George Weiss is the President of George Weiss Associates, Inc. and CEO of Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, LLC. George Weiss Associates, founded in 1978, has offices in Hartford, CT and New York City. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance in 1965.
Mr. Weiss is the founder of the Orphan Disease Pathway Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding cures and effective treatments for rare diseases. In response to a young relative’s diagnosis of a rare disease, Mr. Weiss formed the Project to join with other families who refuse to accept that there is no hope for a cure. Together with the team at Penn Medicine the Orphan Disease Pathway Project is channeling resources toward collaborative research across a spectrum of rare diseases.
Mr. Weiss also serves as chairman of Say Yes To Education, Inc., a national non-profit organization committed to opening access to post-secondary education for high poverty youth. Mr. Weiss believes that access to post-secondary education can truly change lives, especially for students facing enormous social and financial challenges. To this end, he created the Say Yes to Education foundation in 1987 with a promise to pay the full costs of college or vocational training for 112 students at the Belmont Elementary School, located in one of Philadelphia’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Since then, the Say Yes program has grown to include 65,000 students in five cities.
Mr. Weiss is a Trustee at Penn Medicine and a member of the Penn Medicine Executive Committee. Mr. Weiss is former Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and immediate past Chair of the Development Committee. He was also Chair of the Making History Campaign, which surpassed its goal and raised $4.3 billion for Penn.
In 2010 Mr. Weiss received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Syracuse University, and his educational philanthropy has been honored with the Cleveland E. Dodge Medal for Distinguished Service. He is a life regent of the University of Hartford.
Mr. Weiss has earned a 6th Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and KiToshaKai, and an honorary 7th degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He is a Member of the United States Martial Arts team and an Internationally Certified Master Instructor.