Kenneth Lerer is an American businessman and media executive. He was the chairman and co-founder of The Huffington Post, a liberal/progressive American news website and content aggregating blog, headquartered in New York. He is a Managing Director of Lerer Ventures. Founded in January 2010, Lerer Ventures is a seed stage venture capital fund. Investments include Warby Parker, RapGenius, SailThru, GroupMe, Makerbot, and Birchbox and the fund makes about 40 investments a year. In addition, Lerer Ventures runs its own incubator, Soho Tech Labs. He is the Chairman of Betaworks and BuzzFeed, and the Vice-Chairman of Bedrocket. He is a past Executive Vice President of AOL Time Warner and was a founding partner of New York-based corporate communications firm Robinson, Lerer, and Montgomery. In 2003, Lerer launched StoptheNRA.com to advocate for the continuation of the assault weapons ban as a federal law. He subsequently donated the website to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Lerer has taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, University of Pennsylvania and New York University, where he taught courses on the media and American corporations. He served as Chairman of the Public Theater in New York for 10 years, and is now its Chairman Emeritus.[1] He is also on the boards of the Association to Benefit Children, and the Bank Street College of Education. He has two children: a son, Benjamin, who started an online men's lifestyle website Thrillist.com and who is also a Managing Director at Lerer Ventures; and a daughter, Isabel. Isabel is a Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy at Columbia University's Graduate School. Ken and his wife Katherine Sailer are active fundraisers for the Democratic party. According to the New York Times, on April 9, 2007, they co-hosted a $2,300/plate fundraiser for Barack Obama at their Central Park West apartment in New York.[2]
Lerer is one of the minority owners of the New York Mets, holding a 4% stake in the baseball team.