George Soros

He married Annaliese Witschak in 1960 and divorced her in 1983. They had three children.

His second marriage was to Susan Weber which too ended in divorce. This marriage produced two more children.

He is currently engaged to Tamiko Bolton.

He was born to Elizabeth and Tivadar in Hungary. His father, a lawyer was an escaped prisoner of war.

When he was 13 years old Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. He even survived the Battle of Budapest in 1945.

He moved to England in 1947 where he lived with his uncle.

He went to the London School of Economics and became a student of the philosopher Karl Popper. He was deeply influenced by Popper’s book ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies’. He graduated in 1952.

He moved to New York City in 1956 and was employed as an arbitrage trader for F.M. Mayer till 1959. Afterwards he became a financial analyst for Wertheim & Co., a position he held till 1963.

Influenced by Popper’s views, he adapted the philosopher’s ideas to develop a social theory of ‘reflexivity’ that could explain the market valuation of assets in the market.

In 1963 he was appointed the vice president of Arnhold and S Bleichroeder. However he did not find much fulfillment in the job though he held it till 1973.

He founded the Quantum Group of Funds, privately owned hedge funds, in partnership with Jim Rogers in 1973.

During the 16 September 1992 currency crisis in the U.K. known as ‘Black Wednesday’, Soros made a profit of U.S. $1 billion through short selling Sterling.

He founded the highly profitable hedge fund company Soros Fund Management and made an investment profit of U.S. $1 billion during the 1992 Black Wednesday crisis in U.K. gaining the name ‘The Man Who Broke the Bank of England’.

He formed the Open Society Institute, now known as the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which manages the network of Soros Foundations that are involved in philanthropic activities all over the world.