Robert F. Smith trivia: 92 facts about the American businessman!

Robert F. Smith is an American businessman, investor and philanthropist and the wealthiest African- American!

So you need to know some trivia and facts about him!

1. His full name is Robert Frederick Smith
2. He was born on December 1, 1962
3. He is an American businessman, investor and philanthropist
4. A former chemical engineer and investment banker
5. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners
6. In 2018, Smith was ranked by Forbes as the 163rd richest person in America
7. He was No. 480 on Forbes 2018 list of the world’s billionaires
8. With a net worth of US$4.4 billion
9. Smith was also included in Vanity Fair’s New Establishment List
10. In 2017, Smith was named by Forbes as one of the 100 greatest living business minds
11. In a 2018 cover story, Forbes declared Smith the wealthiest African-American
12. Surpassing Oprah Winfrey
13. Robert F. Smith was born a fourth generation Coloradoan to Dr. William Robert Smith and Dr. Sylvia Myma Smith
14. Who were both school teachers with PhDs
15. He grew up in a predominantly African American, middle-class neighborhood in Denver
16. He attended Carson Elementary School and attended East High School in Denver
17. When he was an infant, his mother carried him at the March on Washington
18. There the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
19. In high school, he applied for an internship at Bell Labs
20. But was told the program was intended for college students
21. Smith persisted, calling every day
22. When a student from M.I.T. did not show up, he got the position
23. And that summer he developed a reliability test for semiconductors
24. At Cornell he became a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha
25. He have worked at Air Products & Chemicals, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
26. And later at Kraft General Foods
27. As a chemical engineer
28. There he earned two United States and two European patents
29. He attended Columbia Business School
30. Smith earned an MBA with honors specializing in finance and marketing
31. From 1994 to 2000, he joined Goldman Sachs in technology investment banking
32. First in New York City
33. And then in Silicon Valley
34. He advised on over $50 billion in merger
35. And acquisition activity with companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, eBay and Yahoo
36. He was the first person in the Goldman Sachs San Francisco office to focus solely on technology mergers and acquisitions
37. In 2000, Smith founded Vista Equity Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm of which he is the principal founder, chairman and chief executive
38. As of 2019, Vista has over $46 billion in cumulative capital commitments
39. Owns over 50 software companies
40. And has 60,000 employees worldwide
41. Making it the fourth largest enterprise software company after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP
42. Vista has exclusively focused on the enterprise software, data and technology sectors
43. Among Vista’s portfolio companies are Finastra, TIBCO, Solera, Infloblox, Mediaocean, Vertafore, Ping Identity, Lithium, Cvent and Datto
44. In October 2014, Vista closed its Fund V at $5.8 billion
45. In January 2015, Vista Equity Partners was named the best performing private equity firm for the previous 10 years
46. According to the HEC-Dow Jones annual ranking conducted by professor Oliver Gottschalg
47. Preqin, a consulting firm that tracks the industry, reports that Vista’s third fund returned $2.46 for every dollar invested
48. Better than every other big fund raised between 2006 and 2010
49. The boom years for private equity
50. In 2017, Vista Equity Partners was reported to have $30 billion under management
51. And Smith was named as Private Equity International’s 2016 Game Changer of the Year
52. Smith is the board chairman of Carnegie Hall
53. He is the first African American to hold that position
54. Smith is the founding director and president of the Fund II Foundation
55. Under his leadership, Fund II Foundation has invested in organizations such as Cornell, UNCF, National Park Foundation, Susan G. Komen, and Global Wildlife Conservation
56. Among many others
57. He is the chairman of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
58. He serves on the board of overseers of Columbia Business School
59. As a member of the Cornell Engineering College Council
60. And a Trustee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco
61. In 2018, Smith was the largest individual donor at the City of Hope Gala
62. Earmarking funds towards prostate cancer treatment for black men and for breast cancer research for black women
63. Smith also donated $2.5 million to the Prostate Cancer Foundation to advance prostate cancer research among African-American men
64. Also in 2018, Smith donated $1 million to the Cultural Performance Center at the Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park in Harlem
65. Which was subsequently named the Robert Frederick Smith Center for Performing Arts in recognition of his gift
66. Smith was named as one of the “Philanthropy 50” by The Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2017
67. In May 2017, The Giving Pledge announced that Smith had joined its ranks as its first African-American signatory
68. Smith is a member of the board of the Louis Armstrong House Museum
69. The only authentically preserved home of a jazz musician in the country
70. Which manages the Louis Armstrong Research Collections
71. The largest single jazz musician archive in the world
72. With Smith’s leadership at the Fund II Foundation
73. The museum has digitized the entire collection Armstrong left behind and made it available to the public
74. In 2016, Cornell University recognized Smith’s leadership by naming the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering after him
75. Among the honors and awards Smith has received are the Candle in Business and Philanthropy Award from Morehouse College, the International Medical Corps Humanitarian of the Year Award, Ebony’s John H. Johnson Award, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Chairman’s Award, the Reginald F. Lewis Achievement Award, the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Robert Toigo Foundation, and the Ripple of Hope Award from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
76. Smith was also awarded an honorary doctorate of International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service
77. And an honorary doctorate from Morehouse College
78. In May 2019, he announced his intention to pay off the entire student loan debt of the 2019 Morehouse College graduating class of 396 students
79. Which is estimated to total $40 million
80. He had previously donated $1.5 million to the school in January 2019
81. To be used for scholarships and a park
82. Smith married Hope Dworaczyk
83. A former Playboy playmate, healthy living advocate, and fashion editor, on July 25, 2015
84. Smith was separated from his first wife Suzanne McFayden Smith in 2010
85. Their divorce was finalized in 2014
86. He has three children with his first wife
87. They are Zoë Suzanne Smith, Eliana Frederick Smith, and Maximos Robert Smith
88. And two with Hope
89. They are Hendrix Robert Smith and Legend Robert Smith
90. Smith owns a home in Austin, Texas
91. A home in Malibu, California that he bought for $19.5 million from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid Foster
92. And a home in New York City he bought for $59 million