World Richest Black Man: Currently, Robert F. Smith is the wealthiest black individual in America. For many years, he was the second-wealthiest African-American in the United States, after media magnate Oprah Winfrey. At the time, Oprah’s net worth was greater than Robert’s by $1.3 billion. In March of 2018, it was disclosed that Smith’s net worth had skyrocketed to $4.5 billion, making him the wealthiest black person in the United States. Almost nobody had ever heard of Robert F. Smith at the time. Robert was the second-richest black individual in the world as of May 2019, with a net worth of $5 billion, trailing only Nigerian oil magnate Aliko Dangote, who was worth $10 billion.
Net Worth
In 2000, Robert F. Smith established the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. It focuses exclusively on software company investments.
Vista is one of the best-performing private equity firms, with annualised returns of 31% since inception and $96 billion in assets.
Early Years
Robert F. Smith was born in Denver, Colorado on December 1, 1962. He is a Coloradan of the fourth generation. During the early years of Smith’s life, both of his parents earned doctorates in education. Since first grade, Smith took a bus across the city to attend a desegregated school with outstanding resources. Smith’s proclivity for STEM subjects was evident in high school, when he was introduced to computers for the first time.
Smith famously applied to Bell Labs for an apprenticeship during his junior year of high school and was initially denied. The issue was that the programme was restricted to college juniors and seniors only. Smith was fearless. He called the Director of Human Resources at Bell Labs every day for two weeks. Then he reduced his calls to every Monday for the next five months. When the M.I.T. intern failed to appear in June to begin the internship, the H.R. Director eventually called him back, and Smith was offered the position. During his summer internship at Bell Labs, he created a reliability test for operational amplifiers. Smith referred to this period of his life as “The Joy of Figuring Things Out” in his 2019 commencement address at Morehouse College. And Smith characterises it as a formative experience that influenced the development of his future career.
After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, he was hired by Goodyear Tyre and Rubber. From 1986 to 1992, he worked as a chemical engineer at Kraft. During his tenure at Kraft, he was awarded two European patents. Robert ultimately resolved to return to school to earn his MBA. After receiving his MBA from Columbia University, Goldman Sachs employed him. During his tenure at Goldman, he advised on technology merger and acquisition transactions totaling $50 billion.
Profession
After graduating from Cornell, Smith worked as a chemical engineer for Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company, Air Products & Chemicals, and Kraft General Foods, where he registered two U.S. and two European patents. He worked in technology investment banking for Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 2000, first in New York City and then in Silicon Valley.He advised on merger and acquisition activity involving Apple and Microsoft, among others. In 2018, Smith was featured on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment List, an annual assessment of influential business innovators.
In 2000, Smith established Vista Equity Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm of which he is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer. Smith is attributed by Black Enterprise magazine with consistently generating a 30 percent rate of return for his investors from the inception of the company until 2020. Including all of their holdings, Vista Equity Partners was the fourth largest enterprise software company in 2019, behind Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. Vista has made investments in several companies, including STATS, Ping Identity, and Jio. As of 2019, Vista Equity Partners had secured funding in excess of $46 billion.
For his work with Vista in 2016, Smith was dubbed Private Equity International’s Game Changer of the Year.[23]
Vista Equity Partners was designated “Dealmaker of the Year” by PitchBook Private Equity Awards for 2019.
Personal Life
Suzanne McFayden was Robert’s wife from 1988 until 2017. They have three offspring in common.
Robert has been married to Hope Dworaczyk, a former Playboy model, since 2015. Hope wore a gown designed by Naeem Khan to the wedding. She entered Smith’s arms while John Legend sang “For the First Time.” Reportedly, Seal also performed at the ceremony, which was held at Villa Cimbrone on Italy’s upscale Amalfi Coast.
April 2009’s Playmate of the Month and 2010’s Playmate of the Year was Hope. Together, she and Robert have four children. Currently, Hope is the founder and CEO of MUTHA, a cosmetics company.
Real Property
Robert and Hope have residences in Los Angeles, Florida, and New York.
In 2018, they purchased a beachfront estate in Malibu for $18 million. This property, located on the appropriately named “Billionaires Beach,” will be available for $24.5 million in November 2020. In January 2021, they sold the property for the exact asking price.
They acquired a second home in Malibu from Real Housewives star Yolanda Hadid for $19.5 million in 2016.
In 2018, they paid a mind-boggling $59 million for a Chelsea condominium in New York City. The couple has since renovated the condo extensively.
In November of 2020, they paid $48.1 million for two North Palm Beach properties.
- One is a sprawling beachfront estate
- The second is a modest residence across the street.
- Russ Weiner, the affluent owner of Rockstar Energy, sold both properties. The residences are located in Seminole Landing, an oceanfront gated community.
- Elin Nordegren, the ex-wife of Tiger Woods, constructed the residences in 2014. She sold them to Weiner for $32.9 million in September 2020. That is correct. Weiner held the properties for approximately
- one month and realised a $15 million profit.
