Darla Moore

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Darla Dee Moore (b. August 1, 1954, Lake City, South Carolina) is the partner of the private investment firm, Rainwater, Inc and is married to the self-made Texan billionaire Richard Rainwater who founded the firm.

She is a pioneering woman in the banking industry and a benefactor to many institutions in her home state of South Carolina.

[edit] Biography

Moore was born to Eugene and Loraine Moore in Lake City, South Carolina. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1975 with a BA in Political Science. After school, she worked for a political research firm in Washington, DC.

In 1981, Moore received a MBA from George Washington University and joined other MBAs at the Chemical Bank’s training program. During the 1980s, Moore made a name for herself by taking over companies in bankruptcy and making them profitable. By the early 1990s, she was the highest paid woman in banking.

In 1991, Moore married Richard Rainwater. She was named president of Rainwater, Inc in 1993, aged 39. Fortune Magazine named Moore one of the 50 Most Powerful Women In Business in 1998 and 1999.

Moore and her husband spend most of their time in Lake City in a house built on a plantation that has been in the Moore family for six generations. The couple also own homes in New York City, Folsom, California and Charleston, South Carolina.

[edit] Philanthropy

Moore has given many gifts to institutions that benefit the public. Some of her gifts include:

  • 1998 - $25 million to the business school at the University of South Carolina which renamed it the Moore School of Business.
  • 2002 – Founded the Palmetto Institute, an independent non-profit organization focused on increasing the wealth of every person in South Carolina;
  • 2003 - $10 million to the School of Education at Clemson University – the university has renamed the school the Eugene T. Moore School of Education in honor of her father, a former teacher, coach, and principal in Lake City;
  • 2005 – an additional $45 million to the Moore School of Business.

[edit] Notes and references