Bill Browder was born on April 23, 1964, in Princeton, New Jersey, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He is the grandson of Earl Browder, a former general secretary of the Communist Party USA, and son of Felix Browder, a prominent mathematician. Browder attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, before transferring to the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a degree in economics. He then went on to earn an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1989.
After completing his MBA, Browder entered the financial sector. He became the vice president at Salomon Brothers before founding Hermitage Capital Management, where he served as the CEO and led the company to become the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. However, in 2009, Browder's lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials. This event marked a turning point in Browder's life and career, leading him to launch a campaign to expose Russia's endemic corruption and human rights abuses.
Browder's campaign gained significant attention and momentum after Magnitsky's death, leading to the passage of the Magnitsky Act in 2012, a bipartisan bill that imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials involved in human rights abuses. Browder has continued to advocate for human rights and transparency in Russia and around the world, authoring the bestselling book "Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice" and speaking at various international forums. Despite facing threats and intimidation, Browder remains committed to his cause, using his financial expertise and personal experiences to shed light on the urgent need for reform in Russia and beyond.