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Who

A hedge fund legend, Michael Steinhardt started his first fund in 1967. Now retired, he wiles away the time tending to his mammoth art collection and various philanthropic endeavors.

Backstory

The son of Sol "Red" Steinhardt, a compulsive gambler who was a jewelry fence to the likes of mobster Meyer Lansky, Steinhardt inherited his father's taste for the big bet but not his chosen method. (His father used to give him envelopes stuffed with cash, which Steinhardt used to start investing.) After graduating from Wharton in 1960 at the age of 19, he worked for mutual fund company Calvin Bullock and Merrill Lynch precursor Loeb Rhoades. In 1967, with money from Billy Salomon of Salomon Brothers and Odyssey's Jack Nash, Steinhardt founded the hedge fund Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co. with partners were Howard Berkowitz and Jerrold Fine. (The firm became known as Steinhardt Partners after his two partners left a decade later.) Although he had a handful of discomfiting moments over his three decades in the business—in the 1990s, he personally anted up 75% of a $70 million fine for an apparent attempt to corner the Treasury note market—he established a spectacular record overall, generating an average annual return of 24 percent, more than double the S&P, over the course of 28 years.

After nearly three decades in the business, Steinhardt wound down his hedge fund in 1995 after suffering huge losses the year before. (His $4.4 billion fund lost roughly 30% when interest rates spiked.) Although he finished up on a positive note (the fund gained 21% in 1995), Steinhardt threw in the towel, walking away with a fortune that Forbes estimated at $500 million. But as one of the early stars of the hedge fund universe, he remains a legend. These days, though, he leaves his money in other people's hands to manage: He's an investor in Steve Feinberg's Cerberus Capital.

Pet causes

Steinhardt has handed out more than $150 million to various charities over the past two decades. One significant beneficiary has been NYU: He's donated in excess of $25 million to the school over the years, which is why you'll find the Steinhardt name all over campus. A major donor to the Metropolitan Museum in the past—there's the Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt Gallery of 6th century B.C. Greek art—he now directs the majority of his philanthropy to Jewish causes.

The founder of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, with Charles Bronfman (the brother of Edgar Bronfman Sr.), Steinhardt founded Birthright Israel, which sends young people on educational trips to the Jewish state, and he's also made significant donations to the Israel Museum and Tel Aviv University. One other side project that's not a charity per se although it might seem so at times: Along with fellow hedge fund pioneer Bruce Kovner, Steinhardt is an investor in the New York Sun, Seth Lipsky's perennially money-losing daily newspaper.

On the side

Possibly the first hedge fund manager to assemble a world-class collection of art, Steinhardt owns works by Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Paul Klee, Max Beckman and Jean Dubuffet, among others. He also owns one of the most renowned collection of Greek and Roman antiquities and a priceless collection of ancient Judaica. Steinhardt estimates he's spent $200 million investing in his collection over the years; interestingly, the modern day hedge fund manager who most closely follows Steinhardt's investment style also happens to be the industry's most prolific art collector—Steve Cohen of SAC Capital.

In print

Steinhardt's autobiography, No Bull: My Life In and Out of Markets, was published in 2004.

Personal

Steinhardt's wife, Judy, is a trustee of NYU's Institute of Fine Arts. They have three grown children: David, Daniel, and Sara. In addition to an apartment at 1158 Fifth Avenue, the Steinhardts have a 51-acre estate in Bedford where they keep kangaroos, camels, zebras, ostriches, wallabies, antelopes, and monkeys in their own wildlife park.

No joke

One habit he inherited from his gambling father: He keeps a thick wad of $100 bills in his wallet at all times.