Born in Brooklyn, New York, Cliff graduated magna cum laude with a BS from the University of Pennsylvania and he received an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After school, he worked as an equities analyst at Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance and then as a government securities trader at William Blair & Company in Chicago. In 1982, he co-founded his two current firms, III Capital Management, a money management firm specializing in fixed income derivatives, and AVM, a fixed income broker dealer.

Cliff became majority owner, Chairman and General Partner of the Florida Panthers Hockey Franchise from November 2008 until his sale in September 2013. He also served as the Chairman of the Florida Panthers Foundation, which was awarded the Broward Foundation of the Year in 2012.

Cliff was a member of the Board of Trustees of B’nai Torah Congregation for over twenty years, is a past President of the Congregation, and is a founding member and past President of the B’nai Torah Foundation.

In partnership with Ruth Rales Jewish Family Services, the Viners established Camp BreakAway, which for 13 years sent deserving youngsters, over 100 of them in its later years, to a summer camp experience, first in Maine and then in the Poconos.

In 2013, Cliff married Eda Viner.  Eda and Cliff have four children: Elyse, Amanda, Eric, and Nicole. Together, in 2015, they founded the Eda and Cliff Viner Community Scholars Foundation, which has grown to now have 114 current Viner Scholars attending college.  All the Scholars come from our 12 Boca and Delray area high schools.  The program is truly unique because not only do the students receive very substantial financial assistance to cover tuition, books, room and board and travel, each student must maintain, for all four years, all the requirements of an intensive mentoring program with trained and vetted mentors.  In addition, the program has enlisted over 20 social service agency partners to support all the students’ needs and their families’ needs, such as psychological counseling, many types of health care services, legal services, and more.  As proof of their concept, the program is nearing almost 100% graduation rates.

Cliff is an active member of the Board of Trustees of the Urban League of Palm County.  And in 2018 he founded the Urban League of Palm Beach County Foundation and is the current President.