Education: London School of Economics & Political Science, London School of Economics & Political Science
Identifying big trends has defined the life of George Soros. His father's ability to recognize the trouble Nazis would bring to his native Hungary prompted him to create false identities in order to protect 13-year-old George and the rest of his family. Later, Soros's own ability to see macro trends would lead him to make big, successful trades -- from a $10 billion short position against the British pound in 1992 to a bearish call on the Thai baht five years later -- that made his Quantum Fund the world's largest hedge fund in the late 1990s.
The longtime Manhattan resident has distributed more than $8 billion of his earnings since 1979 to promote democracy, freedom of information and help for the underprivileged. In the five decades between dodging Nazi and Soviet troops and becoming a leader in the hedge fund world, Soros studied at the London School of Economics before making his way to New York and an arbitrage job in 1956.
Soros had raised $12 million by 1973 and eventually started what would become the Quantum Fund, which grew to $22 billion of assets under management by 1998. While his famous trades and active support of social and political causes have made him a lightning rod for criticism over the years, Soros continues to spend the majority of his time on philanthropic and democratic efforts, leaving day-to-day management of the re-named Quantum Endowment Fund to his sons.
He returned less than $1 billion to investors and turned Soros Fund Management into a family office in 2011. By 2017, his charities had assets of more than $18 billion.
In June 2023, he announced he was handing control of his philanthropic foundations to his son, Alex.
