| Ron Baron | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1943 (age 68–69)[1] |
| Residence | New York, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Bucknell University |
| Net worth | ((no change))US $ 1.4 billion (est.) (2011)[2] |
| Spouse | Married, 2 children |
Ronald Stephen Baron (born 1943)[3] (also known as Ron Baron) is the founder of Baron Capital Group, an investment management firm. The New York City based firm, markets the Baron Funds. As of 2006, the funds had 700,000 investors and a market value of $16 billion.
Baron grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Baron invested a $1,000, saved from shoveling snow, waiting tables, working as a life guard, and selling ice cream, and turned it into $4,000 by investing in stocks, prompting cohorts to call him "Count", a nickname which still sticks.[4]
He studied chemistry at Bucknell University and attended George Washington University Law School at night on scholarship. His first job out of school was with the United States Patent Office.
He worked for several brokerage firms from 1970 to 1982 and developed a reputation as a short seller during a bear market of 1973-74.
He founded Baron Capital Management in 1982. The firm engaged in hostile takeover attempts of regional department stores Woodward & Lothrop of Washington, D.C. in 1984 and Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier in 1986. Neither takeover was successful.
His funds in 2010 were valued at $18 billion, and Baron is famed for a lavish lifestyle and shareholder meetings, which feature rock acts such as Elton John, the Beach Boys, and Lionel Richie.[5]
In 2007, he paid $103 million for a house in East Hampton, New York—the most ever paid for a residential property at that time—from Adelaide de Menil, heiress to the Schlumberger fortune.[6] de Menil's house had been built by piecing together historic East Hampton buildings that she moved to the property to protect them from demolition. Prior to the close of the sale, de Menil broke up the structures and moved them to various locations in the town for protection, including six that were moved a mile north to where they will form the new campus of the East Hampton Town government.[7] Baron is now completing a new 28,000-square-foot (2,600 m2) house, designed by Hart Howerton, a New York architectural firm with several other projects in the Hamptons, which specializes in large-scale land use. The house was included in a recent Vanity Fair article on out-sized building projects in the famous summer home community.
The company, which owned 59% of Sotheby's Class A stock, lost nearly $267 million when Sotheby's was accused of collusion with Christie's in 2000.[8]