, reducing family's political prominence and wealth; affected his upbringing and education in Beirut.
Earned MBA from Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
Completed an MBA at the Wharton School; reports that he became fascinated with probability and rare events during this time.
Began career as derivatives/options trader
Started working as a derivatives trader and proprietary trader (held senior positions at major banks over coming years).
Profited from Black Monday (1987) and became financially independent
Reportedly became financially independent after profiting from a hedged short Eurodollar position during the 1987 market crash.
Married Cynthia Shelton
Married Cynthia Anne Shelton at St Anne's Episcopal Church in Atlanta.
Published Dynamic Hedging (technical book)
Published Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options (Wiley), a technical text on managing nonlinear derivative exposures.
Awarded PhD (University of Paris - Dauphine)
Received PhD in management science; dissertation 'The Microstructure of Dynamic Hedging' under Hélyette Geman, focused on mathematics of derivatives pricing.
Appointed Fellow/Adjunct at NYU Courant Institute
Appointed Fellow in the Mathematics Finance Program and Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at NYU Courant (Dec 1999 appointment noted).
Founded Empirica Capital
Returned to New York City and founded Empirica Capital (hedge fund/asset management firm).
Empirica Kurtosis fund returned 56.86% in 2000
During the dot-com downturn, Empirica's Empirica Kurtosis LLC fund returned 56.86%; Taleb's strategies were highly successful during the Nasdaq decline.
Published Fooled by Randomness
Published Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets; selected by Fortune as one of the smartest 75 books (later recognition).
Inducted into Derivatives Hall of Fame
Listed as a Derivatives Hall of Fame inductee (encyclopedia entry notes 2001).
Closed Empirica Capital
Empirica Capital closed after a period of lower volatility and less spectacular returns following the early-2000s gains.
Ended Courant adjunct role (Dec 2005)
Served as Fellow/Adjunct at NYU Courant from Dec 1999 until Dec 2005.
Fooled by Randomness named among 'smartest 75 books' by Fortune
Fortune magazine selected Fooled by Randomness as one of the smartest 75 books known.
Shifted career emphasis to mathematical research and writing
Stopped full-time trading activities and transitioned to scholarly research, teaching and full-time writing (career shift documented c.2006).
Published influential essays & widened public profile (Black Swan era)
Following the publication of The Black Swan, Taleb's public profile rose sharply; he became a sought-after critic of prevailing risk models.
Joined Universa Investments as adviser
Became a principal/senior scientific adviser to Universa Investments (Mark Spitznagel's fund) based on 'black swan' tail-hedging ideas.
Published The Black Swan
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable was published (popularized the term, widely read in finance and beyond).
Claimed retirement from trading (Wall Street Journal article)
In a 2007 Wall Street Journal article, Taleb stated he retired from trading to become a full-time author (though involvement with funds continued in advisory capacity).
Visiting Research Professor, London Business School (start)
Held visiting research/professorial role at London Business School (tenure cited as Dec 2007 to Jan 2009 in sources).
Became 'totally passive' in fund involvement (self-description from 2010 onward)
Describes his involvement with trading/funds as 'totally passive' from around 2010 onward, despite advisory roles.
Appointed Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at NYU Tandon
Joined NYU Tandon School of Engineering as Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering (appointment Sept 2008).
Universa funds returned large gains (Oct 2008)
Some Universa-managed funds returned between about 65% and 115% in October 2008 amid the financial crisis, generating large profits for tail-hedge positions.
Started Distinguished Research Scholar role at Oxford Said Business School
Served as Distinguished Research Scholar at Oxford's Said Business School BT Center (2009–2013).
Attended World Economic Forum (Davos) and publicly criticized bankers
Spoke at Davos 2009, criticizing bankers' recklessness and urging punishment to prevent repetition; gained public attention.
Named on Forbes list of 'Most Influential Management Gurus'
Included by Forbes in a list of influential management thinkers (2009).
Reported threats / personal attacks after public criticism of finance
Following outspoken comments (e.g., at Davos) and criticism of finance figures, reports emerged of personal threats and attacks against Taleb.
