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Who

Sanders is the CEO of AllianceBernstein, one of the largest asset management companies in the world with close to $800 billion under management.

Backstory

Sanders didn't waste any time ascending the corporate ladder. After a two-year stint at Oppenheimer & Co., in 1968 he joined research house Sanford C. Bernstein and wrote a furious memo to its head, Sandy Bernstein, outlining all that was wrong there, concluding that the firm was "an embarrassment." Bernstein told Sanders off, but said if he felt so strongly, he should get to work and starting fixing things. Just four years after joining the company as an assistant, Sanders was the named head of the research division. He spent close to three decades working by Sandy's side, overseeing the company's "black books" (named for their black covers), which were must-reads among portfolio managers on Wall Street long before other investment firms had figured out the importance of top-quality research. Sanders eventually rose to CEO of Bernstein; when the firm joined with Alliance Capital in October 2000, he was named vice chairman and chief investment officer of the combined firm. He became CEO in June 2003, succeeding Bruce Calvert, and added the title of chairman in 2005.

Board game

Sanders serves on the board of Rockefeller University. He joined the board of Memorial Sloan-Kettering in July 2007, joining Mort Zuckerman, Evelyn Lauder, Marie-Josée Kravis, Bruce Ratner, and David Koch, among others.

Personal

He and his wife Alice live on the Upper East Side, in the same building as Ace Greenberg. In February 2007, he paid $6 million for duplex loft at 160 Wooster Street.