David Booth – Billionaire

When David Booth cofounded Dimensional Fund Advisors in 1981 he began a decades-long experiment in applying academic theory to real world investing. It worked, and today the firm is one of the largest fund companies in the world, managing more than $450 billion in assets. Underlying DFA’s investment decisions are ideas Booth learned while studying under Professor Eugene F. Fama at the University of Chicago. Chief among them was Fama’s Nobel Prize-winning efficient market theory, which says it’s impossible to predict how markets will act in the short term. So DFA offers low-cost, passive funds that focus on small companies, offering solid value. Today Fama is a board member of the Austin-based firm. To give back to the place that kickstarted his billion-dollar career, Booth donated $300 million to the University of Chicago in 2008, still the largest contribution in the university’s history.

Source:forbes