Top 10 Richest Investment Bankers in the world

hInvestment banking is a branch of banking that specializes in raising cash and providing financial advice to people and businesses. Investment bankers use their knowledge of the financial services business, analytical prowess, and persuasive communication skills to assist institutions with tasks like raising cash and merging with other companies.

Also, Investment banks serve as a conduit between businesses needing fud and investors willing to put their money where their mouth is. As one of the few occupations that attract the sharpest brains, investment banking has proven to be a rewarding career choice for many individuals. With a lot of hard work and determination, anyone can succeed in this career and milk wealth out of it.

Here in this article, RNN will highlight the top richest investment bankers in the world

1. James Simons – $28.1 billion

James Harris Simons was born on 25 April 1938, to an American Jewish family and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is the only child of Marcia and Mattew Simons. Harris is an American mathematician, billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958 and a PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley under the supervision of Bertram Kostant in 1961 at the age of 23.

James is known for his studies on pattern recognition, he developed the Chern Simons form with Shining Shen Chern and contributed to the development of string theory by proving a theoretical framework to combine geometry and topology with quantum field theory. He is the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in East Setauket, New york. He has an estimated net worth of $28.1 billion which makes him one of the richest investment bankers in the world.

2. Joseph Safra – $22.8 billion

Joseph Sapra was born on 1 September 1938 – 10 December 2022 and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. He was born into a family of Sephardic Jewish background originally from Lebanon Syria with banking connections back to Ottoman times. The family’s history in banking originated with the caravan trade between Aleppo, Beirut, Alexandria, and Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire. The whole Safra family moved to Brazil in 1952.

His brother Edmond, and his father, Jacob Safra started working in brazil by financing assets in Sao Paulo. His brother Edmond Safra separated from James Safra and moved to New York City. James Safra was the chairman of all Safra companies, among them Safra National Bank of New York City and Banco Safra headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has an estimated net worth of $22.8 billion which makes him one of the richest investment bankers in the world.

3. Ray Dailo – $17 billion

Raymond Thomas Dalio was born on August 8, 1949, in Queens, New York. The son of a jazz musician and a housewife, he was not the most diligent in school, but he was the most curious. From an early age, he had the drive to generate income, so he got a job as a paperboy in his neighbourhood, a job that provided him with enough income to buy his first airline stock. As a novice investor, he was thrilled to see that his first decision was the right one and he made a profit from the purchase of those first shares. He came to think that investing in the stock market was a way to make easy money until he lost almost everything he had invested almost on a hunch, without doing any prior analysis.

Ray Dalio is another personality who has excelled in investment banking with a net worth hovering slightly over $17 billion. He came up with a firm named Bridgewater Associates in 1975 and today it manages over $120 billion in investments. Although the firm has faced some challenges in the recent past, his net worth according to Forbes has remained above $17 billion. He is also a philanthropist who has supported many initiatives across the world. He is one of the richest investment bankers in te world.

4. Jorge Paulo Lemann – $16.2 billion

Jorge Paulo Lemann was born on August 26, 1939, he is a Brazillian billionaire investment banker and a businessman with dual Brazillian and Swiss citizenship. In 1960, he received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University. According to Lemann’s own admission, he did not enjoy his time at Harvard, stating that “My first year at Harvard was horrible. I was only 17 and I missed the beach and the sun a lot. Boston was too cold for me. It was my first time in the USA and I was not used to studying or writing we have to write a lot at Harvard. My grades were the worst possible.

Jorge is on record as one of the Brazilian’s richest investment bankers in the world. He is the son of an immigrant of Swedish origin who enjoyed a humble beginning as his father worked as a dairy manufacturer. Jorge worked and lived in Switzerland before he migrated to Brazil in the early 70s to launch an investment bank. His new firm, called Banco Garantia, would soon grow to become a prestigious employer in the country. He later sold it in 1998 making a whopping $675 million. This gave him another chance to establish Ambuev, an equity firm that effectively controlled the beer market across South America. The company entered into a merger with Interweb from the European market, and this shift made Lemann a new king in the beer industry.

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5. Petr Kellner – $17.5 billion

Petr Kellner was born on 20 May 1964 – 27 March 2021, was a Czech billionaire entrepreneur, the founder and the majority shareholder (98.93%) of the PPF Group. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of $17.5 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic. Petr Kellner is a business figure and investment banker who owns several businesses in the Czech and abroad.

