Michael Benjamin (born November 1, 1969) was born Michael Benjamin Bonheur in New York City, New York, United States. Benjamin works as a private investor focusing on Internet companies. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the United States Senate in 2004. Personal background He is the son of an Iranian Jewish father that immigrated to the United States from Tehran in 1950 and a Catholic mother who immigrated from Honduras. Soon after Michael's birth the family moved to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where his father was relocated with his job at Bank of America. After about one year in San Pedro Sula they moved to the capital, Tegucigalpa, for another year. In 1971, the family moved to Lima, Peru and in 1973, they moved to Quito, Ecuador. Michael attended school at the American Cotopaxi Academy. Several years later, in 1976, the family moved back to the U.S. They settled in the New York City suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut, where they lived for four years. Michael attended North Street Elementary School. In 1980, the family relocated to Bogotá, Colombia. Michael attended the American school Colegio Nueva Granada. Soon after, in 1982, they moved to Mexico City, where Michael attended the American School Foundation. They left Mexico in 1987 and, after a brief stay in San Francisco, moved back to Greenwich. Michael attended his senior year at Greenwich High School. While there, he was awarded High Honors by the NAACP for his writing in recognition of Black History Month. Benjamin attended New York University where he studied economics and Western literature and was elected president of the student government for his junior and senior years. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1992 and shortly thereafter began work as assistant to the president of Richter & Co., Inc., an investment bank in midtown Manhattan known primarily for launching Cerberus Partners, L.P. a major American hedge fund. He later worked in the insurance industry with American Corporate Benefits, Inc. and Guardian Life Insurance Company, before starting his own securities trading and investments business in 1997. The New York Benevolence Council, Inc. Along with another graduate of NYU, Benjamin founded the New York Benevolence Council, Inc. in 1993, a non-profit organization which provided mentoring and tutoring in New York City public schools, coordinated food and clothing drives, and organized fund-raisers in support of various humanitarian causes. At its height in the late 1990s