Recognized widely for The Black Swan (Sunday Times/other outlets)
The Sunday Times described The Black Swan (2007) as one of the 12 most influential books since World War II; multiple outlets termed him among the leading thinkers.
Publicly noted as moving fully into writing & research
Continued to publish books and numerous scholarly papers after largely exiting active trading; positioned as scholar and public intellectual.
Published The Bed of Procrustes (aphorisms)
Released The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (Dec 2010).
Advance for follow-up book reported (~$4M)
Reports indicate sales of Taleb's first two books garnered an advance of about $4,000,000 for a follow-up book on antifragility.
Included in Bloomberg's '50 most influential people in global finance'
Named among Bloomberg's 50 most influential people in global finance (2011).
Reported Black Swan sales milestone (≈3 million copies)
By February 2011 The Black Swan had sold close to three million copies and spent 36 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Published Antifragile
Published Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder (Nov 2012), expanding on his theory of systems that benefit from volatility.
Named among Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute's '100 thought leaders' (2013)
Included in GDI's list of most influential thought leaders (2013; also listed in 2014 and 2015).
Published technical paper on (anti)fragility (with Raphael Douady)
Published 'Mathematical definition, mapping, and detection of (anti)fragility' in Quantitative Finance (2013) with Raphael Douady.
Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute recognition (2013)
Named among GDI's 100 most influential thought leaders (also listed in 2014 and 2015).
GDI recognition repeated (2014)
Again included among GDI's most influential thought leaders in 2014.
Appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief of Risk and Decision Analysis
Named Co-Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Risk and Decision Analysis (since Sept 2014).
Published 'Unique Option Pricing Measure' paper (2015)
Published 'Unique Option Pricing Measure with neither Dynamic Hedging nor Complete Markets' in European Financial Management (2015).
GDI recognition repeated (2015)
Included for a third consecutive year (2013–2015) among Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute's 100 thought leaders.
Received honorary doctorate from American University of Beirut
Reportedly received an honorary doctorate from AUB (listed among recognitions around his 2016 commencement appearance).
Delivered commencement address at American University of Beirut
Delivered the 2016 commencement speech at the American University of Beirut (27 May 2016).
Incerto (4-volume) bundle published
Incerto (bundle of the first four works) published in November 2016 as a collected edition.
Guest appearance on Ron Paul Liberty Report
Appeared on the Ron Paul Liberty Report discussing geopolitical/non-interventionist ideas and Skin in the Game themes later dedicated to Paul and Nader.
Received Wolfram Innovator Award
Awarded the Wolfram Innovator Award (2018) for contributions to decision making under complex probabilistic structures.
Published Skin in the Game
Published Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life (Feb 2018), the fifth book of the Incerto series.
Appeared on Ralph Nader Radio Hour in support of Skin in the Game
Appeared on Ralph Nader's radio show (10 March 2018) supporting and promoting Skin in the Game (book dedicated to Nader among others).
Incerto (Deluxe Edition) adds Skin in the Game (Aug 2019)
A deluxe edition bundling all five Incerto volumes (including Skin in the Game) was released in August 2019.
Published 'Tail risk of contagious diseases' (Cirillo & Taleb, Nature Physics)
Co-authored a Nature Physics paper on tail risk and contagious diseases (2020), contributing to COVID‑19 risk literature.
Public science-policy engagement around COVID-19
Published and promoted scientific notes and papers on pandemic systemic risk and model limitations; urged policymakers to take SARS‑CoV‑2 seriously.
Published 'Systemic risk of pandemic via novel pathogens – Coronavirus: A note' (co-authored)
Co-authored a widely circulated note (26 Jan 2020) warning that SARS‑CoV‑2 risks were not being taken seriously enough by policymakers and medical professionals.
Published 'Working with convex responses: Antifragility from finance to oncology' (Entropy)
Co-authored work connecting antifragility and convex responses across domains (2023, Entropy).
Co-authored genetic ancestry paper (Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal)
Co-authored a 2024 paper on informational rescaling of PCA maps with application to genetic distance (publication listed in sources).
Key Achievement Ages
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