Tom Steyer began his professional career at Morgan Stanley in 1979, followed by a role at Goldman Sachs from 1983 to 1985 in the risk arbitrage division. He later became a partner and member of the Executive Committee at Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco–based private equity firm. In 1986, Steyer founded Farallon Capital Management, a hedge fund that pioneered the multi-strategy approach to investing.