American billionaire, Smith, sponsoring Chibok Schoolgirls
*Robert Smith
An African American billionaire, Robert Smith is sponsoring the education of 24 Chibok schoolgirls in American University, Yola in Adamawa State.
The identity of the good Samaritan was revealed today by
Malam Garba Shehu, senior special assistant on the media to President Muhammadu
Buhari at an interaction with media men in Abuja.
The billionaire, Shehu also revealed is offering to take
responsibility for the 21 girls freed in october and all the others who will
hopefully be eventually set free.
Who is Robert Smith?
He is a 54 year-old businessman, who attended good American
colleges such as Cornell and Columbia universities.At Cornell, he picked a
bachelor of science in chemical engineering and an MBA at Columbia. He lives in
Austin, Texas.
According to a short bio written on him by Forbes, he was
the son of Ph.D holders and was bussed across town to his school in the early
days of desegregation.
“He later convinced Bell Labs when he was in high school to
give him an internship typically only available to college upperclassman by
calling them weekly for five months.
“Smith quit Goldman Sachs to open his own private equity
shop, Vista Equity Partners, in 2000.
The company is worth over $26 billion, according to
wikipedia.
“Neuberger Berman bought a stake in the $16.9 billion
(assets) Austin, Texas firm, best known for fixing up enterprise software
outfits, in July 2015,” Forbes reported.
“That same month, Smith married 2010 Playboy Playmate of the
Year Hope Dworaczyk in Italy.
Forbes listed him as the 274th richest man in the United
States as at 27 December, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. He is ranked 688th
in the world.Some other reports put his net worth at $3billion.
He is a self-made man, who made his money in private equity
investments.
And before then, he struggled early to get what he wanted.
According to his story, as a junior at Denver’s East High
School in the 1970s, he showed a fascination for the geekiest subject there:
Computer science.
“The transistor held particular wonder for him. This small
device, a crucial valve controlling the flow of electrons within a computer,
had been invented at Bell Labs. Bell had a nearby office. Maybe he should work
at Bell, too.
“After securing the number, Smith phoned and inquired about
a summer internship. Yes, Bell did have one, he learned, but only college
upperclassmen could apply. Smith had straight A’s in math and computer science.
Would that count? No, Bell said, it would not. Undaunted by this initial
rejection, Smith called back every day for two weeks—HR stopped answering after
Day 2—and then cut back on how often he called …to every Monday for five
months. Eventually, he was rewarded for his doggedness. After an MIT student
didn’t show up in June, Bell called Smith. Could he come in for an interview?
“I ran my own race. I knew what I wanted, and my persistence
paid off, and I came in and interviewed. They liked me, and I got the
internship,” Smith said in a commencement address at American University in
2015.
“In fact, I worked there for the next four years during
summer and winter breaks.”
After leaving Cornell, he worked at Kraft General Foods,
where he earned two United States and two European patents.
He then attended Columbia Business School, where he
graduated with honours. From 1994-2000, he joined Goldman Sachs in tech
investment banking, first in New York and then in Silicon Valley.
“As Co-Head of Enterprise Systems and Storage, he executed
and advised on over $50B in merger and acquisition activity with companies such
as Apple, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, eBay and Yahoo. He was the first person
at Goldman Sachs to focus solely on Tech M&A and foreign countries.
In 2000, he set up his own company, Vista Equity Partners.
According to a Wikipedia post, Vista has exclusively focused
on the enterprise software, data and technology enabled solutions sectors.
Among Vista’s portfolio companies are Misys, TIBCO, Solera, Active Network,
Bullhorn, Omnitracs, and Newscyle.
In January 2015, based on its performance over the last 10
years, Vista Equity Partners was named the world’s Number One performing
private equity firm, according to the HEC-Dow Jones annual ranking conducted by
Professor Oliver Gottschalg.
Preqin, a consulting firm that tracks the industry, reported
that Vista’s third fund returned $2.46 for every dollar invested, better than
every other big fund raised between 2006 and 2010, the boom years for private
equity.
In October 2014, Vista closed its Fund V at $5.8 billion,
its largest fund to date.
As a successful African-American, Smith has been generous
hearted.
In January this year, he announced a $50 million gift to his
alma mater Cornell University, which renamed its school of chemical and bio-engineering
after him. In June he was named chairman of Carnegie Hall.
In September, he donated $20million to the National Museum
of African American History and Culture. His private gift, as reported by
Washington Post was the second largest behind Opral Winfrey, the richest
African-American, who gave $21 million.
Smith has received 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.
Smith was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of
International Affairs from American University’s School of International
Service. He founded Project Realize– termed “Free Market Philanthropy”– in
order to combine the best elements of the American free enterprise system with
the core American ideals of giving back and lifting others up.
No wonder, he is willing to lift the Chibok schoolgirls out
of their predicament and give them a dream education.
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