Kellner made most of his wealth from managing portfolios with the most significant being the purchasing of a 20 per cent stake in Ceska pojistovna, which he took part in managing. He also bought majority shares in Komercini banka and these transactions came with a huge profit overlay that gave him a platform on which to launch his businesses. He has an interest in businesses in the banking sector as well as transportation. Kellner has kept his wealth growing by focusing on high-stake transactions in the business world, and most of these have included acquiring shares in companies that have a promising future.

6. Ken Griffin – $31.9 billion

Kenneth Cordele Griffin was born on the 15th of October, 1968, in Daytona Beach, Florida. In high school, he excelled academically while also being president of his math club. In 1986, Griffin started to invest during his freshman year at Harvard University. During his second year at Harvard, he started a hedge fund focused on convertible bond arbitrage. The fund was capitalized with $265,000 from friends and family, including money from his grandmother.

In 1990, Griffin founded Citadel with $4.6 million. By 1998, Citadel had grown to a team of more than 100 employees and $1 billion in investment capital. In September 2004, Fortune magazine ranked Griffin, who was 35 that year, as the eighth richest American under forty in the category of self-made, United States-based wealth. In 2006, Griffin was the fifth youngest of the seven members under the age of 40 listed on the Forbes 400. He has an estimated net worth of $31.9 billion which makes him the richest investment banker.

7. John Paulson – $6.63 billion

John Alfred Paulson was born on December 14, 1955, he is an American billionaire hedge fund manager. He leads Paulson & Co a New York-based investment management firm he founded in 1994. He has been called one of the most prominent names in high finance a man who made one of the biggest fortunes in Wall Street history.

John Paulson is said to have a net worth of $13.5 billion which he has earned from his involvement in the investment banking industry as well as managing a hedge fund. He founded Paulson and Co, a hedge fund that has been growing progressively over the years. In 2013, the company returned 63% of its investment. John has also had an interest in various other industries including real estate and travel. He was recently featured in talks where he plans to buy an established resort in Puerto Rico.

8. Nathaniel Rothschild – $5 billion

“Nat” Rothschild, was born on 12 July 1971 in England and educated at Eton College and Wadham College, Oxford. He began his professional career in the mid-90s, working for Lazard Brothers Asset Management in London, England. He then went to work for the New York-based Gleacher Partners, before joining Atticus Capital. Nat became co-chairman and co-owner of Atticus Capital and remained with the company until it was shuttered in 2009.

Rothschild then spent the next few years co-chairing Attara Capital LP. He has also chaired or directed such asset management companies as Vivarte, RIT Capital Partners, United Company Rusal plc, and Five Arrows Limited. Nat is currently a non-executive director for Barrick Gold Corporation and sits on the boards of multiple major institutions. He chairs the investment company JNR Ltd. His company manages the investment of emerging markets such as the metal sector, mining and resources. Nathaniel Rothschild also worked as the co-chairman of Bumi Plc, a company that manages natural resources.

9. Leon Black – $9 billion

Leon Black was born in 1951. His father, Eli M. Black, was a prominent Jewish businessman who owned the United Brand Company, famous for the Chiquita banana brand. Tragically, Eli in 1975 by jumping off the 44th floor of New York City’s Pan Am Building. Leon was 24 years old at the time. It would later be revealed that Eli was under investigation for bribing Honduran government officials.

As the head of the Apollo Global Management team, Leon has instituted measures that have seen the firm grow its portfolio base. His net worth currently stands at $9 billion and the firm has been overseeing $170 billion. He is known for investing in downtrodden assets and building them into huge portfolios.

10. Andre Esteves – $4.7 billion

Rounding off the list of the richest investment bankers in the world is the Brazilian businessman, Andre Santos Esteves. According to Forbes magazine, he ranks as the 6th richest Brazilian billionaire with a net worth of $4.7 billion. Andre Esteves has a background in computer science. He is among the most aggressive investors and players in the investment banking world you might want to know about. Many who know him personally understand that he is a workaholic and his life has been about trading and capturing opportunities in the markets.

He started his career by working at Pactual in the foreign debt division of the company and in this position he was able to establish himself as a professional who was smart and committed to working on various tasks. Due to his ambition and success at different levels, the company made him a partner in 1992 when he made a 59% return on capital. He later left and created BTG, which worked as a globally-positioned investment company. He has been continually creating wealth using his already-acquired assets and wealth, but he has also been supporting various philanthropic foundations.

Conclusion

Who is the richest investment banker?

Kenneth Cordele Griffin is the richest investment banker in the world among others with a total estimation of $31.9 billion.