Richard Rainwater

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Richard E. Rainwater (born 1943) is an investor and self made billionaire fund manager. With an estimated current net worth of around $2.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 335-richest person in the world.

Rainwater is a financial dealmaker from Fort Worth, Texas. The son of a wholesale grocer, he graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in mathematics and earned his MBA from Stanford Business School.

He landed a job as an investment banker, but soon accepted an invitation from former Stanford classmate Sid Bass to manage and diversify his family portfolio. Rainwater became the chief financial architect for the Bass family investments, which launched a saga of American business history. He was given $5 million to invest during his first year and managed to lose it all, then sought an investment strategy and applied his scientific mind to his quest.

Rainwater became a "perpetual-motion deal machine" and the "best-kept secret in high finance" as he propelled the family fortune to more than $5 billion while creating one of the American business dynasties of the 20th century.^{[citation needed]}

Rainwater has been an independent investor since 1986 when he launched his own business, investing in more than 30 companies and purchasing fifteen million square feet of office space in Texas.

He founded or co-founded firms including ENSCO International Incorporated, an oil field service and offshore drilling company in 1986; Columbia Hospital Corporation in 1988; Mid Ocean Limited, a provider of casualty re-insurance in 1992; and Crescent Real Estate Equities, Inc., in 1994. He has been called a "capitalist cowboy for the '90s, leading the way into new frontiers of finance".

Rainwater is married to Darla Moore.