In an astonishing commencement address,
billionaire Robert F. Smith announced last Sunday that he and his family will pay off student debt for the entire 2019
graduating class at Morehouse College, prompting cheers and more than a few
tears from shocked listeners to his commencement speech.
News of his generosity quickly went viral, but
unlike other high-profile billionaires Smith has a bit less name recognition.
Smith, who has a net worth of about $5 billion
according to Forbes , is the chairman and
CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity group he founded in 2000 that
specializes in investing in software companies. Vista is a big deal in the
world of software investing, currently managing about $46 billion in
investments with a portfolio of more than 50 software companies that employ
over 60,000 people around the world.
Before he earned his billions, the 56-year-old from
Colorado went to Cornell for his undergraduate degree, earning a BS in chemical
engineering, followed by an MBA from Columbia Business School. He went on to
work first at Kraft General Foods, then at Goldman Sachs before founding his
own investment firm.
Though Smith’s gift to the 2019 graduates of
Morehouse College may be his most eye-catching philanthropic effort, it isn’t
his first. In 2017, he joined the Giving Pledge, a group of ultra-wealthy
individuals — including Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett — who have
publicly committed to giving the majority of their wealth to
philanthropy.
In addition to his approximately $40 million dollar gift to
Morehouse College graduates, Smith announced a $1.5 million gift to the
historically African American, all-male college. In 2016, Smith made a $20
million dollar gift to the National Museum of African American History and
Culture in Washington DC. Smith also donated $50 million to the Cornell school
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Smith is also the founding director and
President of the Fund II Foundation, which makes grants related to
African American cultural preservation, human rights, environmental
conservation, music education and “sustaining the American values of
entrepreneurship, empowerment, innovation and security.”
In 2016, Smith became the first African American
chairman of New York’s Carnegie Hall, one of the world’s most prestigious
concert venues. The billionaire investor also hired Seal and John Legend to
perform at his 2015 second wedding to 2010 Playmate of the Year, Hope
Dworaczyk. And Smith’s two youngest sons, Hendrix and Legend, are named after
guitarist Jimi Hendrix and singer John Legend.
But despite his past generosity, none can quite
compete with his gift to the Morehouse Class of 2019. One stunned graduate said,
“I was shocked. My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a
burden had been taken off.”
Article from Time (edited)
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