George Soros

Biography of George Soros:

George Soros in short:

Born on: August 12, 1930 (age 77)

Birth Place: Budapest, Hungary

Occupation: speculator, investor, philanthropist, political activist

Net worth: $8.5 billion (Forbes)

Website http://www.georgesoros.com/

Details: Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930. His father was taken prisoner during World War I and eventually fled from captivity in Russia to reunite with his family in Budapest. Soros was thirteen years old when Hitler's Wehrmacht seized Hungary and began deporting the country's Jews to extermination camps. In 1946, as the Soviet Union was taking control of the country, Soros attended a conference in the West and defected. He migrated in 1947 to England, supported himself by working as a railroad porter and a restaurant waiter, graduated in 1952 from the London School of Economics, and obtained an entry-level position with an investment bank.

In 1956 he moved to the United States, where he worked as an arbitrage trader with F. M. Mayer from 1956 to 1959 and as an analyst with Wertheim and Company from 1959 to 1963. From 1963 to 1973 he worked at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, where he attained the position of vice-president. In 1967 he persuaded the company to set up an offshore investment fund, First Eagle, for him to run; in 1969 the company founded a second fund for Soros, the Double Eagle hedge fund.

When investment regulations restricted his ability to run the funds as he wished, he quit his position in 1973 and established a private investment company that eventually evolved into the Quantum Fund. He has stated that his intent was to earn enough money on Wall Street to support himself as an author and philosopher - he calculated that $500,000 after five years would be possible and adequate. After all those years, his net worth reached an estimated $11 billion.

He is also a former member of the Carlyle investment group

Speculation Activities of George Soros:

Hungarian-born George Soros has been involved in financial speculation since the late 1960s, at which time he established the Quantum Fund.

1990: With the opening of the East Bloc, Soros moves into Poland and Russia, with "advice" for devastating economic "shock therapy," to be administered by his associate, economist Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs's major claim to fame was his "rescue" of the Bolivian economy, by shutting down industry, and building up the cocaine trade.

1992: